A little later than normal, Father, but I would ask for Your hand on my shoulder as we come together this evening. Direct my thoughts and may I share Your word with whoever might observe it. Amen.
John 1:29-34 (<<click here to read the passage)
A struggle we all have when shopping for particular items is finding a knowledgeable associate. Having worked in retail for close to half my life I realize pretty quickly if the person helping us knows what they are talking about. The inexperienced can yap all they want but often their ignorance speaks much louder than their words.
J.T. was already working for Kohl’s when I came on board back in 2000. At the time he was a very knowledgeable and experienced head of maintenance. If anything needed to be addressed in the physical plant of our facility, he was the one to go to.
After a few years, they outsourced our maintenance and J.T. became the supervisor over the Home Department. Very quickly he became the go-to person over the merchandise in that entire area. Vacuums? Pillows? Electronics? He seemingly knew everything that needed to be known and if for some reason he didn’t, he was sure to find out in short order. When you needed something or advice on which way to go, J.T. was the man! He was the best person to go to for the answers to our questions.
In the opening line of today’s passage, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! v29 NLT
Reaching all the way back to Exodus in obedience to the Law a lamb was sacrificed every morning and evening (Exodus 29:38-42). Only the ones as perfect as possible were chosen to appease the Lord’s command. The penalty for sin was death, a life had to be given. For thousands of years, day after day, lambs had been sacrificed but not one of them could cover their sins but for a few hours.
But God had a plan, and it would fulfill all of His requirements in their entirety! To bring this about God himself had to choose the Lamb, and God’s Lamb was His one and only Son. No other sacrifice would suffice.
No matter how hard we try we are but novices. We may think we know everything but in the grand scheme of things we know next to nothing. So, to whom do we go when we need hard answers to all of life’s hard questions? We go to the One who knows all of the answers. Before we even knew the questions, He already knew the answers!
Lord Jesus, enable us to avoid wasting time trying to find the answers to life’s questions all on our own. No one but You will know how to help us because You alone are the answer! Amen!
Mar 4th, 2021, Thurs, 8:01 pm
