And Came Back Seeing - John 9:5-7

John 9:5-7 ESV 

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

Jesus begins the healing of this man by mixing the living water from His mouth with the dust of the earth. He anointed the man's eyes with the mud of a new creation. He then sends the man on a journey. At the end the man has washed and comes back seeing. 

This is a picture of the follower of Christ. Christ forms us into the mud of a new creation, a creature that is sent into the wilderness to live and wash as he travels in the growing light of God. He leaves blind but comes back seeing. 

We see in part now, but at journey's end we will see clearly. 

Bear Fruit - Matthew 3:7-10

Matthew 3:7-10 ESV 

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

It is not enough to repent without bearing the fruit of repentance. Calling God Father must result in acting like a son. Obedience brings forth the necessary fruit of salvation. The word will bring about and confirm the fruit. It will set you free. 

After The Image Colossians 3:8-10

Colossians 3:8-10 ESV 

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

In the creation account, God makes man in His own image, male and female. That is what's taking place today. We are "being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. 

The Greek verb tense is in the present active voice. What He spoke long ago is bearing fruit today. He speaks of things before they are and His word does not come back empty. 

The six days of creation and the seventh day of rest reflect creation from beginning to end. It is currently underway and the process will end when He is through. 

He is the beginning and the end. We are the work of His hand and the glory of His rest. 

The Secret Place - Matthew 6:6

Matthew 6:6 ESV 

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Where is this secret place, this Holy of Holies where God dwells?

It is in the heart of every believer. It is there we meet with Him and where we are one with the Lord. That is where we atone for our sins and are at one with God.

We are alone when we meet with Him there. In the stillness of that place flows the peace of the Lord. God has a room for all that would come. Jesus has prepared the way. 

Atonement and being at one with the Lord are two perspectives of the same thing. 

A Body You Have Prepared - Hebrews 10:5-7

Hebrews 10:5-7 ESV 

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body have you prepared for me;

in burnt offerings and sin offerings

you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,

as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

Christ came into the world to do the will of God and to show us the way. A written record in the scroll of the book does just that. It speaks of a first and a second coming. The first was accomplished and the second remains in the days ahead. 

We too have been given a body that we might do His will. We join our body of flesh with the body of Christ. He takes our flesh and combines it with His Spirit. We share life as prophesied in the union of Adam and Eve. 

We become His "suitable companion" as we help bring His light to the world. 

This Charge I Have Received - John 10:17-18

John 10:17-18 ESV 

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus is saying that the Father loves Him because He is doing the will of the Father and He is doing it freely. 

We have received the same charge from the same Father. We can lay our own life down so that we might take it up again with the fullness of the life of Christ. He provides the authority for this redemption. 

The Father loves all who obey His commands and we love Him in return through our obedience. 

Tentmakers By Trade - Acts 18:1-4

Acts 18:1-4 

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

Paul was a tent maker. He made ordinary tents for a living. 

He would make another type of tent, or tabernacle, as he spread the gospel. Out of men and women he would create a human tent of witness of Jesus in the wilderness of the world. 

Such a person was no longer part of a fallen world, but lifted up into the kingdom of heaven to become a soul passing through the waters of mankind and filled with the living waters of life. 

There are those who dwell on the earth and those who dwell in the kingdom of heaven whose earthly bodies that have become temporary shelters for the heaven bound.