December 13 – Grace and Truth

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (NASB)

The signs of Christmas are all around us. We've seen the lights for some time and are now hearing the music of Christmas.  The true meaning of this celebration is found in today's verse from the first chapter of the Gospel of John. While Christ as God was uncreated and eternal, the word “became” emphasizes Christ’s taking on humanity. This is a most profound promise that the Infinite became finite; the Eternal was conformed to time and space; the Invisible became visible; the supernatural One humbled Himself  and became natural. But God the Son did not cease to be God. He became God in human flesh, and was undiminished deity in human form as a man. As a disciple who knew and walked with Jesus, John says that they got to see His glory. The glory the disciples saw was in His person because He was God in human form. John and those who saw Jesus when He was here on earth understood the event that we celebrate at Christmas.  This Christmas season, remember the promise that Jesus is with us today and we can see His glory each day because He lives in us.  

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February 23 – Because of Love We Live

“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  1 John 4:9-10 (NASB)

We can learn from this verse today one of the most important truths recorded in our Bible.  We recognize that we are living here on this earth as the result of God's will and as a part of His plan.  One of the important aspects of God's plan for us is that we might become a part of His family and might benefit by His great love for us.  But there was the problem of sin which separated God's creatures from Him and from really belonging to His family.  There was a need for a Savior to make a Way for bringing us into His family.  Our verse tells us how through His great love, God sent His Son to become our Savior.  And now through Jesus we have eternal  life.  We continue on living by faith in His Word, His Promises.  It truly is because God loved us first that Jesus came to take the consequences of our rebellion, our sins, upon Himself.  Now we can accept that action, done on our behalf, because Jesus did it for us and offers us the opportunity to live forever in Him.  

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In 1 John 2:2 ; 4:10 , Christ is called the "propitiation for our sins." Here a different Greek word is used (hilasmos). Christ is "the propitiation," because by his becoming our substitute and assuming our obligations he expiated our guilt, covered it, by the vicarious punishment which he endured. 

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/propitiation/

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December 17 – Possessing Our Inheritance

“He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.”  Psalm 2:7-8 (NASB)

Christmas time is a time for singing praises to God for the gift of Jesus.  Have you wondered how that got started?  Of course we have been looking at the songs the angels sang for the shepherds near Bethlehem the night Jesus was born and we sing that song now.  But the song which the angels sang that night was not the first song about the birth of our Savior.  Actually the coming of the Savior was mentioned in several of the songs sung long before He came.  The New Testament reminds us that some of the Old Testament Psalms had referred to Jesus.  Today's we have a verse from Psalm 2.   These words and others like them were being sung for years and for many centuries before Jesus came to earth in the form of a human.  That's because God had planned long ago to send a Savior.  God gave us His Son so that we would have a way to enjoy the inheritance He desires us to have, to be His children.

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