Jesus the Caller of Disciples

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him (Mark 3.13)

Connecting words are fascinating. Every minor variation speaks nuance. Humanity was made on purpose. The men, women and children who populate this spinning sphere were made on purpose. Not accident or happenstance but creative power exerted for a reason. Now change one word: Humanity was made with purpose. We move beyond an act of Divine creation to a driving holy intention. All nations and languages have been imbued with a shared reason for existence. Our lives are more than just a meaningless moment between cradle and grave. We are more than just transients between womb and tomb.

Humanity was made for a purpose. Into the chaos and crumbling of our failed systems, God calls to us. He calls us back to Himself for a purpose. To know Him. To experience His presence and call others to enjoy His love.

But how often and how quickly we forget. We become so overwhelmed with the mundane we fail to breathe in God’s presence. And when we do happen to remember our purpose, the world explodes in politics and wars and furies. We can hardly see purpose through the clouds of debris and smoke, or hear His calling through our ringing ears.

So Jesus stands above them all. The mundane and the incomprehensible. He stands on the mountain and He calls us. He repeats the call He’s been making from the very beginning. He calls us to discipleship: to be near Him, to walk with Him and rejoice in His nearness; to carry His love and gospel to the world around us who have forgotten or never heard His name. Jesus, the caller of disciples is still calling.

Jesus, I hear you calling. Help us draw near and create space for others to experience your love.

Jesus the Abolitionist

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5.1)

Although the belief of self-salvation seems harder to believe than salvation through faith, human history disagrees. Men and women for millennia have sought to ‘save’ themselves, attempting personal redemption across the globe through different creeds and systems. “Surely,” they say in their actions, “there must be something crucially important that I can do to save myself.” And so they count the number of prayers they pray and where they prayed them. They add up the points of their good deeds. They seek release from the vicious cycle of life believing that humanity can rescue itself.

But placing our faith in the cross of Christ, wholly believing that Jesus alone can save us from our sin, that can be a much harder thing to believe. If it weren’t billions of men, women and children would not struggle to make a decision to follow after Jesus and the people of Jesus would not have been so slow in taking the good news to all people groups, however hostile or remote they are.

In faith, in simple stepping-as-far-from-ourselves faith, is where we meet Jesus the abolitionist. Jesus the one and only Savior of the world has set Himself firm against humanity’s slavery to itself, bound in sin and pride. He calls us to make the hard choice to trust our salvation fully in His hands and to stand firmly in the conviction that He has more for us than the heavy yoke of miserable self-service.

Jesus, thank you for saving me from my sin and from my vanity. I place my faith in You.

Jesus the Adoption Fee

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4.4-5)

There is a romance in the storytelling of belonging. The princess comes of age and has a lavish wedding. The heroic knight proves himself after years of apprenticeship and is invited to the roundtable. The orphaned child discovers he belongs not only to a family, but to a world others do not know. These tales reverberate with a heartstring truth: we have been made to belong but find ourselves outside of that reality. All these joyous fictions seek to rectify that painful schism.

The reality is we have been made for relationship, true familial relationship. But through sin and failure we find ourselves outside of the glass, outside of the light, outside of home. Hell and high water have swept us away from belonging. And, greater than any fiction, the fact is our Father God saw us cold and alone outside and sent Jesus his own Son to bring us home. Jesus was born of a woman so that we know—like ourselves—He is fully human. Jesus was born under the law so that we might see He was subject to all the demands and obligations of the law that we were.

Orphaned and alone, we were huddled by ourselves in the darkness, bound under a cruel master. But God sent Jesus to redeem us from our sin. Jesus is our adoption fee. He is the price of our freedom. He traded His life for ours. We can enter into the presence of our loving Father from whom we estranged ourselves. We are now heirs with Christ because Jesus became our cost of adoption.

Jesus, thank you for being the price for my adoption. I belong in the family of God because You paid my way home!

Jesus the Stronghold

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27.1)

Living in a post-monarchical society we lose a lot from our biblical understanding. Things that the psalmist assumed in common day experience are lost in our democracies and modern day figurehead crowns. In their place we have images of bipartisan politics powered by special interests or heartless dictatorships that rule by fear and oppression. This makes it difficult for us to grasp the Kingship of Christ, the sovereign rule of Jesus, in our everyday lives. We are muddied with disinterested despots, or worse, malicious ones.

Jesus is our King, but as is always the case, He is more. He is our stronghold. He is our place of safety, our means of protection. He is our refuge from the bedlam of our lives and tumult of our world. He is our Sovereign King in whose Kingdom we dwell, and with His glorious compassion He Himself is our fortress. Jesus is our indestructible citadel of comfort. Jesus is our abiding presidio of peace. He has placed our joy within His incorruptible arms.

Jesus the stronghold has placed our lives within Himself. He is our light in the dark night of the soul. He is our salvation from the burnout and brokenness that seeks to find us all. Jesus is our assurance in the face of life’s fears. Jesus is our confidence in the chaos. Even in the heat of battle we can take rest in that. Jesus is our stronghold!

Jesus, thank you for placing my live in the center of Your strong tower. You are my joy and my salvation!

Jesus the Lamb of God

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1.29)

How do we relate to Jesus in a world that does not know Him? Surrounded by men and women who have no true knowledge of Jesus the Messiah how do we live, speak, be? John the Baptist was sent by the Holy Spirit to proclaim a baptism of repentance in the wilderness. He set himself on apart with the passion for God’s Holiness. In the wilderness men, women and children found him. And as they watched him consumed by His righteous abandon to God they surrendered their lives once again to the one true Lord. They repented of their failures, their sins, and found forgiveness in the symbol of baptism. Their spirits were washed clean by the love of God as the symbolic water washed over their faces.

It is here we find Jesus and our calling. We find the answer to our question. We meet Jesus as our Sovereign God, our loving Creator who redeemed us by becoming the perfect sacrifice. Only His blood can atone for our sin. Only His death can pay the price for our failure before our Holy God. Only in the presence of the cross can we feel His redemption wash over us as we crumble at the foot of His sacrifice.

This is where we bring people. We bring them with us to the waters of repentance. We stand in the wilderness like John, now before the crucified Lord and say, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” We make Jesus known were He is still unknown so men, women and children may choose for themselves.

Jesus, wash my life again as I worship You. Let me speak to the nations that You are the lamb of God!

Jesus the Image of the Invisible God

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (Colossians 1.15)

How long has humanity made idols? Small carvings of earthly figures symbolizing divinities scattered across time. Ancient peoples stored them up, little pieces of wood and stone, in their secret places of worship. They set up great metal monuments to deities, abusing their bodies and sacrificing the lives of their own children in exchange for rain and fertile fields. Survival at a price. They shaped and chiseled out these images to give their invisible fears and beliefs form.

The idols we make mock us with their speechless lips and lifeless presence. They symbolize not divine strength and power but our feeble attempt to name our fears and struggles to defeat them. We seek to control the uncontrollable and exercise a sovereignty beyond our grasp.

Into this fury of graven images Jesus walks among us. Not stone or steel. Not wood or glass. Fully God and fully man, the unchanging image of the invisible God. He is not a composite of our fears, a broken mirror of our cosmology. He is of one substance with God the Father, immutable and full of glory. May we see Him as He is, the greatness of the invisible God made visible for our salvation. There is no need for a pantheon of lifeless shadows in the presence of Jesus, the image of the Invisible God.

Jesus, show me the broken down idols in my life that need to be swept away.

Jesus the Author of Life

…and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. (Acts 3.15)

We are born with a hunger for reconciliation. As much as we bruise and bluster, abuse and destroy, there is an innate desire for things to be reconciled. We see the brokenness around us and we aim our efforts to fix them. At first this seems productive but it quickly devolves as our plans for reconciliation do not match those of the person next to us. We fight over our plans for peace. If only all the stubborn people around us would adopt the efforts we so stubbornly holdfast to everything would be fine...

Are we really any different than the religious leaders in the Sanhedrin or the masses moving in and out of the Temple courts? We see threats to our fragile attempts at peace and violently fight for their security. We engage in total war at the sight of one another’s intentions. Jesus the Prince of Peace comes along and in a moment unsettles our systems. His very presence is a declaration of war. Jesus the Author of Life comes into our tenuous self-made reality and He leaves us with only one recourse: we must wait until night falls and murder Him. Uninvited He stepped into our community. In His love He preached with authority and power that the Kingdom of God was at hand without our permission.

Too often we trade Jesus for Barabbas, life for death. We exchange Jesus the Author of Life for a murderer who looks like us and is no threat to our false sovereignty. Jesus comes speaking restoration and reconciliation and the only way to embrace His divine message is by relinquishing our setups and systems.

Jesus help me be a witness to the truth that you are the Author of Life, raised from the dead by God the Father and calling me to everlasting reconciliation.

Jesus the Offspring of Abraham

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. (Galatians 3.16)

Do we really fathom the depths of the Father’s love for us? Do we step back long enough and focus hard enough to see that throughout human history God was preparing a pathway for us to be redeemed? For us who live in the present age before we were born God had already seen the fall of humanity, promised a means of salvation and chosen a concrete path of redemption through the man Abraham and his offspring. We stand on this side of salvation history and marvel at the Father’s love, the intricate and fragile plan God chose to enter into his creation and restore us.

Fallible Abraham received a promise and we reap the full benefits of which he could never have imagined. We need not cling to a future promise of an unseen offspring. We see Jesus, the promised offspring of Abraham. We see the course cut through history of how God illustrated our reason for existence, our failure to achieve His holiness, and His commission of Jesus the anointed Savior of the world.

More than Abraham could love Isaac or truly any father could love his son, so God the Father loves Jesus. And now we are grafted into that love. We have been brought into the family of God through the Son of God who is the Son of Abraham, fully God and fully man. Let us step back now and worship the anointed Savior, promised to the ancients and promised to return again!

Jesus, thank you for your love for the God the Father and for me. You stepped into human history through the promises you made to Abraham and purchased my salvation!

Jesus the Brother and Son

And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! (Mark 3.33-34)

As Christians we can readily anticipate opposition and conflict from those outside of our fellowship. We expect persecution to our witness. We know that there are men and women hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ and our relationship to Jesus is despised and dangerous. But it is more difficult and more surprising when we encounter conflict inside the fellowship of believers. How can it be that we, the people of God, His sons and daughters who have each personally experienced absolute forgiveness, can be so unforgiving, so vengeful, so “family”?

Why do we struggle with those within the family of God who try to mother us? Men and women within the fellowship of God who see their role in our lives as stewards and mentors without our assent. We face conflict with our brothers and sisters because each of us has a dream and vision of a more Christ-centered future and we are unable to share our aspirations together. Sadly and too often, our sibling rivalries cast our God-callings against each other.

Jesus struggled with this too. Jesus our Lord and Sovereign is also Jesus the brother and son. He was misunderstood by his mother—his mother who loved him dearly and raised him—and he experienced a conflict of vision with his brothers—who saw the dangerous path their older brother was taking—and came to “rescue” him from himself.

Conflict within the body of Christ is inevitable as long as we stand on this side of eternity, but we can rest assured that our Divine Lord understands our struggles because He is Jesus the brother and son.

Jesus, help me live within Your family in a way that brings You glory and strengthens the calling You’ve given me.

Jesus the Cursed

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us— for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3.13)

As wonderful as we can sometimes dilute ourselves into thinking we are it does not take long to be reminded of our shortcomings. Turning through the pages of the law given to Moses we find ourselves woefully condemned. We have no strength in ourselves to stand before the Holy God and claim righteousness. We could never successfully find righteousness through observing the law. Misapplied observation of the law itself is tantamount to self-salvation because the responsibility of unstained purity falls squarely on our insufficient shoulders. We are cursed in our inadequacy.

For us to find salvation, to stand in perfect righteousness before God, we must believe what He has revealed to us. He placed our hope of righteousness within our ability to believe. We will live in spotless righteousness by faith. We will live because our Lord Jesus saw us condemned and cursed in our sin and became cursed for us. Jesus the cursed took our immoveable burden and carried it to the cross. The Divine God took upon Himself the divine curse of our disobedience. Without Jesus, our cursed redeemer, we would have no hope of holiness. And without faith in Jesus we could never rejoice in the blessing of Abraham.

Jesus suffered the curse on our behalf. In His perfection He remembered us in our imperfection. In our failure he called us to the cross where, if we will believe Him, He will remove our condemnation with His nail-pierced hands. And all He asks of us is to believe.

Jesus, I believe and I thank you for redeeming this life I had no hope to redeem.

Jesus the Light

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1.5)

Light is dangerous. It comes to us in various ways, matchsticks, lightbulbs, the sun. To live our lives we absolutely need illumination. We would stumble painfully through life—if life would even be possible—without a light that radiates through and anchors our existence. In this way, light is crucial and beloved. But light is not tame. It can burn our skin as we beneath it too long. It can sear our fingertips if we hold it directly. It exposes the deformities that darkness so easily veils. This can produce in the hearts of humanity a momentary discomfort or an immense fury.

As time turns minutes to days, weeks to lifetimes, men and women turn small pockets of darkness into ever-engulfing shadows. Sin seeks not only manipulate the darkened lives of humanity, but to control us through crippling blindness. We look at the dictators and cultural corruptors and ask ourselves, “How did humanity fall so far? How disabled can we become?”

Ultimately, wicked humanity cannot stop the brilliance of Jesus the light. The darkness sealing men and women’s souls must yield to His unstoppable radiance. He cannot be vanquished. All men, women and children will stand in the light of Life and, as His Spirit moves through the darkest caverns of our souls, He will call us to freedom, to healing, to intimacy. He calls us to the danger of peace, the all-consuming fire of His Holiness, the indestructible passion of His enduring love.

Jesus, thank you for calling me into your light and not leaving me to be overcome by the darkness of my own sinfulness

Jesus the Radiance of God’s Glory

He is the radiance of the glory of God (Hebrews 1.3a)

We make much of dynasties, sons and daughters rising to the thrones of their fathers. In a time where many monarchies have diminished to empiric window-dressings the human passion for dynasties has not. We still see political families ascending to power, nepotism bringing new generations to the helms of industries. But bloodlines do not insure success or excellences. Simply because the parent was great does not mean the child will be too. The sons and daughters of caesars are no promise for triumph.

But Jesus the radiance of the Father’s glory is different. The term we understand as Son of God does not give us a full comprehension of who Jesus is. Jesus is the radiance of God. He is not the diminishing returns of some former glory. He is the effulgence of the Godhead. Jesus is the dazzling brilliance that has no comparison, no equal, no rival. He is the visible image of the invisible God. Like the Sun, Jesus is the radiant light emitted from the its core. He is like the Sun and makes the Sun visible to us.

And this Jesus, the radiance of the Father, is our Lord, our Sovereign, our everlasting Savior. We have no fear for the future of our success and salvation because they are secured in Christ. Not success as the world may define it but in how God has ordained it for our lives. We have the capacity to live beyond ourselves, our wildest machinations of success, because we have been imbued with the lustrous authority of our Lord Jesus, who is the radiance of God’s glory.

Jesus, thank you for shining the glory of God in the darkness of my life, redeeming me from my sin and empowering me to walk in your marvelous light.

Jesus the Channel of Creation

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1.16)

Creation makes no sense without Jesus. The chaos of this world can be unsettling. Wars and rumors of wars increase. But even when the drumbeats that lead tanks into battle become quiet, the silence can still be deafening for a restless—Christless—humanity. Politicians can try and vanquish opposition to solidify their temporary power but they will never have a millennial reign. Celebrities can fixate on their own beauty but flesh fails and time wrinkles all people as they turn to dust. Arrogant men give way to worms.

A creation without Christ acting as it’s centripetal and centrifugal force would collapse into inaction or spiral out of existence. By Jesus all things were created. Everything is embraced in His eternal hands. Visible galaxies and invisible souls, physical bodies and spiritual connections find their origin in Him. It is by His allowance that humanity can pursue their passions and purposes. And it becomes readily evident whether we are pursuing passions and purposes that bring glory to Jesus their Creator.

Jesus is not only the Creator of the universe, but the very reason it exists. Which draws us to ask ourselves: Is Jesus the center of our lives? If He is the center then even if we feel our days rocketing out of control we know that our Creator’s hand is still drawing us close. Likewise, is Jesus the driving force in our action? If so, He will always keep us from spiraling out of His control.

Jesus, draw me close to Your side and send me out in with Your love.

Jesus the Witness

In these last days [God] has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things (Hebrews 1.2a)

Emissaries are scattered around the globe, representing different nations and political powers. At any given moment men and women are brokering peace and agitating wars in the name of their prelates and presidents. Ambassadors and charges d’affaires represent their absent kings and premiers. They are not imbued with their master’s authority but they do carry the air and weight of power.

Through the centuries God sent people to express Himself and His will for Israel and the nations. No one can say God left His nature or His desire unrevealed. His omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence are voiced through songs and stories, psalms and prophecies. God promised Eve a son to be her Savior. Miriam sang songs of her Deliverer. Truly, who is like the Lord of all creation, majestic in holiness and awesome in glorious deeds? Moses set down God’s law for His people. David called them to purpose.

But Jesus is not just another messenger. He is fully man, like the host of humanity inspired by the Spirit of God to write His revelations. But Jesus is much more. He is fully God. He is the Revealer Himself! He is the Creator. He is the voice of the Father, and as the Son of God all things belong to Him. All of creation. All the created.

We live within His created realm and have the privilege to chose allegiance to a merciful and compassionate King who personally speaks to each of us. God does not leave Himself without a witness. He is the witness Himself.

Jesus, thank you for witnessing Your Life into my existence.

Jesus the Advocate

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2.1b)

A life of following Jesus never happens in a vacuum. It so much easier to admire from a far, to love from a distance. Surely, it would’ve been easier for John to write his letters from his island in exile; easier to write about the importance of community alone in forced solitude. Yet his letters of love and the family of God are written while he was still among them. He was still in the thick of broken-down fellowship and sibling rivalries as He called the people of God to love one another.

It can seem like living out our life of faith would be far simpler if it were exclusively solitary, if there wasn’t a communal facet to it. Jesus understands that. How many times did the unbelief of the disciples push Him to the brink? Our righteous advocate Jesus Christ understands how easily our relationships with other followers can become strained. He understands how our frustration turns to sin and our unhealed wounds lead to painful recalcitrance. He sees our grief. He knows our pain. And as He stands before the Father and presents our case, seeking justice for the abused and oppressed, He calls us to forgiveness. He himself is the atoning sacrifice that purchased our entrance into the Father’s eternal light.

Our advocate, our Lord, is our perfect example. He is in the light and calls us to walk in His light. He brings other men, women and children around us to walk with us. It can be a struggle to love seemingly unloveable people and yet He modeled for us how to love first. He calls us to love.

Father, forgive me of my pain-turned-sin. Thank you for Jesus, my righteous advocate.

Jesus the Justifier

we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2.16a)

It is crippling to realize when we are powerless. Within ourselves, as incredibly fearfully and wonderfully made we are, there is no action, no amount of work, no good deed that can place destiny in our own trembling hands. Countless millions set out each day to redeem their own souls; good deeds buried underneath intentional desperation. Still millions others resolve themselves to eternal damnation because the weight of their sin has left them hopeless.

Even among the followers of Christ, we can fall prey to the draw of self-salvation. We subconsciously think there must be some deed we can perform to place power in our grasp. We sing songs of personal empowerment. We write tall tales of strong heroes. We build enduring statues, cast in iron, of men and women who personify strength. And yet we know deep within our souls that our works yield no justification; no observance of ancient law can purchase salvation.

Faith alone. And not misdirected faith in self, in reincarnation, in personal action, in faith itself. Only faith in the person of Jesus can we find justification. Jesus Christ is our Justifier. Our Lord and Savior whose self-sacrifice has become our eternal redemption. The cross is our altar where the perfect sacrifice took our crippled legs and lifted us to our restored feet. Fearfully and wonderfully made for relationship, body and soul. It is healing to realize we are powerless.

Jesus, I praise you for placing my life in your all powerful hands, justifying me from all sin!

Jesus the Energy of Apostleship

For he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles. (Galatians 2.8)

How is Jesus involved in our mission to reach the lost? We know He is the one who called His disciples to the great commission. As His feet left the mountaintop and ascended into the heavens His words echoed into their hearts to go and make disciples of all nations. We are commanded to baptize them in His triune name; to teach the way. In our fervor to go we skip the first words Jesus speaks, the words that carry all the weight: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."

He is the source of all authority. The Father has placed all authority into the hands of the Son, just as He did with the creation of the world. When Jesus tells His disciples to wait for His empowering Spirit, He is telling them to wait on His timing, His indwelling authority to enter their lives. As we see Jesus as the source of our authority we recognize He pours out the empowerment of His Spirit in our lives and witness.

As Paul puts it to the Galatians, Jesus is working through the apostolic ministry of Peter and Paul. He is active, efficient. He is fervently effectual. He demonstrates to the family in the church and the unreached world outside that He is the energy that drives the apostolic ministry of His people. When we look at the task of reaching the unreached, of entering the hostile nations with the gospel, may we be reminded that Jesus, the eternal source of all authority is at work in our apostolic work.

Thank you, Jesus, that you are working through me to reach the nations.

Jesus the Perfectly Patient One

But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1.16)

The old adage is true, the only Bible many people will ever read is our lives lived out before them. Yet for some reason we limit our witness to the non-offensive things in our lives. We only want to share our victories in our Christian walk, the triumphant seasons and successes. We are willing to be examples of our christianity as long as it fits with our own sanitized self-narrative where we look good, clean, fully redeemed.

But there is so much more, so much that is far more attainable to the lost: failure. If our lives were truly perfect without failure or stumbling we would be irrelevant to the dying who need to see Jesus at work in us. Our attainable witness of failure and short-falling is where we meet with Jesus the perfectly patient one. It is also where others meet with Jesus too.

We can take joy in our discomfort and peace in our defeat because Jesus is perfect in His patience with us. Jesus does not rush to judgment. Jesus does not condemn us before inviting us back to His cross. Jesus reminds us of His redeeming love. He places His pierced hand on our shoulder and speaks peace. And from our place of weeping, of sorrow and struggle Jesus invites us to bring others because He is patiently recreating what we were destroying through sin. Jesus has chosen people for us to live our lives, our whole lives, for the sake of His glory and their eternal life.

Jesus, thank you for the long-suffering patience with me, your enduring love that continues to draw me nearer to you. Show me how to live my whole life before the lost.

Jesus the Lifted

So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. (Numbers 21.9)

The desert journey of the Israelites is replete with Messianic allusions and Christological foreshadows. As the pages roll past we (who live on the far side of the cross) see God revealing Himself and His plan of salvation. The people of Israel were being bitten by poisonous snakes, exposed to a deadly venom that promised certain death. What could one possibly do? How could certain death be transformed into restored life? There can be only one answer: Jesus.

Our self-revealing God directed Moses to take the very image of the destroyer, the snake, and fashion a raised staff with the bronze serpent lifted up. When the people believed in God’s promise and looked at the raised serpent they would be healed. And God sets into the hearts of His people this plan. Jesus would come, not in His eternal, divine glory riding in all power and authority. No, He would come clothed in the very image of the death causer: humanity itself. Jesus would take the form of humanity and be raised up, crucified for our sin, and on the cross draw out the poison from our decaying souls.

And if we will come to the cross, if we will set our eyes upon His lifted form and believe, we will live. It is that simple; that profound. When we look upon Jesus, the life-restoring Savior foreshadowed in the desert of sin, we are detoxed of our self-inflicted death. In Jesus the lifted we find ourselves miraculously raised from the dead into new life, everlasting life.

Jesus, thank you for revealing yourself through humanity’s history so that I might recognize your beauty all the more when you died on the cross to purchase my redemption.

Jesus the Hope

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope (1 Timothy 1.1)

Our lives are filled with hope. We all have unfulfilled desires to see certain things come to pass, and we put our emotional energy into longing them into existence. We can hope for things that are exceedingly mundane like our favorite sports team winning the big game. We share the hope in it because we share a kinship with the players and experience community with a broader fellowship of fans. We can rejoice together in victory and that experience, once tasted, encourages us to hope for more. We can hope for greater things like the conception of a child. There is nothing so stinging as the hopelessness of a barren womb. Streaming tears on the face of a childless mother speaks to the resounding echoes of hope within her soul. Like Hannah, the mother of Samuel, she wept holding to an unseen hope in God's provision.

And above all these things is Jesus, our hope. Jesus is our only hope. Jesus is our only sure hope. Beyond the hope of shared rejoicing with our greater community, beyond the incredible hope of creating communities of our own, is the unparalleled hope of everlasting relationship with our Creator. Within the community of the Godhead, the Father, Son and Spirit have invited us to share fellowship with our one true God. We have a never-ending hope of eternal joy. We have been redeemed from our sin and raised to new life. As we follow the command of the Father in our day-to-day lives we hold a hope that no earthly aspiration can equal: eternity in our heart rooted in Jesus our hope.

Jesus, thank you for being my eternal hope. I can live each day, seeking to bring glory to the Father knowing that my hope is secure in your hands.