MONDAY February 17th
As we start another week, I am continuing the theme of Jesus the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast, and as I was pondering which direction to go, I thought back to a convention that I attended way back in the early part of the 1990’s and the theme for the week was Jesus is. Now I do not remember anything about the week except for one sermon that was given by a man who if I remember correctly was called Leonard Albertson or something very similar who had come across form the USA. He took for the theme of his message ‘Jesus is GREAT’ and then used each of the letters from the word great to define something about Jesus.
I do have a copy of the recording somewhere, I will have to try and dig it out, but I do recall him saying that which the subject of the conference being ‘Jesus is . . .’ then the conference could have gone on and on and on as we could never ever uncover all there is to know about him. And as I have sought to bring these devotions based on something of who Jesus is and the thought concerning Jesus bringing sweetness to our lives, it seems that I could also go on and on . . . because he is so incredible and amazing.
Now that time back in the 1990’s the speaker used (if I remember correctly) the following words to describe something about Jesus:
Jesus is GREAT because he is:
G – God
R – Redeemer
E – Energiser
A – Advocate
T – Triumphant
Well, I am going to take us right back to the time when the angel announced to Mary concerning the birth of Jesus and to Luke 1:31-33,
‘And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”’
There in this announcement are the words ‘He will be great . . . and of his kingdom there will be no end’.
I guess if we were to draw up a list of those who we would consider to be great, we would all come up with different answers according perhaps to what our interests are.
Those interested in politics would choose who they think has been the greatest politician, for those interested in sport, the greatest sportsperson, and we could say the same with the greatest actor, the greatest inventor, the greatest in the field of medicine etc. But whatever the list there is none so great as Jesus! ‘He will be great’, the angel said, and today, some two-thousand years later we say, ‘He is great’ and ‘he will be eternally great’ therefore we should be eternally grateful for all that he has done for us. I never will cease to praise him.
Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,
great David’s greater Son!
Hail in the time appointed,
his reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression,
to set the captive free;
to take away transgression,
and rule in equity.