Blessed Lord, bless and protect those loved ones of this dear reader who need Your touch today; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text for today comes from Titus 2: 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly , righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (KJV)
The other evening I chose to join my wife for supper rather than stay with the group at my meeting and so I decided to walk the 1.7 miles from Drew University to our hotel. I was joined on this adventure by the president of Iliff School of Theology, David Trickett. What most of us take for granted, New Jersey does not provide: sidewalks! And that makes for an interesting walk in the dark along a very busy highway. But I was able to re-visit my year at Iliff as I walked and talked with Dr. Trickett. I told him the most challenging question was asked of me in a class at Iliff by Dr. Harvey Potoff, an elderly, almost ready to retire professor of theology. He was a captivating teacher and he had a classroom full of captive first year seminary students when he said, "I know most of you know that salvation is being saved from sin; but I ask you an equally important question today, What are you saved to?" I had to confess that at that point in my life I had not given that much thought. I knew I needed Jesus to save me from my sin, but I had not thought about to what Jesus had saved me.
The answer is a better life, a grace-filled life, a daily walk with the Lord. That is what we are saved to. And Christmas is that time when we remember again, the greatest gift shared with the world was that which John wrote in the sixteenth verse of his third chapter of his gospel; God's love was so great that God gave His only begotten son that we would not perish. And beyond perishing our call is to live life as the tenth verse of the tenth chapter in that same Gospel says, we might live abundantly. Christmas is about living abundantly, and not in the material sense, but in the sense of the spiritual things that are ours for the asking. Christmas is about the world needing to know we have a Savior, who will and does save us from our wickedness, our doubts, our fears, our angers, and the list goes on and on; but who also takes us into a realm of deep spiritual blessings that is life in abundance, a life lived to the fullest. And as Titus says, we should be all about works that reflect that change that has come into our lives.
PRAYER: Loving God, blessed are You for Your love and for sharing Jesus Christ with us. During this hectic pace of Christmas may we slow down enough to remember that Jesus came to save us from and to something. The to part is most special if we let it be. I pray this in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
