My Current Read: Just Give Me Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz
(recommended to me by Reinhild Burchardt)
I love to read and I love to talk about what I’m reading!!! I wanted to start a forum for the following:
1. to discuss the book I am reading
2. to discuss books that I have read
3. to hear your book suggestions (and WHY)
4. to share the love of READING
So I just finished “Just Give me Jesus” and now I’m reviewing my stickies. For those who don’t know, the way I read books is: I tag with a sticky things that catch my attention while I’m reading then when I finish the book I go back and think on the tagged items a little more. Some I add to my BOWW others I just mediate on and others I share with someone.
I have a few thoughts I will post on here and see if anyone would like to discuss them. Act quickly because I will change them once I realize discussion is slowly…
page 32, “When Mary was engaged to be married, she was told by the angel Gabriel that she would be with child and give birth to a son. She asked how that could be possible since she was a virgin. And Gabriel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” Then Mary submitted to God’s Word through Gabriel, responding, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” And so she conceived within her body the physical life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you and I submit to the Word of God by faith, receiving the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts, believing in all that His Name reveals, we spiritually conceive his life with in our own bodies. Just as the life of the Lord Jesus Christ was born within Mary physically when she placed her faith in God’s Word, so the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is born within you spiritually when you place your faith in His Word. But you don’t give birth to a child; YOU become the child of God. It’s a miracle. “For nothing is impossible with God.”"
Great thought. I had never taken this view, but you are correct. It truly is a miracle that God will come & live within us through the Holy Spirit! Thanks for sharing your thought.
I was listening to the song – Mary did you know. As Mark got to the part “when you kiss your little baby boy you kiss the face of God. I saw the face of my babies & the Shekinah glory radiating on their faces. As I was contemplating the calling of God on their lives – I heard him say your baby boy will one day rule the nations.
How Mary & Joseph must have nurtured him just like all of us do while that seed waits to bloom in them. What a vital & fragile job the caretaker role is. It must be someone with a Shepard’s heart bearing a staff & not a hireling.
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
This passage struck me because of the analogy between the virgin birth and the miraculous rebirth we experience in Christ when we are born again but not of water this time but of spirit. It’s easy to think God did that once with Mary and that’s that but when we think about how the Holy Spirit comes upon people today and births a new life its as if we are continually reminded of his miraculous conception and it seems it becomes easier to understand the conception of Christ as God and Man in so many ways because of how He lives within us and how we also still live… (whew. Just a few quick thoughts!)
I was thinking just the other day about this same reality in the Word. It’s amazing that it was the same with Mary as it still is with us today in our worlds. Meaning Mary seemed so in tuned with God and yet as Human as we are. She was troubled at the strength of the angels words, yet maybe not so much in doubting but as it says in the salutation the presentaion of the Holy Word. How could this be when she had not been with man? Even at the slight hesitation the angel continued to talk with her and bless her with the birth of God’s Son.
I is shown here that it takes the Holy Spirit’s presence to bring understanding where the Human cannot grasp it on it’s own. As it says in V.37 For with God nothing, No Nothing shall be impossible with God. But yet we as humans who are in search to live a deeper life live so many times so much in doubt, But the same Holy God who spoke to Mary wants to visit with us and show us many things but is it because we lack to give Him our attention? Elisabeth even felt in V.43 a little surprised to be granted this Honor. V.45 speaks to us that simple belief will bring great wonders from the Lord to those who have open hearts and ears to accept and belief and walk out what He wants to perform thru even little old Me!! Look at verses 46-50 it says so! An Awesome Holy God wants to live in Me to be His eyes, Ears, Hands, Feet and Mouth. Wow is all I can say and yet I so quickly forget! Sorry so long.
By the way Rachel Ireally loved how you brought out what you did about that passage. It was similar to how God was speaking to me just a few days earlier. I meant to write something different but couldn’t pull it, I guess I wrote what came to me as I was responding. Keep up the good work I love to hear you talk.
Wow. Thanks Beth. This line, “It is shown here that it takes the Holy Spirit’s presence to bring understanding where the Human cannot grasp it on it’s own.” Reminded me of 1 Cor 1:27, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;”
The concepts of simple FAITH and BELIEF without seeing can be so hard to understand because of the SIMPLICITY in them. It’s a simple choice and then God goes to work, as He did with Mary and the conception of Jesus and as He does today in us with the conception of the Holy Spirit within us…
God is so simple and yet so profound.
So here is my next sticky from “Just Give me Jesus” that I wanted to share with you for discussion. Again, act quickly on your thoughts because I will be changing them once discussion slows…
“Your life span is like a twelve-hour day. The length is predetermined and fixed. Just as we can’t make the sun set one hour earlier, when we are in God’s will, we cannot shorten or lengthen our lives from what God has predetermined they should be. The important factor is to walk in the daylight of God’s will because then you will be safe; you will not stumble. If, on the other hand, you walk in the darkness—outside of God’s will—you remove yourself from His protection and subject yourself to everything and anything that comes along. And that’s dangerous place to be. “It is God’s will that I [Jesus] go to Jerusalem. Therefore, I will be safer there in the midst of the murderous, plotting Jews than staying here in the tranquility of the Trans Jordan outside of His will.”” Page 206
I don’t know how much is predetermined. I do not have clear understanding in this area. In 2 Peter 3:9: (KJV) “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Yet people die daily without knowing God. He has given us a free will to do as we will. I do know that God’s will is accomplished in the earth. The rocks will cry out if we don’t praise him. God commanded the ravens to feed Elijah by the brook.
Psalms 23:4 (Amplified Bible) “Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me.” Anywhere with God is better than the best place we can choose without Him. Without His rod to protect us, his staff to guide us, & the encouragement of the Holy Spirit we are lost. If you have ever been lost as a child the fear of not knowing where you are is terrifying. So, take a tip from a little child & find your Father.
Thanks for chiming in again Bobbie. I don’t know how much is predetermined either. I really believe God has a plan for our lives that is His will for us and it’s up to us to CHOOSE His will for our lives over our own. I believe He knows start from finish what we choose in the end because He is ALL KNOWING but He is also a gentlemen that never forces.
I feel like in choosing our own will it does affect God’s plan for our lives because HIS plan isn’t being enacted. It’s like He has something in mind when He creates each one of us and He presents that as a gift to us but we have to choose daily to take it.
This concept really hit me with the death of my sister. I don’t believe the life she had was God’s will for her. Rather I believe her refusal to submit to God’s will for her life removed her from His will and opened a whole can a worms in her life. I believe this cause her much suffering and ultimately led to a shorter life (only 28 + 2 months). This breaks my heart but also reminds me that no matter how tough GOD’S will is (like Jesus going to the cross) it is better to be in the middle of it with Him then to be outside of it without Him… I don’t believe that being in God’s will makes everything easy just that you never bare it alone which makes it all the more bearable.
So here is last discussion post from “Just Give me Jesus.” Please chime in as I would love to hear your thoughts!
page 262-263, “In the Old Testament, when a person sinned, he was required to take the very best, blue-ribbon lamb he could find, one without any spots or blemishes, to the priest at the temple. There, in front of the priest, the sinner would grasp the lamb with both hands and confess his sin. His guilt was transferred to the lamb as though it had traveled through his arms and hands to the terrified little creature. The priest would then hand the sinner a knife, and the sinner would kill the lamb so that it was obvious the lamb had died as a result of the sinner’s action. Then the priest would take the blood of the lamb ad sprinkle it on the altar to make atonement for the man’s sin…
The pervasive misconception today is that since Jesus died as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, then we are all automatically forgiven. But we overlook the vital truth that we must grasp the Lamb with out hands of faith and confess out sins. We then must acknowledge that he was slain for our sins as surely as if we hand plunged the knife into His heart. At that moment, the Lamb becomes our High Priest and offers His own blood on the altar of the Cross on our behalf. And, wonder of wonders! God accepts the sacrifice and we are forgiven! Our guilt is atoned for! We are made right in God’s sight!”