At 3:23 A.M. today, 6/27/2022, the Lord woke me up reflecting on the past week’s event…. a devotional from The Seedbed Daily Text on Thursday,, 6/23, and the Dobbs case decision from the Supreme Court of the US on Friday, and the alignment of the two with the graphic way God has given me to think about “family.” First: some background:
Philip Kosloski – published on 05/15/17
“The ancient symbol permeates Christian art all over the world.
It is extremely common to walk into a Catholic church and see the letters IHS etched on a crucifix or prominently featured in a stained glass window. What do they mean?
Contrary to popular belief, the monogram does not stand for “I have suffered,” “Jesus Hominum Salvator” or even “In Hoc Signo.” IHS is more appropriately called a “Christogram,” and is an ancient way of writing the word “Jesus Christ.”
Dating all the way back to the third century, Christians shortened the name of Jesus by only writing the first three letters of his name in Greek, ΙΗΣ (from his full name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ). The Greek letter Σ (sigma), is written in the Latin alphabet as an “S,” resulting in the monogram being commonly represented as ΙΗS.
In the early centuries of the Church it was a secret symbol, often etched on tombs of Christians. Then in the 15th century, Saint Bernadine of Siena went on a preaching campaign to promote reverence to the Holy Name of Jesus and encouraged Christians to put IHS on the doorways of their homes. A century later in 1541 Saint Ignatius adopted the monogram to represent his newly founded order, the Society of Jesus. The symbol now permeates Christian art all over the world.”
JD Walt’s Devotional:
Acts 3:6–8 (NIV)
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.
CONSIDER THIS
“The Spirit of Jesus in me greets the Spirit of Jesus in you and brings us together in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Peter and John had seen Jesus do this many times. They had perhaps practiced doing it with him a time or two. We have it on good evidence they had also tried such things without Jesus close by and failed in the past. Acts 3 gives us our first real test. And let’s be clear—it is not so much a test of the newly minted apostles as it is a test of the
ascended Jesus and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. Something tells me the Holy Spirit brought this promising word from Jesus to their minds and imaginations.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).
Get it in your mind’s eye now—face to face, eye to eye, and heart to heart—Peter, John, and the beggar who was lame from birth. I almost called him “nameless,” but then I remembered he had a name. We just don’t know it.
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Now, what most fascinates me about this scene is what didn’t happen—which is what I might have done. Here’s how I would have handled it. I would have said something like, “Sir, could we pray for you?” Then after getting his permission, “Sir, would it be okay if we put our hands on your shoulder as we pray for you?” Then I would have said something like this,
“Father, thank you for this man who is your beloved son and we ask you today in Jesus name to heal him and help him and bless him. Holy Spirit, would you be poured out and released into his body for supernatural healing. Yes, Lord, we are asking for a miracle today for this dear man in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Did you notice this is exactly what did not happen here? Here’s how they prayed:
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Here’s the difference. My prayer happens in a triangle. I am at the left base vertex. The person I am praying for is at the right base vertex. Jesus is at the top vertex. The apostles’ prayer collapses the triangle. Peter and John stand at the left base vertex. The beggar lame from birth sits at the right base vertex. Where is Jesus? He is ascended at the right hand of God, yes. Here’s the big change. On the day after the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit brings Jesus Christ of Nazareth into the very physical bodies of his followers—from the upper vertex of the triangle to the ground level base. In other words, the Holy Spirit collapses the triangle.
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
The implications of this are vast. It will take us at least another day to begin to plumb them. For now, I want you to ponder them.”
My Take:
I journaled a note as I awoke this morning at 3:23 A.M., it was the same thing I had posted in comments on the SDT Facebook page on Thursday as I thought about the “collapsing” of the prayer triangle :
“Jesus descends into our plane becoming the mediating power that makes fervent prayer of a righteous person effectual on behalf of another.”
……. a bit of “Holy Spirit geometry”, which I then drew in my prayer journal. (Figure 2 above)
It’s interesting that the center letter, an “H”, is the symbol I have used in lessons on “Patterns in Relationships) for at least ten years to represent 2 loving Christ-believing parents, oriented vertically and firmly set toward God, with the horizontal bar, between the parents,, each in close proximity to the other, representing their child, fixed firmly between and resting upon them…. somewhat like a football goalpost. The “family”, 2 or 3 gathered together IN His NAME, (right there in the very midst of His NAME!) and the cross, the symbol of His purchase of each of us, descended from heaven and laid upon them, resting on the child. It almost makes me think that Jesus returns to earth to bless His Name and claim His Kingdom every time a child is born and baptized into a loving, believing family…… Yes, that is exactly what it makes me think of! This is God’s plan, God’s perfect will, God’s definition of “family” and the simplest expression, the smallest denomination of the expression of the “currency”, the asset portfolio of the Kingdom of God…. the Body of Christ, modeled on the Godhead, expressing the triune image and nature of God in mankind…..
Three persons embodying and representing the the nature and Name of Jesus joined in unity, one Body of Christ embodied in three persons.
“Family”: father mother, and child(ren) is a representation of God into whom Jesus enters to be its Deliverer, their Salvation. Unity in the family begins with a loving parental relationship that sets an example for the family and extends in a personal way to each child. Our Heavenly Bridegroom Jesus, (who is one with the Father), and His Beloved, The Church (bearing the Holy Spirit within Herself), also represent the image of “parents” for each new believer (“born of water and the spirit) that is born into or adopted into the fellowship and baptized to celebrate and confirm their relationship as one with us in the “family” Body.
As two believers in Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit present in them, pray Christ descends and joins them, bringing to bear all the power of the Father to accomplish His will.
The Old Testament provided a living physical “family portrait of God’s people revealing the image of God through the lineage of the generations from Adam and Eve (God’s created children), through the patriarchs and their families, the priests, the kings, and the prophets. In the New Testament Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, enters the world to reform and further extend the lineage of God to all generations of all nations in the form of His Church, the Body of Believers in Him gathered together forever.
JD Walt’s folllw up today to the previous Devo on “Prayer Collapses The Triangle.” Linked from The Seedbed Daily Text: