meditations for an everyday relationship with Jesus

Third day (1)

Hosea 6:1-2 Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn [us], and He will heal us; He has wounded [us], and He will bind up our wounds. He will revive us after two days, and on the third day He will raise us up so we can live in His presence.

Before God revives us from woundedness there is a waiting period. There has always been a waiting period. Even Jonah had a waiting period.

As children we say we cannot wait, that our excitement has the best of us, and this is true for a child. But, we are not children any longer.

Jesus Himself proved that God’s best and most complete work, even in resurrection, required the third day. It appears that “the right time” required to make us whole is the number of fullness or divine perfection … 3.

the voice God gave me

Third day (2)

Matthew16:21-23 From then on Jesus began to point out to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day

Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, "Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to You!"

But He turned and told Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, because you're not thinking about God's concerns, but man's."

Since we cannot imagine anyone doing what Jesus did, it is hard for us to believe, at times, that He even went to the cross.… that it really happened. We simply cannot fathom it. We can intellectualize it, but we cannot identify with it. That may be why it is so hard to believe in Jesus for so many. He is just enough like us, and yet so unlike us, that we cannot capture Him; He eludes us. He is like a firefly just out of reach.

What Jesus did for us was (and is) impossible, and so we find it impossible to relate to Him or anyone like Him. Who would do such a magnificent thing?

Jesus is so familiar at a glance, and yet is so unlike the flesh He wears; even His own disciples cannot not accept His words. Peter was not in denial as much as he was in utter disbelief. Jesus was the only glue they knew spirituallyspeaking.

My take: Beneath it all His Disciples were afraid of being alone. Satan tempts us, and distorts our faith, when we are isolated.