(This is day twenty of the Rediscovering the Christmas Season Advent Study that can be found here. You don’t have to start at the beginning. In fact, you can jump in any time or go in any order. Care to join?)
Read John 1.
If you have an advent wreath, spend some time reflecting and looking at the candlelight.
What is your favorite part about this chapter? I love verse 12. In fact, I stopped right there in my reading and read it twice. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” Oh my word. Do we really, really, really grasp that? God doesn’t just know who I am. I am His child. I belong to Him. I have a piece of His heart. I do things that make Him smile. (And likely frown, but we won’t go there right now…) He takes great delight in me. In me. Who screws up daily. Who can’t seem to control her tongue. Who can have a bit of a temper and get legalistic as all get out. He loves me. I make Him smile. I make God on the throne of heaven smile. Do you get it? In your own life, do you get it? Nothing will ever make Him stop loving me. I just need to sit in awe for a few minutes and soak that in. I’ve spent some time buying Christmas presents for our daughter, totally unable to wait to see the joy on her face when she opens them. God feels that way about me… and so much more! Blows. My. Mind.
What is important about knowing that Jesus is the Word and He was with God from the beginning? He is everything. He was not formed by God later to come and be a sacrifice for us. He was part of the plan before the plan ever began. He molded the plan. He knew all along. And yet… He still created us. Knowing we’d blow it from the start, that He’d have to suffer immeasurable pain as both Father and Son, He did it anyway. That’s something we don’t think about enough, the fact that He knew before He ever formed us that He’d have to save us.
“Follow me” is found in John 1. What was it like when Jesus asked you to follow Him? He asks me daily. By the minute sometimes, because I have a habit of traipsing straight off the path when I see shiny things. I can just seem Him snapping his fingers to get my attention and motioning me back to where He is. Sometimes I’m slow to catch on and He has to pull me off the edge of a cliff. Sometimes, I come straight away. And that’s when there is joy and peace. When I’m right there beside Him on that path.
-JB
Dawn Lucowitz says
1. I love that when John is questioned, he answers with the words of Isaiah. I need to spend more time in the Word, but more importantly, I need to really be learning it. It is important so that when tough questions are asked, or tough times come, I can go back to the Word and really know it.
2. Understanding that Jesus is the Word really helps me to understand that the Word really does have life. This isn’t just a metaphor used for us. Understanding Jesus is the Word helps me to really understand that the Word has the power of life. It is a great reminder as things fly from my mouth to “get” their power.
It is important to understand that Jesus didn’t just come around at the time of His earthly birth. That he was there from the very start. He was actually sent from God to save us and wasn’t simply created to save us at that time.
3. I feel like it must have been so much harder for the disciples to follow Jesus when He called them to than it is for us today. We have the benefit of hind sight. We have the Word, we know how the story ends. I feel like it isn’t the same kind of stepping out in faith that these men did. I also haven’t been asked to just leave my family behind. With that said, there is sacrifice. There have been friends and situations I have had to walk away from and never look back. When Jesus asked me to follow Him, things seemed clearer and made sense, so I guess it wasn’t as tough a decision for me as it is for so many out there. I am so thankful for that! I am so thankful that my mother brought me to church as a child so I was exposed to Jesus and His teachings at a young age. He was someone I accepted because those in authority around me basically told me he was truth and I believed them. Without that foundation, my I believe my journey would have been much longer and harder.