PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE - GREATEST HERO

On the sixth day of creation God concluded His creating with His masterpiece - us.  He charged us to be stewards over all the animals, name them, be vegetarians, and be "fruitful and increase in number" (Genesis 1:26-30).  Then God called ALL He did very GOOD.  "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day." (Genesis 1:31)  This was our past - good.  Humans had a proper relationship with God and creation and each other. 

Still in humanity's past is our haunting MISTAKE.  Sometime, maybe even hundreds of years after God gave these charges and introduced them to the Garden of Eden, we believed The Father of Lies and disobeyed God concerning eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Because of this encounter and choice, our relationship with God was severed and the element or corruption that help cause this Fall, sin, infected the rest of creation as well.

If you are born into this world your past, present, and future are condemned.  Your nature is to do exactly opposite of what God desires (just look at history for this example).  But Wait!  There's More!

Still in the past our answer came.  Sin came into the world through the world's first man - Adam.  This sin or disobedience was overcome by the life, death, and resurrection of the second "Adam" - God in flesh, Jesus.  You and everyone else now has to make a decision about what to believe about this man of Nazareth.

Presently, creation and humanity are in the same boat - sinful - separated from a Holy God.  However, the price for the redemption of humanity and creation has been paid by Jesus Christ and the "tendering" of this payment awaits Holy manifestation, in Holy timing, from a Holy God.  What it all boils down to is who do you believe Jesus is and what do you believe He did for you?  Man!  C.S. Lewis nailed it on the head when he said,  "You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."   The famous - Lunatic, Liar, or Lord statement.

Here, allow me help you out.  He is the "way, the truth, and the life" for everyone. Anybody desiring to have a right relationship with God and therefore a very pleasant afterlife has only one solution - Jesus. Now, isn't that easy? No multiple choice. He is the correct answer every time.  He is truth. When you stop and think, there really are no contenders. No one has loved us as much and shown it as God the Father did by sending Jesus. All of humanities problems are rooted in disobedience to God or sin. All of humanities answers are found in the person of Jesus Christ. We all can take a major step back to the Father's original plan for our lives by accepting God's Free Gift of Salvation - Jesus. You want a hero? There is none better than Jesus!       


 

A SPECIAL MIRACLE

Isn't it a good thing that Jesus being the Son of God does not depend on me recognizing Him as such.  He has been, is, and always will be, the Son of God.  In addition, one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the Glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).  However, when was it in your life that you first really worshiped Him as the Son of God.

In reading Matthew, the first time I notice the disciples calling Jesus the Son of God and worshiping Him is when Jesus came to them, walking on the water.  After He and Peter had their little "faith lesson" and they came back into the boat, Matthew 14:33 says, "Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.' "

My inquiry is - why now?  I did a search on the miracles of Jesus in chronological order and walking on water came in at #21!  Immediately before they were on the boat, the disciples experienced the feeding of the 5000.  And it is interesting to note that in Matthew 14:22 it says, "Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd."  The disciples were probably thinking long and hard about what just happened.  They had until the "fourth watch of the night" (somewhere between 3 and 6 in the morning) to contemplate this miracle before trying to discern what was coming to them on the stormy waves.  Then after this experience, the disciples called Jesus the Son of God and worshiped Him.  What about all the other miracles before?  Why did they not call Him Son of God then and worship Him then?

1 Born of a virgin 
2 Changing water into wine 
3 Healing of the royal official's son 
4 Healing of a man possessed by a demon in Capernaum 
5 Healing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law 
6 Healing the sick during the evening 
7 Catching a large number of fish 
8 Healing a leper 
9 Healing a centurion's servant 
10 Healing a paralyzed man 
11 Healing a withered hand 
12 Raising a widow's son 
13 Calming the stormy sea 
14 Healing the Gerasene demon-possessed man 
15 Healing a woman with internal bleeding 
16 Raising Jairus' daughter 
17 Healing two blind men 
18 Healing a mute man possessed by a demon 
19 Healing a man who was crippled for 38 years

What was the straw that broke the camel's back?  What prompted the disciples to finally call Jesus the Son of God, their long awaited Messiah and King, and worship Him?  Jesus' track record or resume was surely building.  Just "grabbing at straws", were the miracles that were done before able to be performed by any other "medicine man" type of individual?  Were the miracles somehow so commonplace or so forgettable or maybe explainable that these last two were the "one-two-punch" that was needed?  


I am guilty of what I am alluding too and trying to get around to saying.  Desensitization of God's miracles.  God deals in everything - from the minute (mahy-noot) to the grandiose.  His everyday activities are called "Miracles".  For me, many experiences have been linked with the grand-desperate combination.  Whenever I have seen God work in these two criteria of my life, (1) when I need Him desperately, and (2) when I need a huge miracle, sometimes He answers "yes".  Other times, He answers "not right now".  Still at other times, He says, "No".  You have to trust God.  If you can't trust Him, who can you trust?

For those times that He says, "Yes", it is especially easy to call Him Lord, the Son of God and praise and worship Him.   Yet, there is one more response that He has made known to me which might be applicable to the disciples as well - "What about 'x' miracle or 'y' miracle?  I was the Son of God then too.  I deserve worship just as much then too."  I don't take this question as a condemning question and/or statement.  I take it as more of a challenge to increase my powers of observation.  The "x" miracle or "y" miracle could be something very personal to somebody or it could be something that we all experience, like the appearing of another sunrise or one more day to make a difference.  In the scriptural reference here, Jesus did not stop and ask why they chose to call Him Son of God and worship Him now, this is my observation and application to my life and maybe others.   


So, are you waiting around for some big event to call Him Son of God and worship Him?  I have noticed the word "amazing" has been used quite a lot lately.  Almost taking the punch out of the definition of the word.  When you and I reflect on our lives and the Miracles that we know beyond the shadow of a doubt were miracles - are you truly amazed?  


Recognition, thanksgiving, gratitude, praise, adoration and worship are all lumped into what needs to come from me to Him for all that He is to me, has done for me, and has planned for me.  I hope all of us can work on our awareness of God's movement in our lives.  He deserves all the praise and when you are actively seeking out reasons to praise Him, the list should start and only pause for interruptions from our lives.


I can't believe I am going to say "little miracles", but when you and I can recognize our Lord as Savior and Son of God in the little miracles and worship Him then as well as the large breakthroughs, I believe we, as believers in Christ, have reached a new level in Him.  And it is all about growing in our relationship with Jesus.  And here is just one aspect - recognition and worship as a sense of a God-awareness lifestyle.

World's Most Powerful People

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work...-people-forbes

Barack Obama - Title: President, USA
Vladimir Putin - Title: Prime Minister, Russia
Hu Jintao - Title: President, People's Republic of China
Angela Merkel - Title: Chancellor, Germany
Bill Gates - Title: Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud - Title: King, Saudi Arabia
Pope Benedict XVI - Title: Pope, Roman Catholic Church
Ben Bernanke - Title: Chairman, Federal Reserve
Mark Zuckerberg - Title: Founder, Facebook
David Cameron - Title: Prime Minister, United Kingdom
______________________________________________

Now, a little extra stated in some of the descriptions that caught my eye.

Concerning Vladimir Putin - "Assuming that he serves 2 more terms, the increasingly autocratic Putin will be in office until 2024. Take that, Stalin!"
Could this be the man in power when the Gog/Magog Attack happens?

Concerning Angela Merkel - "A recent poll in France showed that the French have more faith in Germany's leader (46%) than in their own president, Nicolas Sarkozy (33%)." Interesting.

Concerning Pope Benedict XVI - "In October the Vatican called for a supranational authority to oversee the global economy: "To function correctly the economy needs ethics, and not just of any kind but one that is people-centered." Things that make you go.....Wow!

Concerning Mark Zukerberg - "What the CIA failed to do in 60 years, Zuck has done in 7: knowing what 800 million people — more than 10% of the world's population — think, read and listen to, plus who they know, what they like and where they live, travel, vote, shop, worship. U.S. users spend more time on Facebook — on average 6.3 hours a month — than on any other site. The Harvard dropout is now creating his own monetary system, Facebook Credits, to facilitate transactions and profits." This guy is just scary all the way around. He has definitely got my antenna on observation mode.