1741, 2018, 1315

Uplifting Moments Guest Column
By: 
Gary Novak
Monticello Baptist Church

Those numbers above were not taken from my credit card!  Rather, 1741 is the year when George Handel composed "Messiah".  Every Christmas Season for the past few years our family has listened to this masterpiece of praise.  The word "music" is from our word "muse" which means "to think and ponder".  "Messiah" is music at its best.  The second set of numbers is for the coming year.  I will present to you what can make 2018 a year that pleases God and you.  This brings me to the number 1315, from the book of Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15: "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." "Praise" and "prize" in our language are from the same Latin word.  Praise means that we can prize and honor God with our music and song, and with our life and spoken words.

    This one short verse brings the close of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 together with praise and thanksgiving.  The Christmas Season is about the One who was born to die, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Because the wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23), in His love Jesus came to die as our Substitute -- the sin-bearing, yet sinless, Savior. Hebrews 13:15 tells us that it is "by Him", by Jesus Christ, that we are to offer praise to our triune God continually.  This verse comes at the conclusion of the book of Hebrews which meticulously explains the truths concerning Jesus Christ, as our Creator, Mediator, Savior, and coming King.  "Therefore" (because of these truths) we are to continually offer our sacrifice of praise.  We do this through faith in Jesus Christ, by the free flowing grace of God to us. His grace is cleansing and enabling. Hebrews 12:28 tells us "let us have grace".  Let us hold on to grace because this is God's strength and love for each new day in 2018 as we live lives of praise to Him.

    Do we bury 2017 or do we thank God for it?  In Jesus Christ we can do both. God says, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more" (Hebrews 10:17).  God forgets our sins because they are forgiven forever through faith in Christ. He has "cast all our sins into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). They are buried. But God also gave us His love and power in 2017 as we manifested His character, which is Christ in us! So Hebrews 13:15 ends by saying, "giving thanks to His name."  We are thankful to our God for His provision of grace in 2017 through the risen Lord Jesus.

    Hebrews 13:15 also says that praise is a sacrifice.  It is a sacrifice because we not only have a new nature through faith in Jesus Christ, but we still have the old sin nature.  We must sacrificially yield ourselves to Him so that He can fill us with the Holy Spirit, thus making thankful praise a part of our daily lives.  If you are not born again as a child of God, why not receive Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior today? Then, as Handel offered a great tribute of praise to our Messiah in 1741, so can you in 2018 according to Hebrews 13:15!     

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