When we think about the Son of God had this for His Crib:
We realize God fully knew what Jesus was getting into in life.
Psalm 107
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
they fell down, with none to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
and burst their bonds apart.
15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron.
17 Some were fools through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities suffered affliction;
18 they loathed any kind of food,
and they drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
20 He sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destruction.
21 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
22 And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!
23 Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their evil plight;
27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits' end.
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
29 He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
31 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
32 Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
33 He turns rivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,
34 a fruitful land into a salty waste,
because of the evil of its inhabitants.
35 He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water.
36 And there he lets the hungry dwell,
and they establish a city to live in;
37 they sow fields and plant vineyards
and get a fruitful yield.
38 By his blessing, they multiply greatly,
and he does not let their livestock diminish.
39 When they are diminished and brought low
through oppression, evil, and sorrow,
40 he pours contempt on princes
and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
41 but he raises up the needy out of affliction
and makes their families like flocks.
42 The upright see it and are glad,
and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
43 Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
Really. There is no wonder Jesus rode on a ship in waves. Life makes waves. Father God knew this. Jesus faced life with Faith. And in the daily Faith - knowing hard and difficult times would happen - Jesus calls Life "Joy" in John 14,15, 16 and proceeds to pray for us in John 17.
What possible reason to have all this happen. For Father God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ the creation portion of Proverbs 8 says in Genesis 1 - God found delight in looking into the heart of mankind. Jesus not only gave salvation to mankind. Jesus was giving Father God a new Kingdom. The old Kingdom was called Sheol. Everyone lumped together making the Glory of God not the Glory Jesus would give His Father in the New Heaven. The New Kingdom is all of God's Glory and Jesus provided the Mercy.
In this Gift of Life and Mercy - Father God calls His Son, Jesus the Christ of God - Lamb of God.
Matthew 11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
I know a non-believer, who was not sleeping for about half a year. His job performance was reviewed and he was told he was in trouble. He was on a trip to the U.K. and could not sleep. He begged the Lord to let him have healed sleep. He had not prayed in decades. That night he slept peacefully and could concentrate. He became a believer and led his family to Jesus Christ and has known an incredible number of answered prayers with Joy. I'd say he is very fond of Jesus Christ. Very much in Love with His Savior.
Jesus is rest for our souls - to become Joy.
Matthew 22:31-32
And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:
32 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living."
God gave us the widow of Nain to show Jesus was very capable of Resurrection. We have millenniums of miracles, people who witness to life after death and our souls to tell us this is very true.
My Aunt Clarice died and I didn't know. I dreamed she saw Heaven and was screaming and yelling to me all of God's Promises are true. Aunt Clarice yelled and yelled. "This is ALL TRUE. EVERYTHING THE BIBLE PROMISED IS TRUE!!!" The next morning, very early, I found she had died during the night about the time I dreamed of her finding the New Heaven of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 28:22b
Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Having sat with quite a few relatives passing on, the Peace is incredible. My Great Uncle in his mid-nineties was cheerful the day he was to pass on. He was asked why. He said Jesus had overcome and today he was going to get to see his mother he had not seen in 60 years.
A lady who helped me when Isabelle died sat with her dying father and told the Hospice people she never thought this would be peaceful. The Hospice said those who pass on in Jesus, pass on with all peace.
God is a very present help in every age we experience.
John 5:17
But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."
A young man we know was in a terrible car accident in his freshman year of college. Most of his damage was brain damage. He was taken from the hospital after weeks and weeks and put in tier level recovery. This can mean almost anything. His parents were told to hope he would walk again. Ever. Or unaided. The tier recovery had a meeting because his motor skills were so bad, eating and swallowing was a problem. There was some very determined prayer asked for. In a few weeks, he went home. To finish college. To become employed. To live full recovery. Jesus is working. Father God is working.
John 6:35
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
Our cat, TC, Timothy Cat was wonderful and amazingly loving. He'd run a block to greet us. And he, in his trusting nature, was hit by a car. He couldn't feel his back legs and then he couldn't feel his bladder and his tail was now a dead part of his spine. We truly grieved. The Vet could tell we thought TC was remarkable. He put in a urine stint and the cat was now burned with constant urine dripping. My uncle did agree to house him on the porch. To complain in a couple of weeks about the cat crying and the urine smell. Then to say the cat wanted to escape. We went to get TC and found him to be filled with vim and vigor and lots of urine.
The Vet told us this was no way for him to live. And upon seeing him decided to remove the stint and say live cat or die. If he couldn't feel his bladder filling, he would die. The cat came home - got in a foreign cat fight and found his bladder worked perfectly. Our cat was healed from badly being hit by a car.
Jesus was asked and asked for TC Cat. Jesus is Life.
God's Promises are always filled. His Word is Truth.
John 6:51
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
In the last 5 years, a family we know was about to have the 20 week sonogram for their unborn daughter. To find she would not live - no kidney, no liver. Only space in these cavities in the Sonogram. Two weeks later, a specialist and another sonogram, something was there - a shadow - a fog. In two more weeks kidneys and liver. The baby was born perfectly fine.
Jesus is the Living Bread that came down from Heaven.
John 8:12
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
A Psychiatrist we have known for many years, a family friend was going blind in her 50s. She had generational blood vessel failure and then cataracts. Her doctors where horrified in her insistance in a Jesus miracle. And in the middle of double eye failure, her eye doctors had to ask her why there was any reason to have an 85% unexplained improvement.
Jesus is the Light of the world.
All that Jesus Christ said about Himself is true. Jesus and His Father are still at work.
John 10:9
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
We find this is true as eyewitnesses return from dying, reporting the walls are gone, the door is open to Jesus Christ.
John 8:18
I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.
John 10:11
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Jesus Christ has done this for us.
John 10:14
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.
John 10:38
but if I do them [works], even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.
John 11:25
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."
John 12:32
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 15:1
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser."
John 17:9
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
John 10:30
The Father and I are one.
John 4:26
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he [Messiah, he who is called Christ].”
Mark 14:62
And Jesus said, "I am [the Christ, the Son of the Most Blessed] , and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."
Abba, Father God,
We turn all our lives to You. Bless and Deliver us.
Bless the People we Love with all of God's Love. To live in hope for all of life.
In our heart, we ask for more Heaven on earth. For us all. In Jesus, Amen.
♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †