Things We Don't Often Think About - Part 1 - By Gene Lawley -http://www.raptureready.com/featured/lawley/lawley101.html
Most of us have heard the statement, "You can't see the forest for the trees," which means we probably don't know for what we are looking. Or, "If it had been a snake, it would have bitten you!"
And, how many pictures are there in your hallway or bedroom that you have passed by so often that now, you no longer actually see them? I had an uncle who was a police chief in his small town for a time, and he was describing to me how night patrols operate.
They look for the unusual actions of people as they cruise the streets. For instance, he related that he and his partner saw a man toss a bag of something under a car up ahead of them as the guy walked on the sidewalk, and their instincts were alerted to investigate. Moses had that experience when he saw the burning bush that did not burn up.
We are physical creatures who have five very physical senses-see, hear, taste, smell, feel-and another one not so physical-faith. For the believer in Christ, the Bible says "We walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7).
And in one sense, so do non-believers-their beliefs guide them much of the time. The problem comes from the reality of their source of belief. In this fast-moving, microwave society, the hand-held devices are out and faces are glued to them almost everywhere you look. So, taking time to think on some things that are ultimately going to impact our lives very much is not high priority on the daily list.
Major Things That Happened at Calvary
When Jesus uttered those last words on the cross, "Father, receive My spirit" and died, several gigantic things happened in Jerusalem:
* From about the sixth hour to the ninth hour, heavy darkness covered the land.
* The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
* The earth quaked, and the rocks were split.
* Graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and appeared to many.
* The soldiers guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and those things happening and fearing greatly, said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"
Those physical upheavals remind me of the entry He made into Jerusalem a few days earlier. The religious leaders had said to the disciples, "Quiet down these people," for they were praising the Lord as He came by, and Jesus said, "If these people are silenced, even the rocks will cry out instead!"
The one event that had far-reaching impact was what happened in the temple. The veil in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. No person did that, it was somewhat like the earthquake, only much more significant.
You can imagine, probably very accurately, that the attending priests ran like fearful rabbits, for they were at that time attending the Passover activities. Considering how closely God had timed all the events of the activities of Jesus during that week, it is quite possible that just as the priest in the temple put to death the Passover lamb, the Passover Lamb of God's choice also died on the cross.
When the veil opened up to the whole world, that inner holy place where only the high priest could enter once a year, not without blood to sprinkle there, it was a gigantic departure from all that had preceded in temple activities. When the priests repaired the torn veil, as they no doubt did, was it again the Holy Place for the Spirit of God? No, that was in the past; there was a new era beginning, and this is a continuation of what we do not think about much, I suspect.
When Jesus died, He was three days and nights in the tomb, just as He had compared Himself with Jonah, who was in the belly of the great fish for that long, as well (Matthew 12:39-40). The Scripture says He was likewise in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Peter says He preached to the "disobedient spirits in prison," apparently during that time. (1 Peter 3:18-20; The total meaning and picture of this is not clearly stated.)
Then Jesus rose from the tomb and in several miraculous incidents, He identified Himself to the disciples and other followers and spent forty days with them. Remember, the Holy of Holies in the temple was empty; it had been opened by God to the whole world. Have you ever wondered what they talked about during those forty days, the times that are not told in the gospels or in Acts 1?
That first chapter of Acts tells us about His ascension and His directive to return to Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them with power. Again, we wonder what happened during those ten days, how their prayers were worded and how their expectations were shared. This sort of thing had never happened before. No such reality of a resurrection like this had ever happened!
Then, on the day of the Feast of Pentecost, the fiftieth day after the resurrection that had occurred on the day of the Feast of First Fruits, the Holy Spirit came upon and into the believers as tongues of flames leaped among them. The power of the indwelling Spirit of God that was promised them propelled them out to "turn the world upside down," as one scared and angry citizen later described it (Acts 17:6).
But let's recap. The last place we noted that God's presence was known in the earth was in the Holy of Holies in the temple and now, that inner place of extreme sanctity had been opened to the world.
Three days and three nights later, the physical presence of the resurrected Christ was with those who believed in Him for forty days; then, ten days with no physical evidence of God among them. What happened, then at Pentecost, has had an astounding impact upon every believer since that time-even to you and me!
The apostle Paul writes of this in bold, clarifying terms:
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
And again in 1 Corinthians 6:19:
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?"
Believers, then, have become the temple of the living God, and Paul told the Colossians:
"For in Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:9-10).
But the old temple had a Holy of Holies in it; where is it in this new temple where God's presence abides? Again, Paul tells us of that in 1 Corinthians 6:17:
"But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him."
In that context near the end of 1 Corinthians 6, Paul declares, "...You are not your own? For you were bought at a price," and then, again, he writes to the Colossians:
"To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
God does not "short-change" anyone who comes to Him for His mercy and unmerited favor of everlasting life. This then, leads us to other not often thought of things that we can explore in Part 2.
Things We Don't Often Think About - Part 2 - By Gene Lawley -
http://www.raptureready.com/featured/lawley/lawley102.html
Left hanging at the end of Part 1, was the significance of that statement from the apostle Paul, that blockbuster of revelation in 1 Corinthians 6:17:
"But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him."
That holy place of God's presence, now, is right there!
When Adam and Eve sinned in disobedience, the Holy Spirit of God departed from them and death came upon them, lest, as the Lord said, "they should eat of the tree of life" and live forever in that depraved condition. Paul later writes to Titus and describes the born-again transition in this manner:
"...not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).
Those two words, "regeneration" and "renewal" indicate conditions that once were and now have been regained or restored by the process of the new birth which Jesus described to Nicodemus in John 3. Only now we who believe are "confident that He who has begun a good work in us will continue it until Jesus comes" (Philippians 1:6).
A Resulting Thing We Seldom Think of Much
That is the reality of the indwelling Christ connected with our spirits. It sounds sort of scary and quite mysterious to us physically-minded humans. But it is the truth, as testified continually by the New Testament pronouncements, like these:
'...And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
"I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).
This means that we no longer have to reach out and touch the hem of His garment in order to be sure we have contact with Him. He is right there in that new Holy of Holies that seems so unreal, yet is so proclaimed by the Scriptures.
He is the One who makes our prayers presentable to God, the Father:
"For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning's which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27).
He is the One who unfolds the Word of God to us as we are able to understand and relate to it in obedience:
"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come" (John 16:13).
He is the seal of God's redemption of our souls, the earnest agreement guarantee of His commitment to that end and the down payment of the purchase of our salvation:
"In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Even in King David's day the writer of Psalm 46:1 declared this:
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." [An alternate rendering of that last phrase is, "abundantly available for help in tight places!"]
Then, in that final action of our mortal existence, He is the power of our transformation and transition:
"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:11).
And we have to agree it could hardly be better than that, as we face the obstacles of our daily living. We cannot leave this topic without looking at the attributes of God as revealed in Psalm 139:
"Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
"If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall fall on me,' even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You" (Psalm 139:7-12).
If someone is running from the Lord, those words are not encouraging, but they surely are for submissive believers, along with the context that tells of God's infinite knowledge of our every thoughts and movements. He goes before us and watches behind us. The Scriptures indicate that the Lord Jesus handles each one of us with great tenderness, even those of the weakest faith:
"A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory" (Matthew 12:20).
So, lest we forget, God may be down at the chapel or the church house, but in the unique personal sense of His presence, He will be there when believers go there. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 that no longer would she go to her mountain, nor even to Jerusalem to worship God, for "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24).
One More Thing Not Often Thought About
Where is all of this headed? What is in the mind of God for the future? Mankind has gotten accustomed to seeing one day follow another; long range planning is a common factor in personal and business life, and for sure those who have their designs on ruling the world with one governmental entity are looking far ahead. Peter wrote that people, no doubt believers, even, would be saying,
"Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation" (2 Peter 3:4).
Now that the Spirit of Jesus Christ has come into the lives of believers, it seems to mark the first step toward a oneness with God that Jesus prayed about as recorded in John 17:20-21:
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me."
That chapter 17 of John is saturated with the issue of oneness with God. Is it to be like Adam and Eve, walking with God in the Garden before their fall? Perhaps like Enoch, who walked with God and was not, for God took him (Genesis 5:24)? For sure, in the eternity ahead, there is so much more than mortals can comprehend, even with the indwelling Spirit of God. Paul does give a bit of insight into how that oneness will eventually come together:
"But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.
"Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For 'He has put all things under His feet.'
But when He says 'all things are put under Him,' it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).
Of course, though, we often just stop with a quote of 1 Corinthians 2:9, leaving off the next verse and walk off with a wondering look in our eyes. It shows, even then, that we do not often think through these things. Here are the two verses of 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:
"'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him,' but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God."
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