If you want to see people on the edge of insanity, just watch the way families treat their babies at Christmastime! The poor child has no warning! Red furry stocking cap, goofy elfish shoes that curl at the toes. And the pictures we take! Baby snoozing under the tree. Baby on Santa’s lap. Santa with wet spot on lap.
Is not Christmas the story of a baby? The moment that shaped all others? Mary’s eyes falling on the face of her just-born son. The first to whisper, “So this is what God looks like!” Never in mankind’s wildest imaginings did we consider that God would enter the world as an infant. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Would you like to see God? Take a look at the baby Jesus!
Read more Because of Bethlehem
Psalm 56
A David Psalm, When He Was Captured by the Philistines in Gath
56 1-4 Take my side, God—I’m getting kicked around,
stomped on every day.
Not a day goes by
but somebody beats me up;
They make it their duty
to beat me up.
When I get really afraid
I come to you in trust.
I’m proud to praise God;
fearless now, I trust in God.
What can mere mortals do?
5-6 They don’t let up—
they smear my reputation
and huddle to plot my collapse.
They gang up,
sneak together through the alleys
To take me by surprise,
wait their chance to get me.
7 Pay them back in evil!
Get angry, God!
Down with these people!
8 You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn
through the sleepless nights,
Each tear entered in your ledger,
each ache written in your book.
9 If my enemies run away,
turn tail when I yell at them,
Then I’ll know
that God is on my side.
10-11 I’m proud to praise God,
proud to praise God.
Fearless now, I trust in God;
what can mere mortals do to me?
12-13 God, you did everything you promised,
and I’m thanking you with all my heart.
You pulled me from the brink of death,
my feet from the cliff-edge of doom.
Now I stroll at leisure with God
in the sunlit fields of life.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 07, 2018
Read: Psalm 139:13–18
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.
17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I’ll never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
all the men and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!
INSIGHT
David wrote Psalm 139 to worship God, but he also gave us a primer in theology proper—the study of the person of God. He does this by focusing on three of God’s character qualities, what theologians call “attributes.” In verse 1, David points out God’s omniscience—that He is all-knowing: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.” He then moves to God’s omnipresence—that God is everywhere present at once: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (v. 7). Then the psalmist moves to God’s omnipotence—that there is no limit to His power—which is evidenced in how He forms us: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (v. 13).
For more on Psalm 139, listen to the Discover the Word programs “Search Me” at discovertheword.org/series/search-me-2/. - Bill Crowder
God’s Hidden Hand
By Poh Fang Chia
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:16
My friend was adopted by a missionary couple from the United States and grew up in Ghana. After his family moved back to the US, he began college but had to drop out. Later, he signed on with the military, which eventually helped him pay for college and took him all over the world. Through it all, God was at work, preparing him for a special role. Today, he writes and edits Christian literature that ministers to an international audience.
His wife also has an interesting story. She failed her chemistry exams during her first year of college due to the strong medication she had to take for epilepsy. After some careful deliberation, she switched from studying science to studying American Sign Language, which had a more manageable workload. Reflecting on that experience, she says, “God was redirecting my life for a greater purpose.” Today, she is making His life-changing Word accessible to the hearing-impaired.
Do you sometimes wonder where God is leading you? Psalm 139:16 acknowledges God’s sovereign hand in our lives: “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” We don’t know how God will use the circumstances of our life, but we can rest in the knowledge that God knows everything about us and is directing our footsteps. Though His sovereign hand may seem hidden, He’s never absent.
Dear Lord, help me to trust You even when I don’t understand.
What steps can you take to discern God’s leading or to act on His call for your life?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 07, 2018
Repentance
Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation… —2 Corinthians 7:10
Conviction of sin is best described in the words:
My sins, my sins, my Savior,
How sad on Thee they fall.
Conviction of sin is one of the most uncommon things that ever happens to a person. It is the beginning of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict people of sin (see John 16:8). And when the Holy Spirit stirs a person’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not that person’s relationship with others that bothers him but his relationship with God— “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight…” (Psalm 51:4). The wonders of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven person who is truly holy. He proves he is forgiven by being the opposite of what he was previously, by the grace of God. Repentance always brings a person to the point of saying, “I have sinned.” The surest sign that God is at work in his life is when he says that and means it. Anything less is simply sorrow for having made foolish mistakes— a reflex action caused by self-disgust.
The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life (see Galatians 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious repentance followed by unconscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses— repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If you ever cease to understand the value of repentance, you allow yourself to remain in sin. Examine yourself to see if you have forgotten how to be truly repentant.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 07, 2018
Your Unchanging Address - #8325
In just one year, a whole lot changed for my wife and me. We sold our home of 24 years, and we disposed of a quarter century of accumulated "stuff"! We relocated to a home way out in the country in another state after our Board decided to relocate the entire ministry to that part of the country. So, we got a new personal address, we got a new ministry address, we had all new phone numbers, and new license plates, and new co-workers. But with all the changes, there was one thing that didn't change - our email address. No matter where we are, our email address is always the same!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Unchanging Address."
Even if you didn't know what email is, if you belong to Jesus Christ, you have an address that never changes no matter how many other things in your life are moving around.
The address where you can always be found is mentioned repeatedly in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Ephesians 1:3-7. Listen for your constant address. "God has blessed us...with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world, He predestined us to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through His blood." Then God talks about what "He purposed in Christ" for us, that "in Him" we were also chosen," that we were "the first to hope in Christ," and that you were included "in Christ."
Unless you have gone totally deaf or you have serious A.D.D., you know your unchanging spiritual address by now. You're always what? Yeah, "in Christ." That's right. In just 12 verses, God says you are "in Christ" eight times! You are, whether you know it or not, whether you feel like it or not, no matter where else you are, permanently in Christ! You're anchored in this unloseable relationship with this Jesus who loves you eternally, who has planned this relationship with you since before there was a world, who makes all His spiritual fortune available to you for what you're facing right now.
Now, if I ask you where you are right now, there are a number of answers you might give me. You might say "Well, I'm in the hospital," or "I'm in pain," or "I'm in love," or "I'm in over my head," or "I'm in a new place." Or it's possible that you're "in doubt," or "in between," or maybe "in debt," "in trouble," "in danger." But wherever your situation has located you, your anchor address is that you are in Christ. Paul could remain at peace inside, whether he was in jail, or in pain, or in trouble because he didn't draw his sense of wellbeing or who he was from his surroundings. Wherever you put him, he was in Christ and nothing else could touch that!
Is this your anchor, too? You know it could be even though you're religious and have a lot of Christianity, somewhere along the way maybe there's never been that time when you have grabbed on to Jesus to be your rescuer from your sin, like someone would grab a lifeguard if they were drowning. This could be that day for you. See, without that kind of turnover of you to Him, you're not in Christ. You might be around Him, but He's not in you. You're still outside of Christ. He's got to come in at your invitation before you are in Him. So this could be the day to anchor your life to this one unloseable. This could be your spiritual birthday to be born into His family. Tell Him, "Jesus, I want to make this mine. I am yours beginning this day because you died in my place for my sin." Wow! At that point you are in Christ and you are safe.
I'd love to help you get this nailed down. And that's why I've put what you need to know at our website. It is ANewStory.com. And, honestly, it's a great name for it, because this could be the beginning of a whole new story for you. Go there, will you?
You are standing on the edge of a totally dependable security. You are secure, no matter what has changed when you are in Christ and you're not moving!