I
know Christ HAS come. Praise to His holy
Name!
I
know Christ WILL come. Praise to His holy Name!
Yet
in a world full of continual constant distractions from every direction imaginable,
my ongoing travail is to keep my eyes fixed on Christ for He has come in my
daily life circumstances.
Review:
As you remember, from my December Firm Foundations
article, Advent One and Advent Two… we learned that Advent by definition is that
arrival of a notable person = Christ.
And Christ’s first coming, as documented in scriptures
declaring this truth of prophecies from Genesis to Malachi in the Old Testament.
These give clear direction on how to look for and see Christ our coming Messiah
foretold. Experts found over 350 Biblical fulfilled prophecies of the coming of
Christ. With a mathematical probability of 9 prophecies
coming true, it is like these documentations of Advent one of Christ coming are
1/10 to 76th power. 1/10 to 76th power is like picking the same grain of sand
four times in succession. Likewise in
the New Testament, during
the time of His first coming, at the Last Supper, Christ along with His
disciples shared His desire to eat and drink with them when He sees them again
in heaven. After his crucifixion,
after his resurrection and after His current position of intercessor on the
right hand side of God, His disciples with eat with Him again. And be with Him for eternity.
Praise to His holy Name!
Christ
Comes to us Daily:
Not
only does Christ come to me daily, He STAYS with me daily. In His coming He is active and concerned
about my everyday day life and circumstances…
In my tears as I seek Him early in the morning, in my spiritual grief as
my heart aches for the rebellion of His bride.
In my disappointments as others let me down, in my sins as I wrestle in
prayer that I stay unspotted from the world.
In my weariness as I crouch down in a metaphorical trench of spiritual
warfare being plummeted by artillery. In
times of sorrow and joy. In times of fastings/ prayers. In times of exhaustion due to pulling- all-nighters
with deep prayers, studying/ preparing for Bible teachings/ speaking. In times of emotional burdens of the
spiritual realm. In times of spiritual disasters of others as I continue to
model the servant quality of Christ offering myself 24/7 as a living drink
offering sacrifice by serving others and the body of Christ.
These
daily times are times and moments where not only do I find Christ but He finds
me.
And
He STAYS with me as my biggest and highest Encourager, Supporter Strengthener and
Friend.
My quest this 2016 year has been motivated and
provoked by the lessons I learned in 2015 Advent, seeing a fresh new deeper way
His active presence of coming in my life.
I am not satisfied at the level I was in 2015. I strive and press on to a deep level of
knowing Christ and to make Him known to others.
A wrestling if you will between my Adamic nature of sin and my
successful victorious soul of a new creation in Christ completely transformed
as His friend and heir of the Savior of the World.
As
the Psalmist declares, “Deep calls to
deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone
over me. By day the Lord commands his
steadfast love and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my
life.”
And
Apostle Paul tells us “ But it is
written, What no eye has seen, nor ear hear, nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love Him, these things God has reveled to
us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of
God.”
2016 New Year
So
here’s to another year of:
PRAISE –Learning,
memorizing and saturating myself with hymns and beautiful melodies lifting up
my voice to the only Triune God, worthy of all praise!
REPENTANCE- Turning from sins
that create splashes of tears that fall on my cheeks because of the pain I have
caused my God, my family, my friends, strangers.
ASK- Hours of simple
quietness and extreme aggressive thundering, wrestling on the throne in prayer
on behalf of others and myself
YIELD- submitting in
obedience to all God has for me including lack of faith by worry and
just
giving all to Him, trusting in Him completely
FOLLOW
ME:
This
quest and end game of mine is not far reaching for a heart that is 100%
willing. Let me ask you? Are you willing? God is not a respecter of persons. In other words, there is not one ounce of
prejudice, segregation, separation or favoritism in the heart of God. He is our
creator, He loves us and if you study and read the life of Christ (God himself)
on this earth, you will see that He LOVED the marginalized, those that were
pushed aside from society, looked over, cheated against, hated because of skin
color, bank account, handicapped, where they live or being poor. Or, those
abused in every way imaginable, the widows, the orphans, the poor, the smelly,
the mentally and emotionally unstable…and more and God loves everyone! Why do I know this? It is because He sent His only begotten Son
to die on the cross for EVERYONE and to give them great hope in Him the famous
star and Savior of our Advent!
Oh
dear friend, it does not get any better than this! Follow me as I follow Christ! Make your my quest equal to mine…together we
will dive deep in the escalades of the mystery of Christ and His sustaining and
mighty right hand. Learning, practicing
and applying Christ as a reality in our daily life, daily moments and
circumstances of situations COME!
Resources/Scriptures:
ISWA: International Women in Apologetics - womeninapologetics.comJohn Piper: The Dawning of Indestructible Joy-Daily Readings for Advent
Matt. 26:26-29
Psalm 42:7-8
I Corinthians 2: 9-10
NOTE: Firm Foundations is published every first
week of the month in the Rim Review and archived on simonelake.blogspot
Calendar:
www.simonelake.com
Prayer
Class- starts Sunday Jan. 31st – 411 ChapelEphesians Study – 411 Chapel- January
Conversational Sign Language Course -411 Chapel- February
Apologetics Class-411 Chapel- February
Christian Apologetics – Northern Arizona Bible Institute February
About the Author:
Simone Lake is a Christ follower, bride of Pastor Dr. John Lake (of Church on Randall Place),
Bible teacher and a passionate pray-er. A graduate of Golden Gate Theological Seminary,
Simone holds a Master’s degree in Theology Studies, Apologetics Certificate from BIOLA University and active member of International Women in Apologetics.
Visit her on: www.deeprootsinchrist.com,
www.simonelake.com,
http://deeprootsinchrist.sermon.net,
http://womeninapologetics.com
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