Carol Janette

How large a group? - for everyone of all nations of the whole earth How universal of a sacrifice? - Jesus' life was given for every human ever conceived...even those who weren't born How much of a waste? - I don't believe from His perspective there was one iota of waste, however we can waste our lives by not accepting His sacrifice for our lives. I believe that even if NO ONE accepted His sacrifice, He still would have given it to show us His love for us. I think Jesus would still have gone to the cross and paid the price of sin in obedience to His Father.

I grew up on a small farm and we had to kill animals for our family's provision. Not only did we kill animals for eating, but my father hunted and trapped animals for their hides. He would sell the hides to make money to support our family. Being the oldest child it was my job to hold that dead animal while my dad skinned the hide from it's body. I can relate to the sacrifice instructions in the Bible. Being a "farmer" vs a "city" person may play a small part in the actual process of the killing and blood-letting of the animal, but it doesn't make you any less sensitized from the ordeal. We were taught to appreciate all of God's creations, and realized that God Himself has provided those animals and even plants for our protection and provision. This type of mind-set keeps a person from hunting and killing animals for "pleasure".

Anger is an appropriate response to sin because we have been created in the image of God and sin destroys people. We should be angry that the creation most like the Lord Himself is being destroyed one sin at a time. The wages of sin is death, and man was created to have everlasting life - our anger toward sin should move us to reach a lost world. This is the difference in having a "justice" or righteous anger. I think of the anger that Jesus displayed in the temple when he cleared out the moneychangers. His anger toward the injustice (sin) toward the people needing a suitable sacrifice moved Him to confront the situation.

John's phrase "the Lamb of God" had to sound strange to the bystanders, not because they had never heard that before, but because John was pointing to a man while saying it. I believe that the Jews had been looking for their Messiah who would someday "take away the sins of the earth", but they didn't think he'd be just some man from Galilee - a common carpenter's son. The Holy Spirit has had to reveal that knowledge to John - he was moved by the Holy Spirit even before birth!

Hello Everyone! I'm looking forward to this Bible Study. My husband and I are pastors of a new church in Ohio - Shepherd's Christian Assembly. I was searching "Shepherd" things on the internet, when I found this website. God bless & keep you! Carol Janette