Teenagers today is a great day! I am so proud of you all. This is the 100th day of our Daily Devotions on this blog. This is a landmark and I am glad that this has not been just a "short-lived fad" but this is something that you are all serious about. If you have not been that consistent with your devotions over the last 100 days, I challenge you to start fresh today, and "Do Your Devotions" everyday!At midnight there were 89 visitors on the website counter. Yesterday we explained that we want to have 100 visitors on our blog today to celebrate 100 days of devotions! In other words, by the end of the day today, we are striving for at least 189 visitors. So tell your friends to check it out, tell your parents to check it out, even tell you grandparents, hair dressers, husbands, favorite sub shop workers son named Benny. GET EVERYONE YOU KNOW ON THE DEVOTION SITE. ALSO: I am wondering... do any of you know ANYONE out of the country that could go on our site. (Our world map shows us who visits our site all around the world. It would be neat to have global visitors :)
OK. On to the important stuff... THE DEVOTIONS!!! HELLO!
First: A Few Thoughts From Yesterday:
Rachels: Great Job on your devotions! Both of them were very good and uplifting!
Rob: Very good devotion today! That was encouraging to read! Thanks for joining us!
Lorrayne: AWESOME TO SEE YOU ON HERE! You should stay on while you are in college! It would be so cool to have a real life college student on our devotions with us!!!!
Jonathan and Alex: Great Job Yesterday! I loved the way both of your devotions are so applicable to our dinner conversation last night! :)
Jeff: I am impressed! and Thankful! That you still know that verse... do I really say it EVERYTIME you are with me??
John 1:14-28
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.
15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”
16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
19 Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”
22 Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”
23 He said: “I am ‘ The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “ Make straight the way of the LORD,”as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.
25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.
27 It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”
28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
I know I picked several verses for you today, many more than usual, but I just could'nt decide where to stop. So here it goes: The first things that jumps out at me is that Jesus Christ came and lived out the word of God among mankind. He made the words of God evident though the physical appearance of Jesus Christ the son of God. Verse 15 is pretty neat, because John says: hey, the guy that I am telling you will come after me, already exists before me. (that must have been confusing to them, but we know the reason for that is because Jesus never came "after" anything... He has always been).
Now I am going to jump to verse 19 because I have a lot to say about the remaining verses: This is the testimony of John... Let me explain. John is hanging out baptizing people when some pharisees come to him to find out who he is... They say WHO ARE YOU?> John answers them by saying, I am not Christ, then the pharisees speak back to John asking if he is Elijag or a prophet. and He says NO. That was the perfect opportunity for John to build himself up. He could have said: I am sent from God obey whatever I say. But the truth is, he was not all about himself. John simply was about telling people about Christ.
In fact, John went on to say: I am simply a voice, Just a common man, that has a mouth, that is going to use that mouth to serve Jesus Christ. John was about serving his savior, not serving himself.
One last thing that makes this obvious is Johns comment in verse 27. He explains who Christ is, by telling them that This "Christ" is one who I am not even worthy of taking his sandals off!
WOW! I mean, come on... God chose him to tell everyone that Christ was coming! If anyone was worthy of Taking of His shoes, then John was. But John had a clear understanding of his purpose and place in Jesus Christ. He was not even worthy to touch the shoe of the son of God.
How do you view God? I know if you are like me, it is pretty easy to start thinking that you are pretty good. (like Jonathan mentioned yesterday) But the problem with that is we lose sight of how great God is when we think about how great we are. The truth is: The Bible tells us that our Reighteousness is like filthy rags in Gods eyes.
We must have an honest view of ourselves so that we can have a GREAT view of who God is. Just like John did.
Sorry so long! See you tonight at 6:30 at the church!!
