THE AWE OF IT ALL

John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Back at my home church in Anaheim, California, for our Sunday Worship service, Pastor JJ was continuing with the sermon series “Wonder – putting the awe back into God’s story”. Don’t you think that “the wonder of it all (God’s work by His hand in this world across time” brings us to the awe of God? Keeping our eyes on the Creator, rather than distracted by the creation; studying and remembering past and applying to the present through His purposes is a key in my life to balance in awe of it all. Pastor JJ says that in the beginning, God was up to something. Using the word “Logos”, translated “the Word” for Jesus is appropriate because God the Son literally spoke creation into existence, creating everything including man in His plan. His awesome word embodied everything because Lord God decided and it was. When we lose sight of Creator God, the tendency is to see ourselves outside of this awesome God-designed and manufactured creation: that which is outside of the physical produced the physical universe and life. His holy and sovereign Word creates and sustains life itself within the physical elements of creation. Without this truth, we develop a bent towards trying to understand and plan our life outside of God and His plan. Take our heart and mind off God, we are can and have got caught up in this physical world, in the hustle and bustle busyness of daily life, and sometimes find ourselves trying to write our own story based upon our perceived needs and desires, forgetting the providence of the Lord and losing the awe of it all. The Christmas story truly begins at the beginning.  Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And the plan of salvation for “fallen in sin” mankind also declared in the Garden of Eden in God’s “Protevangelium”, when the Gospel was first mentioned or prophesied in Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."  It is important in God’s world to live by God’s standards, principles, and purposes on earth.

John 1:6-13 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

God used, and continues to use, ordinary people to do extraordinary things and to bring His message to the world. God is at work in this fallen world for redemption, forgiveness, salvation and restoration to original relationship. We need to stop making false excuses why God cannot reach and proclaim His truth to all mankind. Nobody is too far away to reach – even those who walk away into darkness as God brings the light of truth of His planned purposes through each and every one of His children. We all once walked in unrepentant sin (Colossians 3:3-7), so can relate to and witness to the walk from that darkness into the light of truth in Jesus Christ – the light of the world. People can and do rebel by turning their back on, or ignoring the light of truth in Christ, even though it is perfectly clear, by does not mean that they do not need the children of light (Christian brothers and sisters) to share the gospel, share their own personal story, to pray for and with them, to encourage them to talk and express themselves and their thoughts in open discussion, to invite them to Bible Study, and to invite them to church. If the response is “no”, its just another back-turning to His invitation to receiving Christ as their own, to coming to know Jesus – the way, the truth and the life, to loving forgiveness, salvation and restored relationship with God, and to becoming a child of God and citizen of eternal heaven.   

John 1:14-18 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”  And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

God dos not give up or stop working for redemption and transformation. Jesus, the Word became flesh, Immanuel - God incarnate pitched His tent among us and now stands at the door of every heart and knocks (Rev. 3-19-20) to make His dwelling place within us the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). God’s offer is to enter into a relationship with Him in glory, grace and truth. Have we lost the glory and wonder of the providence and salvation story that He continues today? The awesome hand of God is moving and at work each and every day as He calls you and I into a deeper relationship that does not stop at Christmas, but into one blessing after another, out of His love, grace and infinite mercy. But is our view too short? God is not small, but our vision and dreams can be. Lift the ceilings that we have made. Jump in and reach our; don’t “check out”. God is bigger than our preconceived ideas. The Lord speck through us to be part if His work in this world. Raise the bar of expectations on biblical moral living, godly commitments, on expectations of what God can do among us, on worshiping in power and truth, on praying that others receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and be in awe of it all. He is here, actively moving and supporting us, as light overcomes darkness and life overcomes death.

The “Word” Lord Jesus is calling each and every one of us. Its time for us to say: “I have to take this call.”

In Christ, Brian