Angels

The GT Weekend! ~ Here Week 1

1 Comment

The GT Weekend!

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to
reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ.
Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with other women in prayer,
rest your soul in reflective journaling,
and spend time worshiping the Creator who
longs for intimacy with each of us!

Worship Through Journaling

Worship Through Journaling

1) Have you ever considered what that pivotal moment of revelation to the un-supposing shepherds was like from the perspective of the angels? Those beings who had also witnessed, and been part of, so many other pivotal moments throughout history. Those beings who adore God with their entirety for eternity. This moment was the one God had perfectly chosen to announce the arrival of His own Son; redemption wrapped in flesh. Take a few moments today and sit with the Lord in silence. Find a dark, quiet closet or bathroom and hold up your hands, or bow down your head, or lay prostrate, focusing on exactly who this Christ is in His fullness. Worship Him. Repeat, Holy! Holy! Holy! in awe, and rejoice in this Salvation revealed through Christ!

2)  Suppose for just a moment that you are Mary this December. Rejected, object of scorn, having no concept that one day people would honor her for her humble part of the Savior’s entrance to His world. As every parent will quickly attest, we all feel ill-equipped and profoundly confused at this glorious task of parenting. How much more so, Mary! Yet, the Lord used, and chose, her. Mary was favored by God to carry His Son into the world, but just as equally, He has chosen each of us to do His work, fulfilling specific kingdom purposes while we live out everyday lives. Every single believer has a calling. Are you stepping into yours with wholehearted humility and obedience, even with the fear and questions that surely tumble to the surface of your heart? Take courage, Sister! The Lord is equipping you, just as He did with Mary!

3) Is anything impossible for the Lord? This was surely part of Joseph’s wrestling as he decided what to do in his dilemma. Either Joseph could trust God, and follow in obedience, despite the fact he couldn’t make sense of it, or he could walk away. We know the rest of the story, and we know what Joseph would have been walking away from as the earthly father of Jesus, but he did not have that benefit. Do you see yourself here in this perspective of Christmas? Is the Lord calling you to trust Him, even though you don’t see how all the pieces fit together? Have you decided God is worthy of your trusting obedience? Or will you walk away?

Praying Scripture back to the One who wrote it in the first place is a great way to jump start our prayer-life! Pray this passage from Isaiah 7:14 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign:
See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

Prayer Journal
How undeserving we are, Lord! Sinful, we have rejected and scorned You, mocking Your holiness, yet You chose to come to save us. Your coming was not haphazard, You lovingly marked out the perfect time to come to us. You announced Your arrival, told of Your mighty rescue, and extended Your salvation to all humanity throughout all time. Throughout the entirety of time, we can trace Your hand of love as You designed to make Yourself known. Such love is too extravagant for me to understand! Lord, make my heart obedient in response to Your love! Teach me to love others, to share this incredible grace with the world around me.

Worship Through Community

Can we pray for you? Reach Out! We’d love to pray for and with you!
Send us an email at prayer@gracefullytruthful.com

Build community, be transparent, and encourage others:
Share how God spoke to you today!
Comment Here or in our Facebook Community Group!

Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

Here Day 2 Angels: Digging Deeper

Leave a Comment

Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Angels!

The Questions

1) Why is Paul writing these verses to the Colossians?

2) What do these verses teach us about Jesus?

3) What does it mean that Christ reconciled everything to Himself?

Colossians 1:15-20

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation. 
For everything was created by him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and by him all things hold together.
He is also the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have
first place in everything.
For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.

Original Intent

1) Why is Paul writing these verses to the Colossians?
Paul is writing to the church at Colossae where false teaching had permeated. One of these false teachings ran counter to the authority and supremacy of Christ. Word had gotten to Paul and he is writing to them regarding that specific false teaching. Paul refutes twisted doctrinal lies with solid, anchoring truth. His goal was to edify, encourage, and correct both the leaders of the Colossian church as well as its members by teaching them truth so they could easily identify the lies about Jesus, His deity, and His authority. Paul wants the local church to not be led astray into thinking Jesus is just another ‘god’, but instead is the Redeeming God they originally trusted for total salvation.

2) What do these verses teach us about Jesus?
These verses are pregnant with Jesus’ identity, His continuous work in creation, and His work both in the process of redemption and in the church. We learn many things about Jesus in these few verses. Readers are reminded, Jesus is God in the flesh, He was present at Creation, and, as God, He has all authority. These verses also speak to who Jesus is within the heavens, that He is first and He holds it all together. Paul then reminds readers that just as Christ holds supremacy over creation, Jesus also holds headship authority over the church. Paul finishes his rich description by detailing what Jesus did on the Cross to complete redemption for mankind. These declarations are not small, they encompass every aspect of who Jesus is within the Trinity and therefore remind believers in Colossae of why Jesus deserves all honor, glory, and authority. There is none like Him; He is incomparable.

3) What does it mean that Christ reconciled everything to Himself?
In verse 20 Paul says Jesus reconciled everything to Himself, both things on earth as well as in heaven, by what He did on the Cross. These verses are the culmination for all of Paul’s claims to who Jesus is within the previous verses. Only Jesus could “make peace by shedding His blood on the Cross”. No one else in all of Creation was qualified to complete that task other than God Himself. In that one act Christ righted all wrongs that had been done since the first sin in the Garden and reconciled all of Creation to Himself. Only the infinite God could possibly pay for all of finite man’s sin at one time. If Jesus were not fully God, this would be utterly impossible!

Everyday Application

1) Why is Paul writing these verses to the Colossians?
We, like the believers in Colossae, live in a world where false teaching and false statements about who Christ is exist everywhere, both outside the church, and even inside. We too must remember exactly who He is and what He has done for us and keep that forefront in our thinking. Sometimes, when we have been believers for any length of time, we begin to take for granted the truth of the Gospel and who Jesus is as fully God. We are tempted to not give Jesus the important place He deserves in our lives and in the Church. We need to heed Paul’s words just as much as the church in Colossae did by holding up our personal belief system against the unchanging truth of Scripture. Only by studying and knowing truth will we be able to identify, and step confidently away from, deception.

2) What do these verses teach us about Jesus?
These verses are the complete preeminence of the Savior showing readers His full superiority over all things. This anchoring truths remind us of the deity of Jesus, and we must cling to this! These verses are the complete defense against deceptions that depict Jesus as simply a good person or a prophet. He is none but the Son of God, who is head of all, fully equal with God the Father, and who gave Himself to die for us, that by believing in Him, we will be completely redeemed. May this truth never become old to us, and may we not be easily pulled away from the magnitude of truth held within Paul’s words the Colossians. May we cling tightly to the full truth of who Christ is, refusing to believe any watered-down version of His identity!

3) What does it mean that Christ reconciled everything to Himself?
From before the first sin in the Garden of Eden, God knew Adam and Eve would choose to love their sin over their Creator, and God had a plan to bring them back to perfect relationship with Him because of His great love for them. His plan is solely anchored in the Person of Jesus, who was there at Creation, is today, and will forever be. (Hebrews 13:8) Christ chose to be born as a baby in the manger, coming into the world He created in physical form, for the distinct purpose of taking our rightly deserved punishment of death and separation from God by His own death on the Cross, paying the price we could never pay on our own. He redeemed His Creation. However, that does not mean that through His death we all automatically receive this Redemption. We must accept what Jesus did for ourselves, every heart must choose to trust His complete work on our behalf by placing our faith in Him; only then are we reconciled back to perfect relationship with Him. While the gift of salvation is for all, we must choose to accept it and surrender to Christ and His lordship.

What do YOU think?! Share Here!
Missing the connection to our other Journey Study?
Catch up with Angels!

Digging Deeper is for Everyone!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!

Digging Deeper Community

Share What You’ve Learned!
Pray Together!
Join us in the GT Facebook Community!

Our Current Study Theme!

This is Here Week One!
Don’t miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to receive every GT Journey Study!

Why Dig Deeper?

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

Study Tools

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

Memorize It!

Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Here Day 1 Angels

5 Comments

Read His Words Before Ours!

Luke 2:8-14
Genesis 2:1-4
Colossians 1:15-20

Here, Day 1

The sky around me feels soft; deep indigo is punctuated only by the pale, piercing light of the stars above. Below the expanse of the heavens, the earth unfolds in rolling green hills and valleys. The air feels charged, as though something living might actually form out of the very energy that fills it and step out into the sky with us.

All creation feels the weight of His glory. 

I peer into the darkness, determined to take in every nuance of the moment. We have waited for this day, this very night, for so long. No matter which direction I look, for as far as I can see, stretch the heavenly hosts. The radiant army would be impossible to number. Each one practically hums with joy as they brim with effervescent excitement.

“Holy, holy, holy.” The words, unbidden, spill over my lips like rays of light and catch fire across the sky as countless others join in; our worshipful expression one of ethereal light and sound never before seen or heard by the eyes and ears of man. Even now, as colors spark and flash across the expanse of night in an invisible, iridescent display, our whisper-song of worship fills the air and builds to a roar in perfect silence.

Emmanuel is here. 

My thoughts shift as I remember all that has led to this moment, to this night. With perfect clarity I recall the Beginning and every moment following, a succession of clear glimpses into the story He’s been writing all along.

The Garden.
The rapt anticipation as we watched Him model clay into His own image. Our breathless expectancy as we watched Him breathe His own breath into that first Adam. And the glorious joy in knowing that the first Adam would pave the way for the second Adam, the One we are here to herald tonight. Holy, holy, holy. The memory of Adam, and his Eve, knit together in intimate relationship with their Father, just as He designed. Walking and talking in the Garden. No barrier between the Creator and His beloved creation.

The Fall.
Our silent grief as we watched our fallen brother Lucifer weave his lie, and mankind chose to sacrifice their perfect relationship with Creator God in a quest for knowledge…knowledge that brought them only separation and death. The tears they both cried as they left the perfect home He made for them. And our silent joy in the knowledge that their fall would pave the way for their Saviour. Holy, holy, holy.

The Flood.
The amazement and horror that unfolded as mankind continued to do whatever they wanted, forsaking the living God, their Creator. Our joy at the way Noah and his family chose obedience and preserved the creatures the Lord God commanded. The marvel at His promise never to flood the whole earth again, His power to fulfill it, and the colorful glimpse of celestial glory He shared as a promise to Noah. Holy, holy, holy.

The First Miracle Birth.
The utter joy when God told Abraham that he and Sarah would have a son, and that Abraham would be the father of many nations. Our sorrow when Sarah and Abraham took matters into their own hands, and the far-reaching ramifications of that choice. And then, the thrill when Sarah gave birth to Isaac. So many years ago, but it feels like only an instant. The joys of that day were mere shadows of the joy we feel on this night of the second miracle birth! Holy, holy, holy!

The Wilderness.
Our awe as we witnessed His unfailing kindness when He delivered His people from the pharoah and led them through the wilderness. His constant provision, even through their complaining and disobedience. The Ten Commandments and laws He delivered through Moses. And the sheer excitement we felt at this clear acknowledgement that He knew His people would never be able to save themselves…He wanted them to know they needed a Saviour. Holy, holy, holy.

My thoughts begin to spin faster, and I feel the tension of my comrades intensify. It is almost time.

The Twelve Tribes.
The Promised Land.
Joshua. The Judges.
Samson. King Saul.

Each piece, each person, an inextricable thread of the whole tapestry woven intricately together by the Master Storyteller. Our Creator God. The King of Kings. Holy, holy, holy.

The Shepherd Boy-King, David. The man after God’s own heart. No one could call him sinless, but oh, how he pursued his Father, his Lord. How he worshipped, with wild abandon. Even when he fell, he stood, turned and repented, and pursued again. The way he pursued God relentlessly reminded us of the way the Lord of heaven’s armies pursues His own people. Holy, holy, holy.

Solomon. Elijah. The Prophets. Esther. 

A stray bleat echoes in the valley far below, and I turn to survey what lies before me. Dozens of sheep dot the hillside. Their shepherds are in various forms of repose. Some are sitting near a small fire; others stand around the edges of the flock. Shepherds, I grin. How fitting.

Through the silence, a single trumpet sounds in the heavenlies, unheard by the shepherds and flock below. My comrades immediately turn to me, and the sky seems to ripple with their movement. It is time!

I drop closer to the nearest cluster of shepherds, step through the celestial fabric which shielded me from their vision, and stand still to allow their eyes to adjust. The glory of the Lord shines all around each of them in a radiant display of color and light, and a few of them shout and gasp at the sight.

The words burst forth from the very center of my being. “Fear not! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people! For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

This. This is what I was made for. Glory to God, all creation bows to You, Lord of hosts! Holy, holy, holy! 

I raise my arms in an act of worship, and at once the fabric of the skies parts, revealing the legions of heavenly hosts. Their radiance shimmers and reflects in the wide eyes of the shepherds before me. The nearby sheep appear to be a brilliant white in the light emanating from the night sky as angelic voices ring out in worship and in song.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.”

Holy, holy, holy.

Share your thoughts from today’s Journey Study!
Can we pray for you?
Sign up to receive every Journey Study!
Join our Facebook Community!

Join the GT Community and share your thoughts!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Here Week One! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme?
Here’s a link to all past studies in Here!