Nov 7 - 1 Cor 8:6 - Everything

My Hope is on this week:

Watch Billy Graham’s “95^th Birthday Sermon”

http://watchbillygraham.com/?#tv-listings

There is only one Lord, Jesus Christ,

Everything came into being through him,

and we live because of him

1 Corinthians 8:6

When was Jesus born?

Did you say something like, “Christmas, 2000 years ago”?

Well, the official answer is: It’s a trick question.

The one Lord, Jesus Christ, was NOT born. If “everything came into being through him” – and it did (that’s the consistent witness of scripture) – then Jesus PRE-EXISTED.

•      He was alive before creation.
•      He wasn’t born. He simply is.
•      He eternal.
•      He is infinite.
•      He has no beginning or end.
•      He is the Alpha and the Omega. 

The tricky part of that question is that Jesus – the eternal and infinite – temporarily took off his robes of light and stepped into our world in human flesh. In this temporary, fleshly nature, yes, he had a birth. But don’t let Christmas confuse you! Jesus is eternal.

Now listen to the two truths based on this awesome wonder:

    1.  Not only was Jesus there at creation (along with the Father and the Spirit), but he had a powerful role in creation. How did the Father create? In Genesis 1, we are told that God spoke the world into existence. He created just by saying a word like “light” – “let there be light” – and guess what … “there was light.” In John 1, we are told that Jesus is the Word. And it was through words and the Word that “everything came into being through [Jesus].”

     2.    But Jesus actions are not just in the past. In the present, we are told that “we live because of him.” Daily his Word, his Spirit, his creative power speaks our days into existence. Our life – every moment, every hour – depends on his grace. We can ignore that. We can pretend that his presence doesn’t really matter minute-to-minute, but if we’re honest and humble, we know deep down that we exist only according to his pleasure. (And it’s a good thing that his heart is made out of extraordinary love … because we don’t always give him enough pleasure to justify being kept alive by his pleasure. Yet he does it anyway. That’s grace!)

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who, when realizing

that Jesus is the Word,

needs my every word

to be “thank you”!!!