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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion January 14, 2006 |
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Frontline Devotion for Saturday, January 14, 2006 by: Brenda Kessler
John 1: 43-51
In today’s scripture Jesus calls Philip to be His disciple. Philip then found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophet also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael asks, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”
My Bible dictionary tells me that Nazareth was the place from which Jesus’ mother came or the place in which he grew up. “Nazareth was an insignificant agricultural village not far from a major trade route to Egypt. Not surprisingly, Jesus’ Nazareth origins are held up to scorn by those skeptical of his mission.”
“Can anything good come from there?” I’ll admit it. I’m a sports junkie. I love sports of all kinds. In between all of the goings-on of the Christmas season I managed to watch several college bowl games. (There were many opportunities to watch bowl games, as you may have noticed.) While I was watching the Sugar Bowl Game between the University of West Virginia and the University of Georgia, when the University of West Virginia was winning, the announcer made a comment such as “I can’t believe the University of West Virginia has such a strong team. They’re not in a big city. They’re not close to a big city.” The implication was, at least to my ears, that a university situated in a rural mountainous state could not possibly have a good football team. After that remark and probably because I lived in a rural town of eight hundred people for the first fourteen years of my life, I found myself cheering for the University of West Virginia. Yes, the University of West Virginia won! (My apologies to you Georgia fans.)
Today’s scripture reading reminds us that God used an unknown young woman in an insignificant rural village to bring His Son into the world. It didn’t stop when Jesus was born. God continues to work in the same way even today. We don’t have to be from New York City or Washington DC or Los Angeles or Chicago or London or Paris for God to use us. We don’t have to have PhD’s or master’s degrees or bachelor’s degrees for God to use us. We don’t have to be doctors or lawyers or members of congress or CEO’s of successful companies for God to use us. God uses all of us, even those of us from insignificant agricultural villages, to bring His good news to the world.
Yes, many good things can come from everywhere!
Prayer: Thank you, God, for sending your Son to an insignificant woman in an unknown village. Continue to show us that all of us matter to You. Continue to use all of us to bring Your good news to others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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