December 29, 2024 -- Philippians 1:2 -- Privileged to Call God our Father

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:2 ESV
 
There are fourteen words on this little text. If your goal for 2025 is to memorize one verse a day, well, this is the verse to start with. There are, of course, shorter verses. If you want to memorize two verses in one day, you could always go to the ever-popular choice: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5;16-17). When you decide to memorize, pick one translation of the Bible. I’d highly recommend you use the translation that is read from the pulpit at your church. When you hear the Bible read, it confirms what you are learning. You are taking in the cadence and structures of the translation making it part of your thought-life.
 
Look at today’s verse. Grace is a heaven-sent gift. If the word “grace” is used at all in our world today, it is used as a reference to pray. As in, ‘let’s say grace’. But the word is fuller, richer and far-reaching in meaning. It is the love of God extended to you through Jesus Christ and includes His merciful forgiveness, His patience, His work in you and the goal of bringing to completion the salvation He has begun in you. Peace signifies that God’s anger against your sin is ended because Jesus has been punished for your sins at the cross. You now are dressed in His righteousness. Peace means you are a member of God’s family and as such live at peace, an intentional peace, won through the work of Jesus Christ.
 
The source of grace and peace is from God our Father. Look at that little pronoun our. Through Jesus Christ He is your Father and mine. What privilege is granted to the believer. Because we have Him as our One Father there must be every effort made among us to live at peace together. How we live bears witness to the sincerity of faith and commitment to the Gospel.
 
Jesus is named the Lord Jesus Christ. If He is your Savior (because that is what Jesus means: He saves you from the penalty of your sins) then He must be your Lord as well. There is no sense in saying Jesus saves me, but I don’t follow Him. It is impossible. In the Bible salvation is turning away from sin and following Jesus Christ. Christ is not Jesus’s last Name. It is the word which means He is anointed. In the Old Testament men were anointed to the office of priest, or of king, or of prophet. No man held more than one such office. Jesus is the fulfilment of every office: Prophet, Priest and King. He is The Anointed One.
 
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, Who hast given unto us Thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity, we beseech Thee, that Thou wouldest keep us steadfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities; Who livest and reignest One God world without end. Amen.
“Trinity” Divine Service Book for the Armed Forces, 1950, page 39
 
https://youtu.be/9jKC9vXwiRM?si=JCpGA8lomEXY4fLm “I Am Not My Own” Getty Music
 

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