Day 331: Jesus!!!

Philippians 2:1-11; Ezekiel 20; Isaiah 49

First, I love the opening lines of this chapter: "Christ encourages you, and his love comforts you. God's Spirit unites you, and you are concerned for others." Jesus is our encourager and because of his love and sacrifice, we don't have to be afraid, but can have comfort knowing we will be with him in heaven one day. And it is God's spirit that unites us with other believers and makes us care about people.

Secondly, this talks about the incredible example of humility in Jesus. He gave up his place in heaven to obey the Father, be human, and sacrifice it all for our salvation. Why would he die for us? I believe it is for two reasons: obedience to the Father and love for us humans. It's just crazy that God would do such a thing. Aren't God's supposed to be all high and mighty? Above us? Unreachable? That's what is crazy about Christianity: our God is humble, with us, relational.

There's this little line in this chapter of Ezekiel that is kind of interesting: "But the Israelites rebelled against me in the desert." I know they were literally in the desert and that's mostly what this was talking about. But I also see a connection to us. The deserts are the places in our lives that we struggle, we face adversity, we face isolation. These are easy places and easy moments to turn from God because life is tough and he may seem uncaring or nonexistent. However, as Jesus was tested in the desert, may our desert moments bring us closer to God and actually strengthen our faith. May we not be like the Israelites and give up on following The Lord in the desert.

Isaiah 49 is awesome! You should read it! It all points to Jesus! It talks about the work of the "Lord's Servant" who will do more than lead people to safety. This servant will be a light for nations and take God's saving power to everyone on earth (GOSPEL!!). It continues by talking about what salvation is and what it will look like: setting prisoners free, leading them home, filling them up, not being harmed--it's an awesome picture of life with Jesus. Love it!