1-26-2017

 Good Morning All,

             John 1:14; “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

    “I’m only human.”  We might say this from time to time.  We might say it when we face a challenge that is more than we can accomplish.  I confess, I say it, especially at graduation time when we get more invitations then we get time.  We try; we try to make to as many as we can but we are “only human.”  Yet what does that really mean?  What does it mean to be human?  Do we really understand what we are saying when we say “only human?”

    It is interesting when we read the creation account how man (humans) is a special part of creation.  God created the land, sun, sea animals, literally everything by speaking and creation came into existence.  Yet with man, we are told in Genesis 2 how God formed man out of the dust of the earth and then breathed life into man and made him a living being (or soul).  Man is special to God.  This is why God placed man in the garden to take care of it.  This is why God would walk with man in the cool of the morning.  God made man to be a special creature.  God loves man above the other parts of creation.

    Yet man sinned and fell away from God.  We turned from God; we turned from our original purpose and calling.  We stopped being human.  We stopped being human and started to be selfish, arrogant, destructive creatures within God’s creation.  In the process of doing this, we damaged the creation, we damaged our fellow creature and we damaged our fellow man.  We were and are unable to resolve this despicable event.  We spiraled downward becoming less and less human.

    So God stepped in and became human.  Jesus, God Incarnate, became flesh, became human, in order to restore, reconcile and re-connect us to whom we are supposed to be.  As Jesus walked this earth, he did so in order to do what we cannot.  He kept God’s law perfectly, the perfect human so that you and I would have salvation in him.  Through his death and resurrection, we now take on His perfection, we take on His righteousness; we are human again.  We are capable of living as we were designed: compassionate, loving creatures whose task is to care for the creation.  That is why we were created, to care for God’s creation.

    We will struggle to maintain our “humanness”.  The sinfulness that pulls us away is always lurking near but with the forgiveness of sins, God continually calls us back to being human.  We are given God’s Spirit to help us strive to be human; we are given his grace when we slip.

    So strive to be human.  Show respect for others, compassion for those who suffer, mercy for those whom we deal with, treating all with fairness and justice.  This is what it means to be human; God’s special creatures who have a unique and loving relationship with our heavenly Father.

Gracious Father, through your wonderful grace you have remade us to be the human you designed.  Continue to supply us with your mercy.  Keep us striving to bring healing and hope to this broken world.  In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret