Jesus

 I say to my daughter last night... who is your favorite bible character?.. her response? Jesus.. I was stunned into silence... how many times have we talked about or heard about a favorite bible character.. yet I have never heard someone respond with Jesus..........

Jesus is the human born son of God.. he knows no beginning and no end.. just like God.. but he was willing to come to this earth in the human form so that we could be saved by his blood and his life shed... previously to his life.. the israelites would sacrifice animals hoping to be forgiven by God of their sins... as we are all flawed and sinful.. everyone sinned and still does... but we no longer have to sacrifice anything.. Jesus paid the ultimate price.. he laid down his own life.. that we may have ours...

mary was a young girl who was a virgin.. she was engaged to be married but not yet married.. the Holy Spirit came upon her and she became pregnant.. so the Father of Jesus is God... of course there are those that don't believe this... I believe it completely.. without reservation... I have seen too many supernatural things happen for me to not believe....

Jesus had all the divinity of God.. yet all the humanity we do... he lived his life much as we do until he turned 30 years old.. then he took his ministry on the road.. showing others the love of God.. the power of God.. the ways of God.. people didn't like him even though everything he was doing was good.. he hurt no one at all... yet many despised him and came after him...

eventually they killed him... hung him on a cross on a hill called calvary... but amazingly.. as his blood was shed.. it poured out over those of us who believe in him.. and because of his sacrifice.. we who believe in him are saved.... we still die a physical death.. but our spirit are released into the kingdom of God in heaven... where we live in peace for all eternity......

of all the bible characters... he is the most important.. he is the most righteous... he is the most loved.... he is my family.... my ancestor.. my best friend.. the love of my life...  and yours too if you want him to be........
you wonder.. who wouldn't know about Jesus? yet the more I get into the 'church'... the more I find that not everyone believes he is the son of God.. or that mary was a virgin..  many many people can't wrap their head around that so they instead determine he was a prophet... nothing more...

my question to them is this: if that is the case.. then what blood is it that is saving you from your sins? what blood is being used for your sacrifice?

Micah...

this is not Micah the prophet... this is a man from the days before Israel had a king...

his mother had some money stolen and spoke a curse on the person who stole the money... so he comes to her and tells her that he took the money and gives it back.. she uses this money to have an idol created.. in honor of her son.. but supposedly a representation of who we know as God.. who we all know HATES idolatry... so first he sets one of his own sons up as a priest in his house... then a levite from bethlehem was traveling and he hires this priest to be the priest for his home... the levite agrees.. later on.. the tribe of dan comes and takes the idols and the priest and set them up in the temple for the tribe...

the bible states twice in this reading (judges 17-18) that this was a time when there was no king and so all men did whatever they thought was right... I find it strange that they felt they needed a king to lead them to what was right... why wouldn't the word of God be what was used to lead them on the right path... why wouldn't you follow a priest rather than a king in the things of God...

I imagine a piece of this issue would be because the towns were far apart.. the houses and land large.. so if you didn't have a priest on your own land.. then you wouldn't be likely to be able to travel to the temple more than once or twice a year...

strangely though.. the entire tribe of dan forgets the teachings of moses and worships this idol... I wonder how often this happens to us.. although of course we would say never... how often are we pulled off course by someone else's thoughts and ideas.. yet we know what God really said to us... yet we follow someone else...

I heard someone say that they thought people want a god they can control.. I don't think that is the majority of the issue.. truly.. you cannot control a wooden idol anyways.. it has no power.. there is no control in that... I feel it is about a god we can touch... I think that is how we are so often led astray.. we want a god we can touch and feel.. one we can hear the voice of in an audible way.. one that leads us and guides us... I think that is how kings got so much love and respect from the people.. maybe they couldn't touch him themselves.. but they know someone could.. and they could see him.. and they could hear his voice...

is this why we need a priest? need a head? need a ruler?

some of our greatest issues are the fact that God is unseen... if we can get past that.. we will surely be further ahead... but just because we cannot see God.. cannot feel Him.. we cannot allow ourselves to be mislead.. to go down the wrong path.. to worship someone or something other than the Living God... we must instead be sure that we go to God in prayer.. be sure that we spend time in His word.. know Him... Love Him... receive His love for us... spend time in the temple.. under a true priest.. one who worships the only Living God.. a true and righteous man of God...

this is how we walk the right path while we cannot see or feel our God... know that He leads us daily.. despite the fact that He is unseen...