Who Is This Jesus?

As people all over the globe have watched this story unfold in real time, I'm sure the question has been asked, wondered perhaps from deep within, "Who is this Jesus?"  "Who is this God who can raise the dead, calm the seas, and bring restoration to a woman named Anna, whom medical professionals did not believe had a chance at survival?"  "Who is THIS God?"  Well, let me introduce you to Him.....

The God that I serve, is one who loves His people desperately.  An even deeper love, if we can imagine such, than a mother has for her child.  He loved us so much so, that He ached for His creation when sin entered the world.  And this sin that entered in the garden at the beginning of time, still wreaks havoc on our world today. Children are diagnosed with leukemia.  Mothers die of cancer.  Babies are left orphaned due to HIV.  Believers are persecuted and killed throughout the world for proclaiming the gospel.  This was never His original intent for us though.  His original intent, was that we, His children, would walk in a relationship with Him, God the Father.  But when sin entered, with it came death, disease and sadness.  Most tragic of all, was that this sin separated us from the Father.  It made it impossible for us to get to Him.  He had to come down.

So, from the beginning of time, God had a plan.  A rescue, if you will.  A Son, foretold through the prophets, thousands of years before He was ever born.  And although some would have expected this great Deliverer, this Savior of the world, to be born into royalty, to be born a King in the most physical of senses, He was not.  Instead, He was born of a young virgin girl in a smelly stable full of animals.  There was nothing beautiful or perfect about his birth from a worldy standpoint.  Yet, that is so like our God.  To use the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. 

This baby grew into a man.  Fully God, yet fully man.  He experienced heartache and sadness, physical pain and sickness, just like the rest of mankind.  Yet through it all, He never sinned.  He became the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  And it was His blood on a cross, that offered us forgiveness of our own sin.  Why?  Because there is forgiveness and ressurrecting power in His blood.  Ressurrecting power that raised His body from a grave after three days in the ground.  And that power still reigns today.  The cross has created a bridge back to the Father.  All we must do is believe in Him. 

So what now?  Where do you go from here?  You can begin by grabbing a Bible and reading through the Gospel of John.  Find other believers, a local church body, who can disciple you and help you to grow in your faith.  And, talk to God as you would a friend.  This is not another religion.  Religion doesn't save.  Only Jesus does.  It is an intimate relationship with the One true God of the Bible.

Real faith is not a manufactured emotion that can be mustered up in our own strength.  It's a faith that develops slowly over time as we obediently pursue Him when times are good.  SO THAT, when the storms of this life come, and they will, we can confidently trust in an unseen God with our very lives.  Knowing that His ways are ALWAYS better, ALWAYS more perfect than ours.  Taking the good with the bad and praising His name regardless of our circumstances.  Trusting always, that in ALL things, HE is good.  HE is in control.  And believing that not a hair on our heads can be touched unless HE allows it. 

This is our God.

"For God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

~John 3:16

Kirsten