I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. (John 17:4–5) We can hardly imagine the love revealed in Jesus’ choice to lay aside His glory and come to enjoy the beautiful evening, I pulled it into the backyard and slept there. Just before midnight, a giant flashlight shone through the camper window. When I investigated, I found two policemen standing in my backyard. The house alarm had sounded. My wife tried to call the alarm company, but got a repeated busy signal, so she returned to bed. Seeing evidence of my presence in the camper, the officers thought I might be a burglar. When they awakened me, I was wearing nothing but my briefs. You could say I was stripped of my glory as I stood in the bright beam of the officer’s flashlight. Yet the indignities we experience don’t compare to what Jesus experienced in coming to earth. He was the craftsman who created the world. He was stripped of all that so He could offer us eternal life. WEEK Week 7 Isaiah 53:2–3 prophesies Jesus’ earthly ministry like this: “He grew up before him like a tender nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” Compare that description to the glory you imagine 40 Wednesday—November 22•Jesus’ Love Revealed earth. A few years ago, my wife and I bought a camper. One perfect spring night, wanting to shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, as belonging to Jesus before He came to earth. How does that reveal His love for you? Daily Reading: Ezekiel 44:1–45:12, 1 Peter 1:1–12, Psalm 119:17–32, Proverbs 28:8–10 Thursday—November 23•God’s Witness Protection Program I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. (John 17:14–16) As Jesus prepared Himself and His disciples for His coming crucifixion, He prayed that God would protect His followers. That prayer extends to us as well. He leaves us in the world, intending that we will influence others to seek relationship with Him. He also knows we will meet resistance. You could say Jesus placed us in God’s witness protection program, but it’s the reverse of the world’s witness protection program. God doesn’t hide us, but He surrounds us with His presence and His power. He explains that, when we live out God’s truth, the world will hate us. And yet, this description is encased within Jesus’ desire that we would have robust joy. How can that happen? Jesus prepares us for the hatred we can expect as we live out God’s principles before people who haven’t yet responded to His invitation to relationship. As a result, we don’t have to be sad when people hate us, and we don’t have to be sad that we’re still in the world. We can experience the full measure of His joy as we live out His purpose. WEEK Week 7 Matthew 5:14–16 records Jesus telling His disciples that people don’t light a lamp and then hide it under a bowl. “Instead,” He said, “they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven.” How does that relate to today’s passage about remaining in the world, but being protected by God? Daily Reading: Ezekiel 45:13–46:24, 1 Peter 1:13–2:10, Psalm 119:33–48, Proverbs 28:11
20514 Man in Mirror
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