The Better Part, week #48

 

A holiday week of FB posts...

The Better Part, Day #235:

 

In my studying of Colossians for my next Wednesday Bible Study post on the blog, I discovered something historically that makes this passage more poignant:

 

Col 4:17 And say to Archippus, "See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord." 

 

This is a blast to us, as well as them. Do this every moment, because you never know when your time is going to end.

 

By the time the letters (Colossians and Philemon) arrived, the countdown to the end of that city, and maybe that church, was well underway. Every act might have been their last. And though Paul didn't know it, he was giving them and us a reminder to just keep "doing the next thing", as David Jeremiah put it.

 

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #236:

 

Been looking for a way to say this, but Chuck Swindoll said it good enough in his daily devotional:

 

 

"God the Son lowered Himself. He took on the flesh of an infant. He died a humiliating death. As a result, God the Father "highly exalted Him." One day, all will bow in worship of the risen Lord, "to the glory of God the Father."

It's all about His glory. What a plan. What an execution. What a perfect, awesome wrapping! The God-man. Jesus is undiminished deity and true humanity, two distinct natures in one person, forever. That's the baby in the manger!"

 

 

 

The Better part, Day #237:

 

 

Our Christmas eve service taught us something wonderful we hadn't heard before: The manger. The flocks the shepherds tended were the flocks kept close to Jerusalem were sheep destined for temple sacrifice, and the shepherd themselves therefore were priests, When a lamb was born "without blemish or defect" it was wrapped for protection in cloths torn from old priestly robes, and at feeding time was set in the manger to avoid getting trampled. Any shepherd knew the coming fate of a lamb lying in the manger.

 

 

So when they were shown baby Jesus, wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger, they knew what would be His coming fate as well: to die one day as a sacrifice for sin. Merry Christmas to all!