Friday

The Joy of Christ Coming to us Daily and Personally

This time of year most people are thinking of creative ways to keep their New Year resolutions. For me…my heart pulse is in the joy I embrace with the lessons I learned, soaking in the scriptures of the Bible.  This wonderful joy of clinging to Christ during Advent, for the whole month of December, has given me a freshness of reflection, hope and encouragement. 

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.com
John 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 Chapel
Ephesians 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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