Welcome the Chaos
Jesus seems to have lived a pretty normal life where he grew up. Several times in the Gospels people referred to Jesus saying, "Isn't this just the son of Joseph... Isn't Jesus the one who lived in Nazareth" meaning he was a just a normal man growing up and working with his father, attending his local synagogue, nothing out of the ordinary. All that however, changed after Jesus lived out the scripture below;
Luke 4:16-20
Jesus went to Nazareth, where he has been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the op- pressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
He then rolled the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. With the eyes of everyone in the synagogue fastened on him, he began by saying to them,"Today this scripture is fulfilled in you hearing."
Jesus went from just attending synagogue, as was his custom to becoming the good news that people were looking for as the Holy Spirit came upon Him.
His life went from normal to beyond busy and ordinary to as some would call chaos; feeding the multitudes, calming storms, having his life threatened, raising the dead, you all know the stories. As Jesus lived out His life and became our Savior there's one scripture I love.
John 14:12
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
So what about us? Have we been attending church because it's our custom. Is our church life com- fortable and normal? Maybe we could stand up as Jesus did and read John 14:12 and say today this scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing.Then we live out this scripture everyway we can. Feed the hungry, help those in need, visit and pray for people, proclaim the Good News of Jesus and the list goes on. Maybe our customary church life will go from predictable to a little bit of chaos just as it did for Jesus. Welcome the Chaos, it changed the world!
Love and be Loved, Chris and Marilyn
