Jesus is at his most powerful where hope has been lost. Jesus, yes, is incredible in ‘restoring’, ‘repairing’, helping us to make the most of life; but he is ‘most’ miraculous, where he brings life back from the dead! Have you lost all hope? Have you lost people or opportunities, that you can never get back? Jesus not only heals the broken heart, but he gives us a ‘new heart’! (Ez 36:26) Jesus not only revives the spirit, but he gives us a ‘new spirit’! (Ez 36:26) Jesus not only heals relationships that are hurting, but he promises to reconnect us to loved ones that have been lost, to redeem lost love, lost moments to speak, lost sons and daughters… Jesus makes all things new! (Rev 21:5) Jesus connects us to people now, and will connect us to more people then! (Mark 10:28-31) Jesus reaches and preaches to souls in hell, and reaches and preaches to souls in their very last moments of life (1 Pe 3:18-19; Lk 23:42-43) Jesus rewards people who even (only?) receive or bless his people. (Mt 10:40-42) There is merit not only in your baptism, but in those you are ‘baptized’ for, you pray for and ask God for! (1 Cor 15:29) God and his love and his reach, through Jesus Christ, is unfathomable! (Eph 3:14-21) His ways are higher! (Is 55:9) So what does all this mystery in Christ, mean? Well, it means you can truly put your hope in him – for the impossible! (Mt 19:26) This is how we walk by faith and not sight or understanding. (2 Cor 5:7) This faith in God’s ability to reach backwards, into the present, into the future, is how we ‘please’ God. (Heb 11:6) Jesus is the ‘door’ to all things eternal, restored, made new, redeemed, healed – physically, relationally, spiritually, between sons and daughters and spouses and parents… Call on Christ today! Pour out your broken heart to him! Tell him who it is you wish you loved, wish you had listened to, wish you had embraced! Ask – in Jesus’ name – that you will be able to see, touch, embrace that person again one day! ‘They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ This is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them…’’ Ezekiel 37:11-12 ‘Women received back their dead…’ Hebrews 11:35 ‘I am making all things new!’ Revelation 21:5 PWALKER YOUTUBE PWALKER WEBSITE
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Everything sad in this life is a type of fragmentation! #1 – LIFE: People lose people who they love, and the heart aches. It is as if we are born into a life destined for losing each other! In this regard we are truly victims of such sorrow! #2 – LOSS: Then there is a darker shade of fragmentation. More painful than the distance life puts between people, is the distance people put between each other. A son loses his father, because his father loses his way… #3 – SIN: Darkest of all – a reality we must face – is the fragmentation we bring from greed and lust and rebellion. A child loses her innocence to theft, violence and cruelty of man. My friends, the world is what it is because of our sin. Life’s tragic hardship, and the sorrow and disappointment it brings, is nothing compared to life’s destruction at the hands of men. For this reason, God speaks: ‘Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ … Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust?’ Ezekiel 18:25 As a people we are called by God to repent. We are called to call on God, say sorry for our sin, and turn and walk away from it. Repentance prepared the way for Jesus (Mark 1:1-5), and repentance continued to be part of Christ’s message. (Mark 1:15) We must turn from our sin, and put our faith firmly in Jesus Christ. Why? Because here – through repentance and faith – our sins are forgiven and we go through the ‘door’ of eternal life! (John 10:9) Here, through repentance and faith, hearts and spirits find healing! (Ez 36:26) Here, through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, our hearts and our communities are ‘healed’! (2 Chron 7:14) Here – and only here – ‘all things’ (hearts, marriages, past records, broken families, broken bodies, broken spirits…) are ‘made new’! (Rev 21:5; 2 Cor 5:21) Do you long to see your fragmented heart and life come into a new ‘wholeness’, a new life? Lift your cry to Jesus Christ today! PWALKER YOUTUBE PWALKER WEBSITE When I was 16 I gave in and bent the knee to Jesus Christ. It was not pretty. He weighed on my heart and convicted me of what I knew to be true – his own self. Everything was about to change – friends, activities, interests, thoughts and words. I stood still. Now on solid ground, but shaky on my feet. (1 Cor 3:11) What I recall from these early days of following Jesus, was being on my own a lot. The first thing Jesus did was grip my heart and mind, and start to ‘prune’ my life. (John 15:2) I lost a lot of friends almost over night. I just could not go to the same parties, clubs, and even group ‘huddles’ in school anymore. There was so much immorality laced through my relationships and activities, that I found myself having to bow out of a lot of ‘circles’ and activities. For a season, I was completely alone. But I was not alone. Jesus was with me in spirit and truth. He was so close to me. My most alone moments in world terms, were my closest moments with Christ. The other night, more than 25 years later, I realized something: I love being alone. I am so present with the Spirit of God when I am alone. I love not being able to sleep at night, because I lie in the presence of Christ there, just whispering to him, and seeing quiet glimpses of the joy set before me… I have never been truly lonely, since dying to the world. (Gal 2:20) Ironically, when very close to the world, and to many people of the world, I was often lonely. Are you? Jesus said, ‘I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.’ (Revelation 3:20) PWALKER YOUTUBE PWALKER WEBSITE We can sit around all day – or a decade, or a lifetime – talking and thinking about God and how he works. Or... we can actually get to know him, and how he works. The former can be, as Bono puts it, ‘a long way down to nothing at all.’ (Stuck In A Moment, U2) The latter can be exhilarating, liberating, but a road of humility and regeneration. So this is why, first and foremost, God has given us a written record of his communications, his histories of interacting with mankind, his promises and warnings and reminders – the Bible. He has given us the bible to give us a deep and wide overview and underview and cross-section view to who he is, and how he works. Otherwise, my friends, we would be left with simply my opinions, your opinions, etc. So what has God taught us about who he is and how he works? I set out 2 key points below:
‘Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.’ (Job 22:21) PWALKER YOUTUBE PWALKER WEBSITE Many cults use the ‘detail’ of the Bible to pin your mind to the wall, and deny you the true identity of God and Jesus Christ. Here’s how… I will be brief and to the point! First, God is Spirit. (John 4:24) Everything physical that we are and we see and touch, has been breathed forth by the ‘invisible’ and unfathomable Spirit of the unseen God. (Heb 11:3; 2 Cor 3:18) God who ‘spoke’ creation into being, then spoke himself into creation – in the man of Jesus Christ. We cannot understand ‘how’ God can come and walk with us, and still be one with the ‘Father God’ who created everything. We cannot understand this, but we can ‘know’ this truth. How? Well, exactly the same way we can ‘know’ the truth of God himself: By faith, not by understanding or sight! This truth of Christ’s identity is not in and through the mind, but of and through ‘revelation’. It is revelation truth! God does not submit himself and his powerful identity to and through our minds. He brings it like he brings the light, the rain, the galaxies, the soul, the spirit – he brings it upon us with revelation and power! When we start to submit God’s identity to our small, limited capacities of the mind – nothing fits, nothing ‘can be’, nothing sparks, nothing is true. It is like trying to put and ‘see’ the sun under a microscope. According to this viewing system, well, the sun just cannot ‘be’... Likewise, the ‘Son’ – Jesus Christ - cannot be one with the Father when we try to see him under the detail of just words – even scripture – without pairing scripture with the ‘power of God.’ Jesus himself told us this in Matthew 22:29, and John 5:39-40. (look these up!) Let the words of Christ – his own claim to being one with God – wash over you in the picture of his walking on water, opening the eyes of the blind, and raising himself from the dead. In light of his own light, we suddenly see with the eyes of our heart, and walk into God’s highest and deepest revelation of himself! Did Jesus claim to be God? Yes, in fact, he did – many times and in many ways. And the rest of Scripture also teaches this mysterious, essential truth, from beginning to end. I’ll leave you with a few scriptures about Christ’s identity to look up and ponder in your own time. Below I end with 3 short verses that I love regarding the nature of revelation: Isaiah 7:14/Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 9:6, John 8:58/Exodus 3:14, John 10:30, 37-38, John 10:34, Mark 14:61-62/Daniel 7:13-14, John 9:38, Matthew 14:33, 1 John 2:22, Colossians 1:15-20, Hebrews 1:3, John 1:1-5,9,14, Revelation 1:13-18… ‘In your light we see light!’ Psalm 36:9 ‘We take captive thoughts and make them subject to Christ.’ 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 ‘We walk by faith, not by sight.’ 2 Cor 5:7 PWALKER YOUTUBE PWALKER WEBSITE |
AuthorPeter Walker. I hope you enjoy these reflections. Please feel free to comment!:) Archives
February 2024
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