what impacted me the most from the Bible miniseries

In case you haven't heard, the Bible was recently brought to our TV sets thanks to a great miniseries by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. If you didn't get a chance to see it, I would recommend you purchase it on DVD. Don't get it to replace reading the Bible, but watch it to get a vivid picture of what might have happened back in Bible times. When we read the stories in the Bible, it's easy to forget that the people involved didn't know the end of the story like we did. They didn't know that everything would be okay... all they knew was the agony of waiting, the difficulty of trusting, the thrill of facing the road God had for them.

For me, the Bible TV series is a reminder not only of how awesome God is, but that the people in the Bible were human, just like us. They doubted, questioned, wondered... then marveled, worshiped, and stood in awe when God showed up.

Okay, not everyone marveled. The Pharisees and most of the Romans didn't think too much of Jesus, to name just one example. They, in fact, were part of what I learned most from the miniseries. Let me explain.

For the Pharisees at that time, Jesus was a frustration and a distraction from what they thought was the right thing to do. He wasn't following their law as they thought he should. Jesus was "breaking" rules and seeming to blaspheme God and doing the unthinkable, in their minds.

Jesus did miracles. Signs. Wonders. He caused chaos (even though it was potentially organized) wherever He went because crowds followed Him around. I'm sure they weren't quiet crowds! They were noisy, trying to get to Jesus, asking questions... who knows what all! The city was essentially in a constant state of "ruckus" for three years as Jesus walked the earth. For the Jewish leaders who were living under someone else's rule (the Romans), that was enough to make them go crazy!

But then... and here's what gets me excited and wowed... Jesus died and rose again... and then the Pharisees didn't have to deal with one anymore... but 12... 120... 5,000... the numbers of Jesus-followers grew and all of a sudden the world was in an "uproar" because Jesus "multiplied." The Pharisees... Romans... and God's enemy didn't just have one "zealot" to keep track of. They had tens... hundreds... thousands.

That gets me excited because Jesus' multiplication is what the church age is. He gave us His Spirit to empower us to carry on the "chaos" that rocked His world during those three years.

What a cool plan. Unfathomable.

I was in church today surrounded by thousands of Jesus' followers and I thought... so many churches are meeting today filled with people, followers of Jesus, creating their own ruckus in their world. The devil couldn't stop Jesus... and his biggest attempt at stopping Him (death) became a pathway for Jesus to multiply all over the world.

God is crazy cool and has a plan that is so beyond me and my thinking. I like that I'm following the Master Planner who constantly goes beyond what my mind can comprehend.