Max Lucado Daily: WHY GOD CAME
The God of the Universe was born into the poverty of a peasant and spent his first night in the cow’s feed trough. He left the glory of heaven and moved into our neighborhood.
Who could have imagined he would do such a thing? What a world he left. Our classiest mansion would be a tree trunk to him. God became a one-celled embryo and entered the womb of Mary. He became like us. Just look at the places he was willing to go: feed troughs, carpentry shops, badlands, and cemeteries. The places he went to reach us show how far he will go to touch us. He loves to be with the ones he loves!
Read more In the Manger
Matthew 14:22-36
Walking on the Water
22-23 As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night.
24-26 Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. They were scared out of their wits. “A ghost!” they said, crying out in terror.
27 But Jesus was quick to comfort them. “Courage, it’s me. Don’t be afraid.”
28 Peter, suddenly bold, said, “Master, if it’s really you, call me to come to you on the water.”
29-30 He said, “Come ahead.”
Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, “Master, save me!”
31 Jesus didn’t hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, “Faint-heart, what got into you?”
32-33 The two of them climbed into the boat, and the wind died down. The disciples in the boat, having watched the whole thing, worshiped Jesus, saying, “This is it! You are God’s Son for sure!”
34-36 On return, they beached the boat at Gennesaret. When the people got wind that he was back, they sent out word through the neighborhood and rounded up all the sick, who asked for permission to touch the edge of his coat. And whoever touched him was healed.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 04, 2017
Read: Luke 1:68–75
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn[a] of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
Footnotes:
Luke 1:69 Horn here symbolizes a strong king.
INSIGHT
One of the great themes of Luke’s gospel record is that it continually affirms that the message of Jesus’s death and resurrection is for everyone—not just for Israel. Today’s devotional declares that Christ’s coming would “cause great joy for all the people” (2:10). This important message continues later in this chapter when Simeon says that salvation is prepared in the “sight of all nations” and that Israel’s Messiah is both “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel” (vv. 30–32). At the conclusion of Luke’s account, the risen Christ tells the two disciples on the Emmaus road that “repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (24:47). This message was not intended for Israel alone, nor are we to keep it to ourselves. The entire world is the object of God’s love.
For more on sharing your faith, see the Discovery Series booklet Truth with Love: Sharing the Story of Jesus. - Bill Crowder
Christmas at MacPherson
By Poh Fang Chia
Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. Luke 1:68
About 230 families and individuals live at MacPherson Gardens, Block 72 in my neighborhood. Each person has his or her own life story. On the tenth floor resides an elderly woman whose children have grown up, gotten married, and moved out. She lives by herself now. Just a few doors away from her is a young couple with two kids—a boy and a girl. And a few floors below lives a young man serving in the army. He has been to church before; maybe he will visit again on Christmas Day. I met these people last Christmas when our church went caroling in the neighborhood to spread Christmas cheer.
Every Christmas—as on the first Christmas—there are many people who do not know that God has entered into our world as a baby whose name is Jesus (Luke 1:68; 2:21). Or they do not know the significance of that event—it is “good news that will cause great joy for all the people” (2:10). Yes, all people! Regardless of our nationality, culture, gender, or financial status, Jesus came to die for us and offer us complete forgiveness so that we can be reconciled with Him and enjoy His love, joy, peace, and hope. All people, from the woman next door to the colleagues we have lunch with, need to hear this wonderful news!
The good news of Jesus’s birth is a source of joy for all people.
On the first Christmas, the angels were the bearers of this joyous news. Today, God desires to work through us to take the story to others.
Lord, use me to touch the lives of others with the news of Your coming.
The good news of Jesus’s birth is a source of joy for all people.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 04, 2017
The Law of Opposition
To him who overcomes… —Revelation 2:7
Life without war is impossible in the natural or the supernatural realm. It is a fact that there is a continuing struggle in the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual areas of life.
Health is the balance between the physical parts of my body and all the things and forces surrounding me. To maintain good health I must have sufficient internal strength to fight off the things that are external. Everything outside my physical life is designed to cause my death. The very elements that sustain me while I am alive work to decay and disintegrate my body once it is dead. If I have enough inner strength to fight, I help to produce the balance needed for health. The same is true of the mental life. If I want to maintain a strong and active mental life, I have to fight. This struggle produces the mental balance called thought.
Morally it is the same. Anything that does not strengthen me morally is the enemy of virtue within me. Whether I overcome, thereby producing virtue, depends on the level of moral excellence in my life. But we must fight to be moral. Morality does not happen by accident; moral virtue is acquired.
And spiritually it is also the same. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation…” (John 16:33). This means that anything which is not spiritual leads to my downfall. Jesus went on to say, “…but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” I must learn to fight against and overcome the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness. Then it becomes a delight to meet opposition.
Holiness is the balance between my nature and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Awe is the condition of a man’s spirit realizing Who God is and what He has done for him personally. Our Lord emphasizes the attitude of a child; no attitude can express such solemn awe and familiarity as that of a child. Not Knowing Whither, 882 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 04, 2017
The Hole in Your Heart - #8061
Our friend had a medical procedure to repair what the doctor called "a hole in her heart." Then he told her that everyone is born with a hole in their heart. That got my attention. Really? I called a longtime friend of mine who is a highly experienced and respected heart surgeon. He told me that before we are born, there's a hole that is this passageway for blood to enter our pre-natal heart. In most people, and I'm glad I'm most people, the hole heals up within a few days after birth. But for a few, it doesn't go away, and it really needs to be repaired.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hole in Your Heart."
So everyone is born with a hole in their heart. Not just physically, but spiritually. But unlike that physical hole in your heart, the spiritual one doesn't go away unless you let the greatest physician of all fill that hole.
That spiritual hole in our heart keeps letting us know that it's there through the loneliness that no relationship seems to remove. The emptiness that never goes away for very long, no matter what we do to fill up our life. The "what's it all for?" questions about life that make everything seem so ultimately meaningless. It's like there's this voice inside us that seems to be saying, "Something's missing." We keep thinking the next relationship will be what we're missing, or the next thrill, or the next accomplishment, the next spiritual experience, the next "toy," the next milestone. But every time we get to the top of the hill we think has what we've been looking for, we find there's another hill to climb.
After a while, we assume that this hollowness inside, this hole in our heart is just how it is. The Bible describes King Solomon as the richest and wisest man of his time. And he had the resources to do it all. Here's his conclusion: "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind." But just accepting that hole in your heart is ultimately deadly. It needs to be treated. It needs to be healed by the only One big enough to fill that hole in your heart; the God who made you to belong to Him. The brilliant physicist Blaise Pascal concluded that "inside every man is a God-shaped vacuum."
The hole in your heart is there to tell you that you really need God and that He isn't there because of something that makes it impossible for God to live there - all the sinning you and I have done; all the wrong things. Until that's forgiven and removed, the God you were made for has to remain outside.
In John 4:13-14, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is at a well, talking with a woman who has tried to fill the hole in her heart with one relationship after another. Jesus says to her, and to you, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst ... the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Wow, those words, "Thirsty again" - that's the hole in our heart. "Never thirst" - well, that's the hole in our heart finally filled as Jesus erases every sin of your life with His amazing forgiveness. He can do that because He did all the dying for all the sinning you've ever done. It's paid for. Which means your heart can be clean today and the God of the universe can finally move in; your lifetime search over. But you have to reach out to Jesus. You've got to tell Him that you're done driving your life, and that you're trusting completely in His death for your sin.
Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, you made me. You've got me. You paid for me with your life on the cross. I'm yours." He's alive. He walked out of his grave. He can walk into your life today.
You know, there's great information about how to begin this relationship at our website. And I want to invite you just to make your next stop that website if you could. It's ANewStory.com. Would you go there?
You've lived enough days without the One you were made for. You don't need to be without Him one more day.
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