In the 4th week of February the week's verse at His Kingdom Come, Take Me Deeper group was 2 Corinthians 5:17:
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (KJV)
For this lesson's art journal page I attempted a resist technique I saw on You Tube. First you Gesso your page. Once that is dry, you drip a design with white glue and wait for that to dry.
I like how 2 Corinthians 5:17 is put in the New Living Translation:
"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has
become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"
To get a better understanding of the well-known verse, I read the whole chapter. Verses 2-5 stood out to me.
2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly
bodies like new clothing.
3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.
4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that
we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to
put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee
he has given us his Holy Spirit. (NLT)
Sometimes the limitations of mind and body are hard to bear.
Sometimes it is difficult to "glory in my weaknesses" as Saint Paul
did. Sometimes I just want to throw off that weakness. But it is not that I want to die; only that I long to put on the new, resurrected
body that awaits me when I finally put off this weak and flawed model. I want
to cast off death and put on true life.
The next step in my page was to apply Gelatos, mist it with water and spread it with my fingers.
I didn't feel like waiting for the paint to dry so I blasted it with my blow dryer.
Maybe that is where I went wrong. You are supposed to be able to peel off the glue and the Gesso keeps it from ripping the paper. Not! Mine peeled up a layer of paper with the glue.
As I meditated on the verses in 2 Corinthians 5, I began to wonder if the New Life spoken of begins as a seed of resurrection, living within my weak frame; something that is meant to grow into fullness, with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee
he has given us his Holy Spirit. (NLT)
What if that resurrection seed within me is like an embryonic
seed within a woman's womb. A wise and loving mother nurtures the seed within
her by eating nutritious food and avoiding harmful substances. The precious
seed within her is more important to her than the desires of her flesh.
A woman who smokes, drinks, takes drugs or who does not eat
properly during pregnancy, puts her baby at risk for mental and physical
health issues. It takes self-restraint to do the right things for her child,
but a woman motivated by love gladly denies her own desires for the benefit of
her baby.
What if our resurrected spirit is a seed planted within us by the Spirit of
God? What if that new person (vs.17), that new creature, is a seed that I have
been given to nurture as a woman would nurture the infant seed within her?
5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his
Holy Spirit.
God has prepared a new resurrection body for us (vs. 2), but what if he made it
in seed form (as he did Jesus in the womb of Mary) and planted it within us at the time of our rebirth? And what if the Holy Spirit (our guarantee) is like a super nanny, ready to give us help, strength and direction every step of the way as we nurture this precious seed within us?
Every child is unique. A six pound baby is not less than a ten pound baby if it
has reached its full potential at birth. What if each resurrection body, each
human spirit, has its own unique potential?
We know that no one can come to God except through Christ (John 14:6) (John
3:3-7) and except he is born into the family of God through the resurrection
power of the Holy Spirit.
What if being born again is a process? What if we are responsible to nurture the
God-seed planted within us and what if our resurrected bodies will reflect how
we have nurtured or how we have neglected them?
Now if each resurrection seed is as unique as each human seed, each with an
innate potential, then there is no need for comparison. The seed of my
resurrection body will not be the same as that of Mother Theresa, Billy Graham
or a five-year-old child who died young, yet whose spirit was fully developed?
"A NEW LIFE HAS BEGUN!"
What wonderful news this is to a couple who have been trying to conceive a child.
The mother will have regular check-ups with a doctor, take vitamins, get plenty of rest, eat well and avoid any harmful substances.
How then should we nurture the precious Life within us? That is a question we can be asking each and every day.
Thank you for taking a closer walk with me today. May you know that you are beautiful and that you are loved.
Blessing hugs,
Teresa
