Part two of the YCW post:
My favorite speaker this weekend was Jeffery Dean he is a Pastor, Father, Author and Christian Speaker.
He spoke about God being crazy in love with you!
He started in the book of Genesis Chapter 1 and in v2 it talks about how darkness was over the surface of the deep. I
n Hebrew the meaning for Darkness here means Gloom & Despair. This means we have had gloom and despair since before the beginning of time.
In v 3 it says: God said let there be light, and there was light. Now you know light has a bigger meaning other than the opposite of darkness. The Hebrew word here for Light actually means Relief!
God is saying He came to bring Relief to the Gloom & Despair!
God is ahead of our hurt, pain, despair and He had the remedy before we even feel it!
In Genesis chapter 2 it talks about God making man.
Genesis 2:7 The Lord God took a handful of soil and made a man. God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing.
Jefferey shared a story about his daughter when she was younger and learning about this story in Sunday School and she asked if God got His hands dirty?
In all the times I have every read the story of creation I never once picked up on this. God took a handful of soil, He physically touched the dirt and breathed His breathe to give life to man. He was hands on with this aspect of creation. All the other things God created it just says God says and it was, never mentioning that God physically touched it.
And again when God created woman He takes a rib from the man, another physical touch.
In the creation story the first time it mentions God touching anything it was Adam & Eve!
The power of touch is incredible. It can bring feelings of joy, or comfort and it can also bring pain. But I want to focus on the good aspects of the power of touch. It is intimate and personal. A hug, or holding hands, even a touch on the shoulder can be so comforting in times of pain, hurt, and despair. And God initiated this first with humans!
There is so much beauty in the reality of God and what He has done and will continue to do in the lives of people.
There are studies out there that talk about the power of positive touches, and how people need a certain amount of positive touches in a day. I know of many times in my life when a hug, or holding of my hands were way more powerful than any words that could be spoken. I think about the times others have prayed for me by "laying hands" on me or when I have prayed with someone "laying hands on" and how much more powerful those prayers seem. And to think God initiated this!
It makes me want to be more intentional with my touches and prayer also. Instead of saying I'll pray for you, I want to grab your hands or hold you in a hug and pray right then. Please don't freak out if this happens! (I'll ask first!)
Jefferey went on to talk about how God made everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Ecclesiastes 3:11 Amplified Bible (AMP)
God Set Eternity in the Heart of Man
11 He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.
And how we were made in Gods Image. The Hebrew word for Image is Reflection. So God has made us to reflect Him. Are we doing that?
This was a good reminder to me to look at how I am with others, do my words, my actions and even my thoughts show a positive reflection of who God is in me to others? Honestly, not always!
This doesn't mean I have to live a perfect life, that is not possible for me or any human. Only Jesus was perfect on earth. Jesus died so that I don't have to for the sins I commit! But what I can do is do a better job of reflecting who God is in me and what He has done.
So how do I do this? Being intentional with reading His word, and slowing down not just checking something off my list of things o do for the day. But actually be intentional about praying, listening and reading!
I am about to start a Women's Study on: Discerning the Voice of God. It's a book by Priscilla Shirer. Once we start I will share on this blog what I feel God is speaking to me through this study, and any notes from the chapters we read each week. We have decided to take it slow, one chapter a week to really be able to grasp what she is talking about and allowing God to Speak to us through this.
God got His hands dirty for me and for you.
Have a Blessed Day!
Christina
