God has a plan


DDG, Unit 19, Session 5, Day 2 – Matthew 2:13-23

                Have you ever looked at your life and wondered what God was doing? I confess I have. I recently re-watched Star Trek Generations. That’s the one where they finally killed of James T. Kirk, for those who aren’t fans. The villain in the movie is blowing up planets, stars, and entire solar systems just to nudge an object moving through space to a place where he can stand in its path. Sometimes things are just unpleasant in my life and I can’t see any good coming of it. Not planetary-destruction-level unpleasant, but unpleasant just the same. I sometimes wonder if it isn’t all just to get me to a place where I need to be. It wasn’t enough for Jesus just to come in the flesh. He had to be born as a baby. He had to be born in Bethlehem. He had to flee to Egypt and be called back. He had to grow up in Nazareth. Why? Because the Heavenly Father said so. There were signs to be fulfilled. There were people who had to be in just the right place at just the right time. God worked it all out that way.

                There is a school of thought that says that God made the universe, wound it up like an old-fashioned clock and let it run itself. But the whole story of the Bible is the story of God interacting with people. He knows what is going on in our world. He in deeply involved in the lives of people, even people who deny His existence. He never forgets a detail. Never fails to notice the smallest thing. Everything He does is intended to bring us to safety in His kingdom and to restore His image in us. Sometimes, that looks like He isn’t there. Sometimes, it looks like things are out of control. Sometimes, it may even look life-threatening.

How does God’s control over historical events as depicted in the Bible encourage you in your personal relationship with Him?

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for submitting your comment. Comments are freely permitted to disagree with what I write, but it is my blog and I reserve the right to decide what is, and is not, appropriate. Foul language and spam will not be posted.

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves."                           Matthew 10:16 (NASB)     Pastors generally are a decent group of people who have difficult jobs working with people who are hurting and needy. It breeds a certain special kind of compassion. It also sometimes leaves them open to the occasional scam artist. We generally have the tools to keep ourselves out of trouble with people coming in person (thank you church boards), but it seems like once or twice each year, we get an email from some pastor or another on our district warning us that their email has been hacked and not to respond to requests for financial assistance. Most pastors are not noted for their tech savvy.     As a pastor and an IT professional, I always cringe a little when those emails come. Many of our pastors have the "innocent as doves" part down (med...
Read more

The Man Who is God (Matthew 9:1-8) 21 February 2023

  On any given day, you will find people on social media who will proudly proclaim “Jesus never said he was God.” You will hear several different kinds of people with different motivations who make the claim. There is the ill-informed atheist who shouldn’t really care what Jesus did or didn’t claim, since he doesn’t believe in God in the first place. The exvangelical who has “deconstructed” his faith to the point that it is difficult to put back together again. Then there is the Muslim who believes Jesus was a prophet and, as such, could not claim deity. While it is true that Jesus didn’t go around proclaiming Himself to be God with skin on, there are numerous places where he made claims where he equated himself with God, whom he often identified as “Father.” Today’s passage includes one of these. Explanation In this short passage, Jesus arrives in Nazareth (his own city) and encounters a paralytic who had been brought to him. He is moved by the faith of this group, but says ...
Read more

Miracle Baby – Jesus the Christ

 Luke 1:34-38 (ESV) And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.   Explanation It is easy to become too familiar with certain Bible stories, and the stories around Jesus’ conception and birth certainly rank in that category. In this passage, Mary isn’t just finding she’s going to have a baby under the most unusual circumstances. God is going to fulfill His greatest prophecy. Israel’s messiah is to be born. She, of course, is confused about the mechanics of the promise, as...
Read more