MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY [ALMOST] NEW YEAR !!!
December 25, 2008 …
Passage of the Day: Philippians 2: 9, 11 [see highlight passage in bold/red] … 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
My Journal for Today: Everything Jesus did, through His incarnation, which we celebrate on this date, and through His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation, was/is for the glory of God, The Father (see Phil. 2: 11). It is true that God, The Father, declares Himself to be the One and only God (see Exodus 20: 2 – 3 and Isaiah 45: 5a). However, as MacArthur relates in today’s Strength for Today entry, both Matt. 17: 5 and John 5: 23 declare, from the majesty of the Trinity, that all who honor God, The Son, give glory to God, The Father. They are One; and our lives are lived to glorify our Trinitarian God.
Therefore, as I meditate here on Christmas, I’m drawn, with conviction, to the realization that when I confess Christ as my Lord and I live in obedience to His word, doing all I can to reflect His Light into the world, I give honor and glory to The Father (see Matt. 5: 16) just as did His Son, Jesus. And when the fruit of God [see Gal. 5: 22 – 23], the Spirit, are manifest in my life, again God, The Father, is glorified (see John 15: 8).
So, in this time of reflection and celebration of Christ’s birth, we see that Christ’s exaltation by God, The Father, was to affirm that Christ would be glorified by His Church; and in so doing, God, The Father becomes greatly glorified. And likewise, when we worship Christ as our Lord with lives being directed by the Holy Spirit, we become the “living sacrifices” described by Paul in Rom. 12: 1; and in so doing we bring glory to our Father in Heaven. It is perfect circular redundancy; and the more it becomes our life of worship, we live to be God’s glory.
That is what all of this Christology has been about this month. I pray that it has touched you the way it has me; and tomorrow we switch to another passage from Paul in Colossians to round out these last few days in December; so, stay tuned!
My Prayer Today: On this special day to honor my Lord’s birth, may my life be lived to honor You, my Father in Heaven. Amen
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