{"id":24491,"date":"2022-12-07T20:35:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T03:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-christmas-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T21:36:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T04:36:59","slug":"2022-human","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2022-human\/","title":{"rendered":"As Human as He Intended to Be"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">Max Lucado<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>As Human as He Intended to Be<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24492 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/baby-jesus-2-1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"223\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment.\u00a0God became a man.\u00a0Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. The hands that first held him were un-manicured, calloused, and dirty.\u00a0For thirty-three years he would feel everything you and I have ever felt. Weak and weary and afraid of failure. His feelings got hurt.<\/p>\n<p>To think of Jesus in such a light seems almost irreverent.\u00a0There\u2019s something about keeping him divine that keeps him distant and predictable.\u00a0But don\u2019t do it. For heaven\u2019s sake, don\u2019t!\u00a0Let him be as human as he intended to be.\u00a0Let him into the mire and muck of our world.\u00a0For only if we let him in can he pull us out.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24495 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/animated-christmas-star-image-0042.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>God\u2019s Plan for Humanity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24494 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/plan-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/plan-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/plan-1-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s plan for humanity. It was crafted in the halls of heaven and carried\u00a0out on the plains of earth.\u00a0Only holiness could have imagined it.\u00a0Only divinity could have enacted it. \u00a0And only righteousness could have endured it.<\/p>\n<p>When God chose to reveal himself, he did so through a human body. The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails.\u00a0The feet upon which the women wept were calloused and dusty.\u00a0And his tears\u2014oh, don\u2019t miss his tears. They came from a heart as broken as yours or mine ever has been.<\/p>\n<p>So people came to him. Not one person was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected.\u00a0Remember that the next time you find yourself amazed at your own failures.\u00a0Or the next time you hear a lifeless liturgy.\u00a0Remember, it\u2019s man who creates the distance.\u00a0It\u2019s Jesus who builds the bridge.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24496 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/giphy.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"259\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":24496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-24491","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/24491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/24491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24497,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/24491\/revisions\/24497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24491"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=24491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}