Story of a Lifetime: Part 3, Jesus

"Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together." -Colossians 1:15-17


This entry will conclude this little series that I have SO enjoyed doing, even if no one has read it. I want to once again remind you that this all my opinion, and my thoughts of interpreting things. This part of the story is about Jesus! YES!!! My favorite part, this is the part where even though we screwed up, God still loves us and gave us a way back to Him...this also can be referred to as FORGIVENESS.
I believe that Jesus was alive and well before we read about his human birth in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Meaning He existed in the Beginning with God when we read Genesis. Genesis 1 and John 1 parallel with each other. In John we read:
The Word was first, ( in the beginning)
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn't put it out.

There is a lot to take in from these few verses. God and Jesus, and Spirit (The God Head) have always existed. Paralleling the first chapter Genesis and John is totally amazing, there is so much going on that an ADD person like myself can't possibly take it all in a once, or remember to mention everything....another reason I encourage you to look for yourself. It's so easy to be on one topic then realize something else way cool! (Ooo shiny) So, I apologize for getting off topic at times, like now. Oh dear. SO now we're back on subject...and I'm totally excited!! The Godhead has always existed. The Word in the above is referencing Jesus, it's kinda of personifying him. Jesus shares the same essence as God; the Son existed before time, and He was the agent of all creation. In Genesis 1:26 God said "God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature." Notice the words I have bolded, us and our, they are first person words. Us and Our refer to both God and Jesus confirming that Jesus was in the beginning. And just to throw this out there, and this is my opinion, The Author of Genesis is Moses, however, I believe that God, with his own finger, wrote the account of creation just like with His own finger he wrote The Ten Commandments.
In building up to the Climax, and please know I use the term "conflict" very loosely in the above diagram. I don't think is a conflict, I just couldn't think of another word. The increasing action I believe is from Jesus birth to His death on the cross. Looking at John again in verse 14 it says:
"And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth." The book of Luke gives us an accurate account of the life of Christ. Luke 1-2 tells us about His birth. He was born of a virgin. His birth was talked about, and prophesied about. Actually, people weren't looking for a baby as their Savior...more like they were looking for a hot, muscular, political, military Messiah to come riding into town on a horse. Yee-Haw ya'll here comes Jesus! So when Jesus was born people totally missed it. Jesus lived a humble life from the time He was born to His death on the cross. When Jesus was born, He was God in human flesh experiencing everything we experience today. That is pretty incredible. Jesus came to be our Savior, to right all the wrongs that had been done, and would be done, and are still being done today. In the meantime Jesus grew up as a carpenter, but He was also here on the Lord's business. John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin prepared the way for Jesus. Jesus began His ministry in 26/27 BC making Him 20 or 21...WOW that's how old I am. In Jesus' ministry His main thing was telling people about His Father, God. He performed miracles, and healed people, and brought dead people back to life. He mainly wanted people to believe in Him, and have faith that He could restore and help them. In John 14:6 Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father but through Him. And those that come to Him are saved. See also, John 3:16.
The death of Jesus on the cross was so brutal. At that moment, Jesus was doing the very thing He was sent here to do, but also understand, that Jesus freely offered His life for us. Jesus is the only one who can bridge the gap between sinless God, and sinful man (humanity). On the cross, Jesus could have called on thousands of Angels to come save Him, but instead He stayed on the cross bearing all our sins, so we could have new life through Him. His own Father turned His back on His Son, God can't look at sin. One verse that has always shook me for years, is found right after Jesus breathed His last. A Roman solider exclaimed, "Truly, this was the Son of God!" WOW! A Roman solider who no doubt had his turn in whipping Jesus, who probably spit in His face, who probably drove a nail in Jesus became so convicted that he looked upon Jesus and shouted, "Oh my God! This was Your Son!"
So now we reach the Climax. The Climax through this whole series has been The Resurrection. I can't say it enough, The Resurrection Revolutionized everything. Because of His resurrection it has become the source of new life for those who believe Jesus is the Son of God. Furthermore, Jesus' resurrection from the dead is the proof that His sacrifice on the cross in our place was acceptable to God. And like we said in the last part that if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either, and all our preaching is useless, and you trust in God is useless (1 Corinithians 15:13-23). The Climax will tie in with the Resolution. That's what the climax is suppose to do anyway, when the climax happens the Resolution inevitably has to happen.
The Focusing conflict is non-believers. People have no excuse for not knowing of God. As Martin Luther puts it, "God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars." See also Romans 2:12-16. Psalm 104:24 says:
"What a wildly wonderful world, God!
You made it all, with Wisdom at your side,
made earth overflow with your wonderful creations.
Oh, look—the deep, wide sea,
brimming with fish past counting,
sardines and sharks and salmon.
All the creatures look expectantly to you
to give them their meals on time.
You come, and they gather around;
you open your hand and they eat from it.
If you turned your back,
they'd die in a minute—
Take back your Spirit and they die,
revert to original mud;
Send out your Spirit and they spring to life—
the whole countryside in bloom and blossom.
The glory of God—let it last forever!
Let God enjoy his creation!
He takes one look at earth and triggers an earthquake,
points a finger at the mountains, and volcanoes erupt.

Oh, let me sing to God all my life long,
sing hymns to my God as long as I live!
Oh, let my song please him;
I'm so pleased to be singing to God.

O my soul, bless God

God is the very reason we live. Without Him we are nothing.
In concluding...wheew! Finally. The 2nd Coming of Jesus, is what I believe to be the Resolution. This is not to be confused with the Rapture of the Church. That is not the 2nd Coming. Again this is all getting into Revelation and I don't understand it well enough. But from what I have heard and learned through preaching and from Pastors I respect, the 2nd Coming in my mind is when everything gets solved. If Genesis and Revelation are compared: