Good morning, Pastor John,
I was reading in the Father and Son book* this morning. I was thinking about there being cues in the Bible that it was more being said than appeared. As an example: “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.” When I read that in the Father and Son book, it stuck out to me. I had never thought of it as a cue/alert to pay attention.
When you talked last night about Jesus having to show them foot washing because that’s the best he could give them in the condition they were in, it hit me how alone Jesus must have felt while here among us.
I loved when you said that about taking in God’s personal testimony (the holy Ghost) of His Son. I don’t know if I ever looked at it that way. The holy Ghost is His testimony!
I have always loved seeing the Old Testament shadows of Jesus and the Spirit. Something about seeing those things has always thrilled me. I literally feel a little leap inside when I see them. And yet for a moment this morning, I thought, Lord, wouldn’t it have been easier not to have had some of those symbols, like water baptism, set up? Christians can’t get over those ceremonies, even if you do pull on their hearts; the Jews can’t get over the law and their traditions. What was meant to foreshadow God’s testimony, they got stuck in and can’t take in the real thing, the Spirit, the only proof of who Jesus is!
That makes it so much more astonishing to realize that he has let us take it in. We don’t live in the shadows; we have received the proof. To really know that Jesus can talk to us, and that we don’t need symbols of the truth! Jesus can share the truth with us. We can take in God’s testimony, just like we can take in each other’s testimony, because we have the same Spirit. We were created in Christ to take in each other’s testimonies, and we started by taking in God’s! That is just floating around inside of me. I don’t think it has even gone in all the way. It’s so good!
I keep thinking of how much I love hearing one of us testify. It feels so good when one of us tells on Jesus! It’s like a seed that’s already planted by the Spirit in our hearts; it’s what we were made to hear and believe! It just draws out the Amen! I loved when you said that last night, too!
The more I read and hear, the more I feel like this is a story about the Father, the Son, and us. I feel like an intimate part of them.
I sat this morning praying about divisions in the body of Christ. It hurt my heart because we are the same. All who have the Spirit belong together! The divide was made with this world, not each other. We are the same. To just live in that place of love and peace, and cherish that we are the same! The only place we do belong is together!
Beth D.
*God Had a Son before Mary Did (Also known as The Father and Son book)
Going to Jesus.com – God Had A Son Before Mary Did