Since being married, I’ve learned to love reading aloud. Often, the Mister and I will read a book as we travel. He knows that I get more out of it (reading comprehension) if I read – and most of the time he is doing the driving as I read.
Here are my thoughts (and some of the Mister’s) on this week’s readings (chapter 2) in Found in Him:
1. Love it when you read books and they make you think of other books you need to read. “In His humiliation, God had to breathe, eat, drink, and sleep. When cut her blod. He longed for companionship and truly suffered when his friends deserted him.” Jesus was willing to come be in relationship with us – knowing full well that his friends would hurt him. Our response often to relationships is that if they hurt us – get out. This is very hard for me. Friendships are very special to me, and I take them very seriously – so when hurt comes along, which if often does, I am weary of the journey continuing. Thankful for Jesus’ example. Oh, and the book I need to read…Relationships: A Mess Worth Making.
2. What is your favorite Christmas song? One of mine is Passover Us by Andrew Peterson. It is a masterful weaving of the passage of the Israelites and a glimpse into the beautiful gospel of Jesus. How does your favorite jingles help you experience the Incarnation?
3. We talked in the car on the Sunday on the way to church about Psalm 1. There are many Psalms, including this one, that compare and contrast the life of the blessed vs the life of the wicked. One of the missing of the life of the wicked is the smile of God. Jesus dwelled under the smile of God. “He knew what it was to live with the light of God’s countenance upon him. He grew to sense God’s smile upon his life. He did know that pleasing The Lord was the most important activity he could pursue.” What do you pursue with that kind of determination? What needs to give in your life so you can know and live in the smile of God. And the good news – if you are in Christ – God does smile on you!
4. “Will you rejoice exceedingly with great joy and fall down before the child along with the magi?” My Mister is a worship pastor, so often we have conversations about corporate worship. And something I have learned is that every church has its corporate worship style. The only thing I have total control over is my own personal worship and how that will affect me in corporate worship. So, how do I answer the above question that Elyse asked? How would you answer it?
What did you learn from this week’s reading? I’m enjoying this book – and I hope you are too.
summer
okay so here I go! I am a week late but I just wanted to share about the first chapter to begin.
I loved in the beginning of the 1st chapter how she reminds us that “The message of the Bible is Jesus Christ, the one truly good human person- who He is and the work He has done for our salvation and his fathers glory. We are not the subject, He is!” That is always a good reminder for me as I learn to walk this life…..it is NEVER about me! It is always about Him and furthering the Gospel and doing the will of the Father. I like how she talked about Jesus being determined to be in union with us. And what I kept thinking about is “what am I determined to do and does it line up with what God has for me?”
Chapter 2
“The Incarnation brings unceasing hope and an end to our exile, wandering and despair.” What comfort can be found in these few words…..often I find myself in a feeling of despair and I have never stopped to think about Christ in these ways so as to be comforted that He has brought an end to my despair.
(pg 47)…. Does the incarnation provoke us to worship? The author points out that we have become so familiar with the story that we can ” hum while we shop for Christmas trinkets but never once fall on our face in awe.” Ouch! Conviction!!!!
(pg 48) He is like us in every way…. Heb 4:15 one of my favorite verses….
(pg 50) I loved this: “He Himself was covenant grace in the flesh.” After doing a study on the Attributes of God, this phrase really struck me.
(pg 54) Jesus submitted to the flawed leadership of his parents….Jesus understands…”In his life as an ordinary carpenter, learning his trade, being given jobs that only novices got, he gave boring work value forever.” Repeat that…..he gave boring work value forever! Wow! As I thought about that….all the dreams and desires he might have had….but knowing that His time was not yet, He worked and plodded along doing what he was called to do at that time….When I am wrestling with wanting to be doing something “more”, I will think on this. I will remember and give thanks that Jesus himself did boring and blah jobs….as I long to do what I think I was made to do, I will remember that Jesus came in the flesh for ONE PURPOSE ONLY and that was to save sinners like me! So as he had to wait on the Father, he did his boring jobs and gave that work VALUE forever! 🙂
I know I have written a lot…..but one more thing….I struggled with the text: Fully God and Fully man forever….in my thinking, I thought “yes, he WAS fully God and fully man…..end of the story…..so, I began to research fully god and fully man forever and I learned A LOT! I am so thankful that I questioned that and that the Lord allowed me to understand what I was reading. Yes, I AGREE He was and IS fully god and fully man and will be forever! The Desiring God blog was helpful to me in this arena! The book of Hebrews tells us that Christ will be man forever so that He could be an adequate savior who has all that we need. The author of this blog post says..” I cannot help but believe that it is very destructive to our comfort and faith to not know that Jesus is still man and in His body. For if He is not still man in heaven, how can we have comfort knowing that He can fully sympathize with us? He can sympathize and be a faithful high priest and know what we are going through not just because He was once on earth as a man but because He continues forever as that same man.” WOW again! I have NEVER thought about Christ in this way.
To answer one of your above questions:
I have lots of favorite Christmas songs…..one that I love is Who is He in Yonder Stall? Chorus :’Tis the Lord, O wonderus story, Tis the Lord, the King of Glory…At His feet we humbly fall, Crown Him Crown Him Lord of all!
Kimberly
Summer – I’m so glad you were able to dig deeper. As the Bible calls us to be Bereans. Not just take everything for surface value – but looking at the Bible to give us answers! That first sentence in chapter 2 is underlined in my book too! Thanks Summer – i’m glad you are along for the journey with me!