Complete Awe.

After looking at the vivid ways in which God came to His created earth through Jesus, whose actions and character fulfilled prophetic words, whose very nature actively opposed streamline culture, and whose redemptive ways were beyond everyone's box of expectations - I cannot deny that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the anointed life-giver, who through His sacrifice on the cross, can bring restoration to His creation and be in union with humanity.

My head is spinning tonight. I've never been so in awe of the Bible - it's message, it's backbone motive, it's character, and it's significance beyond love,peace,and the story of Jesus. Having a greater grasp of the grander scale of things inevitably puts things in perspective. Everything beginning with God's creation being in right relationship with Him and with each other, only to rebel against His rule, in turn allowing decay and utter separation between us and God. Yet God longs to redeem what sin corrupted. The story of Jesus is God's pursuit of just that. In all of God's ways, He is counter cultural, unequivocal and revolutionary.

While looking at this narrative as a whole, it would be foolish to say that the Bible is made up and fabricated. People simply have never and will never make these kind of stories up. They are stories that are unheard of during their times; stories that are offensive, and embarrassing to the culture that they were professed in. The narrative of God's Word, is nothing that anyone could have simply brainstormed or created because it is entirely showcasing anti- formality to it's timely culture and it was neither anticipated nor expected.

Chew on this verse :

1 Corinthians 1:24-25 " Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."

Greeks :: " ...sought to know God by argument and rational principles - they wanted a god who made sense. "

Jews :: " ... in the day of Jesus, incorrectly believed that if God were to visit this world, He would come in power and glory, crushing Rome. But the cross spoke of weakness, not power; defeat, not victory; humiliation, not conquest. "

".. that God should take alienation away from man by inserting alienation into the very heart of God; that He should conquer evil by allowing it supreme, unthinkable triumph. That He should destroy the power of evil by allowing it to destroy Him. The idea that a crucified God would save humankind has always been absurd to many. It is culturally offensive... "

" ...the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom. God's wisdom looked like folly, but it was not. His power looked like weakness but it was not. The world around us thrives on selfishness, but God functions with sacrifice. He proved Himself mighty by taking on weakness. In His weakest state, when the world did it's worst, He was victorious. He conquered suffering by suffering, He conquered death by dying and brought us life by rising from the dead. "

These quotes are from Mike Erre in his book, Why the Bible Matters.