intimate

August 1, 2020

“God’s Own Child”

7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. – Gal. 4:7 NLT

Galatians 4:1-7 NLT

It was God’s plan from before the beginning of time as we know it that every person that was born would have an opportunity to become His child and an heir. Under the law, man was a slave to that law and could not become an heir. When the set time had come, God sent his Son. Born under the law to a fleshly woman. God did this so that we could be adopted into His family. Now that Jesus has been resurrected, we have the opportunity to become children of the Most High God and He would send His Spirit to make His home inside us. Because of the indwelling Spirit, we can call out “Abba”, which is Aramaic for Daddy. We are sons and heirs of God, not because of anything we did or could do, but simply because God loved us enough to make a way for us. He is not only our Father, but we have a closer, more intimate relationship with Him. So close that no matter how big we may get, we can still crawl up in His lap and He will hold us and love us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.–Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)

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May 8, 2018

Learning Obedience Through Suffering

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8 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. ​- Hebrews 5:8 NLT
Jesus suffered many things in His walk here on earth. He was exposed to every temptation that we are exposed to but never sinned.  Again, we sometimes forget that Jesus was completely human when he suffered these temptations.  We need to be very careful in assuming that Jesus did not sin because He was all God as well as all man.  He suffered as a human. His sufferings taught Him obedience because he was totally submitted to the will of His Father. We might say that Jesus knew He was going to be tempted and suffer here on earth, so He had an advantage. But if we read, study and really believe the Scriptures, we also know that we are going to suffer. The difference is that we often give into the desires of the flesh rather than trust our Father to deliver us. Suffering is not to let God know what our response will be, He already knows.  It is so that we will know where we are in our walk with God. Our sufferings are not to be avoided, they are to be embraced. Testing and temptations are stepping stones to maturity and to help us become more intimate with Jesus.

 

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1:2-4 NIV

17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.— Romans 8:17, 18 NIV

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

 

Post 05-08-2018

February 29, 2016

Getting Intimate With Jesus

even-smaller-bug-light128 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”  29 So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” — Mark 9:28, 29 NKJV

While Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, a man had brought his son, who was possessed by a demon, to the remaining disciples.  They had been unable to cast the demon out of this particular boy, even though they had had success earlier in casting other demons out.  They were confused by this and asked the same question that people are still asking today.  “Why could we not cast it out?”   We pray for the sick to be healed and when it doesn’t happen the way and the time we think it should, we ask the question — “Why?”   Jesus explains that sometimes it takes more than a prayer, it takes fasting as well.  Some translations do not include “fasting” in the answer Jesus gave.  We know that Jesus spent many hours fasting and praying.  Before His temptations in the desert with satan, He spent forty days fasting and praying.  God does the healing, so why would we be required to pray and fast?   The Scriptures never exactly explain the connection between fasting and praying. The Old Testament prophets and David fasted and prayed. John the Baptist and his disciples practiced fasting and praying.  The disciples of Jesus practiced it, especially in Jerusalem after the Resurrection.  Jesus made a practice of doing it, so it seems that it would be a good idea for us to try it as well.  Each of us should do some resarch on different ways to fast, pray and allow the Holy Spirit to guide each of us into what and how long to fast. You may not think fasting is a good idea or that you have never practiced fasting.  Think about this, in the physical world, what did you give up for a little while to get what you wanted the most?   In the worst scenario, nothing unusual happens, in the best scenario, we end up with a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus, our best friend.

23 So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer. –Ezra 8:23 NLT

Post 02-29-2016