{"id":965,"date":"2011-12-28T13:02:07","date_gmt":"2011-12-28T19:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/giveusthisdaydevotional.com\/?p=965"},"modified":"2011-12-28T13:02:07","modified_gmt":"2011-12-28T19:02:07","slug":"december-29-hebrews-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/","title":{"rendered":"December 29 – Hebrews 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Hebrews 1 <\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Get your hymnals out now, because at the end of this meditation, you ought to feel like singing songs of praise to Jesus Christ!<\/p>\n

Jesus Christ is God\u2019s Final Word to us (the \u201clast days\u201d actually occurred in the 1st<\/sup> century, according to the writer of Hebrews), who are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.\u00a0 In the past, God spoke through the prophets, and God\u2019s people were to listen to and obey every word from God, and to respond with confession, praise, and thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

But now, God has spoken through His Son, who is The Prophet.\u00a0 He is not only The Prophet, but also the Word that the Prophet speaks, and the subject about which the Prophet speaks.\u00a0 He is, in Himself, the complete Word of God, proclaiming and making known the Father and His salvific will.<\/p>\n

He is the heir of all things.\u00a0 Having been obedient, having died for the world, having been raised in glory, and having ascended and been seated at the right hand of the Father, Christ is the heir of all things.\u00a0 To Him alone now, and not Satan, belong the heavens and the earth.\u00a0 Chief among His inheritance is us, His people, who through Him have inherited life with Him.\u00a0 He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.<\/p>\n

Through Him, the Father made the worlds.\u00a0 He was the Word that was present at Creation, the Word that is so powerful that when He speaks the world not only listens but also is created or sustained.\u00a0 He is the one Hindus are really seeking when they say or seek the sacred words that sustain life.\u00a0 He is the voice of God in our lives and the mouth of God through whom we hear God\u2019s voice.\u00a0 He is the one who thought of black holes and neutron stars and supernovae, and He is the one who thought of quarks and quantum physics.\u00a0 He is the one who buried gold in the earth and delights in the color of flowers and myriad shapes of insects.<\/p>\n

He is the brightness of the Father\u2019s glory, the Shekinah glory seen through the Bible.\u00a0 He is the glory ofMt.Sinaithat made Moses\u2019 face shine, and He is the glory that so filled theTemplethat the priests had to skeedaddle out of there.\u00a0 He is the Christ of the Transfiguration, the blinding light that knocked downSt. Paul, and the Sun of eternity in the book of Revelation.\u00a0 He is the radiance of God that radiates out from heaven and cuts through all time and space and the darkness of men\u2019s soul and whose glory is in all the earth.<\/p>\n

He is the very image of the nature of God: He is the Father made visible to us, so that having seen Him, we have seen the Father.\u00a0 He is the stamp of God upon Him, so closely identified with the stamper that the One Who Is and the One Who Is the Image are one and the same.<\/p>\n

He is not only the Creator but also the Sustainer, upholding all things by His Word.\u00a0 The world does not have an existence of its own: it is not a self-organizing, sentient, entity but is utterly dependent on the will and the Word of its Creator and Sustainer.\u00a0 If He who created stopped sustaining, then quarks would come unglued, the four elementary forces of physics would lose their grip, and the universe would dissipate into nothingness.\u00a0 He is what Hindus and Buddhists seek in the atman<\/em>, the One, only they do not see Him for Who He Is.<\/p>\n

This One who is God Almighty, the image and brightness of God and His glory, the Creator and Sustainer, is also the Redeemer.\u00a0 He is the One who bled and died on Good Friday and took upon Himself not only human flesh but also human sin.\u00a0 He is the Holy One of Israel who purges away the sins of the polluted ones who He had created good but who we had ruined.\u00a0 He is the perfectTemple, the perfect Priest, and the perfect Sacrifice.<\/p>\n

This one, once He had been raised from the dead and ascended to heaven, sat down at the right hand of the Father.\u00a0 From there He now rules as King of kings and Lord of lords.<\/p>\n

Compared to Him, angels are nothing.\u00a0 When men see angels, they are tempted to fall down and worship them.\u00a0 But every good angel immediately explains that he is also a creature and is not God.\u00a0 But when men see Christ, they fall down and worship, and they can\u2019t get up until He has helped them up.\u00a0 He is farther above the angels than the angels are above the amoebae.\u00a0 When the angels see Him, they<\/em> are the ones that fall down on their faces and can\u2019t look Him in His face.<\/p>\n

This is the Jesus Christ you have come to this morning.<\/p>\n

Now go and sing His praises!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prayer:\u00a0 Help me to see You today, Lord, and to worship You, who are the Son of God, whom the angels worship, who sits enthroned in heaven, who created the heavens and the earth.\u00a0\u00a0 You who are the Prophet, Priest, and King, and Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer, and have purged away my sins.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Point for Meditation:\u00a0 Take a few minutes and meditate on each of the phrases concerning Christ in verses 2-4.\u00a0 Pay attention to how you respond to each.\u00a0 Allow your meditations to lead to worship of Him.\u00a0 You may even want to space the meditations throughout the day so that you meditate on a different phrase at different times of the day, and in this way the whole day is made a day of worship to Him.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Resolution:\u00a0 I resolve to worship Jesus Christ today.\u00a0 I resolve to make an opportunity to sing His praises, to worship at His feet, to hear and obey His Word, to repent and go and sin no more, or do whatever else He is directing me to do as I worship Him today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2011 Fr. Charles Erlandson<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hebrews 1 Get your hymnals out now, because at the end of this meditation, you ought to feel like singing songs of praise to Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ is God\u2019s Final Word to us (the \u201clast days\u201d actually occurred in the 1st century, according to the writer of Hebrews), who are to live by every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2856,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[265,266,268,4,1531,1788],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-give-us-this-day","tag-bible-commentary","tag-bible-devotional","tag-bible-study","tag-daily-devotional","tag-meditation","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nDecember 29 - Hebrews 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shekinah glory, Word of God, Hebrews 1, image of God, angels, daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible commentary, Bible study, prayer, meditation, Christmas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"December 29 - Hebrews 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shekinah glory, Word of God, Hebrews 1, image of God, angels, daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible commentary, Bible study, prayer, meditation, Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Give Us This Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-28T19:02:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/files\/2011\/12\/David-Miles-The-Scroll-and-the-Lamb-square1-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Charles Erlandson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Charles Erlandson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/\",\"name\":\"December 29 - Hebrews 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-28T19:02:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-28T19:02:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/2679dc1b6b47aeb634ccb70c344a8407\"},\"description\":\"Shekinah glory, Word of God, Hebrews 1, image of God, angels, daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible commentary, Bible study, prayer, meditation, Christmas\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"December 29 – Hebrews 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/\",\"name\":\"Give Us This Day\",\"description\":\"Feeding Daily on God's Word\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/2679dc1b6b47aeb634ccb70c344a8407\",\"name\":\"Fr. Charles Erlandson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db4ab3e702014c8be819dd7095f583e6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db4ab3e702014c8be819dd7095f583e6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Charles Erlandson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/author\/cerlandson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"December 29 - Hebrews 1","description":"Shekinah glory, Word of God, Hebrews 1, image of God, angels, daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible commentary, Bible study, prayer, meditation, Christmas","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"December 29 - Hebrews 1","og_description":"Shekinah glory, Word of God, Hebrews 1, image of God, angels, daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible commentary, Bible study, prayer, meditation, Christmas","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/","og_site_name":"Give Us This Day","article_published_time":"2011-12-28T19:02:07+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/files\/2011\/12\/David-Miles-The-Scroll-and-the-Lamb-square1-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Fr. Charles Erlandson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Charles Erlandson","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/","name":"December 29 - Hebrews 1","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-12-28T19:02:07+00:00","dateModified":"2011-12-28T19:02:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/2679dc1b6b47aeb634ccb70c344a8407"},"description":"Shekinah glory, Word of God, Hebrews 1, image of God, angels, daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible commentary, Bible study, prayer, meditation, Christmas","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/december-29-hebrews-1\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"December 29 – Hebrews 1"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/","name":"Give Us This Day","description":"Feeding Daily on God's Word","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/2679dc1b6b47aeb634ccb70c344a8407","name":"Fr. Charles Erlandson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db4ab3e702014c8be819dd7095f583e6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db4ab3e702014c8be819dd7095f583e6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Fr. Charles Erlandson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/author\/cerlandson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2856"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}