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Monday, June 17, 2013

The Essence of God

The Essence of God



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Luke 7: 
44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."48Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."49The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"50Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."                                       
John 8:
17In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.18I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me."19Then they asked him, "Where is your father?" "You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also."

It is not uncommon to think and wonder about the very essence of God.  The question on peoples mind is, "What is God really like?"  The answer is not far from the question. The reality, the Truth is  Jesus gives us the answer!

In this scripture, Simon is a Pharisee who has invited Jesus into his home for a meal.  The woman in the story found in Luke is an intruder which I am told was not uncommon in the times of Jesus.  When someone famous would come into a town and visit people, interested parties would make themselves welcome to the visit.  In this case the woman just walked into the discussion and did what she did.  She obviously loved Jesus based on what she did for Jesus and desired to serve him.  Maybe, she had even seen the lack of hospitality of Simon.

What is interesting in this story is how Jesus chastised Simon for not being a better host and how the others there were no doubt amazed at Jesus forgiving the woman's sins.

As Christians we find no amazement in this.  We know Jesus forgives sins.  But, for the times of Jesus, providing the forgiveness of sins was only something God can do.  Therefore, in this passage we see Jesus clearly and rightly claiming to be God and based on the passage above from John 8, we see the essence of Jesus and therefore the essence of God.

The great teacher Jesus allows this woman, clearly a sinful woman to do what she did to teach a lesson and define an Essence of God.

The lesson here is that we must give Jesus uppermost priority in our lives.  When we accept Jesus in our lives we must do everything to make Him welcome and the number one priority in our life!  In Jesus' visit with Simon, Simon did none of the normal traditional things of the day that were mentioned by Jesus.  But the woman, a stranger to Simon's home, she did!  By her actions, she clearly loved Jesus and she wanted to serve Him!

In the woman's behavior we see her contriteness for her sins.  It does not say anything in the scripture about her sins, she must have understood that Jesus knew her sins.  From this, we see the Essence of God.  By faith and Bible study, as we know Jesus, we too know God!  In that, our relationship with Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit is established.

God wants peace in our lives that allows us to serve him better and this peace comes from knowing we are forgiven of our sins.  In our humility toward Jesus, just as the woman, we find our peace in our personal relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but most of all we find forgiveness.  
All this, in God's Grace, 
only and 
just because 

                                         He loves us.


In Faith, In Grace, In your heart, 
Know Jesus, Know God,
confessing your sins, then 
in the forgiveness of your sins 
you can live, truly live, 
and live triumphly in the peace, joy, and
guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Love- The Very Essence of God!

Thanks be to God.


lonnie



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© Lonnie Coggins
ldcoggins@gmail.

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God has very well made most obvious what is essential of his desires toward us.  With this message I hope the very basic nature of God will be quite clear.  Click the link for the message.  Share on Facebook as you feel led to do so.

http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-essence-of-god.html


lonnie 

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