Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please take the time to take in video of Matt Redman singing his poignant song, Light of the World, … pleading for God, the Light of the World to shine on His children.
Highlight Passage #1 ... John 1: 14 [NKJV] …
14 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.
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Highlight Context - John 1: 1-14 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK … Spirit inspired declaration of the essence of The Christ, who was born a man to dwell among men and shine His light for all to see God
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Reference Passage #1 - Isaiah 9: 6 [NKJV] …
6 For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Reference Passage #2 - John 14: 16-17 [NKJV] … … Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit…
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Reference Passage #3 - Acts 1: 8 [NKJV] … Jesus, ascending into heaven, charges all who truly believe in Him to become His Spirit-empowered witnesses …
8 “… But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Reference Passage #4 - Philippians 2: 6-7 [NKJV] … And my Lord did this for me (and you) …
6 … Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Joe Stowell, used a personal story to illustrate the importance and reason God set aside His glory and came down as a babe in a manger to dwell among men. Here was Stowell’s story … ”It was the buzz of our neighborhood. A famous professional football player had moved in just two houses down from where we lived. We had seen him on television and read about his great skills on the field, but we never thought he would choose to reside in our neighborhood. Initially, our expectations were that we would welcome him into the neighborhood and we would all become great friends. But his life was obviously far too busy for any of us to get to know him personally.“
And then author Stowell reminds the ODB devotional readers (i.e., me) of the incredible reality of the Spirit-inspired declaration of the Apostle John, highlighted and linked above, … that the God of the Universe, … the great “I AM,” … chose, as it says in Phil. 2: 6-7, to set aside the glory of the Godhead to become a Babe in a manger and to walk among men and to die so ignominiously on a cross, so that mankind could see and identify with the Light of the World, … to see God in flesh, walking among us.
But even those who walked most closely with Him during His time on earth, His inner disciples, didn’t recognize what the beloved Apostle John wrote about [see John 1: 14 copied above] until after He died on that infamous cross and was raised again from the dead, and ascended once again into heaven, … all witnessed by over 500 hundred earthly witnesses, who were transformed later by the coming of the promised Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus (see John 14: 16-17), so that all who surrendered to God’s Spirit, could shine Jesus’ light - the Light of the World - as His witnesses (see Acts 1: 8 above) into an ever darkening world. And our Lord charged all of us, i.e., those who’ve received Him as Savior and LORD, to do all we can to shine His light - every day of our lives.
So, today, as we are coming out from our celebration of our Lord’s birth, let us do all we can to shine His light … by worshipping the “Word Who became flesh” and dwelt among us, … the One Who sent His Spirit to abide in the hearts of true believers forever as the “Light of the World!”
My Prayer for Today … Lord, … shine Your light in me! Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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