PMB - read topic

I found myself today surfing the net... and went to a site that had photographs of places in Israel.

I found myself just thinking how great it would be just to travel there, and see things that Jesus may have seen, walk into the river Jordan; walk a trail he might have walked; look over the sea of Galilee at sunset and imagined him and the Disciples sitting on the same hill - seeing the same sight. Perhaps a stroll in the garden where he was arrested; to stand in the Mount of Olives; to envision standing on a hill and seeing three crosses... etc..

My imagination traveled there... sort of a hunger and thirsting for to touch something he touched, to walk where he walked. I would almost guess most readers have done the same.

Suddenly my daydreaming came to an abrupt end, and these thoughts came to me.

Here you are wanting to be where the Lord was - and yet you do not realize that a far greater reality is present in you.

Where do you think the Lord is now? You have a far greater reality than a daydream. The Lord IS with you, He is IN YOU! Your walking where He is walking today... You get up in the morning do you suppose the Lord is somewhere else? Do you suppose he is gone somewhere else? Do you think I am a past reality? Did you think I only existed in small window of time for some past generation? Do you suppose I have left you at times. I AM ALWAYS WITH YOU and WILL NEVER LEAVE NOR FORSAKE YOU!!!

Does that sound familiar? It should - it's the word of God!

Do we forget the reality of the presence of Jesus? Do we think he is with us only when things are good, and AWOL when things are bad?

Do we understand the REAL - reality that the very presence of ALMIGHTY GOD, the very GOD who spoke and nothing became everything? That very God who walked in the Garden at evening; who was born as baby like any human baby; who created all the universe; the very God who created the oceans of deep and Mountains of High; the God who created all LIFE, and that very same GOD who was spat upon, who wore a crown of thorns, was beaten almost beyond human recognition; who was nailed on the Cross and who descended into Hell; and ROSE the Third DAY - LIVES INSIDE OF US!

Why are you trying to find JESUS as if he were lost somewhere? When the reality is he is closer to us than we know. HE IS ALIVE INSIDE OF US!!!

Psalms 8 asks the question. Have we answered the question in our own lives?
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; 4 What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?
5 For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet:

Perhaps the Psalm of David in chapter 139 says it best
2 You alone know when I sit down and when I get up. You read my thoughts from far away.
3 You watch me when I travel and when I rest. You are familiar with all my ways.
4 Even before there is a single word on my tongue, you know all about it, LORD.
5 You are all around me-in front of me and in back of me. You lay your hand on me.
6 Such knowledge is beyond my grasp. It is so high I cannot reach it.
7 Where can I go to get away from your Spirit? Where can I run to get away from you?
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there.
9 If I climb upward on the rays of the morning sun or land on the most distant shore of the sea where the sun sets,
10 even there your hand would guide me and your right hand would hold on to me.
11 If I say, "Let the darkness hide me and let the light around me turn into night,"
12 even the darkness is not too dark for you. Night is as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You alone created my inner being. You knitted me together inside my mother.
14 I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.
15 My bones were not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, when I was being skillfully woven in an underground workshop.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was only a fetus. Every day of my life was recorded in your book before one of them had taken place.
17 How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God! How vast in number they are!
18 If I try to count them, there would be more of them than there are grains of sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.

Or maybe Matthew 10:29-30 speaks into this reality
29 "Aren't two sparrows sold for a penny? Not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's permission. 30 Every hair on your head has been counted. 31 Don't be afraid! You are worth more than many sparrows.

What reality does Gen. 1:26 mean to us
Let us make man in our image, in our likeness!

Perhaps this dose of reality should get our attention John 17:20-23
20“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us,... 22The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one...

What about Romans 8:9-17; 37-39 for a reality check
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. 10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. 15 For you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; 17 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God IN Christ Jesus our Lord.

IN conclusion...

“He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of him who fills all things. “ (Eph 1:22-23)

“And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross” Eph 2:16

“for we are all members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” Eph5:30

“17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. 1Cor 10:17

(12) “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. (13) For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." 1Cor 12:12-13

“Now you are the body of Christ”… Col 1:24

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body"
Col 3:15

"...Holy Father, keep through your own name those whom you have given me, that they may be one, as we are. (21) That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us… (22) And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: (23) I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one;
John 17:11-23

What is it in us that God would create us in HIS IMAGE? What are we to Him that HE LIVES INSIDE OF US? What is the purpose of our life and our destiny in eternity - are we more than livestock, who are born to die? Are we just mere "Christians" who grab on to Jesus so we can save our own hides? The reality is the JESUS we read about in the Bible walks this earth today, and WE need to realize this, and have a passion of LOVE for Him that He has for us!

It is pretty hard for me to now daydream about being somewhere Jesus once was - for the reality is Jesus is ALIVE and present IN US! Jesus is WITH US! Jesus is IN US! We are ONE with Him and the FATHER! We are in reality bearing His IMAGE, His person walks where we walk. We cannot go anywhere that Jesus cannot go. Go to sleep at nights - and he doesn't get bored and go home to wait for you to awaken... He is the Good Shepherd our constant companion.

WE tend to get into a religious mindset that separates us from God. It is like the preacher who asked me "what church do you attend?" I answered the same as yours. He replied hmm I have not seen you there yet. Guess, he didn't get it! The Church is not divided into a denominational pie that he or anybody else owns for the BIBLICAL reality is the Church is the BODY OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. We all belong to the same Church, the same ONE Body, the same ONE bread, the same one Spirit. Their is only one Church, there is only one body, and the same is true about the PRESENCE OF JESUS! We need a reality check and apply the literal truth of the WORD OF GOD in our life.

Never forget JESUS is ALIVE and present IN YOU!

That is one of the realities the 1st Century Church had - that we tend to forget today.

God Bless