{"id":29135,"date":"2023-12-06T14:25:20","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T21:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-advents-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-12-06T14:33:30","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T21:33:30","slug":"2023-theway","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-theway\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way Jesus Came"},"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;\">by Max Lucado<\/p>\n<h3><em>The Way Jesus Came<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29136 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/way-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"564\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/way-1.jpg 564w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/way-1-300x239.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 564px) 100vw, 564px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment. God became a man. Heaven 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. For 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. There\u2019s something about keeping him divine that keeps him distant, predictable. But don\u2019t do it. For heaven\u2019s sake, don\u2019t! Let him be as human as he intended to be.\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-29139 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/bluebullet2.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"47\" height=\"44\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><em>Anything But a King<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29137 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/way-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/way-2.jpg 400w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/way-2-278x300.jpg 278w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing was a teenage girl in a smelly stable. As Mary looked into the face of the baby\u2014her son, her Lord, his majesty\u2014she couldn\u2019t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knew she was holding God.\u00a0So this is he. And she remembered the words of the angel when he said, \u201cHis kingdom will never end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looked like anything but a king. His cry, though strong and healthy, was still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager, and in the presence of a carpenter. God came near! Luke 1:33 says, \u201cHis kingdom will never end.\u201d May you be a part of it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29140 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/way-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"563\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/way-3.jpg 563w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/way-3-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 563px) 100vw, 563px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":29137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-29135","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/29135","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=29135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/29135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29141,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/29135\/revisions\/29141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29135"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=29135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}