Jesus said, "FOLLOW ME." I asked, "Why?" (Part 2 - JESUS IS GOD???)

 

My circuitous journey following Jesus began at age 19. Over 44 years later the question remains the same for the vast majority of people I interact with on any given day – “Why do you follow Jesus?” If you’ve ever asked that question, or had that question asked of you, I hope this series will help you to either begin to find honest answers or be conversation starters to aid you in helping someone else with their questions. I don’t have all the answers…but I’ve had a multitude of questions. Each section will contain a very short story regarding my journey in seeking to answer 'why?' - along with an image and a song or video clip that helps flesh out what my thought processes were along the way. You'll see the roadblocks I encountered and the times when the clouds parted to give me clarity.

JESUS IS GOD?

Once I began to delve into the Bible, I wanted to see if I could find anything that demonstrated how the love of Jesus related to the love of God. I found out that when the Israelites (God's chosen people) camped in the desert, after God saved them from slavery in Egypt, God’s presence dwelt in the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. “Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” But I soon discovered that this was not the furthest God went in interacting with humanity. He desired a face-to-face, in-the-flesh encounter. So he sent his son, Jesus.

“The Word [Jesus] became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” It was the Father’s plan that Jesus would completely identify with people, without sinning, in order to help us to SEE the love of God. The Supreme example of sacrificial love came from our heavenly Father’s desire to draw people home in order that they might feel his embrace. So he sent Jesus, who is also called Immanuel, which means “God with us” – Jesus is God! The Word became flesh and literally ‘tented’ among us. The same God who was with Israel in the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, chose to give up everything in order to “pitch a tent” with people, his most cherished creation. This was an offer for everyone to be part of his family, not just an invitation to merely be ‘friends.’ That invitation included me!

“I think what pitching a tent implies is that God wants to be on familiar terms with us. He wants us to be close. He wants a lot of interaction. If you come into a community and build a huge palace with a wall around it, it says one thing about your desires to be with people. But if you pitch a tent in my backyard you will probably use my bathroom and eat often at my table. This is why God became human. He came to pitch a tent in our backyard so we would have a lot of dealings with him.”

Further proof that if I wanted to know what God’s love is like, I had to investigate the life of Jesus as shown in the Gospels. “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only [Jesus] who is at the Father’s side has made him known.” Jesus was not merely a good man, moral teacher, spiritual guru, or counselor. He is LOVE, who came in the flesh so that I might grasp how he was passionately pursuing me – even to the ends of the earth. So my journey to truly understand the love of God began zeroing in on Jesus, Immanuel, not his black-roped representatives.

 

Fighter (Keith Urban) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kO1CNtcp6k