Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Eyewitness Testimony! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 1:1-3,

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ."

A lot of folks have a lot of ideas about just who Jesus Christ is… who he was during his earthly ministry. Some, just following his time on earth, felt he was God but only seemed like a man. Their theology at the time precluded the notion of God in human flesh as their perspective was that anything of the physical must necessarily be evil and so God could not really have become a part of physical existence. He only "seemed" to have. 

Other folks, today, acknowledge he was a gifted moral teacher as a man, but not really God who could perform the miraculous. Were they to acknowledge that Jesus Christ was God in flesh, it would necessarily impinge on the moral choices we are all faced with. If Jesus Christ be God then we are to be held accountable to him relative to his teachings for the things we think, do and say.

One of the many wonderful things I love about God is that he has provided eyewitness testimony about himself! We don't have to be lost in a muddled fog as to who or what we think Jesus Christ is. John claims what he has to say is rooted in the fact that he heard Jesus Christ! He saw Jesus Christ! He touched Jesus Christ! Now he proclaims him and passes on to us what he knows of him! Our Heavenly Father has a Son, Jesus Christ, and our fellowship is with them if we have embraced him in faith. Not a "blind faith", but a trust and confidence rooted in eyewitness testimony!

Our God has provided us this eyewitness testimony as he knows many of us need it in order to wrestle with those doubts we are challenged with at times. He has provided all we need for life and godliness! How wonderful our God has revealed himself to us through his Son Jesus Christ. As the writer of Hebrews claims, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." Hebrews 1:1-3.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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