How did the apostles ever wrap their minds around the fact that God-in-flesh called them to spend three years in closest proximity & personal intimacy with Himself!  Where do you even begin?

John begins from the very beginning (before the beginning of this created universe).  If there’s one thing the Holy Spirit-inspired John wants his readers to know is that THIS is no ordinary, run-of-the-mill person.  He was and is the long-awaited, highly-anticipated & hoped for Christ, but even more than they bargained for, God-in-flesh!     

He takes his readers back to the familiar creation story.  The same Word, that was both with God and is God, who spoke creation into existence is the God-in-flesh Jesus who came to dwell with his creation!  The God whose words created the world is the same God who sent His Word to come and speak NEW life (a reborn life) into man.

Jesus the all-powerful God, creator of all things, chose to humble Himself, to enter His creation as one of His created, to walk and live amongst His creation.  Out of His great love He came to bring us a put-together life, setting things right in us and in the world around us.

Though sin had marred his beautiful creation, causing worldwide devastation, hopelessness, destruction, even death, Jesus arrived on the scene, “the true light which gives light to everyone!”  He is the way, the truth and the life!  He’s come to rescue, redeem and restore!  He lived a perfect and blameless life.  In word and deed He revealed the arrival of the Kingdom of God!  So that all who received and believed in his name would be given “the right to become children of God.”  Jesus is God-made-known to us.

What kind of God does that?  One who loves extravagantly, one who cares deeply about his creation and not only desires to set things right for us but is the only One with the power to do so!  My response?  Fall at the feet of Jesus and weep tears of endless joy for a God who cared to fix our mess and offer real life in return!

With every detail in every story of Scripture we are introduced to miracle upon miracle, as God is put on glorious display.  Each story weaves into the next revealing more about God and the world in which we live. Because we all have gone astray, buying into false realities about this world (whether viewing it from political, historical, social, even me-centered eyes…the list goes on), Scripture takes us on a journey, reorienting us to the truth that this place in which we live is indeed God-centered, it is God’s world! He’s creator, sustainer and blesser in all things. In Ezra (and all throughout Scripture) we read of the God who holds all things together. He’s the Great Shepherd (able to provide, protect & sustain). He’s revealed as author, initiator, director and main character.

At the outset of Ezra's return to Jerusalem, he proclaimed his belief to the king that "the hand of our God is for good on all who seek Him” (Ezra 8:22). Ezra & the rest of God's people, journeying alongside him, had a correct view of God in relation to Himself and the world around Him, and lived out their belief before a watching world (or at least a watching king). Reminds me of Jesus' words in Matthew 7:24-27: "These words I speak to you...are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit - but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life...when a storm rolls in, your house will collapse like a house of cards." They needed to believe not just verbally but w/their actions, living out their belief. Ezra declares a time of fasting and prayer "to seek God's good hand" together in their journey. In doing so they experienced what their mouths proclaimed, "God's good hand" in their life as He kept them (as well as all the great God-given treasures in their possession) safe on their journey to Jerusalem.

Praying our view of God and this world is rightly oriented around Him, producing lives that lift high the name of God, putting His glory and greatness on display everywhere we go.

I love that God has filled the pages of Scripture with real people and their real life stories.  In His infinite wisdom, our Creator knows that a good story has a greater and more lasting impact in the lives of His created than any itemized checklist for living.  Stories resonate deep within us.  They touch us on a level untouchable by mere presentations of cold hard facts.  They resonate with us because stories are the stuff of life.  They are the way we attempt to make sense of life.  When we casually converse with friends we swap stories.  Our reminiscing exists around stories.  We celebrate alongside our friends as they share their stories of joy and are just as quickly moved to tears of sadness in their stories of struggle and pain.

The stories of Scripture reveal a picture of God and life as He always intended for us (His image bearers) in ways mere instruction never could.  Oh, you’ll find instruction but then He fills the landscape of Scripture with stories:  stories of joy, stories of sorrow and every story in between.  And throughout these stories God is revealing Himself, His plans, His purposes and His intent of “real living” for us.

All the while, these many stories are weaving together a beautiful picture of God Himself and the kind of relationship He intends to have with us.  They reveal to us both the reason we are here and His unbelievable plan of rescue in Jesus (the One who saves).  They invite us to follow Him (Immanuel – the God who is with us) as He leads the way in this beautiful though now corrupted and sin-tainted world.

The story in Ezra is the one of current focus.  Hope you not only see yourself in their journey but that your able to see a fresh perspective of the picture God’s painting of Himself, of this world and of the kind of relationship He’s always desired to have with you.   Blessings!   : )    

Israel’s living in captivity...again.  Their hopes are low.  They’ve spent years loving God, forgetting Him, living in rebellion, seeking forgiveness, coming full circle only to repeat the cycle.  But now, in the time of Cyrus, King of Persia, after their worst fear coming true (that of being exiled, though they partially believed God would never really go “to that extreme,” until He did), God moves again on behalf of His people as promised earlier by the prophet Jeremiah in Jer. 25:11,12 and also by Is. 44:28 & 45:1.  God is coming to the rescue...again (just as He said He would).  It’s the beginning stages of a time to rebuild and restore. 

From bewilderment to celebration they begin their journey back to Jerusalem to rebuild God’s Temple in Judah.  Sweet victory.  God’s victory.  It always is – it’s His idea, His movement, His provision, His doing that completes what He promises to complete.  So, in God-fashion, He makes the way, set the plans in motion and moves & directs His people to return and rebuild His Temple which had always signified God’s dwelling among His people.

Whenever this happens, you can count on the one who feverishly, and always unsuccessfully, attempts to squash God’s plans.  As God moves amongst people and places, setting His plans & purposes in motion, the Opposition is stirred to action, seeking to thwart efforts by any means possible.  That’s where we find ourselves in Ezra 4:1-16.  Opposition strikes at the heels of God’s plans and purposes.  God’s people face 15-year long oppositional efforts (don’t miss that, that’s a long time); every angle imaginable is used.  It has become quite clear that God’s people are not welcome to return and resume their God-worship and God-living and these “enemies” of God’s people certainly do not give their blessing to God’s temple being rebuilt.

I can imagine the discouragement, the self-doubt and the frustration.  An apparent “victory march” has marched God’s people right into enemy territory and the enemy isn’t about to go quietly.

The strength and resolve to continue, to persevere and to complete their God-given task will require a deep-seated trust in the God behind the task.  It was God who first announced the task, and who first made the initial provisions for the task.  It was God’s plan from outset.  And, it will require that God’s people not look inward (to their own abilities) or outward (at the surrounding circumstance) but upward to the One who is able to both begin plans and see them through.

God’s people need to decide who they’re going to put their hope & trust in.  They’ve already been through episodes of shrinking back when they’ve taken their eyes off God and placed them on their enemy, sizing them up and determining that left to themselves, they are no match.  They also remember the day God told them to stand still and watch God win their battle for them.  They know their success stories.  They also know their stories of failure.  Who are they going to put their hope in? 

In addition, God had told them repeatedly that they were blessed to be a blessing to the nations.  Ultimately, God has always been up to something bigger than them.  It’s a global work that God is doing.  

With both of those in mind, the people of God can peaceably continue to move forward with their God-given task.  They aren’t attempting to “fight back” against the accusations.  Instead, they can stand firm on what God called them to do, knowing that God can see it through. 

And what of today?  What’s your outlook in any given situation around you?  Where’s your focus?  Outward (on your perceived enemies), inward (on your own limited and insufficient abilities) or upward (resting in who God is and the fact that He is able in ALL things, and “our things” are rather simple in comparison to the God who holds together the entire universe)

Blessings!  : )

The testimony of Eddie Murphy's Body Double, Virgil Carter, shared on FB's page "Life Together".  Praying you are encouraged, challenged and always blessed!  : )     youtu.be/cM7ZBG3yyBk via @YouTube 

"Jesus came healing sickness and disease.  He confronts God's enemies in the spiritual realm, the demons, and forcefully orders them to leave the people whom they torment.  Jesus forgives the sins of those who humbly come to him.  He proclaims the gospel, or good news, that:  'Time's up!  God's kingdom is here.  Change your life and believe the Message.' (Mark 1:15, The Message)  The very heart of Jesus' Message is the good news of the coming of God's reign.  God is coming back to dwell with his people.  This is why Jesus is called Immanuel, which means 'God with us'...And Jesus' death is actually God's greatest victory, turning the tables on God's enemy.  By willingly giving up his life as a sacrifice, Jesus takes onto himself God's judgment for our wrongdoing.  He gives up his own life as a sacrifice for his people as Israel's true priest.  He leads his people to a new Exodus, through death to a new life.  In all of this Jesus shows himself to be the promised child of Abraham who reconciles humanity with God.  It is through Jesus that Israel can finally fulfill its role, the purpose for which God called Abraham. 

This is where God brings us (as His People) onto the scene:  God wants the victory of Jesus to spread to all the nations of the world.  Those who follow Jesus are being built into God's new temple, the place where God's Spirit lives.  God is gathering these people from all around the world and forming them into his church.  The task of bringing blessing to the peoples of the world has been given again to the descendants of Abraham.  According to the NT, all those who belong to Christ are true children of Abraham (Gal. 3:29).  We are to proclaim AND live out the liberating message of the good news of Christ's kingdom.  We get to be a part of God's mission of re-creation - of restoring the world around us - and making the world (including ourselves) new!"  Until, that final glorious day arrives and all is finished.  Then, the first heaven and earth will be no more and in its place will be a new heaven and a new earth and the dwelling place of God will be with man once again.  He will be present amongst his people, who will now be like Him, no longer in part but in full.  They will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God, wiping every tear from their eyes, death conquered, all mourning, crying and pain are gone, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21, 22) 

Grateful for Eugene Peterson's concise rendition of The Story of God, the Bible.  While my rambling thoughts are scattered throughout this website, God saw it fit, through Eugene, to re-present them here with a clarity that's refreshingly direct and to-the-point.  Praying you were blessed as you read!  : )