Without Him Nothing

John 1:3
"All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."

Over time I find myself losing my grasp of the full weight of certain truths.

For example:
"God is good"
"For God so loved the world . . . "
 and "God made the world."

Yes, I know that God is good, but if I were to truly sit and try to comprehend how good He is or acknowledge the magnitude of His love - I would doubtless find myself overwhelmed with awe. I easily throw around the "God made the world" bit, but when I really stop and take in the words "without Him nothing was made that was made," I am forced to see how everything around me is a testament to His awesomeness.

Water into Wine

I already know the story of Jesus turning water into wine, so when he tells the men to pour in the
water I think "Of Course!" But what if I was one of those men, and I didn't know the water was going to be wine in a matter of seconds. Would I have followed orders or would I have argued? So often following God feels like pouring in the water. We don't see how what He has asked of us is going to fix the problem at hand. Just remember that the water did turn into wine. God always follows through on his end. Do we always follow his directions?

John 2:1-10

      "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”it.” Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

Salvation in Scriptures?

"You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 

But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."

     John 5:39-40

  
     It's amazingly easy to lose our focus of Jesus, our living Lord, in favor of Jesus, the man in our bibles. While I do believe these verses were initially directed towards the Jews that did not recognize Jesus as the messiah, they seem equally applicable today. Our salvation doesn't come from the scriptures. Jesus wants us to come to Him. Our bibles are simply the means to the end - not the end itself.

Adam – son of God

“But as many as receive Him, to
them He gave the right to become
children of God, to those who believe
in His name”
John 1:12

As a christian when I think of being God's child, I think of my becoming one through my salvation, not of being one by birth. Pre-salvation I consider myself more as product of his initial creation, Adam and Eve. Not that God didn't plan or want me, but I wasn't his daughter – I was just his creation. I tend to think of Adam as God's first human creation.

I saw something this morning to disagree with my thoughts. The gospel of Luke names the entire family line from Joseph (Jesus' stand in father) to Adam.

“the son of Enosh, the son of Seth,
the son of Adam, the son of God.”
Luke 3:38

Adam is given as much recognition as God's son as Seth is given as Adam's son. If you know Genesis you know that Adam was fashioned by God out of dirt. He was not born the way we were, but God considered him a child. It makes me think that God never looks at people as merely creations, just as rebellious children. Yes we must be saved to become children of God, but not because we were born something else, because our sin separates us.

On a side note: This is much like the story of Pinocchio. Adam was fashioned, but loved as a son.