Day 359: Be Like John

John 3:1-6

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

John 3: 11

 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Many of us know who John the Baptist is, we know of Him and we know the work He did before Jesus. John was the one to come before the Messiah to prepare the way for when He got there. John preached a message of repentance, he came baptizing the people who repented of their sins. One thing that John made sure that everyone knew was, he was not the Messiah. In fact the Messiah is much greater than him. He is only preparing the way for when the Messiah comes. John came to start something that Jesus would come to finish. 

What I'm getting at here is, John was not Jesus, and he made sure that everyone knew that. John did not try to be Jesus, instead he did what he was sent to do, the same way Jesus did. I here many of us talk about how we are not perfect, and how we are not Jesus. First of all we are not called to be Jesus we are called to be like Him. We are called to mock the perfect man and get as close to perfection as possible. If we were all called to be the Messiah then God would never have sent His son to die on a cross for us because we could have saved ourselves. Instead we were sent a savior because we were and constantly are in desperate need of a savior. We ourselves are not the savior. With that being said, we may not be Jesus but we can be John. 

We can prepare the way for when Jesus comes. We can live a life dedicated to Him, leading His people to Him everyday. While we are on Earth I believe that we can take an example from John as well. We are not the Messiah but we are as close to the Messiah that people will see before Jesus actually makes His return. This does not mean that we are physically baptizing people everywhere we go, although some of us may end up doing that. What that means is being a Christ example. Being a person that follows Christ, ad lives off of His every word. We can be the people that preach a message of repentance, and grace, and love letting people know that their is something greater to life. Their is something bigger than ourselves, and understanding that even at our greatest moments Jesus is greater and He will do more than we can ever do. But in the meantime, while we are waiting for His return, let's prepare the way for the Messiah when He returns in the same way John did. 

Reflection

1. What life lessons can we learn from John the Baptist?

2. Are you living a life that points to Christ?

3. If you were the only bible that anyone ever read, or the closest thing to Jesus anyone ever sees, what would people see?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Have a conversation with God about what we talked about today. Whatever is on your heart today, pray about it. 

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 360!

Day 201: Right In Front of You!

John 20:11-16

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

You ever looked for something and it’s right in front of your face but you didn’t see it the first time you looked? I used to get in trouble for this all the time when I was younger, in my defense my eyes are screwed. I have a lazy eye and astigmatism in one eye, and strain in the other. So when I say I can’t see something, i really cannot see it. However, that’s not the point, when I was younger my mom would send me to look for something, and after looking for about five seconds I would run back and be like, “Mom I don’t see it”. Then she would say, ‘If I go back here and find you’re in trouble.” So I’d frantically run and try to find it, When she came and looked, somehow someway it magically appeared. Sometimes I would go back and somehow my eyes would be opened and I would find it right in front of my face. I was looking but I wasn’t really seeing.

I tell this story because I feel like that’s what Mary is exhibiting in this passage. She comes looking for Jesus but she cannot find Him. He’s not there. She starts doing what all of us do when we can’t find something, we start accusing people of stealing. She starts saying they took Him. Here’s the kick, Jesus even comes to her, and she’s looking at Jesus not realizing she’s looking in the face of the risen Messiah, it’s amazing. The person she’s looking for is right in front of her face. He’s right there. She mistakes Him for a gardener and she’s like, “Where is He? Tell me where He is, and I’ll go get Him.”

There’s two things I want to point out here. Jesus calls her name, and immediately she realizes that Jesus is standing before her. There’s something about the call of Jesus. When God opens our eyes we start to see things that we have been overlooking for a long time. When Jesus opens our eyes we start to see things differently, we start to see the world differently. When Jesus opens our eyes we start to see what he sees. When Jesus opens our eyes we start to see Him, and we see Hs hand on our lives. Which brings me to my next point.

Are we overlooking Jesus? Are we searching for Him without realizing that He is right in front of us. He is standing right there and we are so overcome with our own personal troubles, and concerns that we don’t see that He is right there. He’s right there. I want to make sure that wherever I am in my life Jesus is there with me. I want to make sure that I am not overlooking Jesus. Realize that God is always there, He never leaves us. He’s always standing right there. Right in front of us.

Reflection

1. Are you overlooking God?

Prayer Time

Allow your answer to the above question guide your prayer. Talk to God about opening your eyes so that you see what He wants you to see. Ask God to give you vision, and to open you ears to hear His voice.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 202!

Day 122: From Adam to Jesus

1 Corinthians 15:45

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Colossians 1:15

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Philippians 2:8

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

There are many comparisons between Adam and Jesus in the theology world, but also biblically as Paul calls Jesus the last Adam in 1 Corinthians. Today we are going to explore these ideas, and get an understanding of what Paul meant when He called Jesus the last Adam.

It is largely understood that Jesus came to do what Adam could not, He came to fix the very things that had been severed and broken as a result of the fall. Jesus was the answer to a broken world that could only be fixed or saved through his sacrifice. From the moment Adam ate the forbidden fruit humanity was separated from God, and Jesus was the only one who could unite us once again.

Adam was created in the image of God, he was created a perfect man initially, completely good. When Adam was created there was no sin in the world, sin entered the world through him. Romans 5:12 states Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—We are the descendants of Adam therefore we inherited his sin. Jesus was also perfect, he was the very image of God. Jesus being conceived by the holy spirit was not born a sinner but born into a sinful world and was completely human, Jesus walked on this earth as a perfect man, never sinning or falling into sin. Both men were given a choice, Adam with the tree (Genesis 2:16-17) and Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1). Adam chose to eat the fruit which would result in the fall of humanity. Jesus would stand against the temptations of satan, and save humanity by giving his life up on the cross. The difference between the two men is that one came to fix the mistakes or even pay for the mistakes of the other. Adam was disobedient to God and chose death when he and Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit, it was through these actions that sin sin entered the world. It was through Jesus that sin was defeated in the world. The scripture says that Jesus was obedient to the point of death, if saving this world meant dying the most humiliating and painful death known to man, then Jesus was willing to do it and He did. He was completely selfless in doing so.  

1 Peter 2:24

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

Certain translations refer to the cross as a tree  seeing that cross was made out of wood. Ironically it goes to show that a man eating fruit from a tree is caused the fall of humanity. But years later, the promised Messiah would hang from a tree saving humanity from the result of the fall.

Adam is a representation of humanity as the Hebrew meaning of the name Adam is, man or mankind. The name Adam is also a masculine term for the word Adamah, meaning earth. We are Adam, we are the sinners who have chosen to live a life of sin, and we were and are in desperate need of a Savior. From the moment we were disconnected from GOd, He has been in constant pursuit of our heart in order to have relationship with us.

Colossians 1:14

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

“We are all connected with the first Adam (the natural and legal head of the human race) as depraved and guilty sinners, and so are included in the sentence of death which God pronounced on him. However, all who are connected with the last Adam, Jesus, through repentance and faith in His redeeming work, are forgiven, have ‘received the free gift of righteousness’, and so ‘have passed from death to life’.”

Jesus came to save and fix this broken world, it is through His sacrifice that we are able to have a relationship with God and live a holy and righteous life, which is what God intended from the very beginning. Jesus did what Adam could not do by carrying the sin of every man on His shoulders and taking it to the grave, and being raised from the dead three days later. By doing so he defeated the power of sin and death, so we no longer have to live in sin. We are no longer connected to the sin of Adam. We have been redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, who has taken away the impurities from humanity.

Reflection

Today was a bit theologically heavy, but what is your response? Do you see the parallels between Adam and Jesus and their choices directly affected humanity?

Prayer Time

As a response to today’s reading talk to God about what stood out to you. Thank God that He did not let us die in our sin, but He sent Jesus in order that we may have relationship with Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Make sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 123!

Day 28: There Is A Savior (The Missing Piece)

Do you ever just feel incomplete, not empty but like something’s missing? Do you ever feel like you are on an endless search for a missing piece but you don’t really know what it is? If you do, or did that’s what we’re going to talk about today. The missing piece. At one point or another we were all looking for something to complete us, we want that one thing that will give us permanent fulfillment, and eternal happiness. Some of us are probably still looking. We all want to feel complete, we want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

We all have a God-shaped hole in our hearts, and no matter how good we feel at times, or how complete we think we are, until we allow God into our hearts we will always be and feel incomplete.

Colossians 2:9-10

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

Christ completes us, as the scripture says above. Christ is the only thing that can fulfill every one of our needs, We are because He is, we live because He died, we thrive and continue to live because He rose again. Christ has been and forever will be the missing piece. Before Christ came to Earth to save us, we were in the need of a Savior. We were missing something only He could provide us with, salvation, healing, forgiveness.  Many times we are seeking Christ without knowing we are seeking Christ and it is mind-blowing. We are looking ultimately for a savior. We are seeking to fill the voids within ourselves with an eternal, or permanent unconditional love. We want to belong to something bigger than ourselves. We want to know that there is someone or something watching over us. We want a place to turn when times get rough. We want a hand to hold, a shoulder to cry on. We want a safe haven. All that says is that we want a Savior. Well let me tell you my friends, there is a savior and His name is Jesus.

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!

   She will give birth to a son,

and they will call him Immanuel,

   which means ‘God is with us.’” (Matthew 1:23)

He is our safehaven, he holds our hand and walks with us, he took our sins on His back. He is always watching us, He never takes His eyes off of us, and there is no love greater than His.

Christ completes us because He is everything we’re not and more. We are flawed, imperfect, we are sinners saved by Jesus Christ the Messiah. But we serve a perfect God, who makes up for our imperfections, and through unity with Him we are made complete. The scripture says that we are made complete through union with Christ. One of the synonyms for union is fusing or fusion which is the process or result of joining two or more things together to form a single entity. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says But the person who is joined (united) to the Lord is one spirit with him. When we give our lives to Christ we become one with Him. We receive the gift of Salvation and we live our lives with God, We devote ourselves to Him and we live according to His words, we obey His commands, and hang on to His every word. Our lives line up with the life Jesus lived. Then we are complete. This is the union in which we are completed. It can only be found in Christ.

Reflection

1. What does it mean or look like to live with God.
   
   
   
   
2. How does the saying “looking for love in all the wrong places” relate to today’s topic.
3. Where did you go to fill the voids, or find the missing piece before you gave your life to Christ?
4. If you haven’t given your life to Christ I’d like to open that gate and offer you the opportunity to make that choice today.
   
   

Prayer Time

If you have found that you are looking for love outside of Christ or you feel incomplete, talk to Him about that. Pour out your heart to Him, flaws and all. Rest in that fact that Christ is the only one who can truly complete you, and His love never runs out. So wherever you are in your life, it’s never too late to turn to or turn back to HIm. I want to give you that opportunity, whether you are turning to Him for the first time, or giving your life back to Him. Know that His arms are wide open and He is accepting you as a mother takes in her lost child. Rest in that.

Take some time, if you feel the holy spirit tugging on your heart, respond to Him today.

If you made the choice to follow Christ, rededicate, or to submit your life to Him fully, Go to Romans 10:9-10

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

And repeat these few words,

Jesus I declare that you are my Lord and Saviour who died for my sin and was raised three days later. I repent of my sins and I give my life to you. I believe in my heart that you are the true living God. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, Amen.

Congratulations! The angels in heaven are rejoicing right now.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 29 and everyday for the rest of the year!