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NASB | John 12:32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 12:32 "And I, if and when I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross], will draw all people to Myself [Gentiles, as well as Jews]." |
Subject: Is lifting His name related to this vs? |
Bible Note: How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! I have come to see that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are a really wonderful people. There is no sarcasm here, and I mean every word of it. If you look at an individual tree, you may miss the beauty of the forest. Not that there is no beauty in a tree, but you have to look at it very closely and carefully. Step back and take a broader view and it is easy to see the beauty in a forest. Different kinds of trees jostle together when the wind blows. But together they are beautiful. Some are older, stiffer; show less flexibility and less movement. Some are younger, whippier, more easily excited. But they are together in the wind. They all feel the wind and they want to see the others respond and move in their same direction. That is the reason they bounce each other so. It is not to knock the other down, but to move him. They want to see him move in the right direction. There is resistance and counter-shoving, but the branches and the leaves are all moving and shaking somehow. Look at the forest in the wind. It not only looks good. It is in form, in moving, so express and admirable. But it is as a body that you can judge them best, and with that they would feel more comfortable. The reason? That is what the Bible talks about. They all care what the Bible says. The wind in the forest represents what is happening as the Holy Spirit moves them. But he does not move them from without. He is like an element in their blood or in their muscle, especially the heart muscle, and he moves them from within. They still jostle and push around like trees, but it is like a body that they function. They scratch and squeeze and massage and lean and support and intertwine. But at the end of the day they are all together. It is Jesus who said they are a body and it is his body they are. His life flows through them. His blood flows through them, and they understand that, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. Each part wants to see the life flow through the other part, and that’s why they push each other so. His word flows through them too, and each part wants to see the word flow through the other. And it does, as they push against each other. They are like a flock of sheep, grazing together, moving together, under the watchful eyes of the shepherd. They bunch together here and there, but there is one flock, and one shepherd. God leads them along, Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood; some through great sorrow, but God gives a song, in the night season and all the day long. Talking about singing, some of them don’t even like to sing. Some shout and some lip-synch and some just mouth the words. Some sing simple songs and some sing profound songs. Some sing old-time songs and some go for the modern type. They all try to influence the others to be more this way or that. They want to see Jesus get more praise. Each group resists. But Jesus blends them all together, and it is music to his ears. Some don’t like the way the others sing, but when they focus on Jesus, they don’t even hear the others. However, he hears all of them, and he accepts the praise. You see, he takes it from the heart. Some are further along in their understanding of Scripture, of course, and they can’t all see eye to eye. But when they look in Jesus eyes they all see eyes of love. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Father has pity on them that are his. And all who belong to Jesus are his. They all search the Scriptures, and they know that these are they that testify of him. And some love him so much they dig so deeply they may even think they see things that are not even there. Why, this here topic they’ve been squabbling on. Each one just wants to get close to the truth. And they all know that it is He who is the Truth. They all know that he was lifted up on the cross, for them. But they all want to lift him up for the entire world to see, how beautiful he is. And I lift them up here, because they are his body. And how beautiful it is! They may say they don’t need to be lifted up or they don’t want to be lifted up or, that Scripture does not say the church should be lifted up. But I am thinking of the Song of Solomon. The bride praises the groom and the groom praises the bride. You might say they lift each other up. And I know that Jesus finds his church so beautiful, even as she finds him altogether lovely. In all of this we greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, we are in heaviness through manifold argumentations; that the trial of our patince, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, we love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. |