03 Feb February 1st Weekly Devotional
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-2)
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 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. (John 1:10-14)
Jesus is the Word. He is glory. He is the only begotten of the Father. He is grace. He is truth. He was there in the beginning, with God, and is God, who became flesh, and walked among us.
He did this so that He could come to this earth, and be born, like we are born, be raised by a mother and earthly father, just like we are supposed to be. He grew up. He experienced infancy. He experienced adolescence. He experienced being a teenager. He experienced growing up with siblings. He had to be taught how to do things, how to walk, how to talk, how to take care of Himself and provide for Himself.
His stepfather probably taught Him his trade, a builder, as was the custom of the time and the region. He learned how to take pieces, material, and build them into something strong, dependable, practical, useful, beautiful. His stepfather would have taught Him respect, and how to communicate with the public, as would be necessary if He was going to take up this public trade.
But His real Father had other plans. It was the plans of His Heavenly Father to be the Savior of the world and at around 30 years old, He began being led by His Spirit to begin His ministry, the ministry that would be The Way for the entirety of mankind to have a perfect relationship with our Creator, once and for all.
He would be baptized. He would experience temptation. He would experience struggling. He would experience life tragedy. He would experience physical pain, and hunger, and thirst. He would experience people hating Him, despising Him, separating from Him, being jealous of Him.
He would experience people loving Him, being obsessed with Him, following Him every step He took never leaving Him alone, hardly ever being left in peace.
He prayed, to The Father, His Father, just like we do. He experienced the same answers to those prayers from His Father, just like we experience.
He went through every single thing that we will ever go through, and experienced every single thing in life that we ever will.
He had to. He had to do it if He was going to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins, for our shortcomings, our faults, once and for all.
He was arrested. he was falsely accused. he was set up. He was betrayed. He was forgotten. He was left in the dark. He was tortured. He was beaten. He was spat on. He was slapped. He was completely humiliated. He was killed. He was buried……………..
His love is unimaginable. He did it for us. His Father sent Him because of His love for us. We owe Him everything. He created us when He didn’t have to. He created us perfectly. We sinned and destroyed His perfect creation. He had a plan though even for that. He thought of everything.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8)
He rose again………But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. (Matt. 28:5-6)
So this week, there’s some good news for you to dwell on, and maybe we can just share it with someone.
