{"id":653,"date":"2022-06-13T19:16:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T19:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/?p=653"},"modified":"2022-06-13T19:16:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T19:16:16","slug":"dec-23-gods-indescribable-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/dec-23-gods-indescribable-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Dec. 23 &#8211; God&#8217;s Indescribable Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-adtags-visited=\"true\"><em>If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God\u00a0by the death of his Son, much more, now that we\u00a0are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More\u00a0than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord\u00a0Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received\u00a0reconciliation.\u00a0<\/em>\u2014Romans 5:10\u201311<\/p>\n<p data-adtags-visited=\"true\">How do we practically receive reconciliation and exult in\u00a0God? One answer is: do it through Jesus Christ. Which\u00a0means, at least in part, make the portrait of Jesus in the\u00a0Bible\u2014the work and the words of Jesus portrayed in the\u00a0New Testament\u2014the essential content of your exultation\u00a0over God. Exultation without the content of Christ does\u00a0not honor\u00a0<span class=\"skimlinks-unlinked\">Christ.In<\/span>\u00a02 Corinthians 4:4\u20136, Paul describes conversion two\u00a0ways. In verse 4, he says it is seeing \u201cthe glory of Christ,\u00a0who is the image of God.\u201d And in verse 6, he says it is seeing\u00a0\u201cthe glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.\u201d In either case\u00a0you see the point. We have Christ, the image of God, and\u00a0we have God in the face of Christ.\u00a0Practically, to exult in God, you exult in what you see and\u00a0know of God in the portrait of Jesus Christ. And this comes\u00a0to its fullest experience when the love of God is poured out\u00a0in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as Romans 5:5\u00a0<span class=\"skimlinks-unlinked\">says.So<\/span>\u00a0here\u2019s the Christmas point. Not only did God purchase our reconciliation through the death of the Lord\u00a0Jesus Christ (verse 10), and not only did God enable us to\u00a0receive that reconciliation through the Lord Jesus Christ\u00a0(verse 11), but even now, verse 11 says, we exult in God\u00a0himself through our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0J<em>esus purchased our reconciliation<\/em>. Jesus enabled us to\u00a0receive the reconciliation and open the gif. And Jesus\u00a0himself shines forth from the wrapping\u2014the indescribable gif\u2014as God in the fesh, and stirs up all our exultation in God.\u00a0Look to Jesus this Christmas. Receive the reconciliation that he bought. Don\u2019t put it on the shelf unopened.\u00a0And don\u2019t open it and then make it a means to all your\u00a0other pleasures.\u00a0Open it and enjoy the gif. Exult in him. Make him\u00a0your pleasure. Make him your treasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God\u00a0by the death of his Son, much more, now that we\u00a0are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More\u00a0than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord\u00a0Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received\u00a0reconciliation.\u00a0\u2014Romans 5:10\u201311 How do we practically receive reconciliation and exult in\u00a0God? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcf.church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}