Skip to main content

 

When Adam & Eve believed & acted on the satanic lie that they needed something more than God, from that moment on, sin became an active, destructive reality for all humanity. We lost our home, the place of belonging, the place that gave us definition, identity and meaning. Home was the Presence of God, central to our life and being. Eden was just a manifestation of God’s perfect provision, love and care.

Like Cain, who killed his brother, Abel, humanity has lived “east of Eden”, moving away, running from the Presence of God. Mankind was broken. Sin brought alienation, isolation and brokenness to all people. There was no way for us to find our way home. We were lost to ourselves, to one another and to true humanity.

In Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep. The Shepherd leaves the 99 sheep who are safe and goes off to the wilderness to find the lost one. Finding it, He carries the sheep on His shoulders and there is great rejoicing…the kind of rejoicing in Heaven when one sinner repents and turns to God to be rescued.

On this third Sunday in Advent, I am reminded that we could not find our way home, so Jesus came the first time to bring Home to us…God’s presence…Emmanuel, God with us. That is Who Jesus Christ is. He left Heaven where the “sheep” were already safe (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, the prophets and many more unnamed who had believed God’s promise) and came to earth to seek and to save us…the ones who were lost and without hope.

We couldn’t find our way home, so Jesus brought Home to us; to bring us to Himself. His first Advent, His Incarnation, was His rescue mission to all who would but believe Him and receive forgiveness and restored life…home…God’s indwelling Presence…the Holy Spirit.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHAT DO YOU BLESS? It would be an act of utter folly and disaster were I to choose to "bless" what God will not bless. God's wrath is set against anything and anyone that would try and hinder you becoming all He created you to be and to grow in by being united to Him through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is nothing arbitrary about the Word of God. He is very specific on what will make for life and what will not. Human life only becomes human life when the Holy Spirit becomes Life withing a believer. Being united to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the follower of Jesus becomes a new creation and begins to live Life as God intended. God begins the good work, and He is the One who will bring it to competition. Somethings will NEVER make for life. What God calls sin, missing the mark of what will make for life, is always sin regardless of what culture anywhere and anytime say to the contrary. Sin cannot save, heal, redeem, restore or remake...
Post a Comment
Read more
 INFINITELY MORE Ephesians 3:20-21 " Now all glory to God, Who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.   Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." In the Gospel of John, many of His followers turned away because of the covenant commitment He required of those who would follow Him. That covenant declared that what was to happen to Jesus would also happen to them. We, too, must lay our lives down and choose the will and way of God's Kingdom over all else. Those in the crowd knew that in Jerusalem, the Jewish religious leaders were plotting and planning Jesus' destruction. To follow Jesus to that degree required denying self and the thrall of the world and its ways, even to the point of laying one's life down by refusing to deny the Lord and His salvation. Jesus turned to the 12 and asked, " Are you also going to leave?" ( John 6:67-...
Post a Comment
Read more
BEWARE DECEPTION   Deuteronomy 18:9 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. Deuteronomy 12:29-30 “When the Lord your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land, do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’ Pragmatics was the downfall of Israel when they took possession of the Promised Land. To the unredeemed eye, it seemed that the fertility gods and agricultural gods of the pagan nations actually were helping the indigenous peoples. Just because something works does not make it right or good.  God promised to prosper His people if they would trust Him to the point of obeying His Word. God's Word is not empty. When He directs and commands, it is always for...
Post a Comment
Read more