Christmas is the celebration of “God with us” in Christ, through the miracle of the Incarnation. The action of God seeking and being with His people, is the overarching theme of the Bible. Christ with us is the reason for the season.
Tag: Bible
Is God’s forgiveness enough, or does complete forgiveness require self-forgiveness? The biblical answer is: “God’s forgiveness completely absolves us of our sin.” Self-forgiveness, is not a biblical concept.
However, our emotions are quite real and we must distinguish between the efficacy of God’s forgiveness of sin and the management of our grief and self-condemnation. We receive His forgiveness, but we often have to work through our emotions.
If all the words we ever spoke became embodied in a new human being, what would that person be like? They would look different from us, but they would be an exact representation of us.
Imagine: all the good words, all the comforting words, all the encouraging words, and all the other words standing in front of you. That’s a scary thought … for me anyway. Words are selected, carefully sometimes, thoughtlessly most of the time. They are a mirror of thoughts and emotions, a window into our soul.
A multitude (NAS), or a large number (NIV), of sick would lay around the pool called Bethesda — waiting. Apparently, when the angel of the Lord stirred up the water, the first one in was healed…
The son of one of Herod’s royal officials was close to death. The official traveled 18 miles up to Cana in the hope of successfully pleading with Jesus to return with him to Capernaum to heal his son….
People die without water. When someone is far beyond thirsty, a glass of water is worth more to them than all the world’s gold. At age 16, I got heat stroke in Florida…after fishing all day in the hot sun because I forgot to bring drinking water. That was just a single day.
John the Baptist was a humble guy, but some of John’s followers became jealous when some others began to follow Jesus. They didn’t like the competition.
God the Father sent us His One and Only Son, so that through our faith in Jesus Christ, we could be born again by the Holy Spirit. We who believe in Him, have turned from the darkness of this world’s lies to the light and glory of Christ’s truth. We have moved from death to life. Therefore, we are no longer condemned by God, and we will not perish—unlike those who refuse to believe. Continue reading “From Death to Life – John 3:1-21”
The miracle of water into wine was, according the Apostle John, a ‘sign’. Was it a sign that Jesus cared about weddings? He does, but there’s a lot more going on here than catering a wedding. When John designates a miracle as a sign, he’s stating that that act, in particular, displays the glory of God in Christ.
The backdrop of this miracle is the Old Testament passages depicting Israel as the unfaithful vine that produced bad fruit (Jer 2:21; 12:10). Jesus, however, is the true vine of God (Jn 15:1–3), and we are the branches. His fruit will be the finest God’s vineyard ever produced. In other words, God saved His best wine for last. This sign declares that Jesus is the faithful Messiah. His ministry will end by dying on the cross—when His hour has come (John 7:30; 8:20; 12:23,27; 13:1; 17:1)—but this first sign, signaled its inauguration.
Let’s allow the Father to prune us, so we may produce more fruit (Jn 15:2). “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” (Ps 139:23–24, NIV).
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Dr. Rob Oberto is the award-winning author of “Intimacy With God: Extraordinary miracles that opened a skeptic’s heart to God” available from Amazon.
©2017 Rob Oberto, All Rights Reserved.
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