Lightning Bug #? (for who can count them? Whatever number this one is.. I find I must share it!): Video Session #1... 6 minutes and 13 seconds into it, Beth says, "Jesus appeared to those who NEEDED to SEE Him most."!
Why exactly do I love this that she's said? This is why. I cannot tell you how often I say to Him in my prayer, in my hard, in my distress, in my desire, in my heaviness, in my need, "I need to see You see me, Lord!"... Just like Hagar saw Him see her in her need!
Beth reads from 1 Cor 15:1-8 where it's written, "... He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of some of the brothers at the same time... Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born."
Wow! Aren't we glad He came back and 'appeared'?! Aren't we glad our Savior let so many see Him?! After all that He'd been through! After His death! After He'd risen! Aren't you glad that He came back to be seen!!! He could have just risen (risen from death and gone straight to Heaven) and just written about it. BUT! He came back so that so many could see! And He still comes... if in only a great visual in invisible form!
Beth goes on to remind us of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene (John 20:1-18). The Mary that was delivered from seven demons. She wonders why Mary was so overwrought in agony and hanging out at the tomb where Jesus was buried? She wonders if it might could be that since she could no longer see Him... that she might now feel like the Mary Magdalene she used to be before she'd met Him? The Mary Magdalene, again, with the seven demons? For isn't that what we often do? When we can't see Him in our hard... do we wonder if we're no longer who we thought we were? Are we no longer truly who we thought He told us we were? Are we again who we once used to be? Isn't that how we sometimes often think?
And so!
Jesus decides to show Himself! Jesus shows Himself, appears to, those who must NEED to see Him most!
She says, "Don't you think there are times in our lives when it's so easy for us to look at the Scriptures and know, 'This is who I am. This is who Scripture says that I've become.' But suddenly we go through a time when He's not all that obvious, and then doubts start arising. And I think that maybe by the time Mary could no longer see Him. It was back to Mary, that had been delivered from all the demons. See, without Him obvious in our lives, we feel like we're back to who we were just delivered from."
Then she suggests that she thinks that Mary Magdalene was having an identity crisis.
Don't we do that??? If you'll remember, right after God had parted the Heavens and told Jesus out loud that, "You are My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased".... Satan finds Him in the desert, and his first deceitful thing that he tries to corrupt Jesus' mind with was, "If You really are God's Son...." surely God wouldn't allow You to go through such IF You were His! Ugh.. at the deceit of the enemy! Ugh... at how often we fall for it!
But woe.... at how Jesus still most "appears" to those most in NEED! What did I say earlier? "A VERY PRESENT help to those in times of trouble"!!!
I am so loving this.... and yes, I've got more to study. I'm off in more of my seek... and in my search I'm sure to find!!!
"You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by You..." (Jer 29:13-14a.)
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Awesome!
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