In Search Of A Better Tomorrow

Tuesday, December 13

Time Alone With God daily devotional

Written by Pastor Phil Stout, JAXNAZ Church

Read: John 1:14

John 1:14

New International Version (NIV)

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Start:
Consider: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In the original language it states that “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”

A tabernacle was a temporary dwelling, a tent of sorts that could be moved from place to place. That’s why we often translate John 1:14 to say that “he pitched his tent among us.” While the whole cosmos is Christ’s domain, the physical appearance of Jesus of Nazareth was given for a set time—an appointed time.

Yesterday we remembered that we are resident aliens—those who live among the kingdoms of this world as foreigners (1 Peter 1:17). In so doing, we are living like the One who pitched his tent among us.

We don’t pound our tent stakes too deep here. The kingdoms of this world are where we live, but their values are not our values. While we love the world as God created it and will one day fulfill it, we don’t fall in love with the ways of the earthly kingdoms. We are like our father, Abraham, of whom it was said…

“By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents…for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:9-10)

While we sojourn here, we also look forward to that city—what John called “the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:2, 10). And like the One who came for an appointed time, we bring heaven to earth every day we travel this terrain with him.

God was incarnated—made flesh—in our world. We call that the Christ. Then he filled us with his Spirit so we could live his life in the flesh. We call that the Body of Christ. And we pitch our tent with him dwelling in it.

Pray: “Thank you, Lord, for placing us here as your body. We’re humbled to think that we are Christ’s hands and feet on this planet. We are Christ’s arms that embrace a lonely, broken, wounded world. Help us to live as you did, knowing that we are working for a kingdom ‘whose architect and builder is God.’”