12/10/17 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Ephesians 1:4,5; Genesis 2:15-17, 3:8,9, 23,24 From before the beginning, it has always been God’s intention that He be “with us”. It’s why this world was created. It’s why the garden environment was made the way it was made. God walked in the garden with those first humans and spoke with them as you and I would walk and talk. Try and imagine what that interaction might have been like! But that intimate relationship came to a temporary end.
Revelation 21:3-7, 22:5 In the end, the restoration of the way things were intended to be does take place – and then some. The tabernacle of God is among men. No need for any manufactured light because night as we know it will not exist and the Lord Himself will illumine them. Try and imagine what the interaction might be like then!
John 1:14; Matthew 1:23-25; Hebrews 1:1-3 In the meantime, we have had glimpses of God with us. God spoke with Moses as you and I would speak to each other. The Spirit of God coming mightily upon prophets of old. A still small voice informing our fearful hearts. His Spirit filling new covenant believers to fulfill their callings. But the most personal and personable was when God became incarnate or in the flesh for those brief years in the land of Israel. Try and imagine what that interaction might have been like! To walk the dusty roads Jesus walked and to talk with Him as you and I would talk if went for a walk. Emmanuel, God with us, the hope of Israel and a light to the Gentiles. In the meantime, God visited us to give us the fleeting glimpse of what it was once like and what it will one day be like again. Fleeting as it was, it was the clearest we have seen. This is what makes the word of God so precious. It now gives us now the clearest view we have of Jesus. When we look at Jesus, we are looking at the exact representation of His nature. And with Jesus’ Holy Spirit living in us, we can walk and talk with Him, we must be more finely tuned in than we will need to be one day…
Does the idea of talking to God freak you out? How does God tell you to do things? How do you respond to Him?
What do you think God is trying to tell us during the Christmas season?