Luke 2 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: God’s Never Failing Love

God will not let you go. The big news of the Bible is not that you love God but that God loves you! He tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. His thoughts of you outnumber the sand on the shore. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, flee his thoughts. You need not win his love. You already have it. He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him; he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision.

He knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict: he loves you still! No discovery will disillusion him. No rebellion will dissuade him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love– never failing, never ending.

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

Luke 2

The Birth of Jesus

1–5  2 About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

6–7  While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.

An Event for Everyone

8–12  There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”

13–14  At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:

Glory to God in the heavenly heights,

Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.

15–18  As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.

19–20  Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!

Blessings

21  When the eighth day arrived, the day of circumcision, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.

22–24  Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law: “Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God,” and also to sacrifice the “pair of doves or two young pigeons” prescribed in God’s Law.

25–32  In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God:

God, you can now release your servant;

release me in peace as you promised.

With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;

it’s now out in the open for everyone to see:

A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,

and of glory for your people Israel.

33–35  Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother,

This child marks both the failure and

the recovery of many in Israel,

A figure misunderstood and contradicted—

the pain of a sword-thrust through you—

But the rejection will force honesty,

as God reveals who they really are.

36–38  Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem.

39–40  When they finished everything required by God in the Law, they returned to Galilee and their own town, Nazareth. There the child grew strong in body and wise in spirit. And the grace of God was on him.

They Found Him in the Temple

41–45  Every year Jesus’ parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up as they always did for the Feast. When it was over and they left for home, the child Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents didn’t know it. Thinking he was somewhere in the company of pilgrims, they journeyed for a whole day and then began looking for him among relatives and neighbors. When they didn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem looking for him.

46–48  The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were all quite taken with him, impressed with the sharpness of his answers. But his parents were not impressed; they were upset and hurt.

His mother said, “Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you.”

49–50  He said, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?” But they had no idea what he was talking about.

51–52  So he went back to Nazareth with them, and lived obediently with them. His mother held these things dearly, deep within herself. And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, December 29, 2024

by Matt Lucas

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Genesis 11:1-8

“God Turned Their Language into ‘Babble’ ”

1–2  11 At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.

3  They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them well.” They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.

4  Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let’s make ourselves famous so we won’t be scattered here and there across the Earth.”

5  God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built.

6–9  God took one look and said, “One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they’ll come up with next—they’ll stop at nothing! Come, we’ll go down and garble their speech so they won’t understand each other.” Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city.

Today's Insights

The Hebrew word rendered “build/building” in Genesis 11 is banah (vv. 4, 5, 8). This term can refer to a physical building—whether rebuilding or establishing something—and metaphorically to building a family. Both usages occur in 2 Samuel 7 (see vv. 5, 7, 13, 27). Psalm 127:1 includes the word twice: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” Daniel 4:30 includes the Aramaic counterpart to banah from Nebuchadnezzar: “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” In the New Testament “to build” is a metaphor for the work of Christ in establishing His church (see Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 2:19-22). Building plans that fail to consider Jesus as the master builder (see Hebrews 3:4) are subject to fail.

Building What Lasts

They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, . . . so that we may make a name for ourselves.” Genesis 11:4

When I was a young boy in Ohio, we lived near several construction sites. Inspired by them, my friends and I gathered leftover scraps to build a fort. Borrowing tools from our parents, we hauled wood and spent days trying to make our material serve our purposes. It was fun, but our attempts were poor reflections of the well-constructed buildings around us. They didn’t last long.

In Genesis 11, we encounter a major building construction project. “Let us build ourselves a city,” said the people, “with a tower that reaches to the heavens” (v. 4). A big problem with this effort was that the people did it to “make a name for ourselves” (v. 4).

This has been a recurring issue for humans; we build monuments to ourselves and our achievements. Later in the biblical narrative, this story is contrasted with Solomon’s motivation for building God’s temple: “I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God” (1 Kings 5:5).

Solomon understood that what he built needed to point to God and not himself. This was such an important lesson that he even wrote a psalm about it. Psalm 127 opens with “unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain” (v. 1). Like my childhood fort-building, what we build will not last, but God’s name and what we do for Him has lasting significance. 

Reflect & Pray

What are you building with your life? How is your life bringing honor to God?

Father, please forgive me for the times I’ve focused on myself and not on what You’re doing in the world. 

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Deserter or Disciple?

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. — John 6:66

When God gives you a vision of what he wants, speaking to you by his Spirit through his word, and your mind and soul thrill to that vision, you must walk in the light of what you’ve seen. If you don’t, you will sink into servitude to a point of view our Lord never had. Disobedience to a heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “If they can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to walk in the light of the vision that has been given to you, not compare yourself to others or judge them. How others think and behave is between them and God.

When you find that a point of view in which you’ve been delighting clashes with a heavenly vision, put it away at once. Debating with God will only develop certain mindsets in you: a sense of property, a sense of personal rights—things in which Jesus Christ put absolutely no stock. He was always against any sense of personal entitlement, considering it the root of everything alien to himself. “Watch out!” he told his disciples. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t recognize this, we’re ignoring the undercurrent of our Lord’s teaching.

We have the tendency to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experiences we’ve had. If there’s any standard in the New Testament revealed by the light of God that you don’t meet—that you don’t even feel inclined to meet—that is the beginning of backsliding, because it means your conscience isn’t answering to the truth. You can never be the same after God unveils a truth to you. That moment marks a turning point: either you go on as an ever truer disciple of Jesus Christ, or you turn back as a deserter.

Zechariah 9-12; Revelation 20

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something.

The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L

Matthew 1 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado: Jesus is the Gift

Little Carol with the pigtails, freckles, and shiny back shoes. Don’t let her sweet description fool you.  She broke my heart!  On the day of the great gift exchange in my fourth-grade class, I ripped the wrapping paper off the box to find—stationery.  Stationery!  Brown envelopes and folded note cards with a picture of a cowboy lassoing a horse.  What ten-year-old boy uses stationery?  There’s a term for this kind of gift:  obligatory!

I know we shouldn’t complain, but don’t you detect a lack of originality? And when a person gives a genuine gift, don’t you cherish the presence of a gift just for you?  Have you ever received such a gift?  Yes, you have.  You’ve been given a perfect personal gift.  One just for you. God says to anyone who’ll listen:  ”There has been born for you…a Savior…. ”  Jesus is the gift!

 “There has been born for you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11”

From GRACE

Matthew 1

The family tree of Jesus Christ, David’s son, Abraham’s son:

2–6  Abraham had Isaac,

Isaac had Jacob,

Jacob had Judah and his brothers,

Judah had Perez and Zerah (the mother was Tamar),

Perez had Hezron,

Hezron had Aram,

Aram had Amminadab,

Amminadab had Nahshon,

Nahshon had Salmon,

Salmon had Boaz (his mother was Rahab),

Boaz had Obed (Ruth was the mother),

Obed had Jesse,

Jesse had David,

and David became king.

6–11  David had Solomon (Uriah’s wife was the mother),

Solomon had Rehoboam,

Rehoboam had Abijah,

Abijah had Asa,

Asa had Jehoshaphat,

Jehoshaphat had Joram,

Joram had Uzziah,

Uzziah had Jotham,

Jotham had Ahaz,

Ahaz had Hezekiah,

Hezekiah had Manasseh,

Manasseh had Amon,

Amon had Josiah,

Josiah had Jehoiachin and his brothers,

and then the people were taken into the Babylonian exile.

12–16  When the Babylonian exile ended,

Jeconiah had Shealtiel,

Shealtiel had Zerubbabel,

Zerubbabel had Abiud,

Abiud had Eliakim,

Eliakim had Azor,

Azor had Zadok,

Zadok had Achim,

Achim had Eliud,

Eliud had Eleazar,

Eleazar had Matthan,

Matthan had Jacob,

Jacob had Joseph, Mary’s husband,

the Mary who gave birth to Jesus,

the Jesus who was called Christ.

17  There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David,

another fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile,

and yet another fourteen from the Babylonian exile to Christ.

The Birth of Jesus

18–19  The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

20–23  While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term:

Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;

They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).

24–25  Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, December 28, 2024

by Karen Pimpo

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Exodus 2:1-10

Moses

1–3  2 A man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman. The woman became pregnant and had a son. She saw there was something special about him and hid him. She hid him for three months. When she couldn’t hide him any longer she got a little basket-boat made of papyrus, waterproofed it with tar and pitch, and placed the child in it. Then she set it afloat in the reeds at the edge of the Nile.

4–6  The baby’s older sister found herself a vantage point a little way off and watched to see what would happen to him. Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the Nile to bathe; her maidens strolled on the bank. She saw the basket-boat floating in the reeds and sent her maid to get it. She opened it and saw the child—a baby crying! Her heart went out to him. She said, “This must be one of the Hebrew babies.”

7  Then his sister was before her: “Do you want me to go and get a nursing mother from the Hebrews so she can nurse the baby for you?”

8  Pharaoh’s daughter said, “Yes. Go.” The girl went and called the child’s mother.

9  Pharaoh’s daughter told her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me. I’ll pay you.” The woman took the child and nursed him.

10  After the child was weaned, she presented him to Pharaoh’s daughter who adopted him as her son. She named him Moses (Pulled-Out), saying, “I pulled him out of the water.”

Today's Insights

Scripture offers two reasons why Moses’ parents, Amram and Jochebed (Numbers 26:59), protected Moses. First, Jochebed saw that “he was a fine child” (Exodus 2:2); she saw something special in him. He’s described as “no ordinary child” (Acts 7:20; Hebrews 11:23). A second reason is that his parents “were not afraid of the king’s edict” (Hebrews 11:23). Like the two Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah (Exodus 1:15, 17), his parents feared God more than they feared Pharaoh. Hebrews 11:23 commends Amram and Jochebed as people of great faith.

Step in Faith

By faith Moses’ parents hid him . . . and they were not afraid. Hebrews 11:23

John was devastated when he lost his job. Closer to the end of his career than the beginning, he knew it would be hard to start over somewhere new. He started praying for the right job. Then John updated his resume, read interview tips, and made a lot of phone calls. After weeks of applying, he accepted a new position with a great schedule and an easy commute. His faithful obedience and God’s provision had met at the perfect intersection.

A more dramatic instance of this occurred with Jochebed (Exodus 6:20) and her family during the time of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt. When Pharaoh decreed that all newborn Hebrew sons must be cast into the Nile (1:22), Jochebed must have been terrified. She couldn’t change the law, but there were some steps she could take to obey God and try to save her son. In faith, she hid him from the Egyptians. She made a little, watertight papyrus basket and “put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile” (2:3). God stepped in to miraculously preserve his life (vv. 5-10) and later used him to deliver all of Israel from slavery (3:10).

John and Jochebed took very different steps, but both stories are marked by faith-filled action. Fear can paralyze us. Even if the result isn’t what we expected or hoped for, faith empowers us to keep trusting in God’s goodness regardless of the outcome.

Reflect & Pray

When do you find yourself frozen in fear or worry? How can you faithfully take the next God-honoring step?

Dear God, please help me faithfully take each step on the path You have for me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Continuous Conversion

Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 18:3

Our Lord is speaking here of the change that marks our initial conversion. But this isn’t a change we make just once at the start of our walk with him. We have to be continuously converted all the days of our lives, to continually turn to God as little children.

If we trust in our intelligence instead of in God, we’ll produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. Whenever our bodies are brought into new conditions by his providence, we have to see that our natural life obeys the dictates of his Spirit. Just because we’ve done it once is no proof that we’ll do it again. The relation of the natural to the spiritual has to be one of continuous conversion. And yet continually converting our natural impulses into spiritual obedience is the one thing we object to.

In every new setting in which God places us, his Spirit remains unchanged and his salvation unaltered. But we have to “put on the new self” (Ephesians 4:24) by undergoing another conversion. God holds us responsible every time we refuse to convert ourselves, because he knows that our reason for refusing is natural willfulness.

Our natural impulses must not rule; God must. The obstacle in our spiritual life is that we have great wedges of obstinacy inside us, places where pride spits at the throne of God and says, “I won’t.” We refuse to be continually converted, deifying independence and willfulness and calling them by the wrong name. We call them “strength,” while God sees them as obstinate weakness. There are whole regions of our lives that we haven’t yet brought into subjection to him. The only way we can make them submit is by continuous conversion. Slowly but surely, we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.

Zechariah 5-8; Revelation 19

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. 

Not Knowing Whither, 903 R

Deuteronomy 9 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Divine Warnings

Warnings.  Red lights in life that signal us of impending danger. They exist in all parts of life. Sirens scream as a marriage starts to sour; alarms blare when a faith weakens.
We usually know when trouble is just around the corner. Christians who've fallen away felt the fire waning long before it went out.  Unwanted pregnancies or explosions of anger are usually the result of a history of ignoring warnings about an impending fire.
Are your senses numb? Are your eyes trained to turn and roll when they should pause and observe?  One-night stands.  Dust-covered Bibles.  Careless choice of companions.  Denial of Christ.
Proverbs 19:27 says, "Cease listening to [My] instruction and you will stray from the words of knowledge."
Divine warnings.  Inspired by God; tested by time. Heed them and safety is yours to enjoy!
From God Came Near

Deuteronomy 9

The Consequences of Rebelling against God

Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations larger and mightier than you, great cities, fortified to the heavens, 2 a strong and tall people, the offspring of the Anakim, whom you know. You have heard it said of them, “Who can stand up to the Anakim?” 3 Know then today that the Lord your God is the one who crosses over before you as a devouring fire; he will defeat them and subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

4 When the Lord your God thrusts them out before you, do not say to yourself, “It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to occupy this land”; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land; but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the Lord made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6 Know, then, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place.

8 Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11 At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord said to me, “Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves.” 13 Furthermore the Lord said to me, “I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people. 14 Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.”

15 So I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was ablaze; the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God, by casting for yourselves an image of a calf; you had been quick to turn from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and flung them from my two hands, smashing them before your eyes. 18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin you had committed, provoking the Lord by doing what was evil in his sight. 19 For I was afraid that the anger that the Lord bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. 20 The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, but I interceded also on behalf of Aaron at that same time. 21 Then I took the sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was reduced to dust; and I threw the dust of it into the stream that runs down the mountain.

22 At Taberah also, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and occupy the land that I have given you,” you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, neither trusting him nor obeying him. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord as long as he has[c] known you.

25 Throughout the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate before the Lord when the Lord intended to destroy you, 26 I prayed to the Lord and said, “Lord God, do not destroy the people who are your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin, 28 otherwise the land from which you have brought us might say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.’ 29 For they are the people of your very own possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, December 27, 2014

Read: Matthew 2:13-21

The Escape to Egypt

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 Then Joseph[a] got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

The Massacre of the Infants
16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men,[b] he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.[c] 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
    wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
    she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
The Return from Egypt
19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20 “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” 21 Then Joseph[d] got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.

Footnotes:

Matthew 2:14 Gk he
Matthew 2:16 Or astrologers; Gk magi
Matthew 2:16 Or astrologers; Gk magi
Matthew 2:21 Gk he

Insight
Today’s passage is both a harrowing and a comforting account of early events in Jesus’ life. Verse 15 reminds us that the threat to His life and His family’s hasty escape to Egypt were within God’s plan.

Out Of Egypt
By Dave Branon

Take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt. —Matthew 2:13

One year when our family was traveling through Ohio on the way to Grandma’s house, we arrived in Columbus just as a tornado warning was issued. Suddenly everything changed as we feared that our children might be in danger.

I mention that story to help us imagine what it was like for Joseph’s family as he, Mary, and their young child traveled to Egypt. Herod, not a tornado, threatened them as he sought to kill their little boy. Imagine how frightening it was for them, knowing that “Herod [sought] the young Child to destroy Him” (Matt. 2:13).

We usually take a more idyllic view of Christmastime—lowing cattle and kneeling shepherds in a peaceful scene. But there was no peace for Jesus’ family as they sought to escape Herod’s horror. Only when an angel told them it was safe did the family go out of Egypt and back home to Nazareth (vv.20-23).

Consider the awe we should feel for the incarnation. Jesus, who enjoyed the majesty of heaven in partnership with the Father, set it all aside to be born in poverty, to face many dangers, and to be crucified for us. Coming out of Egypt is one thing, but leaving heaven for us—that’s the grand and amazing part of this story!

Jesus our Savior left heaven above,
Coming to earth as a Servant with love;
Laying aside all His glory He came,
Bringing salvation through faith in His name. —Hess
Jesus came to earth for us so we could go to heaven with Him.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 27, 2014

Where the Battle is Won or Lost

"If you will return, O Israel," says the Lord… —Jeremiah 4:1
Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.

I should never say, “I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test.” Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.

In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point— a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory.

Deuteronomy 8, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: The Secret of Forgiveness

You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you. Is it still hard to consider the thought of forgiving the one who hurt you? If so, go one more time to the room. Watch Jesus as he goes from disciple to disciple. Can you see him? Can you hear the water splash? Can you hear him shuffle on the floor to the next person? Keep that image.
John 13:12 says, "When he had finished washing their feet. . ." Please note, he finished washing their feet. That means he left no one out. Why is that important? Because that means he washed the feet of Judas. Jesus washed the feet of his betrayer. That's not to say it was easy for Jesus, and that's not to say it's easy for you. It IS to say, God will never call you to do what he hasn't already done!
From Inspirational Reader

Deuteronomy 8

A Warning Not to Forget God in Prosperity

This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.[a] 4 The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.

11 Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous[b] snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 19 If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 26, 2014

Read: John 1:1-14

The Word Became Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life,[a] and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.[b]

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own,[c] and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,[d] full of grace and truth.

Footnotes:

John 1:4 Or 3 through him. And without him not one thing came into being that has come into being. 4 In him was life
John 1:9 Or He was the true light that enlightens everyone coming into the world
John 1:11 Or to his own home
John 1:14 Or the Father’s only Son

Insight
John’s writings focus on the theme of light. Here, in the prologue of his gospel, John identifies Jesus as “the Light” to whom he bears witness (v.7). While also picturing Jesus as the Word (v.1) and the Creator (v.10), the portrayal of Jesus as the “Light of the world” seems to be foremost in John’s mind (John 8:12; 9:5). He is the Light who has come to live among us.

In The Neighborhood
By Joe Stowell

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. —John 1:14

It was the buzz of our neighborhood. A famous professional football player had moved in just two houses down from where we lived. We had seen him on television and read about his great skills on the field, but we never thought he would choose to reside in our neighborhood. Initially, our expectations were that we would welcome him into the neighborhood and we would all become great friends. But his life was obviously far too busy for any of us to get to know him personally.

Imagine this: Jesus—the Lord of the universe and Creator of all things—chose to dwell among us! He left heaven and came to this earth. As John says, “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14). Jesus chose to become intimately involved with all who will come to Him. And, even more significant, for those of us who have received His redeeming love, the Holy Spirit has now set up residence in our hearts to comfort, counsel, convict, lead, and teach us.

When you think of the Babe in the manger, remember how special it is that He not only moved into our “neighborhood,” but that He did it so He could bless us with the intimate privileges of His residence within us.

Lord, I’m amazed that You, the greatest One of all,
would take up residence within us! Help us to
treasure the gift of Your presence as our ultimate joy.
Draw us to Yourself to enjoy intimacy with You.
Take advantage of the gift of God’s presence.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 26, 2014

“Walk in the Light”

If we walk in the light as He is in the light…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. —1 John 1:7
To mistake freedom from sin only on the conscious level of our lives for complete deliverance from sin by the atonement through the Cross of Christ is a great error. No one fully knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced at Calvary. The evidence that I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. For a person to really know what sin is requires the full work and deep touch of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the imparting of His absolute perfection.

The Holy Spirit applies or administers the work of the atonement to us in the deep unconscious realm as well as in the conscious realm. And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 , which says, “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish.

I must “walk in the light as He is in the light…”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. If I will walk there, with nothing held back or hidden, then this amazing truth is revealed to me: “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [me] from all sin” so that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke in me. On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 26, 2014

A SHAREHOLDER IN THE SACRIFICE - #7295

I'm making a list of great books someone needs to write. One is called "How to Motivate Kids to Work". I'd have bought that one when the kids were growing up. I have to be fair to our guys, they pitched in a lot. But sometimes I could have used a book like that.

They worked very hard in school all week, and they got good grades; keeping a very busy schedule. Come Saturday – the day Dad tries to rally the troops to get it all done at home – they don't want to be rallied. They would say, "Dad, I work all week. I need some rest time. I don't feel like it." Of course then I would want to say to them, "You think all those things might be true of me? I'm going out; I'd like for you to help me." So I did.

And frequently, you know what? I found a boy beside me when I did go out there. We were both tired, we were both busy, we were both not feeling like it, but I started doing the job and it seemed like they were willing to follow once they saw me doing it. It's no big deal, but the principle is. There are few things as motivating as someone else's sacrifice.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Shareholder in the Sacrifice."

Christmas is ultimately the story of people sacrificing. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 1:26. It's about one of those sacrifices. "In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary." We know that the angel went on to tell her that she would be, in verse 31, "...with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus."

Finally, in verse 38 Mary says, "I am the Lord's servant." We read those words and maybe we don't understand what was at stake here. Mary is betrothed; she's engaged to Joseph. She is now going to have to go to him and say, "I am pregnant." In a world in which that could have meant capital punishment for her, is he going to believe she had been impregnated, so to speak, by the Holy Spirit with this baby?

Mary is risking the most important thing in her life – the man she's about to marry. She says, "I'll do it. I am the Lord's servant." Joseph risked his reputation to be with Mary. The Wise Men dropped their work to go seek out Jesus. All of that is minor compared to the sacrifice that was made by the Son of God himself.

Philippians 2 says, "Though He was in the very nature God, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant made in human likeness and finally became obedient to death; even death on a cross." Then it says, "You have the same mind He had."

Maybe this Christmas season has found you committed to Jesus, loving Jesus, but are you hanging on tightly to this one precious part of you? Maybe it's a person who is very important to you, maybe too important. And though you wouldn't say it openly you're going to have that person no matter what Jesus thinks. Or is it something you own? "Lord, you can have me as long as I can have this house, or this car, or this job, or this income." Maybe it's a position or a reputation or staying in your comfort zone, or a pet sin that you've had tightly clenched in your hand even this Christmas season.

Sacrifice is really what Christmas is all about. Mary risked it, Joseph risked it, and Jesus risked it. How can you and I keep hanging onto our little treasure? Why should God make all the sacrifices for Christmas? Is the servant (that's you or me) better than the Master (that's Him)? It's time to be a shareholder in the sacrifice.

This Christmas open your hands as Mary did – not knowing where it would take her; not knowing what it would cost, but knowing the God she loved, "I am the Lord's servant."

Luke 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Come and Behold Him

The world was different this week. We forgot our compulsion with winning, wooing, and warring. We looked outward toward the star of Bethlehem. More than in any other season, His name was on our lips. And the result? For a few precious hours our heavenly yearnings intermeshed and we became a chorus. “Come and behold Him” we sang, stirring even the sleepiest of shepherds and pointing them toward the Christ-child. Immanuel. He is with us. God came near.

In a few hours lights will come down and trees will be thrown out. Soon December’s generosity will become January’s payments and the magic will begin to fade. I want to savor the spirit just a bit more. To pray that those who beheld Him today will look for Him next August. How much more could He do if we thought of Him every day!

From In the Manger

Luke 3

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

It was now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea; Herod Antipas was ruler[a] over Galilee; his brother Philip was ruler[b] over Iturea and Traconitis; Lysanias was ruler over Abilene. 2 Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. At this time a message from God came to John son of Zechariah, who was living in the wilderness. 3 Then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. 4 Isaiah had spoken of John when he said,

“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
    Clear the road for him!
5 The valleys will be filled,
    and the mountains and hills made level.
The curves will be straightened,
    and the rough places made smooth.
6 And then all people will see
    the salvation sent from God.’”[c]
7 When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee God’s coming wrath? 8 Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. 9 Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”

10 The crowds asked, “What should we do?”

11 John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”

12 Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, “Teacher, what should we do?”

13 He replied, “Collect no more taxes than the government requires.”

14 “What should we do?” asked some soldiers.

John replied, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.”

15 Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether John might be the Messiah. 16 John answered their questions by saying, “I baptize you with[d] water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.[e] 17 He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” 18 John used many such warnings as he announced the Good News to the people.

19 John also publicly criticized Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee,[f] for marrying Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for many other wrongs he had done. 20 So Herod put John in prison, adding this sin to his many others.

The Baptism of Jesus
21 One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.[g]”

The Ancestors of Jesus
23 Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry.

Jesus was known as the son of Joseph.
Joseph was the son of Heli.
24 Heli was the son of Matthat.
Matthat was the son of Levi.
Levi was the son of Melki.
Melki was the son of Jannai.
Jannai was the son of Joseph.
25 Joseph was the son of Mattathias.
Mattathias was the son of Amos.
Amos was the son of Nahum.
Nahum was the son of Esli.
Esli was the son of Naggai.
26 Naggai was the son of Maath.
Maath was the son of Mattathias.
Mattathias was the son of Semein.
Semein was the son of Josech.
Josech was the son of Joda.
27 Joda was the son of Joanan.
Joanan was the son of Rhesa.
Rhesa was the son of Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel was the son of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel was the son of Neri.
28 Neri was the son of Melki.
Melki was the son of Addi.
Addi was the son of Cosam.
Cosam was the son of Elmadam.
Elmadam was the son of Er.
29 Er was the son of Joshua.
Joshua was the son of Eliezer.
Eliezer was the son of Jorim.
Jorim was the son of Matthat.
Matthat was the son of Levi.
30 Levi was the son of Simeon.
Simeon was the son of Judah.
Judah was the son of Joseph.
Joseph was the son of Jonam.
Jonam was the son of Eliakim.
31 Eliakim was the son of Melea.
Melea was the son of Menna.
Menna was the son of Mattatha.
Mattatha was the son of Nathan.
Nathan was the son of David.
32 David was the son of Jesse.
Jesse was the son of Obed.
Obed was the son of Boaz.
Boaz was the son of Salmon.[h]
Salmon was the son of Nahshon.
33 Nahshon was the son of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the son of Admin.
Admin was the son of Arni.[i]
Arni was the son of Hezron.
Hezron was the son of Perez.
Perez was the son of Judah.
34 Judah was the son of Jacob.
Jacob was the son of Isaac.
Isaac was the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the son of Terah.
Terah was the son of Nahor.
35 Nahor was the son of Serug.
Serug was the son of Reu.
Reu was the son of Peleg.
Peleg was the son of Eber.
Eber was the son of Shelah.
36 Shelah was the son of Cainan.
Cainan was the son of Arphaxad.
Arphaxad was the son of Shem.
Shem was the son of Noah.
Noah was the son of Lamech.
37 Lamech was the son of Methuselah.
Methuselah was the son of Enoch.
Enoch was the son of Jared.
Jared was the son of Mahalalel.
Mahalalel was the son of Kenan.
38 Kenan was the son of Enosh.[j]
Enosh was the son of Seth.
Seth was the son of Adam.
Adam was the son of God.
Footnotes:

3:1a Greek Herod was tetrarch. Herod Antipas was a son of King Herod.
3:1b Greek tetrarch; also in 3:1c.
3:4-6 Isa 40:3-5 (Greek version).
3:16a Or in.
3:16b Or in the Holy Spirit and in fire.
3:19 Greek Herod the tetrarch.
3:22 Some manuscripts read my Son, and today I have become your Father.
3:32 Greek Sala, a variant spelling of Salmon; also in 3:32b. See Ruth 4:20-21.
3:33 Some manuscripts read Amminadab was the son of Aram. Arni and Aram are alternate spellings of Ram. See 1 Chr 2:9-10.
3:38 Greek Enos, a variant spelling of Enosh; also in 3:38b. See Gen 5:6.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, December 25, 2014

Read: Luke 2:15-20

 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

Insight
The role of shepherd is one of the oldest occupations named in the Bible (Gen. 4:2). Shepherds were deemed irreligious and irreverent, because in taking their flock into the wilderness to find pasture, they could not perform their religious duties at the temple. And being in contact with animals (and dead sheep), they were considered “unclean.” That God would announce the birth of the Savior of the world to a group of shepherds is consistent with Jesus’ mission to save the poor and exalt the lowly (Luke 1:51-53; 4:18). It is interesting that Jesus is both the Lamb of God (John 1:29) and the Good Shepherd (10:11).

The Smells Of The Stable
By Randy Kilgore

They shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, “God with us.” —Matthew 1:23

A stable? What a place to give birth to the Messiah! The smells and sounds of a barnyard were our Savior’s first human experience. Like other babies, He may even have cried at the sounds of the animals and the strangers parading around His temporary crib.

If so, they would have been the first of many tears. Jesus would come to know human loss and sorrow, the doubts his brothers and family had about Him, and the pain His mother experienced as she saw Him tortured and killed.

All these hardships—and so much more—awaited the baby trying to sleep that first night. Yet from His very first moments, Jesus was “God with us” (Matt. 1:23), and He knew what it meant to be human. This would continue for over three decades, ending at His death on the cross.

Because of His love for you and me, Jesus became fully human. And being human allows Him to identify with us. Never again can we say that no one understands us. Jesus does.

May the Light that entered the world that night cast its brilliance into the deepest corners of our souls this Christmas, giving us the peace on Earth of which the angels spoke so long ago.

Father, help our hearts to know the
love of Christ and to honor Him
with our unyielding devotion in
this and every season. We love You.
Jesus understands.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 25, 2014

His Birth and Our New Birth

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." —Matthew 1:23
His Birth in History. “…that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.

His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you…” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.

God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 25, 2014

THE CHRISTMAS INVITATION - #7294

It was the biggest event of the year in the little town of Cornwall; the annual Christmas pageant, starring many of the people of the town. When it came time for casting the various parts, every parent was pushing for their son or daughter to be included. On audition day, it didn't take long to match every part with just the right person.

But then there was Harold. The little guy really wanted a part, but well because of his learning disabilities, the directors kind of kept passing him over. But Harold just kept popping up again, asking for a part. Finally, the directors gave in and they gave him what they judged to be a no-risk part-the innkeeper who comes to the door and tells Mary and Joseph the inn is full. It was a part with only one simple line. Little did they know that the stage had been set for the most memorable Christmas pageant the town had ever seen.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Christmas Invitation."

The night of the pageant, you had to get there early just to get a seat. Backstage, the shepherds were putting on their bathrobes, the angels were adjusting their halos, everyone was reviewing their lines, and the directors were going over Harold's line with him one more time, "Now, remember, Harold ... 'I'm sorry, we have no room.'" Slowly, but surely, Harold repeated his line, "I'm sorry, we have no room."

The men of the church built a set that portrayed Bethlehem in the background, a manger on the right, and an inn on the left. As Act One neared its end, a weary Mary and Joseph trudged up to the inn door, desperately looking for shelter. Joseph knocked on the inn door and nothing happened. Backstage the front rows could hear the director whispering, "Now, Harold, now!" The set began to shake! Harold was struggling to get the door open. And then, standing there in his bathrobe, Harold listened as Joseph begged for a room again for his pregnant wife.

Harold said nothing. Again, the backstage whisper, "I'm sorry, we have no room." Another long pause. And finally, Harold struggled through his line, "I'm sorry, we have no room." Then he slowly closed the door. It was as Mary and Joseph began to turn away that the totally unforgettable moment came, the moment no one would ever forget. Suddenly the set started shaking again; Harold again struggling to get the door open. The stunned director's trying to get to him, and he can't get to him in time. Harold opened the door, ran after the departing Mary and Joseph, and loud enough for people in the basement to hear, Harold said, "Wait! Wait! You can have my room!"

You know what? Little Harold understood exactly what Christmas means. Luke 2:7, our word for today from the Word of God, says, "There was no room for them in the inn." But Harold understood that when the Son of God is at your door, you have to make room for Him, which might be something you have never done. Oh, you've done Christian things, you've gone to Christian meetings, you've believed Christian beliefs, and you've developed a Christian image, but could it be you've never really opened the door of your heart to the Savior who died for you, who is once again this Christmas knocking on the door of your heart. Your heart is empty because Jesus still isn't there.

I can't think of a better day to change that; to finally give yourself to the One who gave Himself for you. You can open the door by praying a prayer something like this right where you are, "Jesus, I've been running my life. I resign. I believe when You died on that cross You were paying the death penalty for the sinning I have done, and right now I'm giving that up and I'm dropping it to grab You. I'm putting my total trust in You to forgive my sin and take me to heaven, because You're alive and I'm Yours."

Are you ready to begin that relationship? I hope you'll go to our website, ANewStory.com. We've got the kind of information that will help you begin and be sure you have that personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

This Christmas season - is the time we celebrate His coming to earth, and coming to rescue you. What a great time to give Him what He came for; to give Him you today. Merry Christmas!

Duteronomy 7 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: God Sent a Savior

Christmas cards. Punctuated promises. On this special day, can I share words from my favorite Christmas cards?

“He became like us, so we could become like Him.”
“Angels still sing and the star still beckons.”
“God has given a Son to us. His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, Prince of Peace.” (Is. 9:6)

And my favorite…
“If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior.”

Merry Christmas everybody!

From In the Manger

Deuteronomy 7

The Privilege of Holiness

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you. 2 When the Lord your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy[d] them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. 3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, 4 for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you. 5 This is what you must do. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols. 6 For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.

7 “The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! 8 Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 9 Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. 10 But he does not hesitate to punish and destroy those who reject him. 11 Therefore, you must obey all these commands, decrees, and regulations I am giving you today.

12 “If you listen to these regulations and faithfully obey them, the Lord your God will keep his covenant of unfailing love with you, as he promised with an oath to your ancestors. 13 He will love you and bless you, and he will give you many children. He will give fertility to your land and your animals. When you arrive in the land he swore to give your ancestors, you will have large harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil, and great herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. 14 You will be blessed above all the nations of the earth. None of your men or women will be childless, and all your livestock will bear young. 15 And the Lord will protect you from all sickness. He will not let you suffer from the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all your enemies!

16 “You must destroy all the nations the Lord your God hands over to you. Show them no mercy, and do not worship their gods, or they will trap you. 17 Perhaps you will think to yourselves, ‘How can we ever conquer these nations that are so much more powerful than we are?’ 18 But don’t be afraid of them! Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all the land of Egypt. 19 Remember the great terrors the Lord your God sent against them. You saw it all with your own eyes! And remember the miraculous signs and wonders, and the strong hand and powerful arm with which he brought you out of Egypt. The Lord your God will use this same power against all the people you fear. 20 And then the Lord your God will send terror[e] to drive out the few survivors still hiding from you!

21 “No, do not be afraid of those nations, for the Lord your God is among you, and he is a great and awesome God. 22 The Lord your God will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals would multiply too quickly for you. 23 But the Lord your God will hand them over to you. He will throw them into complete confusion until they are destroyed. 24 He will put their kings in your power, and you will erase their names from the face of the earth. No one will be able to stand against you, and you will destroy them all.

25 “You must burn their idols in fire, and you must not covet the silver or gold that covers them. You must not take it or it will become a trap to you, for it is detestable to the Lord your God. 26 Do not bring any detestable objects into your home, for then you will be destroyed, just like them. You must utterly detest such things, for they are set apart for destruction.

7:2 The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; also in 7:26.
7:20 Often rendered the hornet. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Read: Ephesians 2:13-19

But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

14 For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

A Temple for the Lord
19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.

Insight
Unity is a common theme in the New Testament writings of Paul. Jesus has brought us peace with God and therefore we should also be at peace with each other. In Ephesians 2, Paul talks about peace between Jew and Gentile. Despite the centuries-old separation of the two groups, God in Christ Jesus has “broken down the middle wall of separation” (v.14). In the temple there was a wall beyond which Gentiles could not pass; it formed the boundary of “the court of the Gentiles.” However, Jesus has removed the barriers between God and us and between us and others. Now we all are “members of the household of God” (v.19).

Lasting Peace
By David C. McCasland

He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation. —Ephesians 2:14

On Christmas Eve 1914, during the First World War, the guns fell silent along a 30-mile stretch of the Western Front. Soldiers peered cautiously over the tops of trenches while a few emerged to repair their positions and bury the dead. As darkness fell, some German troops set out lanterns and sang Christmas carols. Men on the British side applauded and shouted greetings.

The next day, German, French, and British troops met in no man’s land to shake hands, share food, and exchange gifts. It was a brief respite from war that soon ended when the artillery and machine guns roared to life again. But no one who experienced “The Christmas Truce,” as it became known, would ever forget how it felt and how it fueled their longing for lasting peace.

In Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming Messiah we read, “His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). By His death on the cross, Jesus removed the “no man’s land” between us and God. “For He Himself is our peace” (Eph. 2:14).

In Jesus we can find lasting peace with God and harmony with each other. This is the life-changing message of Christmas!

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!” —Wesley
Only in Christ can true peace be realized.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The Hidden Life

…your life is hidden with Christ in God. —Colossians 3:3
The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).

When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you…” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “…your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, December 24, 2014

BARE FEET, BOOTS AND A MAN IN BLUE - #7293

Like most Americans, I just about O.D. on the news. No matter what it's about! It could be news about elections, or some economic problem, or eruptions in the Middle East. It's all important, but it's not exactly in the "joy to the world" category.

So I absolutely loved the feel-good story out of New York City that went viral across Facebook a couple of years ago. It was about the friendly policeman and the freezing homeless man. And it had "Christmas Story" written all over it.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bare Feet, Boots and a Man In Blue."

In case you missed it, a young police officer on patrol in Times Square, came upon a homeless man, who was sitting there barefoot on the sidewalk. It was one of those "two pair of socks" night for the officer and even then his feet were freezing. He couldn't imagine a man sitting there barefoot all night. So the man in blue went inside a nearby store and bought the homeless man a $100 pair of boots with his own money. When he gave those boots to that barefoot man, well, you can only imagine the joy.

It would have been one of life's invisible acts of kindness except for a tourist who was there with a cell phone camera. She was so moved with what she was watching, she snapped the picture, which has now been seen by millions of people. Maybe because it was the Christmas season, that poignant scene triggered a flashback to something my personal Hero did over and over again. It's one of the many things that makes me love Him. That would be Jesus.

The incident I remember took place when Jesus was entering a town, surrounded by crowds that were really anxious to see Him. The Bible says there was a blind beggar who had heard that "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." Much to the aggravation of the people around Jesus, he started shouting loudly, "Jesus, have mercy on me!"

A lot of annoyed people there told him in no uncertain terms to shut up. Or "shutteth up" (if that sounds more Biblical to you). So he just shouted louder, the man did. The blind man was a growing nuisance. He was an embarrassment. After all, they had a "celebrity" in town. Then two little words that tell me so much about Jesus, and they are our word for today from the Word of God. Two words: Luke 18:40; "Jesus stopped". Nobody else stopped, but Jesus did. Not for the mayor. Not for the millionaires. Not for the ministers, but for the miserable. The guy everyone else walked by or walked over. That's who Jesus stops everything for. And the first thing that blind man ever saw was the face of Jesus. Because Jesus did what only He could do; He gave that man his sight.

The Bible's filled with stories of people nobody would stop for except Jesus. Marginalized people like blind Bartimaeus. Obnoxious people like Zacchaeus, the tax collector. Condemned people like the woman caught in the very act of adultery. Even the hardened criminal on the cross next to Jesus, in His agony Jesus answered that thief's cry for mercy and guaranteed him heaven.

For 2,000 years, Jesus has been stopping for the lonely, the losers, the lost. And letting them know that someone knows their name. Someone hears their cry. Someone really loves them. And it's God's one and only Son. He sees me; He sees a world lost in sin, away from God, headed for an awful eternity. And He does what no one else could do. What no religion could ever do. He pays for my sins with His blood. In the words of the Bible, "He was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten so that we might have peace; He was lashed and we were healed!" (Isaiah 53:5).

You know, Jesus stopped for me when my soul was destitute, when my soul was doomed. Like the hymn says, "Once I was lost, but now I am found. I was blind, but now I see." You know, He might be passing your way today. He knows your name. He knows your scars. He knows your sin, and He died for it. He's reaching your direction. Would you grab His hand today to begin your personal relationship with the man who loved you enough to die for you?

If you want to know how; if I could possibly help you, please check out our website ANewStory.com and let Jesus do for you what only He can do.

Deuteronomy 6 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: More Than a Christmas Story

The virgin birth is more, much more, than a Christmas story. It's a story of how close Christ will come to you! The first stop on His itinerary was a womb. Where will God go to touch the world? Look deep inside Mary for an answer. Better still-look deep within yourself.
"Christ in you, the hope of glory!" the scripture says (Col. 1:27). Christ grew in Mary until He had to come out. Christ will grow in you until the same occurs. He will come out in your speech, in your actions, in your decisions. Every place you live will be a Bethlehem. And every day you live will be a Christmas. Deliver Christ into the world…your world.
From In the Manger

Deuteronomy 6

A Call for Wholehearted Commitment

 “These are the commands, decrees, and regulations that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy, 2 and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord your God as long as you live. If you obey all his decrees and commands, you will enjoy a long life. 3 Listen closely, Israel, and be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.[c] 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

10 “The Lord your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. 11 The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, 12 be careful not to forget the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 13 You must fear the Lord your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name.

14 “You must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations, 15 for the Lord your God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you, and he will wipe you from the face of the earth. 16 You must not test the Lord your God as you did when you complained at Massah. 17 You must diligently obey the commands of the Lord your God—all the laws and decrees he has given you. 18 Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors. 19 You will drive out all the enemies living in the land, just as the Lord said you would.

20 “In the future your children will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of these laws, decrees, and regulations that the Lord our God has commanded us to obey?’

21 “Then you must tell them, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand. 22 The Lord did miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes, dealing terrifying blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all his people. 23 He brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land he had sworn to give our ancestors. 24 And the Lord our God commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day. 25 For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the Lord our God has given us.’

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Read: 2 Corinthians 9:10-15

For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity[a] in you.

11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. 12 So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem[b] will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.

13 As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. 14 And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. 15 Thank God for this gift[c] too wonderful for words!

Footnotes:

9:10 Greek righteousness.
9:12 Greek of God’s holy people.
9:15 Greek his gift.

Insight
Today’s passage celebrates all that God has given us. He supplies the sower with seed and bread for food (v.10), and He blesses us so we can be generous to others (v.11). Our proper response is thanksgiving to God (v.15) and gratitude that we are able to share with others because of His gifts to us (v.13).

What Really Matters
By Bill Crowder

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! —2 Corinthians 9:15

When our children were living at home, one of our most meaningful Christmas morning traditions was very simple. We would gather our family around the Christmas tree where, in sight of the gifts we were receiving from one another, we would read the Christmas story together. It was a gentle reminder that the reason we give gifts is not because the Magi brought gifts to the Christ-child. Rather, our gifts of love for one another were a reflection of God’s infinitely greater Gift of love to us.

As we rehearsed the familiar story of angels, shepherds, and the manger scene, it was our hope that the magnitude of what God had done that first Christmas would overshadow our best attempts at displaying our love for each other.

Nothing could ever match the gift God has given us in His Son, a reality which echoes in Paul’s words to the church at Corinth, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15).

Clearly, God’s willingness to send His Son to be our rescue is a gift that words cannot fully comprehend. This is the gift that we celebrate at Christmas—for Christ Himself is truly what matters most.

’Twas a humble birthplace, but O how much
God gave to us that day;
From the manger bed what a path has led,
What a perfect, holy way! —Neidlinger
Jesus Himself is the greatest Christmas gift ever given.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Sharing in the Atonement

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14
The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.

Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “…without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 23, 2014

God's Christmas Go-fer - #7292

What do you think of when I say the word "Go-fer"? Well, if you live in the country, you probably think of a little animal that keeps disappearing into holes. If you work in an office and I say, "Go-fer", you're thinking of the person who keeps getting stuck running all the menial errands, maybe you – that's the go-fer spelled a little differently. That's "go-fer", like go for this and go for that." Now, usually a human go-fer is someone who has the least authority, right, the least seniority. Can you imagine having say the president or the boss of the company be the company go-fer?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "God's Christmas Go-fer."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 2; very familiar words. "In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, and everyone went to his town to register. So Joseph, also, went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born."

You can't fully understand the cosmic events that are taking place as Joseph goes from Nazareth to Bethlehem unless you understand the prophecy God made about the birth of His Son. About five hundred years before, recorded in Micah 5:2, God says, "But you, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me one who will be ruler over Israel whose origins are from of old from ancient times." Simply, the Messiah was going to be born in Bethlehem. That was the plan.

Excuse me, but we have a problem here! The mother and father are in Nazareth. It's about ninety miles away. It's nearing the time for the baby to be born. There's no conceivable way you're going to get Joseph to take Mary ninety miles on a rugged road to Bethlehem. But God's plan says it's going to be Bethlehem. How are we going to do this?

Enter now the most powerful man in the world. History knows him to have been a butcher. Caesar Augustus – he took orders from no one; murdered members of his own family. But God needs to get Joseph to Bethlehem, so get this – he moves the world's most pagan, most powerful man to decree new taxes. Joseph is forced to go to Bethlehem. He doesn't want to leave Mary alone; he takes her. And Caesar becomes God's Christmas go-fer, just doing His errands to make His promises happen. That's great isn't it? Okay, so what?

A couple of encouragements for you about the Christmas gifts from the Christmas Story. Number one, God can use anybody to accomplish His plans for His kids. Maybe right now there's a person who seems to be an obstacle, an opponent. Wouldn't it be something? See, they could become God's instrument to move you where you need to be. Oh, that person, he thinks he's in charge. So did Caesar Augustus. God's in charge.

Secondly, God will move whatever He has to, to keep His promises to you. If He has to move an entire empire to make the promise come true, He'll do it. He did! And surely He can move what needs to be dealt with in your life. If God can use the Emperor of Rome as His personal go-fer, then nothing is going to stop His plans for you.

Deuteronomy 5, and devotions

 

Max Lucado Daily: Anything But a King

In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what He was doing, was a teenage girl in a smelly stable. As Mary looked into the face of the baby, her son, her Lord, His majesty—she couldn’t take her eyes off Him. Somehow Mary knew she was holding God. So this is He. And she remembered the words of the angel when he said, “His kingdom will never end!”

He looked like anything but a King. His cry, though strong and healthy, was still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter. God came near! Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end!” May you be a part of it.

From In the Manger

Deuteronomy 5

Ten Commandments for the Covenant Community

Moses called all the people of Israel together and said, “Listen carefully, Israel. Hear the decrees and regulations I am giving you today, so you may learn them and obey them!

2 “The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Mount Sinai.[a] 3 The Lord did not make this covenant with our ancestors, but with all of us who are alive today. 4 At the mountain the Lord spoke to you face to face from the heart of the fire. 5 I stood as an intermediary between you and the Lord, for you were afraid of the fire and did not want to approach the mountain. He spoke to me, and I passed his words on to you. This is what he said:

6 “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

7 “You must not have any other god but me.

8 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind, or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 9 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 10 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those[b] who love me and obey my commands.

11 “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.

12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys and other livestock, and any foreigners living among you. All your male and female servants must rest as you do. 15 Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out with his strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.

16 “Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God commanded you. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

17 “You must not murder.

18 “You must not commit adultery.

19 “You must not steal.

20 “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.

21 “You must not covet your neighbor’s wife. You must not covet your neighbor’s house or land, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

22 “The Lord spoke these words to all of you assembled there at the foot of the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the heart of the fire, surrounded by clouds and deep darkness. This was all he said at that time, and he wrote his words on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

23 “But when you heard the voice from the heart of the darkness, while the mountain was blazing with fire, all your tribal leaders and elders came to me. 24 They said, ‘Look, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice from the heart of the fire. Today we have seen that God can speak to us humans, and yet we live! 25 But now, why should we risk death again? If the Lord our God speaks to us again, we will certainly die and be consumed by this awesome fire. 26 Can any living thing hear the voice of the living God from the heart of the fire as we did and yet survive? 27 Go yourself and listen to what the Lord our God says. Then come and tell us everything he tells you, and we will listen and obey.’

28 “The Lord heard the request you made to me. And he said, ‘I have heard what the people said to you, and they are right. 29 Oh, that they would always have hearts like this, that they might fear me and obey all my commands! If they did, they and their descendants would prosper forever. 30 Go and tell them, “Return to your tents.” 31 But you stand here with me so I can give you all my commands, decrees, and regulations. You must teach them to the people so they can obey them in the land I am giving them as their possession.’”

32 So Moses told the people, “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, following his instructions in every detail. 33 Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, December 22, 2014

Read: Philippians 2:5-11

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

6 Though he was God,[a]

    he did not think of equality with God

    as something to cling to.

7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];

    he took the humble position of a slave[c]

    and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,[d]

8     he humbled himself in obedience to God

    and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor

    and gave him the name above all other names,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father.

Footnotes:

2:6 Or Being in the form of God.

2:7a Greek he emptied himself.

2:7b Or the form of a slave.

2:7c Some English translations put this phrase in verse 8.

Insight

Philippians 2:5-11 is perhaps the greatest declaration of Christ’s deity and humanity in the Bible. In His incarnation, Jesus did not replace His deity with humanity, but added humanity to His deity; He did not cease to be God, but surrendered the independent use of His divine powers and the right to manifest His own glory as God. Before He went to the cross, Jesus prayed that the Father would restore to Him the glory He had with the Father “before the world was” (John 17:5). Jesus’ prayer was answered when the Father “highly exalted Him and [gave] Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11).

Remember The Wrapping

By Joe Stowell

[Jesus] made Himself of no reputation . . . coming in the likeness of men. —Philippians 2:7

At our house some Christmas events are the same each year. Among them is my wife Martie’s appeal to the kids and grandkids as they attack their gifts: “Save the paper, we can use it next year!” Martie loves to give nice gifts, but she also appreciates the wrapping. Presentation is part of the beauty of the gift.

It makes me think of the wrapping Christ chose when He came as a redemptive gift to rescue us from our sinful selves. Jesus could have wrapped Himself in a mind-boggling show of power, lighting up the sky with His presence in a celestial show of glory. Instead, in a beautiful reversal of Genesis 1:26, He chose to wrap Himself “in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7).

So why is this wrapping so important? Because, being like us, He is no stranger to our struggles. He experienced deep loneliness and the betrayal of a dear friend. He was publicly shamed, misunderstood, and falsely accused. In short, He feels our pain. As a result, the writer of Hebrews tells us that we can “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

When you think of the gift of Jesus this Christmas, remember to keep the “wrapping” in mind!

Lord, thank You for wrapping Yourself in our

likeness! Remind us that You understand our

struggles and that we can confidently take advantage

of the mercy and grace You offer to make us victorious.

Don’t disregard the wrapping of the best Christmas gift of all.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, December 22, 2014

The Drawing of the Father

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him… —John 6:44

When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16). Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.

In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God.

Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, December 22, 2014

The Loneliest Christmas - #7291

When my son was in college I think his favorite Christmas song was "I'll be Home for Christmas." That might be every college student's favorite song. He started counting the days, the hours, and the minutes until it was time to go home. But none of our kids have ever experienced anything like what my wife calls her loneliest Christmas.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Loneliest Christmas."

My wife was a college student in Chicago, and things were really hard for her family back home that year. Dad was a farmer, and the drought was really wiping him out financially. There was no money for her to go home that Christmas. You can imagine how she felt as her friends one by one said goodbye and headed out for their family Christmas at home. Eventually my wife was one of only about a dozen students left on the whole campus and none of them were people she really knew. Those were two very long weeks for a young woman who was used to mom and dad and grandma and grandpa, and sister and friends; all celebrating Christmas together. Actually, she still tears up when she thinks about it. It really hurts when it's Christmas and you're not home!

In a sense, many people have never really been home for Christmas-spiritually home that is. Oh we all have a homing instinct; this deep-down sense that there's something missing in our soul and we won't be home until we find it. The search for that missing piece of us takes us from relationship to relationship, from experience to experience, conquest after conquest, and that search inevitably leaves us still wondering where home is – for our heart.

Our word for today from the Word of God is from Colossians 1:16, one of my favorite verses in the Bible; six words that say it all. Speaking of Jesus Christ, it says: "All things were..." And here are the six words, "...created by Him and for Him." You and I were created by Jesus. We were created for Jesus. And we're going to have a hole in our heart until we have Jesus.

There was an article in Newsweek that said our lifestyle had "yielded only deeper hungers and lonelier nights." Wow! Well, God's Book reveals to us a startling fact that no person on earth can ever satisfy our sense of loneliness. It's cosmic loneliness. We're away from God, and He's the only One who has the lasting love that we were made for. We're like my wife that lonely Christmas at college. Our heart is aching for home! Can you feel it? And God didn't leave us; we left Him.

In the words of the Bible, "All of us have wandered away like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way." That's maybe why the middle letter of sin is "I". We've basically said to God, "Hey, You run the universe. I'll run me, thank you." And that rebellion has cost us the one relationship that we can't live without and we dare not die without.

Then comes Christmas. There's nothing we can do to erase the sin that keeps us from God, to be able to one day be with Him forever in heaven. So God sent His own Son into the world to pay the death penalty that sin requires. And God explains His motive this way, "God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." You see, to believe in Him is to tell God you're pinning all your hopes on Jesus to forgive your sin and to give you eternal life. Because only the One who died for your sin can forgive it. And only the One who walked out of His grave can give you eternal life.

A little boy was lost on a street corner in New York, and this policeman said, "Can you tell me your address or your phone number?" And the boy couldn't remember. Finally the little boy said, "But, Sir, there's a big church next to my house, and there's a big cross on the top. And if you can get me to the cross, I can find my way home." So can you.

If you can get yourself this Christmas to the cross where Jesus died for you, you can finally be home in that relationship with the One you were made by and made for. I would love to help you make that discovery and secure your relationship with Jesus and a place in heaven this very day. Would you go to our website? That's what it's all there for – ANewStory.com. Let your new story begin this Christmas season.

Give yourself to Jesus, and you'll be home where your heart has wanted to be for so long-home for Christmas; home forever.