If you look at the sun, s, u, n too long you lose the ability to see, but if you look at the Son, S, O, N long enough you will truly see.  We cannot know who we are and what life is about without knowing the creator of it.  Mankind different than all other creation was made in the very image of God, with the sole purpose of being in fellowship with Him.  Until we know God intimately we are living blind.  If we are going to experience what life was intended to be we must go back to the way it was in the beginning.

This new series is entitled Intimacy, with Christ revealing "In To Me, You See!"  We should expect to grow in understanding our identity and learn to live in an abiding unceasing, intimate relationship with Jesus.  We will be reading through the writings of John, who was called the beloved of the Lord, for he was closest to him, and wrote his books from a deeply intimate place.  Let's now dive into John chapter 1.

John 1:1-5 NLT

1In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He existed in the beginning with God. 3God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

If you are married, do you remember the beginning, when you first fell in love with your spouse?  Maybe you are like me, that at that time nothing else really mattered but spending time with her, time disappeared, and all I did was think, and breathe Loraine. Falling in love is such a beautiful experience, staying in love is the difficulty.  Having kids, being busy with work, dealing with finances, all this tends to dampen the passion of when we first fell in love.  We see in Revelations 2:4 the call to return to our first love, it is not just a word to the church of Ephesus, it is a word to all whose love has become lukewarm.

Do you remember the beginning of your relationship with God, when He revealed Himself to you? I remember when I was radically born again, I felt alive for the first time, everything changed. Now I had this overwhelming desire to know God, so I dug into the Word and I felt I wasn't reading it, but it was reading me. The bible literally is alive, a person, as we see in the book of John 1.  

The Word always existed, and all things were created through Him. Life cannot be known apart from Him and whatever one thinks they know is nothing but deception, for one cannot see in the dark. Until we are born again, we are blind! The Word brings Light and Life!

We now learn about John and the Word becoming Flesh, in the person of Jesus.  John's purpose was to prepare the way, which he did by preaching repentance and having it symbolized through the baptism of water.  Yet, he promised that there is one coming greater than he, who will baptize with the Spirit and Fire.  Jesus will transition the age from the law under Moses to the law of grace and truth under Him.  He will make it possible to return to the garden and experience once again the fullness of God.

Once the ministry of Jesus began, He called others to follow Him.  To receive Jesus goes beyond just believing in Him.  It is like when you find the person you want to marry, you cannot just believe it, you got to act on it, you must approach the person and begin a relationship of discovering one another, eventually leading to the seal of commitment being marriage, where the two now become one.  Life is no longer lived alone but in partnership with another.  There is no difference in receiving Jesus we are to become one with Him.  He is the head though, we are to follow Him, not He follows us.  Yet, in following Him, all of our true desires will be met, our God-given destiny will be lived out.

I hope you are ready to go on this journey with me of deeper intimacy with Christ.  Start by making sure you are born again, and secondly answering the call to follow Him.

Walking In His Promises 
2 Corinthians 7

• I have a confession to make I didn’t make it past verse 1!
• One word stopped me in my tracks
• The word “promises”

3 steps to walk in God's Promises:
Step #1 Know God’s promises. Read the Word of God daily—every chance you get. 
“Let it be the soundtrack of your life”  When I gave my life to Christ, I read the Word of God every day, taking notes and underlining passages, and I even listened to the Bible at work and any moment that i had the chance to do so.  You can’t trust the promises unless you know them and make them the foundation of your life.
“Small Acts of seemingly insignificant discipline eventually reap magnificent results”
Do you know what God has promised his children?
Definition of A Promise: a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen. assurance , pledge, vow, guarantee, oath, bond, commitment, covenant. 
“I can't walk in something that I do not know”
Did you know:

• That his promises can bring light to your path? “Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light for my path” Psalm 119
• That when you're tired, weary, and burdened,Jesus promises you Rest “come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  Matthew 11:28
• That when you think it's Impossible, Jesus says “With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible” Matthew 19:26
• That when you lose focus on your priority “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you”
• There is a blessing attached in meditating Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
• Matthew 4:4 but he answered “it is written Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Here’s what I am saying: when I know I’m on a different playing field when I know my chess pieces are looking aggressive when I know I am confident
John 15:7 “if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you” 
“Let his words become the soundtrack of your life”
​
Step #2 Trust God’s promises. Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to him   and he will make your paths straight.”

1. What does that kind of trust look like?  Trust is a heart decision, a willful surrender of all your heart.  Half-hearted marriages never work and no husband has ever gotten anywhere by saying, “I love you, honey, with most of my heart.”  No, wives want it all, and so does God. The greatest threat to trusting God is our own understanding—how we see things or how we’ve experienced life before.  Once “our” mind starts to process and determine our steps, we get distracted, taking exits and wandering down detours.

Trust is a step-by-step process of submission, following the straightest path to the destination God has determined for us.  We would never take the longest route suggested by our GPS; we always prefer the shortest route with the least amount of travel time. And yet, we often find ourselves exhausted when we scrap the straightest paths to satisfy our disoriented desires.
Instead, trust God’s promises to take you where you need to go.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8

The lord is your strength and your shield TRUST IN HIM Psalm 28:7
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man Psalm 118:8
Man says show me and I will trust you.   God says trust me and I will show you Psalm 126:6
What is stopping you from trusting in God?

• What someone did to you?
• A traumatic event
• The loss of a loved one
• Your current situation

Step #3 Rest in God’s promises.
Resting in God’s promises is the next step in trusting God’s promises. The opposite of rest is worry. Jesus makes it very clear in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry about food, drink, our bodies, our clothes, our shelter, or anything else in life.  He said that since God takes such good care of the flowers in the fields, why wouldn’t he also take care of the people he created and loves?
Worry does not add a single hour to our lives.  In fact, it subtracts hours from our lives.
Quote about worry - “Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don't want”

Let's look at a Bible story about worry: Martha & Mary
Luke 10:38-41

• Mary sat at the Lords feet listening to what he had to say
• Do you let things distract you, worry you, and make you upset?
  
  

When information about God’s promises enters our minds, we hear it and understand it. However, we must then apply the truths of those promises to our hearts.  We must keep at bay or on hold the notion of wanting to process our needs over and over in our minds to figure out our own solutions.
Once we trust, we can relax, take a breath, and truly say, “God’s got this.” It’s a freeing admission of God’s love and strength.
God’s promises still stand! Great is his faithfulness, you're still in his hands. This is our confidence that he will never fail you! ​

Walking In His Promises
2 Corinthians 7

• I have a confession to make I didn’t make it past verse!
• One word stopped me in my tracks
• The word “promises”

3 steps to walk in God's Promises:
Step #1 Know God’s promises. Read the Word of God daily—every chance you get. 
“Let it be the soundtrack of your life”  When I gave my life to Christ, I read the Word of God every day, taking notes and underlining passages, and I even listened to the Bible at work and any moment that i had the chance to do so.  You can’t trust the promises unless you know them and make them the foundation of your life.
“Small Acts of seemingly insignificant discipline eventually reap magnificent results”
Do you know what God has promised his children?
Definition of A Promise: a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen. assurance , pledge, vow, guarantee, oath, bond, commitment, covenant.
“I can't walk in something that I do not know”
Did you know:

• That his promises can bring light to your path? “Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light for my path” Psalm 119
• That when you're tired, weary, and burdened,Jesus promises you Rest “come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  Matthew 11:28
• That when you think it's Impossible, Jesus says “With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible” Matthew 19:26
• That when you lose focus on your priority “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you”
• There is a blessing attached in meditating Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
• Matthew 4:4 but he answered “it is written Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Here’s what I am saying: when I know I’m on a different playing field when I know my chess pieces are looking aggressive when I know I am confident
John 15:7 “if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you” 
“Let his words become the soundtrack of your life”
​
Step #2 Trust God’s promises. Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to him   and he will make your paths straight.”

1. What does that kind of trust look like?  Trust is a heart decision, a willful surrender of all your heart.  Half-hearted marriages never work and no husband has ever gotten anywhere by saying, “I love you, honey, with most of my heart.”  No, wives want it all, and so does God. The greatest threat to trusting God is our own understanding—how we see things or how we’ve experienced life before.  Once “our” mind starts to process and determine our steps, we get distracted, taking exits and wandering down detours.

Trust is a step-by-step process of submission, following the straightest path to the destination God has determined for us.  We would never take the longest route suggested by our GPS; we always prefer the shortest route with the least amount of travel time. And yet, we often find ourselves exhausted when we scrap the straightest paths to satisfy our disoriented desires.
Instead, trust God’s promises to take you where you need to go.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8

The lord is your strength and your shield TRUST IN HIM Psalm 28:7
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man Psalm 118:8
Man says show me and I will trust you.   God says trust me and I will show you Psalm 126:6
What is stopping you from trusting in God?

• What someone did to you?
• A traumatic event
• The loss of a loved one
• Your current situation

Step #3 Rest in God’s promises.
Resting in God’s promises is the next step in trusting God’s promises. The opposite of rest is worry. Jesus makes it very clear in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry about food, drink, our bodies, our clothes, our shelter, or anything else in life.  He said that since God takes such good care of the flowers in the fields, why wouldn’t he also take care of the people he created and loves?
Worry does not add a single hour to our lives.  In fact, it subtracts hours from our lives.
Quote about worry - “Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don't want”

Let's look at a Bible story about worry: Martha & Mary
Luke 10:38-41

• Mary sat at the Lords feet listening to what he had to say
• Do you let things distract you, worry you, and make you upset?
  
  

When information about God’s promises enters our minds, we hear it and understand it. However, we must then apply the truths of those promises to our hearts.  We must keep at bay or on hold the notion of wanting to process our needs over and over in our minds to figure out our own solutions.
Once we trust, we can relax, take a breath, and truly say, “God’s got this.” It’s a freeing admission of God’s love and strength.
God’s promises still stand! Great is his faithfulness, you're still in his hands. This is our confidence that he will never fail you!