February 7, 2017

Greetings My Friend, One thing I keep learning as I read the Bible is there is always something new that will stand out and questions will arise as I try to digest what I am learning each time I go into the Word. Our Sunday school lesson is in Philippians and with my new practice of underlining and circling the passages I "saw" "who, though He was in the form of "God." What? Then I read "did not count equality with a thing to be grasped?"Now I am confused and since I am studying this with my husband I ask him what he thinks this means. As my husband is talking it comes to me the statement "fully God, fully man." I am reminded by Junior, my husband that as man there is the weakness of sin in our lives and Jesus had no sin. In His perfection as God He did not use His powers but allowed the events to happen in His life so that He was hung on the cross and died for our sins. We learn to imitate Jesus because He was among us and today we read God's Word to learn how Jesus carried Himself as a man in the flesh. Jesus never sinned and was perfect so His life is our example. Our God, 3 in 1 came down in the flesh to live among the flesh. He felt all that we feel, was bombarded with all of the temptations we feel and amazingly He did not give into sin. Part of me starts to absorb "in the form of God." Jesus was fully God but through His birth He became fully God and fully Man. Jesus prayed and lived a life in His Father giving us a model to grow our faith in the flesh. Jesus was in prayer all the time, He quoted the Bible when He was dealing with Satan and did not cave into the temptations Satan was bombarding Him with. Okay I am starting to understand "form of God" Jesus being God in the flesh did not have the need to out do God, to defy God but to submit to God. This is what I am to imitate. I am reminded that I am not able to do this on my own as well. I need the Holy Spirit to guide me, Scripture teaches me this so the only way I am able to imitate Jesus is with the Holy Spirit's direction. In our dicussion I realize in my heart that the Holy Spirit is not dramatic in His teachings. I learn to be still and hear His quiet still voice. This is how I am able to imitate Jesus. With my mind and heart on the Word of God, God makes the Word come to life for me. God was telling me to slow down and to absorb the lesson for some reason. Sometimes I am convicted in my heart like I was today and that is the Holy Spirit telling me to slow down and "hear" what He is saying to me. I realize that the Holy Spirit is not about being dramatic but He is there putting thoughts into my mind and it is important that I quiet my thoughts before going into God's Word. When I do this I feel the conviction, the lesson I need to absorb. With a little back and forth with Junior I began to absorb Jesus' divinity, His humanity and how the Holy Spirit is working in my life. It took me along time to grasp who the Holy Spirit and His presence in my life. One year I decided that the only way I would meet Him is to begin a consistent dialog with Him. In so doing I have found I am able to "hear" His voice in my life. It is not an audible voice but that tug on my heart when I need to be quiet and listen. If I am too busy being involved in life, in church ministry then I will miss His direction and some deep lessons. Just as God has taught me to make time to sit down and talk with Junior, to go off and be alone with him I also need to do so with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet