Have you found Jesus yet?
I read this in a book that I started last night, Why the Jesus Seminar Can't Find Jesus and Grandma Marshall Could by David Marshall:
Lieutenant Daniel Taylor: Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?
Forrest: I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir. (quote from Forrest Gump)
And then, thought of the lines to one of my favorite songs:
looking for love in all the wrong places.
Looking for love in too many faces.
Searching their eyes, looking for traces
of what I'm dreaming of. (Lyrics from Looking for Love)
And then heard, so clearly:
Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I also got to thinking about part of a book that I had read that spoke about Mary carrying God, pregnant with the Creator, and then compared her with God inside her, to us, having Him inside us.
Romans 8:9-11 (New International Version, ©2010) 9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[a] because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[b] his Spirit who lives in you.
Why go looking, when He is right there, inside us, just waiting for us to open our hearts and ears and hear Him?!?
Revelation 3:20 (New International Version, ©2010)20 Here I am! 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.
And the carol, “Do you hear what I hear?”
“Do you hear what I hear
A song, a song
High above the tree
With a voice as big as the sea”
John 10:27-30 (New International Version, ©2010)27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
I had a daily devotional today that spoke to being busy, feeling guilty for resting, and yet, how can you hear that still small voice when racing around, being busy?
“Listen to what I say
Pray for peace people everywhere”
Psalm 23:1-3 (New International Version, ©2010)
Psalm 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, (italics mine)
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
I am pretty sure that Jesus is the one who does the finding, we just need to listen more, and isn’t that the case anyway?!? I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions, but that would be a good one to make, to listen more, and to actually hear what is said.
Happy New Year!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Haelie on -
Beautiful post, Tami. Very necessary right now amid the hustle and bustle of the season and as things are just starting to calm down. We need to be still and hear Him. Listen to Him. Rest in Him.
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Permalink Reply by Tami on -
I had read that little bit in the book last night and started to go to sleep, and what you can see is the thought progressions as the ideas started filling my head, and we all know who put them there! I know for a fact that I need to slow down, and I need to get others to listen to me as I try to tell them that I need to slow down. I try to listen, and sure was last night. Love how the thoughts came together to make a picture! Thanks be to Him for this post, and all the others, but this one really hits home with me right now.
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Permalink Reply by sandra gartner on -
Amen to this Tami! We all are quilty of not listening, not only through the Christmas season, but all the time.
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Permalink Reply by EMILY WAIRIMU MWANGI on -
i know that the most beautiful thing is to hear Him. I have heard him in the past two days and He has been whispering peace be still. It is such a beautiful thing the peace of God. This is a good message to beggin the year with.
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Permalink Reply by Juline Bruck on -
The connections you make are sure and strong, like a rope bridge across dangerous waters.
Testing the knots holding the thoughts together, I nod my approval. What suspends us above our anxieties? When unknown events swirl around threatening to strip us of our joy, our patience and every other useful quality, what protects us from terror?
Jesus!
So finding Jesus is a very important goal as many of us have huge challenges.
Now here we have the fact that Jesus walked the earth and had his earthly ministry a couple of thousand years ago. The foolishness that the secular world attaches to us is a preoccupation to someone we admit died. As someone who loves words and the effectiveness of words, there is something more to them when God says something.
When I was confessing a particular sin AGAIN, God's Spirit spoke to my heart after reading Peter was told to forgive seventy times seven... "Do you think I would ask you to do something that I wasn't prepared to do Myself?"
God says about His own words that they are full of fire and power... how much more His own Person. He may have come disguised as someone without majesty, without the usual attractions to draw men to Him. Nothing on the planet was the same after He went back to Heaven. The evidence for the resurrection is our own experiences. Millions of otherwise credible people have stories to tell about their interactions with Heaven.
One of my favorite came from a felon. When he was finally released from prison without a friend in the world, he went camping in the mountains. There, alone, he cried out to the night sky "All I ever wanted was someone to love me." God came to him that night. Meeting this man, still looking very much the tough guy at a bible study was a beautiful experience. It was easy to see past the muscular physique, the tattoos and the leather jacket. It was God's love inside of him that made all the necessary persuasions. God's love is simply impossible to fake.
Having been born in 1966, now 44, I too have my own testimony about how I met Jesus. When God asked me one day "Why don't you want to be yourself?" it was the start. Now I understand that if I want to know who I am, I have to learn that from God.
What's the point? When you look down, you see this:
What do you see if you look 'up'?
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