It's All about Jesus

The following is from It’s All about Jesus, a one-year devotional that will be used as a fundraiser for the spread of His gospel through 100 reputable ministries, many of whom you know.

Will you join Jesus’ collective birthday gift with just $5.00?

Who will sustain you to the end.

1 Corinthians 1:8

Most of God’s grace is His work behind the scenes, even largely hidden from those who have clear spiritual sight. Much is attributed to man what should ultimately only be attributed to God. While the Bible undeniably addresses man and his will, it never divorces it from God’s enabling grace.

When we don’t give God all the glory for our salvation, which includes our perseverance in faith, we commit idolatry—ascribing to man what belongs to God. That happens much more than we realize. This doesn’t mean that we should be passive instead of actively pursuing God’s will.

The fuel of our active obedience, however, is God’s enabling grace: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).

Today’s verse is massively encouraging, especially since Paul addressed a church that had significant divisive and moral issues. Nevertheless, he stated that Jesus “will sustain you to the end.” He’s the One who will bring you safely home.

That echoes what Jesus Himself had said: “I give them [My sheep] eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). He does so by sustaining us throughout our lives. In the end, God’s word will prove to be true: “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isa. 46:4).

Click here for your FREE PDF and E-book!

The following is from It’s All about Jesus, a one-year devotional that will be used as a fundraiser for the spread of His gospel through 100 reputable ministries, many of whom you know.

Will you join Jesus’ collective birthday gift with just $5.00?

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Deuteronomy 30:6

Imagine someone buying seventy thousand gold coins and freely offer them to anyone who asks for them. That’s how we are to consider what Jesus did for us. Through His righteous life and sacrificial death, He obtained all God’s favor, blessings, and promises for His people.

Paul wrote: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Cor. 1:20). Since Jesus obtained all God’s promises, the fulfillment of them is to the Father’s glory, especially the glory of His grace. Today’s promise is one of the gold coins.

The reason we love God is because He circumcised our heart. Paul expressed that as follows: “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Rom. 2:29). Notice that the praise for it belongs to God.

Do you love God? Have you given Jesus all the credit for obtaining this promise for you? Have you acknowledged the Father in fulfilling this promise for His Son’s sake? Anyone who thinks that he can acceptably love God apart from the Holy Spirit’s supernatural work within his heart has yet a lot to learn. Jesus deserves all the praise for our love toward the Father: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). He expressed His everlasting love through the circumcision of our hearts.

Click here for your FREE PDF and E-book!

The following is from It’s All about Jesus, a one-year devotional that will be used as a fundraiser for the spread of His gospel through 100 reputable ministries, many of whom you know.

Will you join Jesus’ collective birthday gift with just $5.00?

All things were created through him and for him.

Colossians 1:16

Everything exists for Jesus. He’s the center of creation and history. While that can be easily expressed in a few words, the discovery of it will take endless ages. Thus, the more Christ-centered we are, the more we’ll be in tune with the sole reason for all existence.

This also means that you exist for Him. While addressing His people, God stated: “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isa. 43:7). As a Christian, you exist for Christ’s glory. 

Since sin means “to miss the mark,” everything that isn’t wholly centered on the glory of Christ is sin, including all the “good” works we may have performed. It has missed the goal and any joy in it is insane, as we would readily agree with in sports. No one would take a soccer player serious if he celebrated after missing a lose-or-win penalty. Rather, he would be the laughing stock of the media.

How do Christians exist for His glory? My favorite analogy is when Jesus said: “I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5). We’ve been born again to be a branch in Jesus. As such, we have no life within ourselves and cannot produce anything by ourselves. We receive all life, growth, and fruitfulness from Him.

That’s why Paul referred to the gospel as, “the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4). Every branch exists to display His beauty and excellence as one’s Life-Giver and Life-Sustainer, producing all growth and fruitfulness. The Christian life is through Him and also for Him. Isn’t that good news?

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The LORD is my light.

Psalm 27:1

Often, we try to be what only Jesus is. Instead of simply receiving from Him with childlike faith, we attempt to produce our own light. Our frustration increases because we’ve not been saved to do so. We’re like the moon that has no light of its own, but receives it from the sun and reflects it accordingly.

Is that too humbling for us? Adam and Eve’s motivation to sin was to become like God, wanting to be more than what they were—dependent creatures. They sought independence from their Life-Giver, which turned out into a catastrophic deception.

Ours is always the receiving and reflecting, while it is Jesus who shines forth His light in and through our lives. Could it be that our lives are often lightless because we’re trying to be what only He is? Rather, we should remove any obstacle that stands in the way of receiving His light.

When the earth is between the sun and moon, we have a lunar eclipse—the moon is without the light of the sun. Even so, the “earth” can stand between Jesus and us. As a result, not much light, if any, is received and reflected.

Let us be diligent to remove everything that stands between Him and us, so that we’ll experience His radiant light. Not only will we be greatly blessed by it, but also those around us. Ultimately, we’ve been saved to behold His shining face and reflect it accordingly. That’s why it’s vital to have a single focus on Jesus and His glory (see Matt. 6:22-23).

This devotional is from It’s All about Jesus, which will be released on Christmas Day for $9.99, but can be preordered for only $5.00 as of October 1st. This one-year devotional will be used as a fundraiser for 100 reputable ministries.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 16:14

What are the distinguishing marks of the Holy Spirit’s activity? How can we know whether or not something is a work of God’s Spirit? While that may not be always easy to determine—some of the Jewish disciples initially criticized Peter for going into the house of a Gentile, while later on acknowledging that it was of God—there are some definite trademarks.

The Holy Spirit’s mission is to glorify Jesus. He’s wholly Christ-centered. That means He doesn’t glorify man at all. They are mutually exclusive. He who inspired the Scriptures will not go against them. Thus, we have an easy litmus test: is Jesus truly glorified? If not, is it then a work of God’s Spirit?

Jesus also gave us the Spirit’s method in glorifying Him: “For he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” What does that mean? Through His righteous life and sacrificial death—fulfilling all righteousness—Jesus obtained the Father’s favor, blessings, and promises. They are His! Apart from Him, no one has any claim to God’s favor, blessings, and promises.

Thus, we’re always the beneficiaries and He’s always the Benefactor. Paul wrote: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12). The Holy Spirit will always emphasize Jesus and what He has accomplished and obtained for us, revealing His “unsearchable riches” (Eph. 3:8). Indeed, “who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” (Rom. 11:35).   

This devotional is from It’s All about Jesus, which will be released on Christmas Day as part of Jesus’ collective birthday gift. Will you join His birthday gift?