God Blesses the WORLD.

Luke 4:14-30
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

I think one of those secret requirements of being a Christian is that you know John 3:16...for God so loved the world he gave his only Son. It's got to be one of the top three verses heard in the Bible. It's kinda like the Christian license plate..you see it everywhere in many Christ-centered atmospheres.

Notice that he says that he loves the WORLD. Not JUST Nazareth, not JUST America, not JUST (Fill in the name of your town here!) This is a story from the Bible and it happens to take place in the Middle East. It talks about how Jesus went to Galilee in spirit and his word spread like wildfire. He also went to Nazareth to spread the word.

Jesus and God aren't about favorites. They don't have time to say "Oh let's completely ignore such and such city today and show an abundance of blessings to this town. It's not about that. The only reason that you might be thinking that is that your eyes aren't completely open as God's working around you. It might feel like he's not around you (as he does also test your faith). He definitely is there. Sometimes he just likes to see if you really love him and if you'll continue worshiping him when you may see blessings in others' life but not necessarily yours all the time. Imagine being the giver of blessings. Take your mind off yourself and bless others while you're waiting for God. Remember what we talked about a few days ago.

"Community is all about compassion." ~Shane Claiborne
Together everyone can see God work in majestic ways.

This is a beautiful song called "The Hand That Holds The World" by Starfield. Enjoy!


P.S. If you have trouble with the video stopping and starting, keep the video paused, and let it "buffer" (load) as it's called for a while. You will see the red bar along the bottom advance (speed depends on your Internet connection). Wait until that bar gets pretty far along (I'd say more than halfway) before you play the video and it shouldn't pause.