Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Where He Came From

On our journey to the cross…we need to remember where Jesus came from.

For God had a purpose in how He chose to send His son.

The very people God created and said were very good (Genesis 1:31), were the same people who broke His heart initially in Genesis chapter 3 and over and over again through out the Old Testament. His people committed real sin and were in need of a real Savior. God knew His people needed a Savior, He knew they struggled with obedience and relationship. Sound familiar?

God used a real teenage girl to bring salvation to a real hurting world. A real sweet, precious and soft skinned baby was born in a real smelly stable. He was born to a real mommy and her husband who was a real carpenter.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth, which was despised by the Jews.

Even Jesus, God’s son did not escape being ridiculed and questioned;

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathaniel asked. John 1:46

Even Jesus was stereotyped. He was labeled because of where He grew up. And I am sure He received many second looks, about the whole virgin birth story.

God wanted us to have someone we could relate to and yet someone we could stand in awe of. God knew this Savior would need to be fully human and fully God.

He was fully human because He was born of a woman named Mary, and He was fully God because this was a virgin birth placed there by the Holy Spirit because there had to be no trace of sin in Him.

I choose to believe God was very intentional about every detail of sending His Son to us. I believe Jesus came from a very ordinary earthly origin so that we as humans could relate and enter into a relationship with Him and be led to a very extraordinary eternity!

As we journey to the cross I am praying and knowing that He will meet us wherever we are and lead us from there!

May you know its not where you came from that is important but where you are going!



Resources:
Birth Announcement to Mary Luke 1:26-38

Jesus is born in Bethlehem Luke 2:1-7

God became a human being John 1:1-18

How Jesus gets to Nazareth Matthew 2:13-23

6 comments:

Paula V said...

Amen...Not who you are but Whose you are.

Thanks for that scripture. I wish I had included that one too as it was so very poignant and applicable to the chapter.

TAMI said...

It's good to travel there alongside others such as yourself!!

Runner Mom said...

Thank you for the reminder to be intentional! Great job!!

Hugs,
Susan

elaine @ peace for the journey said...

Thank you for sharing this passionate remembrance of what our pilgrimage to the Easter cross fully means.

I am so thankful for a Savior who can relate with my every situation and desire.

peace~elaine

Kimberly said...

Oh, how I just LOVE Him. The more I learn, the more He shows me, the more I fall in love with Him and His awesome, amazing, purposeful ways.

Love you! You and your passion for our Lord!
K :)

Sue J. said...

This is a really nice summary of the complexity of Jesus. Just this week, I was commenting about how He needed to be both fully human and fully God--but that fact in itself is often difficult for folks to grasp. Then again, He's like no other Savior we've ever had either!

I just love how you broke it down and kept it together at the same time--well done!