AP: The Humanity of Jesus

AP writes:

In my textbook for the course I am taking, Allen Hood quotes Von Balthasar from his book Prayer. It was such an inspiring quote I decided to share it with you:

Standing in awe of God is one thing. Loving Him is quite another thing. You can go through life obedient and struck by His awesomeness, but it's quite another thing to be struck by His tenderness, to be tender towards God. When you know His humanity and tender acquaintance with your frame, your heart feels safe to move towards Him and ask questions you normally would not ask. It is sheer joy to engage with your older Brother in dialogue and in worship, free to love Him with your particular personality. This is joy, to enjoy yourself in enjoying Him.

This where contemplation sets to work. On the one hand, what the Son is and does is human, and is thus comprehensible...Even the quality of Christ's humanity is so different from all other humanity and from everything that is possible in the world. All the same, the humanity of the Son of Man is human. It is not interfered with, there is no grotesque distortion; it bears the mark of its divine quality just as white hot iron shows its heat; indeed, the divine reveals its incomparable power in the very fact that what is human is not destroyed. If two magnitudes were of the same order, the greater would of necessity be a threat to the lesser. A tree planted in a flower pot will burst it. Only God can appear in a creature without destroying it. Faith is rendered able to contemplate the divine in creaturely form.

The contemplative's gaze continually returns with great attention to the humanity of Jesus. It is the inexhaustible treasure entrusted to us by the heavenly Father. In a true sense he has "despoiled

himself" (John 3:16) of him to whom he is always pointing: ipsum audite! (Matthew 17:5) The Son is no floating interstellar body; he is the fruit of the earth and its history; he comes from Mary (who is the exponent of the Old Covenant and of all humanity) just as he comes from the Father. He is grace ascending just as much as grace descending; he is just as much creation's highest response to the Father as he is the Father's Word to creation. He is no God in disguise, acting "as if", simply to give us an example...No. He is the apex of the world in its striving towards God, and he cuts a path for all of us, gathering up all man's efforts into Himself the pioneer, the spearhead. He can do this only by being "in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sinning" (Heb 4:15), by bearing our burdens as the scapegoat (Heb 13:11), the Lamb brought to the slaughter, slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). Thus, he stands at the summit of heaven and earth.

That quote is so inspiring to me to really think about why Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us. It makes me want to go and sit for hours reading my Bible. Hopefully it has inspired you to do the same. Have a great day!!

MP: Do you ever think ....

MP writes:

Hey,

What is up y'all? Do any of you ever think that your life is so repetitive? I know I do. Sometimes I wonder at the copious ways that God provides for us. And when I consider this, I often feel a great magnitude of joy. On that note God prevails and wins our hearts!!! God is a very zealous God especially the way He wants to be our Bridegroom. Have you ever let God show you what burden was on His heart for you to pray about?

So here is a quick story of one time when that happened to me. God told me to pray for my friend so I did pray for him for a specific thing. Later on when I talked to him he told me that he had asked God to show him that God loved him and not four hours later God showed him exactly how much He loved him. Is that not cool or what? God answered both my prayers and this man's prayer.

I think that it was great of God to give intuition so that we could use our senses to get through different types of situations. Some times when you are running around frenziedly late and then there is an accident in front of you. Do you ever wonder if God detained you so that you were not in that bad wreck? Though through all that transpires no matter what, God always is there for you and me!!!!! I can not wait to meet the Man whom inhabits my heart.

Well I GTG to bed I love and miss y'all!!! Also I cannot wait to see you all at Christmas!

Love always,
Mallory:)

Prayer Leading!!!

AP writes:

I had the joy last week of being able to prayer lead a worship with the word set in the prayer room. It was so much fun! I loved being the one who was able to interject phrases from the Bible and being able to take the team where ever I wanted to go! It was an awesome experience. I also love it because for 2 hours I get to sit and do nothing but worship Jesus and meditate on the word. And......I get to say what I'm meditating about out loud! I think I'm the only one who actually gets to talk in the prayer room! And they give me a mic!

AP: Significance of the Incarnation

AP writes:

The incarnation might look like a big word that is very confusing. But after some teaching in a Bible class I'm taking, I realized it's not the word that perplexes me but the concept. I have found that Jesus loves when we are perplexed over one concept- trying to understand Him. Because of the incarnation we are now able to say that whoever has seen Jesus has seen God. The incarnation revealed the passionate, zealous, pursuing heart of God for humanity. If God was willing to take on our form, the human frame, what other depths is He willing to go for us? It demonstrates His unrestrained love for us. He never stops until you're just like Him and have received the place He purchased for you on Calvary. As it says in Phil. 2:6-7 Love "did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men."

I had no real understanding why Jesus had to take on flesh until I came across this point. Jesus became a human being because God could not suffer and lacked a back to be beaten. God needed a back like our backs on which to receive blows and thereby to perform compassion as well as preach it. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." (2 Cor. 5:19) When He took on flesh He forever linked humanity to Himself. He CHOSE to be human FOREVER. That is the extent of His love for us. When Christ came into the world as a human, eternal life became embodied in the human form and He became a fountain of life for all who would receive Him. When God joined Himself to humanity, He entered time. He came from a place outside of time and restrained Himself in time for you and I. The incarnation also reestablished human dominion on the Earth. God used human beings once again to establish His government on the earth. What was lost in the Garden was restored by Jesus. He came to the earth to dwell with men in the fullness of God. He was fully human yet radiating the glory of God and wrapped in light. He is fully God, fully man, two natures in one person. We truly have an awesome God!

MP: I love this font

mp writes:

Hey Y'all,

This is my favorite font besides the Comic Sans MS. This one is called Georgia and I use it every time I blog on here. Random huh?

So this weekend at the International House Of Prayer we have had a conference called Prayer and Prophetic. So far it has been amazing. I have learned a little bit and I can not wait to learn more about our God, Jesus Christ. On Friday night at the Encountering God Service Allen Hood preached on Standing at the Critical Juncture. This really hit my heart hard because some of the main points were:
1) tell your children and their children about God so that the Word will be deep in their hearts when the end times come
2) we need an outpouring that leads to the return of God in America
3) in the end times if you have the wrong opinion even what you have will be taken from you
4) hear from God and if you don't you are not ready for the shaking that will come
5) take heed not only what you hear but how you hear
6) you have to hear and then tell your children
7) if you do not come into agreement with God your family down the line will be swept away

Are not some of those points a little frightening? The one that says that your whole family down the line will be swept away is a little scary to me. I encourage you to pursue some of these by praying about them. I love you all so much. TTYL!!!

Love ya,
Mallory

JP: Corporate Intercessory Worship

JP Writes:

In my role of heading up Weekends @ IHOP, I have the privilege of teaching the Orientation to IHOP-KC segment of WE@I. Part of my teaching involves breaking down exactly what Corporate Intercessory Worship looks like. I tell them that at this time of the year in the South, we have Corporate Intercessory Worship meetings every Saturday. We call them college football games. On college campuses, 80,000 - 100,000 people gather dressed in similar colors and of one mind set. They come from every economic background, ethnic group, financial status, and some from great distances. United in cause, they are ready to celebrate, party, worship, and cheer on their teams. Rain, sleet, sun, drunk, hungover. Very little will keep them from coming if they have purchased a ticket. They are oblivious and uncaring to what those who don't share their passion think. Before every kickoff, they rise as one body with arms and voices raised ready to carry out their paricular kick off ritual - Go Dawgs and bark; Woo Pig, Sooey; Go Jackets, Sting 'em; Roll Tide; the Gator Chomp.

This is Corporate Intercessory Worship. This what God desires from us. Stadiums full of willing worshipers who are wholeheartedly pursuing one thing. Worshipers whose eyes aren't focused on the activities going on down here on the platforms of our churches, but on Him. People coming whether rain, sleet, sun, or not physically feeling well. Those who will not allow anything to keep them from coming because He has purchased their ticket. He is looking for people, who if He asks, that are willing to stand and look ridiculous in the eyes of those who don't share the same love for the King of kings.

It's kickoff time. Are you ready? Are you at the 50 yard line seat that He purchased for you, ready to go? Or are you roaming the stands looking to purchase nachos and drink to satisfy the hunger inside you?

Jeff

MP: Ummm??

MP writes:

Hey y'all,
So my mom has been out of town for almost four days and I have not gotten behind in school at all! I want to share with you an event from my day at school.l For those of you that know me real well this will not come as a surprise. Here is a brief synopsis of what happened to your second favorite 'spaz' today at school. (Ashton being the first 'spaz'.) :) Well right after lunch I went to the school room and sat in Ashton's chair to tell her something and flipped out of it and then the chair landed on my hand. That is why it hurts to type today. If you want more on that story ask me via e-mail.

On her trip My mom gets to see my newest cousin and my five month old cousin. Is that not sweet or what? I can not wait to see those adorable baby boys.

It is already getting cold here which is so not cool. But I guess that I will sorta get used to it. Oh yeah, in the Christmas show at my studio I am in the Russian and American dances. They are super fun because they are fast. It was kind of weird learning them because I had never even seen them. I am so excited that I have been dancing for almost 5 weeks.

I am praying that the floods will be done and start to go away quickly in GA. Please pray with me.

Love always,
Mallory