Expectation? Expectation!

Sometimes you read Scripture and nothing new seems to strike you. “Been there… done that… tell me something I don’t know… yada, yada, yada.”

Other times God’s Book comes alive. “Wow!” “I’ve never considered that!” “This is something I never knew!” “You gotta be kidding me!” “Where was I before?”

Same book. Two different responses. How come?

Hint: It’s not the Book. It’s the reader of the Book. Even more – it’s the access we offer to the Author of the Book to reveal Himself to the reader (or listener) of the Book. God wants to reveal far more than we’ve typically been seeing… to dish out far more than we have normally been experiencing!

Recently God has been revealing new things to me out of His Book… things that have (quite frankly) astonished me and surprised me. So much so I have wondered why I never saw these things before. (Things you’ll be hearing about in upcoming messages regarding “Jesus, like no other!”).

One key passage of Scripture that recently jarred me was what was written of Jesus’ hometown folk when He came to visit them in Mark’s gospel (chapter six). Two things in particular: 1) that “they took offense” (v.4); and 2) that they demonstrated “lack of faith” (v.6).

Their response floored me. Not because I’ve never seen such things happen before. I have. No, what surprised me was how people who should have known better didn’t! What amazed me was people who could have been millionaires who instead because misers… and worse… detractors to what God intended to do in people’s hearts in both Nazareth and in regions beyond! Jesus came hoping to find people of faith, but met with people of unbelief. Jesus came desiring to do great things, but could do only little things among a few. As I read this and considered its implications, this question came to me – When Jesus comes to our city, our town, our village, our neighborhood, what will He find? Will we be people of large anticipation or little anticipation? Great faith or puny faith? Magnificent expectations or miserly expectations?

Such questions matter. They matter significantly and profoundly. And they explain, at least for some of us, why God’s Book has been saying so little as of late. It’s not the Book. It’s our expectation for the Author of the Book to speak to us… to startle us… to transform us.

May we be people of great faith; of large anticipation; great things from our great God for all He would do in the days ahead.