DAILY DEVOTIONAL – December 17, 2020
“Invisible Kingdom (Advent 2020)”
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for revealing Yourself to us in Your Son, Jesus Christ. We believe, Lord, help us in our unbelief! (Mark 9:24) Amen.
Scripture – Colossians 1:15-22
15 He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Devotion – “Invisible Kingdom”
Helen Keller was one of America’s most influential people. President John F. Kennedy said of Keller that she was one of the very few men and women in history whose achievements had become legendary in their own lifetime. Regardless of whether or not you agree with everything that Helen Keller stood for and fought for, there can be no denying, that she managed to have a substantial influence on the nation and the world she couldn’t even see or hear, because Helen Keller was both blind and deaf.
If there was ever a top excuse used by people for why they don’t believe in God, it is because they can’t see Him (or at least they can’t see what they think God should look like). I am always amused by this line of argument against faith in God, because people who don’t believe in God never apply the same reasoning to what they do believe in. Emotions, thoughts, gravity, desires, hopes, dreams, wind, spoken words, and many more examples are things that are invisible but yet are things no atheist or agnostic I have ever met denies are real. That is why I find many of the words and adages attributed to Helen Keller so interesting. Keller said, “I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.”
Jesus taught us that God is eternal spirit, that He is invisible because He is the maker of all things visible and invisible. I would argue that God’s beauty is exponentially more inspiring because His true being cannot be seen. I agree with Helen Keller when she said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart. The best things in life are unseen, that’s why we close our eyes when we kiss, cry, and dream.”
The Bible has a lot to say about what can be seen and what is unseen.
2 Corinthians 4:18 – “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Hebrews 11:3 – “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
Romans 1:20 – “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
When Thomas, one of Christ’s disciples who refused to believe in the resurrection unless He saw the scars of Christ, Jesus appeared to Thomas and showed Him those very scars, and said to Thomas in John 20:29, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
When the Last and Final Day of this life as we know it comes, and God pulls back the heavens that currently veil His very real presence here with us now, it will be a day of glorious salvation for all who have already seen Him and been known by God through a heart and eyes of faith. For those who see and believe in Jesus now, who is the “image of the invisible God”, that Last Day will be the first Day of eternity in the visible presence of God. For those who have chosen to remain in the darkness of their own disbelief and faithlessness, that Last Day will be just that, their last day of life lived in the presence of God, and the beginning of an eternal hell that is separation from God.
In his writings on 1 Corinthians 15, a passage where Scripture talks about the Last Day, Luther says the following about the Kingdom of God that is with us now and invisibly present, and that same Kingdom of God that will be visibly revealed on the Last Day.
What a glorious that day will be my friends, and it is a day that is coming very soon. Thanks for joining me in another time of devotion and waiting on the faithfulness of God in His Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
