Friday, December 5, 2014

ADVENT: "Reclaiming Christmas" - Day 6

Advent:  Day 6:  “Christmas:  GOD’s Plan to give us what we want most”

Scripture:  “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

There are some questions about life that we wonder about and really cannot ultimately answer.  We may have some thoughts about these “ultimate questions” and we may have some secondary answers but we cannot give ultimate, dogmatic, and definitive answers. We are finite and limited and GOD’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9).

For me, one of those questions is:  “Why do I exist?”  Other ways of expressing that question might be:  “Why am I here?”  “Why did GOD create me?”  I believe Christmas helps shed some light on that ultimate question.

JESUS’ prayer to the Father in John 17:24 is that we would be with Him in order that we might see His glory which GOD has given Him.  This is similar to John 1:14:  “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (JESUS’ birth), and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

One of the dynamics related to our sin is that GOD has created us for the purpose of having an authentic, deep, intimate, love relationship with Him.  In His creative purpose He made us to have an insatiable longing for Him . . . call it a “GOD-shaped” vacuum.  He is the only One who can fill that vacuum or longing.  Our attempts to satisfy those GOD-given longings with anything or anyone other than Him is sin.  It’s like we are saying that GOD is not enough . . . His promises are not true . . . GOD is not trustworthy.  We are questioning the very character of GOD the Creator.  This is precisely what happened in the Fall (Original Sin) with Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3).

Christmas is an expression of GOD’s Word (which became flesh) declaring to us . . . I Am your reason for existing . . . I Am the only One who can satisfy your deepest longings . . . I Am Your Bread . . . I Am Your Living Water.  This Christmas see JESUS in all His fullness and see His glory that GOD has bestowed upon Him and be filled . . . full and complete.


Christmas is JESUS (the GOD/Man) giving to us what we want most, purchased at the cost of His death in our place.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Richard

No comments:

Post a Comment