Spiritual Truths found in the Physical World

I love that God placed us in a physical world.  All around me I see spiritual applications in the physical world that gives me hope and helps me to stay grounded in reality.

 

The bible uses "light" and "darkness" to manifest the spiritual reality of living with God in Christ and with out Him.  It uses "water" to talk about the Holy Spirit.  I can also see others that are not actually identified in the bible but have spiritual application all the same.  There is gravity, and eating food, and many others.  Let me take just a moment to expand on what I am talking about.

 

Light.  Jesus claims to be the Light of the World.  Have you ever just watched the light?  I have.  If you have a closet say, in the hallway of your home.  Your sitting adjacent to that closet in the room.  Your brother comes by to grab his jacket out of the closet and opens the door.  When he opens the door the light from the room you are in floods into the closet space and the darkness that was there is pushed out.  Notice that the light invades the darkness.  The darkness never invades the lighted space.  This is a physical truth that demonstrates a Spiritual Truth.  Jesus came as the light of the world.  At the time that He came the darkness ruled.  Jesus gave Himself as the perfect lamb of sacrifice to over come that darkness and death that was ruling.  No longer does darkness rule but Jesus, the Light, has overcome the darkness.  He has invaded the space that the darkness used to rule.  Where ever Jesus is allowed to enter the light takes over and the darkness must be pushed back.  It cannot do anything but to be pushed out and overtaken by the Light.  

 

Continuing on that thought just a bit.  The door also represents our free will.  When we shut out Jesus out of our life by our choices, He will not come in and over come that darkness with His marvelous light.  Only when we willingly turn to Him and ask Him to come in will He enter and overcome the darkness in our lives with His light.  Just like that closet door had to be opened before the light could do what it is made to do, invade the darkness.  

 

Water.  In the bible the Holy Spirit is likened to Living Water.  I find it quite ironic that our bodies are made of something like 93% water.  If we give up food we can live for days and weeks but give up water and in 3 to 4 days time we will die.  What a marvelous physical demonstration of our need for the Holy Spirit in our lives.  With out physical water my body will physically die and my soul and spirit are connected to my body so I die completely.  Without the Holy Spirit in my life I cannot live.  I am a slave to my flesh and Satan.  Only in my life with Jesus do I receive the Living Water that gives to me abundant life, here and now, and also eternal life.  The bible says in Revelation that the river of living water of life, clear as crystal, comes from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  

 

Eating.  When I think of how I need to eat food it reminds me of how I need to be in continual communion with Jesus through the spiritual disciplines of reading the bible, praying, fasting, etc.  I do not function well when I miss a meal or let my life get so crazy that I am not only not eating continually but the proper things as well.  All this helps me to remember that there is a spiritual truth there, helping me to remain aware of it.  Just like when I skip meals and eat the wrong things I must also continually be in the bible and in prayer to keep my relationship with my Heavenly Father strong.  Particularly in prayer.  I just cannot go long and do well in my life without being in His presence through prayer.  Talking with Him listening to Him.  Like food I can go for a time without talking to Jesus and my life will not get derailed but going to long and pretty soon I'm losing strength, purpose, focus, etc.  So, like I fuel my body well, I also need to fuel my Spirit well.  That involves being in the presence of the One who made me.

 

Gravity.  I love the law of gravity.  To me it speaks so loudly of the reality of Truth and it's absoluteness.  When my sisters and I were growing up, my older sister had a friend who wanted to fly.  One time while partying, he decided to demonstrate his belief that he could fly.  He went to the top of a second story building and attempted to fly.  He lost his life on that day.  Gravity can be over come for a time but you cannot ignore the physical truth that gravity is there and effects your life.  Look what it takes to over come gravity for a time.  It takes a concerted effort with lots of extra energy to make a plane fly.  It can fly for a time but comes back to the earth to refuel and maintenance the plane.  You cannot over come gravity for long.  Even birds and gliders can use the natural winds and currents to fly for a time but there time in the air is also continually eroded by the law of gravity.  They can start out high but slowly come back to earth.  Even a space rocket has it limitations.  By great power a rocket can actually get out of our atmosphere and move into space.  While a rocket can over come gravity it cannot remain out there forever, it must reenter to maintain life.  If a rocket carries livings things those things need unlimited supplies of food, water, shelter, etc.  The rocket will not be able to carry those things so for life to continue it must come back into the place where gravity exists.    It the same way, to live without Truth for a time can be done but to do it for long periods of time cost you your very life.  I can know that absolute Truth exists and impacts my life because the law of gravity speaks loudly to that reality.

 

These are where my thoughts have been today.  I love the Lord and am not able to express enough my gratitude for His pursuit of me and my life.  To Jesus be the glory on the earth and forever.  Amen.

 

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He has made a way to God possible

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It's Not too LATE

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Video Poem about being in Christ

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Like a Child

This morning my daughter got up, just like she always does.  The older children were already off to school.  We were alone in the house.  Daddy is out of town for the next day and a half.  She quietly walks right to where she knows she will find me, at my computer in my office.

I can hear her walking toward me with the slight sound that her bare feet make on the floor.  I keep my attention focussed on my screen so she can genly and quietly approach me.  When she gets to me, she will lightly touch my arm and look towards my face.  When I turn I do so with great surprise and smiling expression that I am so thankful that she has awoke and come to me.  She climbs up into my lap, curls her legs up as well, then rests her head against my chest as I curl my arms around her.

Maylah does this every morning without fail.  I know she will come and I await that opportunity to turn and great her with great joy.  I just love when our eyes meet and she moves to get up into my lap. 

This morning, God whispered to me, this is my desire for you Jennifer.  You have not been seeking Me out lately like your daughter seeks you out.  How I long for you to return fully to Me.  This was not a rebuke but a gentle reminder that Jesus longs for me to come to Him first in the morning, before everything and anything else.  I have been coming to him, physically first, but my mind has really been focussed on other things. 

Father help me to seek you first in every day, with my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Thank you for your gentle reminder of how you long for and anticipate my arrival every morning. 

Your loving daughter, Jennifer.

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The Fullness of the Gentiles - What?

For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery--so that you will not be wise in your own estimation--that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Rom 11:25)

I have often wondered about this verse. Just what does it mean when it says, "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in?" If you step back and take a look at the full chapter 11 in Roman's you will see that the Apostle Paul is making an argument for how God has allow Israels partial hardening so that the gentiles will be grafted into His Mercy and Grace and also that Israels partial hardening will end under a certain set of circumstances, "when the fullness of the gentiles comes in.

While I'm sure that part of what it means for the "fullness of the gentiles to come in" is in regards to those who are not of Jewish decent and have made decisions to trust, follow, and obey Jesus as Lord and Savior. But I cannot help but to think that it also has to do with some other things.

As I look at the world around me and with the help of the internet, planes, TV, radio, etc we have become a united world. Not that we all march to the same drummer but that we are all connected, whether we like it or not.

I was just reading from Lifesitenews.com about the Copenhagen Conference meeting to discuss the issue of Climate Change/Global Warming. One of the main areas of discussions coming out of that meeting is on World de-population. Here is a quote from today's e-letter:

"That conference, and its now open emphasis on world de-population as a supposed solution to the supposed global warming crisis, is a likely prelude to even more abortion, infanticide, forced sterilizations, explicit sex-ed, promotion of homosexuality and other forms of sterile, childless sex, and on and on"

The world population in many of the major countries is already on the brink of disaster. Most of Europe and Russian is at a point where they cannot even sustain their current populations and withing the next 10 - 15 years or so will begin a dramatic decline in their total populations. China has it's own set of problems with so many men and no women for them to marry due to their one child policies. Japan's populations is already moving into it's demographic winter with an ever aging population. Even here in the good ole US of A we are just barely replacing our current population and we are getting much help from those immigrants who come here, regardless of whether they do it legally or not.

I wonder if there isn't a physical connection to that determination of "when the fullness of the gentiles comes in." Could it be possible that it also includes the reality that people will so reject God's first command given to Adam.

"God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Gen 1:28"

That we will continue to see de population such that the world population will actually begin to decrease and thus, the fullness of the gentiles will have come in. This will of course create more world problems than we have ever experienced to date.

If you think that the troubles that we have experienced in this last credit financial crisis have been bad. A decreasing world population will be absolutely devastating. It will unravel the world as we know it. Let me know what you think. I would love to here some feedback.

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Light & Darkness

 

I've been thinking for a while about the reality of Light and its relationship to dark or darkness.  I’ve been watching how the Light and darkness interact in the world around me.  It is amazing to me how the Light always invades the darkness but the darkness never invades the Light.  In fact as the darkness intensifies it only enhances the Light and makes it more easily seen.

 

I had my children do an experiment the other night.  We often have a time together in the evenings just before their bedtime where they do tricks for me and get silly.  We have a time of prayer together and then off to bed.  This particular night I asked them to step into my closet and shut the door and turn off the light in the closet.  Once they did that I asked them what happened when they turned off the light.  They all said, “its dark in here mom.”  Then I asked them to slide the door open and watch what happens in the closet.  I actually have two sets of doors so Connor opened his side and said, “Mom the light comes in.”  Of course when Maylah and Jethro opened the other side they also commented, “the light comes in.”  Then I had them come out and join me on the bed and we talked a bit about how the light always goes into the darkness and the darkness is always pushed out.

 

I’ve continued to think about this reality in the relationship between Light and darkness.  What is it that keeps the Light out.  It the case of my experience with my children it was the closet doors.  The Light had to have a physical barrier that blocked it from moving forward.  Light cannot help but to move forward.  It never runs out or diminishes, it just keeps lighting up where ever it is not blocked from going in.  Even when it is blocked out it still eeks in around the sides and you can see the illumination around the door itself. 

 

At the same time I just started Bible Study Fellowship for the year.  This year we are studying the gospel of John.  In the Gospel of John Jesus and Light are tied together.

 

John 1:4               In Him (Jesus) was life and that life was the Light of men.

John 1:5               The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:9               There was the true Light which coming into the world, enlightens every man.

John 3:19-21        This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

John 5:35             He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his Light.

John 8:12             Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

John 9:5               While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”

John 11:9-10        Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?  If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the Light of this world.”  But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

John 12:35-36      So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you.  Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not over take you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.  While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.”  These things Jesus spoke and He went away and hid Himself from them.

John 12:46           I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

 

As I continue to ponder this relationship between Light and dark and Jesus being the Light of the world; I cannot help but to think of another scripture over in Romans.  In Romans 1:20 it says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” 

 

It is evident to me even more so now than before, that the Creation does really at all times reflect His glory and His presence.  Only when we withdraw from His presence does the darkness get a hold of us. 

 

I hope that all the rest of my days that I will always move into the Light and have Jesus illumine those areas of my heart that are still in darkness.  I hope that as these days get even darker that my Light will shine even brighter that others would be drawn to Him. 

 

For now, I will keep pondering the Light and dark relationship hoping for more in-site into this world around me and my own life in Him.

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