The Importance of Drawing Near - Dec 17
First15 Devotional
First15
4.9 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2019
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
The Christmas season is a powerful and unique time of year to remember that Jesus came to make a way for us to be near God. In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus built a bridge between us and God allowing us to have continual, unhindered communion with our Creator. But God can’t force us into nearness with him. Even as believers filled with the Holy Spirit, we can choose to live as if God is still far off. So this Christmas season, may we choose to open our hearts to the living God that we might experience fullness of joy in his loving presence.
Our Scripture for today comes from James 4:8, and today's worship is Draw Near by Jeremy Riddle.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Christmas season is a powerful and unique time of year to remember that Jesus came to make a way for us to be near God. |
| 0:12.0 | In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus built a bridge |
| 0:16.8 | between us and God, allowing us to have continual unhingered communion with our Creator. But God can't force us into nearness with Him. |
| 0:27.3 | Even as believers filled with the Holy Spirit, we can choose to live as if God is still far off. |
| 0:34.0 | So this Christmas season, may we choose to open our hearts to the living God, |
| 0:39.0 | that we might experience fullness of joy in his loving presence. |
| 0:43.0 | Welcome to the First of Team Podcast. Our very Our verse for today comes from James 4, verse |
| 1:05.0 | 8. Scripture says, |
| 1:10.0 | draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. |
| 1:15.0 | James 4-8 contains a powerful promise of God. |
| 1:20.0 | Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. |
| 1:25.0 | For a while I thought this verse seems backwards. |
| 1:29.0 | Doesn't God do the drawing? |
| 1:31.0 | Isn't God the one who constantly pursues us? |
| 1:35.0 | But after diving deeper into the meaning of James 4-8, I discovered an important truth that's |
| 1:41.9 | foundational to living in communion with God. |
| 1:45.7 | The door of God's heart is always open to us. |
| 1:50.9 | His love is always for us. His presence is always available. |
| 1:57.0 | The Father turned away from Jesus as our sins rested squarely on his shoulders, |
| 2:04.0 | ensuring he would never have to turn away from us. |
| 2:10.0 | To draw near to God is to simply open our hearts to what was always available. |
| 2:16.0 | It's not that God ever withholds his presence from us, |
... |
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