1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, 12-13 “If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may glory, but do not have love, it does me no good. Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Pastor Herk continues: We are finite and know only a portion of the truth; that which is revealed by God to us. God is almighty, infinite and eternal, knowing everything. So, what we say about our omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent Maker is incomplete, because we do not have the complete picture in His overarching plan. There is evil, immorality, hate, greed, injustice, natural disasters, wars, disease, and death in this world, but we can trust in our sovereign Creator Father God who is in control in His plan of salvation and know that love never ends. We have this faith, hope and love to stand on (they remain perpetually with the Christian), but do we stand firm on them with confidence, fearing not through the storms of life? Does the love that the apostle Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 reflect our love today, having the reality of God with us now and eternal perspective of Heaven?
Do we live the real meaning of Christmas? God’s powerful love for us gave us a Savior and eternally more with Christ. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, by grace through faith redeemed from hellbound sinner to a forgiven life and a future in the kingdom of Heaven in the family of God forever, with a regenerated spirit, an indwelling Holy Ghost, a reconciled connection directly to our heavenly Father with spiritual discernment based in love now. Thank God for Christmas! Thank God for Jesus Christ! Jesus, the blessed Savior of the world, came so that we could be forgiven and saved (the second birth) from the eternal damnation for sin (the second death). In Christ, we overcome our sin and have a relationship with our God. We have sin, so God, in love and mercy, sent Jesus. All we have for Christmas is the gift of forgiveness in redemption, adoption into the family of God and eternal life today, tomorrow and forever more in Jesus Christ.
Matthew 1:20b-21 “for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
"Christmas" is a shortened form of "Christ's mass". Crīst (genitive Crīstes) is from Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), a translation of Hebrew Māšîaḥ (מָשִׁיחַ), "Messiah", meaning "anointed"; and mæsse is from Latin missa, the celebration of the Eucharist. Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus, the Christ, the promised Messiah of God, the Savior of the world, God with us. The name Jesus literally means Jehovah (God) saves. His name was his mission and that’s why He came at Christmas. Thank God for Christ on and in Christmas! Christmas emphasizes the importance of giving and receiving forgiveness. In Luke 1:30-35,37 the angel said to Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy Child will be called the Son of God. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin.” In Jesus’ humanity, he was ordinary, approachable, touchable and relatable; a fellow man that you could talk to, yet extraordinary. The God/man, Savior and son, Majesty and man, came to set us free from sin. How does Jesus do that? By allowing us to repent, confess our sins and be forgiven. Our greatest need was forgiveness of sin, so God sent us a Savior. Romans 3:22-25a “it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation [the acceptable atoning sacrifice] in His blood through faith.
Thank God for Christmas!
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment