Glorifying God
As this week comes to a close, before we complete our mission for this time, we acknowledge the heaviness of this week for some and the gladness of this week for others. This is the last full week of the year, 2024. Today marks the ending of a week that brings us to the dying embers of 366 days of a year almost gone.
May I solemnly remind us all that today, this seventh day of the week, this Sabbath Day, we all, believers and non-believers alike, who are alive, stand in the grace of Father God, Lord of all, who alone gives life. If at all, it is gospel that God alone gave human beings birth, and gives human beings life, then we each, every living person, has been given the daily gift of life. Through the design and desire of Sovereign, Father God, Creator of earth and heaven, each of us has been given the gift of life, for every single one of the 363 days, out of the 366 days in 2024, which we have lived.
As a believer, will you for a moment, ponder upon that fact? Think deeply and seriously about it, as far too often we rush on, taking our days for granted. We are always planning, plotting and speaking as if we own tomorrow, and times are at our disposal. But it is healthy to look at how far our Lord and Father has brought us, to this day in a closing year.
On this Lord’s Day Sabbath, the ultimate Lord’s Day Sabbath in 2024, we have been given the gift of three hundred and sixty-three days, inclusive. We are here today, despite all the challenges and changes; the joys and sorrows, the peaks and troughs of the fading year.
However, we stand on this hour, this time, with the peace and joy of the Lord, as His Good News has come to us also. Like the shepherds, we have heard and like them, we too have left all to receive personal experiences of the Birth of Messiah, Jesus. He is the Living Word, made flesh. All who will receive Him will know Him in reality, working and living in them. The words of John 1: 14, become alive in us and we become living testimonies to their truth. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Here is the text of victory which propels us and gives us purpose, on this last day of the week.
The shepherds returned, glorifying God for all the things that they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2: 20.
Is there not a definite ending taking place here? The word, returned, informs us of a conclusion, an ending, and a finishing of something. Remember, the shepherds had all left their places outside of Bethlehem, to travel to Bethlehem to see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. Luke 2: 15b. They went and saw. Now, their seeing has been completed, the time of visiting has come to an end, their mission has been completed and they are returning.
Here is the response of victory and triumph, which should mark all who have seen the living, actual proof of all that they have been told about a Saviour, Jesus, the Christ. Is this not an Advent response, to Advent words? To wherever these shepherds have returned, is not really our priority or our focus at the moment. What matters is that they all returned from seeing the Baby, Christ Child, glorifying God. At the end of their time in Bethlehem, they have become a changed people. Not one of them is returning, as he or she went. They are all openly, fearlessly, sincerely and joyfully giving glory to God for all that they have seen and heard. Their praising and giving glory to God, is not any arbitrary responding. Absolutely not! Each is able to respond in spirit and in truth, because God has given them convincing proof of His trustworthiness and faithfulness, in the Advent Words told to them. Note! What they saw was exactly that which the Lord has told us about.
You, I and all who have been given the freedom to hear Advent Words and see Advent Works, are today returning, as this Advent Week has ended. How are we returning? We cannot stay at the manger, you know? If at all we have been given the Birth of Love in our hearts, if at all, Advent Words and Works have been made visible to us, then we cannot but be a changed people, a returning people, glorifying God for all the things that we have heard and seen. We are glorifying Him for He has given us sight and hearing to see and hear exactly as we have been told.
Let the Amen, ring from God’s witnesses once more.
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