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
Matthew 18:21-35
A Story About Forgiveness
21 At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?”
22 Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.
23-25
“The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with
his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him
who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up,
so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods,
to be auctioned off at the slave market.
26-27 “The poor wretch
threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll
pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the
debt.
28 “The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came
upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him
by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’
29-31 “The poor
wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it
all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail
until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they
were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.
32-35
“The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your
entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to
be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was
furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire
debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each
one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for
mercy.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 25, 2017
Read: Luke 2:1–10
The Birth of Jesus
2
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be
taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took
place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to
their own town to register.
4 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. 5 He went there to
register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was
expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby
to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped
him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest
room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in
the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel
of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around
them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be
afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the
people.
Footnotes:
Luke 2:2 Or This census took place before
INSIGHT
The
angel Gabriel told Mary, “[Jesus] will be called the Son of the Most
High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David” (Luke
1:32–33). The angel who appeared to Joseph said, “What is conceived in
her is from the Holy Spirit. . . . [Y]ou are to give him the name Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20–21). Mary
and Joseph knew Jesus would be the Messiah, and as faithful Jews they
would have known the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem, David’s
hometown. Perhaps when Joseph was ordered to Bethlehem for the census he
thought, So that’s how God is going to get us to Bethlehem!
How does reflecting on the miraculous events that led to the birth of Jesus fill you with renewed awe and wonder?
Adapted from Mystery of the Manger by John Greco. Read more at discoveryseries.org/hp161.
Traditions and Christmas
By Dave Branon
I bring you good news that will cause great joy . . . a Savior has been born to you. Luke 2:10–11
As
you savor a candy cane this Christmas, say “danke schön” to the
Germans, for that confectionary treat was first created in Cologne. As
you admire your poinsettia, say “gracias” to Mexico, where the plant
originated. Say “merci beaucoup” to the French for the term noel, and
give a “cheers” to the English for your mistletoe.
But as we
enjoy our traditions and festivities of the Christmas season—customs
that have been collected from around the world—let’s save our most
sincere and heartfelt “thank you” for our good, merciful, and loving
God. From Him came the reason for our Christmas celebration: the baby
born in that Judean manger more than 2,000 years ago. An angel announced
the arrival of this gift to mankind by saying, “I bring you good news
that will cause great joy . . . a Savior has been born to you” (Luke
2:10–11).
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. Romans 15:13
This
Christmas, even in the light of the sparkling Christmas tree and
surrounded by newly opened presents, the true excitement comes when we
turn our attention to the baby named Jesus, who came to “save his people
from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). His birth transcends tradition: It is
our central focus as we send praises to God for this indescribable
Christmas gift.
Lord, we thank You for coming to join us on that
first Christmas. During a time of the year filled with many traditions,
help us to keep You first.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. Romans 15:13
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 25, 2017
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.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To
those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand
on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who
knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there
are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let
Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”
The Shadow of an Agony
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 25, 2017
A Wonderful Time to Be Born - #8076
When
I was growing up, Christmas was a double-header for me, because my
birthday is just a few days before Christmas. Just in case you care,
it's on the date that the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane
successfully. So, with all the time I've spent on airplanes in my life,
you gotta wonder if that's some kind of destiny thing. That's also the
date of the Battle of the Bulge. Wait, no. Destiny again? But I've never
had a complaint about when my birthday is. Nope! As a kid, I tried to
turn that into an advantage by asking for a gift that would be too much
for just Christmas but not for Christmas and your birthday. And besides
cleaning up in the gift department, it's just neat to have a birthday at
a time when all the world seems to be celebrating. I mean, I know
they're not celebrating my birthday obviously, but it's just the best
time of year!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Wonderful Time to Be Born."
On
this Christmas Day, I want to invite you to consider an exciting
possibility; that you could have a Christmas birthday for the rest of
your life. Obviously, you can't change the day you were physically born.
You showed up without being consulted about the date, right? But you
could make this the day that you're finally born into the very family of
God. Christmas Day: the day we celebrate Jesus being born. Christmas
Day: it could be the day you're reborn; the day you start to belong to
the Christ of Christmas.
In the Charlie Brown Christmas Special,
poor Charlie tries everything to put some meaning into that holiday.
Nothing works until that classic scene where Linus walks out with his
blanket and stands at center stage. The spotlight hits him and he begins
to quote from the Bible, including our word for today from the Word of
God. Luke 2:11. The angel's birth announcement of Jesus' arrival. "Today
in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the
Lord."
Did you notice, a Savior. That's someone who can rescue
you from a situation where you would otherwise die. Like the man who
rescued me when I was ten years old. I was drowning in Lake Michigan. He
was my (small "s") savior.
Thirty-three years later what started
on Christmas ended on the cross. And God the Father and God the Son
knew all along where it would end. Because only someone dying could pay
the eternal death penalty for the sin of us running our own lives. But
three days later, this same Jesus blew the doors off His grave. He is
alive to be the Savior-the one who can finally rescue you from your
guilt, from your incurable loneliness, from eternal punishment, and from
a life that may have a lot of activity but very little meaning.
And
who is this Savior for? It says "A Savior has been born to you." For
just a moment, make that yours. "A Savior has been born to me." And
would you, for just a moment, walk up that skull-shaped hill to the
bottom of that cross, and there you will see God's Son loving you enough
to die for you there. And make it first person singular. "For me.
Jesus, what You're doing here is for me; for the sinning I've done."
You've
known about the love of Jesus before today maybe, but you've never made
Him yours. I can't think of a better day to give yourself to Jesus than
Christmas-the day we celebrate His coming to give Himself for you. You
may have started another Christmas without Christ in your heart, but
you're going to bed this Christmas with Him in your heart. Would you
stop where you are and give Him what He paid for? Give Him you. You can
tell Him in words like these, "Lord, I'm done running my own life. I'm
putting all my trust in You to erase my sins from God's book and to get
me to heaven when I die."
If you really want to anchor that
relationship and know you've got it, our website would be a great place
for you to visit this Christmas Day - ANewStory.com.
It's
Christmas Day. This could be your day to be born into the family of God;
to experience for yourself the overwhelming love, the overwhelming
peace of God. Believe me, this is a wonderful time to be born. Merry
Christmas!
Monday, December 25, 2017
Matthew 18:21-35 , 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
Matthew 18:21-35
A Story About Forgiveness
21 At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?”
22 Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.
23-25 “The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.
26-27 “The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.
28 “The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’
29-31 “The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.
32-35 “The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 25, 2017
Read: Luke 2:1–10
The Birth of Jesus
2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 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. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
Footnotes:
Luke 2:2 Or This census took place before
INSIGHT
The angel Gabriel told Mary, “[Jesus] will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32–33). The angel who appeared to Joseph said, “What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. . . . [Y]ou are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20–21). Mary and Joseph knew Jesus would be the Messiah, and as faithful Jews they would have known the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem, David’s hometown. Perhaps when Joseph was ordered to Bethlehem for the census he thought, So that’s how God is going to get us to Bethlehem!
How does reflecting on the miraculous events that led to the birth of Jesus fill you with renewed awe and wonder?
Adapted from Mystery of the Manger by John Greco. Read more at discoveryseries.org/hp161.
Traditions and Christmas
By Dave Branon
I bring you good news that will cause great joy . . . a Savior has been born to you. Luke 2:10–11
As you savor a candy cane this Christmas, say “danke schön” to the Germans, for that confectionary treat was first created in Cologne. As you admire your poinsettia, say “gracias” to Mexico, where the plant originated. Say “merci beaucoup” to the French for the term noel, and give a “cheers” to the English for your mistletoe.
But as we enjoy our traditions and festivities of the Christmas season—customs that have been collected from around the world—let’s save our most sincere and heartfelt “thank you” for our good, merciful, and loving God. From Him came the reason for our Christmas celebration: the baby born in that Judean manger more than 2,000 years ago. An angel announced the arrival of this gift to mankind by saying, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy . . . a Savior has been born to you” (Luke 2:10–11).
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. Romans 15:13
This Christmas, even in the light of the sparkling Christmas tree and surrounded by newly opened presents, the true excitement comes when we turn our attention to the baby named Jesus, who came to “save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). His birth transcends tradition: It is our central focus as we send praises to God for this indescribable Christmas gift.
Lord, we thank You for coming to join us on that first Christmas. During a time of the year filled with many traditions, help us to keep You first.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. Romans 15:13
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 25, 2017
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.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”
The Shadow of an Agony
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 25, 2017
A Wonderful Time to Be Born - #8076
When I was growing up, Christmas was a double-header for me, because my birthday is just a few days before Christmas. Just in case you care, it's on the date that the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane successfully. So, with all the time I've spent on airplanes in my life, you gotta wonder if that's some kind of destiny thing. That's also the date of the Battle of the Bulge. Wait, no. Destiny again? But I've never had a complaint about when my birthday is. Nope! As a kid, I tried to turn that into an advantage by asking for a gift that would be too much for just Christmas but not for Christmas and your birthday. And besides cleaning up in the gift department, it's just neat to have a birthday at a time when all the world seems to be celebrating. I mean, I know they're not celebrating my birthday obviously, but it's just the best time of year!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Wonderful Time to Be Born."
On this Christmas Day, I want to invite you to consider an exciting possibility; that you could have a Christmas birthday for the rest of your life. Obviously, you can't change the day you were physically born. You showed up without being consulted about the date, right? But you could make this the day that you're finally born into the very family of God. Christmas Day: the day we celebrate Jesus being born. Christmas Day: it could be the day you're reborn; the day you start to belong to the Christ of Christmas.
In the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, poor Charlie tries everything to put some meaning into that holiday. Nothing works until that classic scene where Linus walks out with his blanket and stands at center stage. The spotlight hits him and he begins to quote from the Bible, including our word for today from the Word of God. Luke 2:11. The angel's birth announcement of Jesus' arrival. "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord."
Did you notice, a Savior. That's someone who can rescue you from a situation where you would otherwise die. Like the man who rescued me when I was ten years old. I was drowning in Lake Michigan. He was my (small "s") savior.
Thirty-three years later what started on Christmas ended on the cross. And God the Father and God the Son knew all along where it would end. Because only someone dying could pay the eternal death penalty for the sin of us running our own lives. But three days later, this same Jesus blew the doors off His grave. He is alive to be the Savior-the one who can finally rescue you from your guilt, from your incurable loneliness, from eternal punishment, and from a life that may have a lot of activity but very little meaning.
And who is this Savior for? It says "A Savior has been born to you." For just a moment, make that yours. "A Savior has been born to me." And would you, for just a moment, walk up that skull-shaped hill to the bottom of that cross, and there you will see God's Son loving you enough to die for you there. And make it first person singular. "For me. Jesus, what You're doing here is for me; for the sinning I've done."
You've known about the love of Jesus before today maybe, but you've never made Him yours. I can't think of a better day to give yourself to Jesus than Christmas-the day we celebrate His coming to give Himself for you. You may have started another Christmas without Christ in your heart, but you're going to bed this Christmas with Him in your heart. Would you stop where you are and give Him what He paid for? Give Him you. You can tell Him in words like these, "Lord, I'm done running my own life. I'm putting all my trust in You to erase my sins from God's book and to get me to heaven when I die."
If you really want to anchor that relationship and know you've got it, our website would be a great place for you to visit this Christmas Day - ANewStory.com.
It's Christmas Day. This could be your day to be born into the family of God; to experience for yourself the overwhelming love, the overwhelming peace of God. Believe me, this is a wonderful time to be born. Merry Christmas!
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
Matthew 18:21-35
A Story About Forgiveness
21 At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?”
22 Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.
23-25 “The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.
26-27 “The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.
28 “The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’
29-31 “The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.
32-35 “The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 25, 2017
Read: Luke 2:1–10
The Birth of Jesus
2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 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. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
Footnotes:
Luke 2:2 Or This census took place before
INSIGHT
The angel Gabriel told Mary, “[Jesus] will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32–33). The angel who appeared to Joseph said, “What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. . . . [Y]ou are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20–21). Mary and Joseph knew Jesus would be the Messiah, and as faithful Jews they would have known the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem, David’s hometown. Perhaps when Joseph was ordered to Bethlehem for the census he thought, So that’s how God is going to get us to Bethlehem!
How does reflecting on the miraculous events that led to the birth of Jesus fill you with renewed awe and wonder?
Adapted from Mystery of the Manger by John Greco. Read more at discoveryseries.org/hp161.
Traditions and Christmas
By Dave Branon
I bring you good news that will cause great joy . . . a Savior has been born to you. Luke 2:10–11
As you savor a candy cane this Christmas, say “danke schön” to the Germans, for that confectionary treat was first created in Cologne. As you admire your poinsettia, say “gracias” to Mexico, where the plant originated. Say “merci beaucoup” to the French for the term noel, and give a “cheers” to the English for your mistletoe.
But as we enjoy our traditions and festivities of the Christmas season—customs that have been collected from around the world—let’s save our most sincere and heartfelt “thank you” for our good, merciful, and loving God. From Him came the reason for our Christmas celebration: the baby born in that Judean manger more than 2,000 years ago. An angel announced the arrival of this gift to mankind by saying, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy . . . a Savior has been born to you” (Luke 2:10–11).
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. Romans 15:13
This Christmas, even in the light of the sparkling Christmas tree and surrounded by newly opened presents, the true excitement comes when we turn our attention to the baby named Jesus, who came to “save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). His birth transcends tradition: It is our central focus as we send praises to God for this indescribable Christmas gift.
Lord, we thank You for coming to join us on that first Christmas. During a time of the year filled with many traditions, help us to keep You first.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. Romans 15:13
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 25, 2017
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.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”
The Shadow of an Agony
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 25, 2017
A Wonderful Time to Be Born - #8076
When I was growing up, Christmas was a double-header for me, because my birthday is just a few days before Christmas. Just in case you care, it's on the date that the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane successfully. So, with all the time I've spent on airplanes in my life, you gotta wonder if that's some kind of destiny thing. That's also the date of the Battle of the Bulge. Wait, no. Destiny again? But I've never had a complaint about when my birthday is. Nope! As a kid, I tried to turn that into an advantage by asking for a gift that would be too much for just Christmas but not for Christmas and your birthday. And besides cleaning up in the gift department, it's just neat to have a birthday at a time when all the world seems to be celebrating. I mean, I know they're not celebrating my birthday obviously, but it's just the best time of year!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Wonderful Time to Be Born."
On this Christmas Day, I want to invite you to consider an exciting possibility; that you could have a Christmas birthday for the rest of your life. Obviously, you can't change the day you were physically born. You showed up without being consulted about the date, right? But you could make this the day that you're finally born into the very family of God. Christmas Day: the day we celebrate Jesus being born. Christmas Day: it could be the day you're reborn; the day you start to belong to the Christ of Christmas.
In the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, poor Charlie tries everything to put some meaning into that holiday. Nothing works until that classic scene where Linus walks out with his blanket and stands at center stage. The spotlight hits him and he begins to quote from the Bible, including our word for today from the Word of God. Luke 2:11. The angel's birth announcement of Jesus' arrival. "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord."
Did you notice, a Savior. That's someone who can rescue you from a situation where you would otherwise die. Like the man who rescued me when I was ten years old. I was drowning in Lake Michigan. He was my (small "s") savior.
Thirty-three years later what started on Christmas ended on the cross. And God the Father and God the Son knew all along where it would end. Because only someone dying could pay the eternal death penalty for the sin of us running our own lives. But three days later, this same Jesus blew the doors off His grave. He is alive to be the Savior-the one who can finally rescue you from your guilt, from your incurable loneliness, from eternal punishment, and from a life that may have a lot of activity but very little meaning.
And who is this Savior for? It says "A Savior has been born to you." For just a moment, make that yours. "A Savior has been born to me." And would you, for just a moment, walk up that skull-shaped hill to the bottom of that cross, and there you will see God's Son loving you enough to die for you there. And make it first person singular. "For me. Jesus, what You're doing here is for me; for the sinning I've done."
You've known about the love of Jesus before today maybe, but you've never made Him yours. I can't think of a better day to give yourself to Jesus than Christmas-the day we celebrate His coming to give Himself for you. You may have started another Christmas without Christ in your heart, but you're going to bed this Christmas with Him in your heart. Would you stop where you are and give Him what He paid for? Give Him you. You can tell Him in words like these, "Lord, I'm done running my own life. I'm putting all my trust in You to erase my sins from God's book and to get me to heaven when I die."
If you really want to anchor that relationship and know you've got it, our website would be a great place for you to visit this Christmas Day - ANewStory.com.
It's Christmas Day. This could be your day to be born into the family of God; to experience for yourself the overwhelming love, the overwhelming peace of God. Believe me, this is a wonderful time to be born. Merry Christmas!
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Genesis 28 , 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
1-2 So Isaac called in Jacob and blessed him. Then he ordered him, “Don’t take a Caananite wife. Leave at once. Go to Paddan Aram to the family of your mother’s father, Bethuel. Get a wife for yourself from the daughters of your uncle Laban.
3-4 “And may The Strong God bless you and give you many, many children, a congregation of peoples; and pass on the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants so that you will get this land in which you live, this land God gave Abraham.”
5 So Isaac sent Jacob off. He went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6-9 Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan Aram to get a wife there, and while blessing him commanded, “Don’t marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan Aram. When Esau realized how deeply his father Isaac disliked the Canaanite women, he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son. This was in addition to the wives he already had.
10-12 Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.
13-15 Then God was right before him, saying, “I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I’m giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they’ll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I’ll stay with you, I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”
16-17 Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, “God is in this place—truly. And I didn’t even know it!” He was terrified. He whispered in awe, “Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God’s House. This is the Gate of Heaven.”
18-19 Jacob was up first thing in the morning. He took the stone he had used for his pillow and stood it up as a memorial pillar and poured oil over it. He christened the place Bethel (God’s House). The name of the town had been Luz until then.
20-22 Jacob vowed a vow: “If God stands by me and protects me on this journey on which I’m setting out, keeps me in food and clothing, and brings me back in one piece to my father’s house, this God will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a memorial pillar will mark this as a place where God lives. And everything you give me, I’ll return a tenth to you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Read: Luke 2:11–20
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
INSIGHT
Luke’s telling of the birth of Christ is a study in contrasts. We are introduced to the Son of God in the weakness of an infant, while powerful world rulers play their part in moving the family to the city of David. The shepherds were likely guarding temple flocks that would supply the sacrificial system at Jerusalem’s temple. Yet though they were treated as unclean by the religionists of their day, they are invited into the presence of the ultimate Sacrifice. From the humble to the heavenly and everything in between, these contrasts launch the journey of the Son who came from the highest place to be the Lamb of God.
In what way does the coming of Jesus touch your heart?
For further study download the brochure “10 Reasons to Believe God Offers the Perfect Gift” at discoveryseries.org/perfectgift. - Bill Crowder
A Thrill of Hope
By Amy Peterson
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:11
Reginald Fessenden had been working for years to achieve wireless radio communication. Other scientists found his ideas radical and unorthodox, and doubted he would succeed. But he claims that on December 24, 1906, he became the first person to ever play music over the radio.
Fessenden held a contract with a fruit company which had installed wireless systems on roughly a dozen boats to communicate about the harvesting and marketing of bananas. That Christmas Eve, Fessenden said that he told the wireless operators on board all ships to pay attention. At 9 o'clock they heard his voice.
Without Christ there is no hope. Charles Spurgeon
He reportedly played a record of an operatic aria, and then he pulled out his violin, playing “O Holy Night” and singing the words to the last verse as he played. Finally, he offered Christmas greetings and read from Luke 2 the story of angels announcing the birth of a Savior to shepherds in Bethlehem.
Both the shepherds in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago and the sailors on board the United Fruit Company ships in 1906 heard an unexpected, surprising message of hope on a dark night. And God still speaks that same message of hope to us today. A Savior has been born for us—Christ the Lord! (Luke 2:11). We can join the choir of angels and believers through the ages who respond with “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (v. 14).
God, we give You glory and thank You for sending Your Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior!
Without Christ there is no hope. Charles Spurgeon
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, December 24, 2017
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.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God “elbow room”; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
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
1-2 So Isaac called in Jacob and blessed him. Then he ordered him, “Don’t take a Caananite wife. Leave at once. Go to Paddan Aram to the family of your mother’s father, Bethuel. Get a wife for yourself from the daughters of your uncle Laban.
3-4 “And may The Strong God bless you and give you many, many children, a congregation of peoples; and pass on the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants so that you will get this land in which you live, this land God gave Abraham.”
5 So Isaac sent Jacob off. He went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6-9 Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan Aram to get a wife there, and while blessing him commanded, “Don’t marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan Aram. When Esau realized how deeply his father Isaac disliked the Canaanite women, he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son. This was in addition to the wives he already had.
10-12 Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.
13-15 Then God was right before him, saying, “I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I’m giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they’ll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I’ll stay with you, I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”
16-17 Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, “God is in this place—truly. And I didn’t even know it!” He was terrified. He whispered in awe, “Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God’s House. This is the Gate of Heaven.”
18-19 Jacob was up first thing in the morning. He took the stone he had used for his pillow and stood it up as a memorial pillar and poured oil over it. He christened the place Bethel (God’s House). The name of the town had been Luz until then.
20-22 Jacob vowed a vow: “If God stands by me and protects me on this journey on which I’m setting out, keeps me in food and clothing, and brings me back in one piece to my father’s house, this God will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a memorial pillar will mark this as a place where God lives. And everything you give me, I’ll return a tenth to you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Read: Luke 2:11–20
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
INSIGHT
Luke’s telling of the birth of Christ is a study in contrasts. We are introduced to the Son of God in the weakness of an infant, while powerful world rulers play their part in moving the family to the city of David. The shepherds were likely guarding temple flocks that would supply the sacrificial system at Jerusalem’s temple. Yet though they were treated as unclean by the religionists of their day, they are invited into the presence of the ultimate Sacrifice. From the humble to the heavenly and everything in between, these contrasts launch the journey of the Son who came from the highest place to be the Lamb of God.
In what way does the coming of Jesus touch your heart?
For further study download the brochure “10 Reasons to Believe God Offers the Perfect Gift” at discoveryseries.org/perfectgift. - Bill Crowder
A Thrill of Hope
By Amy Peterson
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:11
Reginald Fessenden had been working for years to achieve wireless radio communication. Other scientists found his ideas radical and unorthodox, and doubted he would succeed. But he claims that on December 24, 1906, he became the first person to ever play music over the radio.
Fessenden held a contract with a fruit company which had installed wireless systems on roughly a dozen boats to communicate about the harvesting and marketing of bananas. That Christmas Eve, Fessenden said that he told the wireless operators on board all ships to pay attention. At 9 o'clock they heard his voice.
Without Christ there is no hope. Charles Spurgeon
He reportedly played a record of an operatic aria, and then he pulled out his violin, playing “O Holy Night” and singing the words to the last verse as he played. Finally, he offered Christmas greetings and read from Luke 2 the story of angels announcing the birth of a Savior to shepherds in Bethlehem.
Both the shepherds in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago and the sailors on board the United Fruit Company ships in 1906 heard an unexpected, surprising message of hope on a dark night. And God still speaks that same message of hope to us today. A Savior has been born for us—Christ the Lord! (Luke 2:11). We can join the choir of angels and believers through the ages who respond with “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (v. 14).
God, we give You glory and thank You for sending Your Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior!
Without Christ there is no hope. Charles Spurgeon
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, December 24, 2017
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.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God “elbow room”; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Genesis 27, 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
Genesis 27
When Isaac had become an old man and was nearly blind, he called his eldest son, Esau, and said, “My son.”
“Yes, Father?”
2-4 “I’m an old man,” he said; “I might die any day now. Do me a favor: Get your quiver of arrows and your bow and go out in the country and hunt me some game. Then fix me a hearty meal, the kind that you know I like, and bring it to me to eat so that I can give you my personal blessing before I die.”
5-7 Rebekah was eavesdropping as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. As soon as Esau had gone off to the country to hunt game for his father, Rebekah spoke to her son Jacob. “I just overheard your father talking with your brother, Esau. He said, ‘Bring me some game and fix me a hearty meal so that I can eat and bless you with God’s blessing before I die.’
8-10 “Now, my son, listen to me. Do what I tell you. Go to the flock and get me two young goats. Pick the best; I’ll prepare them into a hearty meal, the kind that your father loves. Then you’ll take it to your father, he’ll eat and bless you before he dies.”
11-12 “But Mother,” Jacob said, “my brother Esau is a hairy man and I have smooth skin. What happens if my father touches me? He’ll think I’m playing games with him. I’ll bring down a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”
13 “If it comes to that,” said his mother, “I’ll take the curse on myself. Now, just do what I say. Go and get the goats.”
14 So he went and got them and brought them to his mother and she cooked a hearty meal, the kind his father loved so much.
15-17 Rebekah took the dress-up clothes of her older son Esau and put them on her younger son Jacob. She took the goatskins and covered his hands and the smooth nape of his neck. Then she placed the hearty meal she had fixed and fresh bread she’d baked into the hands of her son Jacob.
18 He went to his father and said, “My father!”
“Yes?” he said. “Which son are you?”
19 Jacob answered his father, “I’m your firstborn son Esau. I did what you told me. Come now; sit up and eat of my game so you can give me your personal blessing.”
20 Isaac said, “So soon? How did you get it so quickly?”
“Because your God cleared the way for me.”
21 Isaac said, “Come close, son; let me touch you—are you really my son Esau?”
22-23 So Jacob moved close to his father Isaac. Isaac felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He didn’t recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s.
23-24 But as he was about to bless him he pressed him, “You’re sure? You are my son Esau?”
“Yes. I am.”
25 Isaac said, “Bring the food so I can eat of my son’s game and give you my personal blessing.” Jacob brought it to him and he ate. He also brought him wine and he drank.
26 Then Isaac said, “Come close, son, and kiss me.”
27-29 He came close and kissed him and Isaac smelled the smell of his clothes. Finally, he blessed him,
Ahhh. The smell of my son
is like the smell of the open country
blessed by God.
May God give you
of Heaven’s dew
and Earth’s bounty of grain and wine.
May peoples serve you
and nations honor you.
You will master your brothers,
and your mother’s sons will honor you.
Those who curse you will be cursed,
those who bless you will be blessed.
30-31 And then right after Isaac had blessed Jacob and Jacob had left, Esau showed up from the hunt. He also had prepared a hearty meal. He came to his father and said, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s game, that he may give me his personal blessing.”
32 His father Isaac said, “And who are you?”
“I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33 Isaac started to tremble, shaking violently. He said, “Then who hunted game and brought it to me? I finished the meal just now, before you walked in. And I blessed him—he’s blessed for good!”
34 Esau, hearing his father’s words, sobbed violently and most bitterly, and cried to his father, “My father! Can’t you also bless me?”
35 “Your brother,” he said, “came here falsely and took your blessing.”
36 Esau said, “Not for nothing was he named Jacob, the Heel. Twice now he’s tricked me: first he took my birthright and now he’s taken my blessing.”
He begged, “Haven’t you kept back any blessing for me?”
37 Isaac answered Esau, “I’ve made him your master, and all his brothers his servants, and lavished grain and wine on him. I’ve given it all away. What’s left for you, my son?”
38 “But don’t you have just one blessing for me, Father? Oh, bless me my father! Bless me!” Esau sobbed inconsolably.
39-40 Isaac said to him,
You’ll live far from Earth’s bounty,
remote from Heaven’s dew.
You’ll live by your sword, hand-to-mouth,
and you’ll serve your brother.
But when you can’t take it any more
you’ll break loose and run free.
41 Esau seethed in anger against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him; he brooded, “The time for mourning my father’s death is close. And then I’ll kill my brother Jacob.”
42-45 When these words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she called her younger son Jacob and said, “Your brother Esau is plotting vengeance against you. He’s going to kill you. Son, listen to me. Get out of here. Run for your life to Haran, to my brother Laban. Live with him for a while until your brother cools down, until his anger subsides and he forgets what you did to him. I’ll then send for you and bring you back. Why should I lose both of you the same day?”
46 Rebekah spoke to Isaac, “I’m sick to death of these Hittite women. If Jacob also marries a native Hittite woman, why live?”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Read: Matthew 1:18–23
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[a]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[b] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[c] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[d] (which means “God with us”).
Footnotes:
Matthew 1:18 Or The origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this
Matthew 1:19 Or was a righteous man and
Matthew 1:21 Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves.
Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14
INSIGHT
We can only imagine the emotions Joseph experienced when he discovered his fiancée was pregnant. But in a dream he was told that Mary’s child was conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. In obedience to this divine revelation, Joseph took her as his wife and did not consummate the marriage until she had given birth to the child.
The Father, Son, and Spirit all share in our redemption. God took on human form and came to Earth to live among us. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and the Spirit now dwells within us (1 Peter 1:11; Gal. 4:6; 1 Cor. 6:19).
How does knowing Christ is present in your life through the ministry of the Holy Spirit encourage you? - Dennis Fisher
God with Us
By Amy Boucher Pye
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel. Matthew 1:23
“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left . . .” These hymn lyrics, written by the fifth-century Celtic Christian St. Patrick, echo in my mind when I read Matthew’s account of Jesus’s birth. They feel like a warm embrace, reminding me that I’m never alone.
Matthew’s account tells us that God dwelling with His people is at the heart of Christmas. Quoting Isaiah’s prophecy of a child who would be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us” (Isa. 7:14), Matthew points to the ultimate fulfillment of that prophecy—Jesus, the One born by the power of the Holy Spirit to be God with us. This truth is so central that Matthew begins and ends his gospel with it, concluding with Jesus’s words to His disciples: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
God’s love became Incarnate at Bethlehem.
St. Patrick’s lyrics remind me that Christ is with believers always through His Spirit living within. When I’m nervous or afraid, I can hold fast to His promises that He will never leave me. When I can’t fall asleep, I can ask Him to give me His peace. When I’m celebrating and filled with joy, I can thank Him for His gracious work in my life.
Jesus, Immanuel—God with us.
Father God, thank You for sending Your Son to be God with us. May we experience Your presence this day.
God’s love became Incarnate at Bethlehem.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 23, 2017
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.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye. Disciples Indeed, 385 L
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
Genesis 27
When Isaac had become an old man and was nearly blind, he called his eldest son, Esau, and said, “My son.”
“Yes, Father?”
2-4 “I’m an old man,” he said; “I might die any day now. Do me a favor: Get your quiver of arrows and your bow and go out in the country and hunt me some game. Then fix me a hearty meal, the kind that you know I like, and bring it to me to eat so that I can give you my personal blessing before I die.”
5-7 Rebekah was eavesdropping as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. As soon as Esau had gone off to the country to hunt game for his father, Rebekah spoke to her son Jacob. “I just overheard your father talking with your brother, Esau. He said, ‘Bring me some game and fix me a hearty meal so that I can eat and bless you with God’s blessing before I die.’
8-10 “Now, my son, listen to me. Do what I tell you. Go to the flock and get me two young goats. Pick the best; I’ll prepare them into a hearty meal, the kind that your father loves. Then you’ll take it to your father, he’ll eat and bless you before he dies.”
11-12 “But Mother,” Jacob said, “my brother Esau is a hairy man and I have smooth skin. What happens if my father touches me? He’ll think I’m playing games with him. I’ll bring down a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”
13 “If it comes to that,” said his mother, “I’ll take the curse on myself. Now, just do what I say. Go and get the goats.”
14 So he went and got them and brought them to his mother and she cooked a hearty meal, the kind his father loved so much.
15-17 Rebekah took the dress-up clothes of her older son Esau and put them on her younger son Jacob. She took the goatskins and covered his hands and the smooth nape of his neck. Then she placed the hearty meal she had fixed and fresh bread she’d baked into the hands of her son Jacob.
18 He went to his father and said, “My father!”
“Yes?” he said. “Which son are you?”
19 Jacob answered his father, “I’m your firstborn son Esau. I did what you told me. Come now; sit up and eat of my game so you can give me your personal blessing.”
20 Isaac said, “So soon? How did you get it so quickly?”
“Because your God cleared the way for me.”
21 Isaac said, “Come close, son; let me touch you—are you really my son Esau?”
22-23 So Jacob moved close to his father Isaac. Isaac felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He didn’t recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s.
23-24 But as he was about to bless him he pressed him, “You’re sure? You are my son Esau?”
“Yes. I am.”
25 Isaac said, “Bring the food so I can eat of my son’s game and give you my personal blessing.” Jacob brought it to him and he ate. He also brought him wine and he drank.
26 Then Isaac said, “Come close, son, and kiss me.”
27-29 He came close and kissed him and Isaac smelled the smell of his clothes. Finally, he blessed him,
Ahhh. The smell of my son
is like the smell of the open country
blessed by God.
May God give you
of Heaven’s dew
and Earth’s bounty of grain and wine.
May peoples serve you
and nations honor you.
You will master your brothers,
and your mother’s sons will honor you.
Those who curse you will be cursed,
those who bless you will be blessed.
30-31 And then right after Isaac had blessed Jacob and Jacob had left, Esau showed up from the hunt. He also had prepared a hearty meal. He came to his father and said, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s game, that he may give me his personal blessing.”
32 His father Isaac said, “And who are you?”
“I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33 Isaac started to tremble, shaking violently. He said, “Then who hunted game and brought it to me? I finished the meal just now, before you walked in. And I blessed him—he’s blessed for good!”
34 Esau, hearing his father’s words, sobbed violently and most bitterly, and cried to his father, “My father! Can’t you also bless me?”
35 “Your brother,” he said, “came here falsely and took your blessing.”
36 Esau said, “Not for nothing was he named Jacob, the Heel. Twice now he’s tricked me: first he took my birthright and now he’s taken my blessing.”
He begged, “Haven’t you kept back any blessing for me?”
37 Isaac answered Esau, “I’ve made him your master, and all his brothers his servants, and lavished grain and wine on him. I’ve given it all away. What’s left for you, my son?”
38 “But don’t you have just one blessing for me, Father? Oh, bless me my father! Bless me!” Esau sobbed inconsolably.
39-40 Isaac said to him,
You’ll live far from Earth’s bounty,
remote from Heaven’s dew.
You’ll live by your sword, hand-to-mouth,
and you’ll serve your brother.
But when you can’t take it any more
you’ll break loose and run free.
41 Esau seethed in anger against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him; he brooded, “The time for mourning my father’s death is close. And then I’ll kill my brother Jacob.”
42-45 When these words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she called her younger son Jacob and said, “Your brother Esau is plotting vengeance against you. He’s going to kill you. Son, listen to me. Get out of here. Run for your life to Haran, to my brother Laban. Live with him for a while until your brother cools down, until his anger subsides and he forgets what you did to him. I’ll then send for you and bring you back. Why should I lose both of you the same day?”
46 Rebekah spoke to Isaac, “I’m sick to death of these Hittite women. If Jacob also marries a native Hittite woman, why live?”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Read: Matthew 1:18–23
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[a]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[b] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[c] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[d] (which means “God with us”).
Footnotes:
Matthew 1:18 Or The origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this
Matthew 1:19 Or was a righteous man and
Matthew 1:21 Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves.
Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14
INSIGHT
We can only imagine the emotions Joseph experienced when he discovered his fiancée was pregnant. But in a dream he was told that Mary’s child was conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. In obedience to this divine revelation, Joseph took her as his wife and did not consummate the marriage until she had given birth to the child.
The Father, Son, and Spirit all share in our redemption. God took on human form and came to Earth to live among us. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and the Spirit now dwells within us (1 Peter 1:11; Gal. 4:6; 1 Cor. 6:19).
How does knowing Christ is present in your life through the ministry of the Holy Spirit encourage you? - Dennis Fisher
God with Us
By Amy Boucher Pye
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel. Matthew 1:23
“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left . . .” These hymn lyrics, written by the fifth-century Celtic Christian St. Patrick, echo in my mind when I read Matthew’s account of Jesus’s birth. They feel like a warm embrace, reminding me that I’m never alone.
Matthew’s account tells us that God dwelling with His people is at the heart of Christmas. Quoting Isaiah’s prophecy of a child who would be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us” (Isa. 7:14), Matthew points to the ultimate fulfillment of that prophecy—Jesus, the One born by the power of the Holy Spirit to be God with us. This truth is so central that Matthew begins and ends his gospel with it, concluding with Jesus’s words to His disciples: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
God’s love became Incarnate at Bethlehem.
St. Patrick’s lyrics remind me that Christ is with believers always through His Spirit living within. When I’m nervous or afraid, I can hold fast to His promises that He will never leave me. When I can’t fall asleep, I can ask Him to give me His peace. When I’m celebrating and filled with joy, I can thank Him for His gracious work in my life.
Jesus, Immanuel—God with us.
Father God, thank You for sending Your Son to be God with us. May we experience Your presence this day.
God’s love became Incarnate at Bethlehem.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 23, 2017
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.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye. Disciples Indeed, 385 L
Friday, December 22, 2017
Matthew 18:1-20, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: AN UNLIKELY 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! And Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end!” May you be a part of it.
Read more God Came Near
Matthew 18:1-20
Whoever Becomes Simple Again
At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?”
2-5 For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.
6-7 “But if you give them a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck. Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard times are inevitable, but you don’t have to make it worse—and it’s doomsday to you if you do.
8-9 “If your hand or your foot gets in the way of God, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owners of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.
10 “Watch that you don’t treat a single one of these childlike believers arrogantly. You realize, don’t you, that their personal angels are constantly in touch with my Father in heaven?
Work It Out Between You
12-14 “Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine and go after the one? And if he finds it, doesn’t he make far more over it than over the ninety-nine who stay put? Your Father in heaven feels the same way. He doesn’t want to lose even one of these simple believers.
15-17 “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.
18-20 “Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 22, 2017
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:14–21
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Footnotes:
2 Corinthians 5:17 Or Christ, that person is a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:21 Or be a sin offering
INSIGHT
At the heart of the concept of becoming one with Christ is His work of reconciliation in us. In today’s passage, Paul weaves several themes together—life, love, new creation, and the ministry of reconciliation—all framed by a call to act with urgency. It is because of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection that we can be reconciled to God. Those who accept Christ’s gift of reconciliation must “no longer live for themselves” (2 Cor. 5:15). Instead, we are compelled to view everyone differently (v. 16), as people in dire need of Christ’s reconciliation. And what is this reconciliation? God will no longer “[count] people’s sins against them” (v. 19). With urgency, Paul tells us that we are now Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation and says, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (v. 20, emphasis added).
With whom can you share this offer of reconciliation today? - Tim Gustaftson
Silent Night of the Soul
By David C. McCasland
If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone; the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
Long before Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber created the familiar carol “Silent Night,” Angelus Silesius had written:
Lo! in the silent night a child to God is born,
And all is brought again that ere was lost or lorn.
Could but thy soul, O man, become a silent night
God would be born in thee and set all things aright.
Jesus, thank You for being born into this dark world so that we might be born again into Your life & light.
Silesius, a Polish monk, published the poem in 1657 in The Cherubic Pilgrim. During our church’s annual Christmas Eve service, the choir sang a beautiful rendition of the song titled “Could but Thy Soul Become a Silent Night.”
The twofold mystery of Christmas is that God became one of us so that we might become one with Him. Jesus suffered everything that was wrong so that we could be made right. That’s why the apostle Paul could write, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone; the new is here! All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17–18).
Whether our Christmas is filled with family and friends or empty of all we long for, we know that Jesus came to be born in us.
Ah, would thy heart but be a manger for the birth,
God would once more become a child on earth.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being born into this dark world so that we might be born again into Your life and light.
God became one of us so that we might become one with Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 22, 2017
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.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 22, 2017
The Most Important List This Christmas - #8075
It's been used by many a parent to intimidate their children into being good for at least one month of the year. It's that list, you know, the one immortalized in the song, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." You know the line: "He's making a list, checking it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty and nice." I never wanted to be on that naughty list. (Warning: Cover your child's ears at this point.) Then I found out there's no such list.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important List This Christmas."
There is a list that it would be very wise to think about this Christmas. And it's very real. It's a list God has. And no one's on it because they've been "nice." In fact, the Bible says no one is good enough to be on this list - not you, not me, not the most religious person you know. Because no one even comes close to living up to a holy God's standard of perfection. Using that as His standard, God says in the Bible, "There is none righteous, no not one" (Romans 3:10).
The list God has is one it's critical to be on - eternally critical. Jesus called it the "Book of Life" - that's eternal life. God has the names of every person who's going to heaven in that book. And your name is either in that book or it isn't. Jesus told some people who had put their trust in Him to "rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). And in our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 20:15, there's a sobering picture of that book being opened on Judgment Day, and a compelling reason why we really need to be sure our name is there. The Bible says: "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
That's not what God wants. The Bible says that "He is not wanting that anyone should perish" (2 Peter 3:9). So, in the most incredible act of love in human history, God sent His one and only Son that first Christmas, for the express purpose of ultimately paying the price for our sin in our place. On that first Christmas, the angels told those shepherds, "A Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). That's "Savior" as in rescuer - someone who saves you from a deadly situation you can't possibly save yourself from. That's us! We're the rebels of the universe.
The angels do what God tells them, the heavens do what God tells them, and even demons must obey His commands. We're the only ones who dare to say to God, "You run the universe. I'll run me, thank you." We may never say it that way, but we've all turned our back many times on what God wants haven't we? We've lived our life our way. That's spiritual hijacking, punishable by eternal death.
But there's this Book of Life. People who will never have to pay that death penalty they deserve. Why? The Bible says, "He that has the Son (that's Jesus, the Son of God) has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:12). For you to be rescued by the One who came to save you, you have to grab Him like He's your only hope. The moment you do, every wrong thing you've ever done is erased from God's book and your name is entered in God's Book of Life in indelible ink. God made His move at the cross. Now it's your move.
Do you sense that tug in your heart? Well that's Jesus saying, "Open up to Me." Listen to that. That's God drawing you, and you can't come without it. This is way too important to postpone. It's way too important to ignore. Let this be the day when you turn from running your own life and you give yourself to the Man who died so you can live.
Do you want that? Go visit our website. You'll see there laid out in very clear and simple terms from God's Word how to be sure you have a relationship with God beginning this very day. That website is ANewStory.com.
I don't know when your last chance will be to have your name entered in God's Book of Life, because no one does. But the risk of missing heaven is not worth delaying. This could be the day you literally cross over from spiritual death to eternal life. Right now He is waiting to enter your name.
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! And Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end!” May you be a part of it.
Read more God Came Near
Matthew 18:1-20
Whoever Becomes Simple Again
At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?”
2-5 For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.
6-7 “But if you give them a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck. Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard times are inevitable, but you don’t have to make it worse—and it’s doomsday to you if you do.
8-9 “If your hand or your foot gets in the way of God, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owners of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.
10 “Watch that you don’t treat a single one of these childlike believers arrogantly. You realize, don’t you, that their personal angels are constantly in touch with my Father in heaven?
Work It Out Between You
12-14 “Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine and go after the one? And if he finds it, doesn’t he make far more over it than over the ninety-nine who stay put? Your Father in heaven feels the same way. He doesn’t want to lose even one of these simple believers.
15-17 “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.
18-20 “Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 22, 2017
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:14–21
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Footnotes:
2 Corinthians 5:17 Or Christ, that person is a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:21 Or be a sin offering
INSIGHT
At the heart of the concept of becoming one with Christ is His work of reconciliation in us. In today’s passage, Paul weaves several themes together—life, love, new creation, and the ministry of reconciliation—all framed by a call to act with urgency. It is because of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection that we can be reconciled to God. Those who accept Christ’s gift of reconciliation must “no longer live for themselves” (2 Cor. 5:15). Instead, we are compelled to view everyone differently (v. 16), as people in dire need of Christ’s reconciliation. And what is this reconciliation? God will no longer “[count] people’s sins against them” (v. 19). With urgency, Paul tells us that we are now Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation and says, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (v. 20, emphasis added).
With whom can you share this offer of reconciliation today? - Tim Gustaftson
Silent Night of the Soul
By David C. McCasland
If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone; the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
Long before Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber created the familiar carol “Silent Night,” Angelus Silesius had written:
Lo! in the silent night a child to God is born,
And all is brought again that ere was lost or lorn.
Could but thy soul, O man, become a silent night
God would be born in thee and set all things aright.
Jesus, thank You for being born into this dark world so that we might be born again into Your life & light.
Silesius, a Polish monk, published the poem in 1657 in The Cherubic Pilgrim. During our church’s annual Christmas Eve service, the choir sang a beautiful rendition of the song titled “Could but Thy Soul Become a Silent Night.”
The twofold mystery of Christmas is that God became one of us so that we might become one with Him. Jesus suffered everything that was wrong so that we could be made right. That’s why the apostle Paul could write, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone; the new is here! All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17–18).
Whether our Christmas is filled with family and friends or empty of all we long for, we know that Jesus came to be born in us.
Ah, would thy heart but be a manger for the birth,
God would once more become a child on earth.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being born into this dark world so that we might be born again into Your life and light.
God became one of us so that we might become one with Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 22, 2017
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.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 22, 2017
The Most Important List This Christmas - #8075
It's been used by many a parent to intimidate their children into being good for at least one month of the year. It's that list, you know, the one immortalized in the song, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." You know the line: "He's making a list, checking it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty and nice." I never wanted to be on that naughty list. (Warning: Cover your child's ears at this point.) Then I found out there's no such list.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important List This Christmas."
There is a list that it would be very wise to think about this Christmas. And it's very real. It's a list God has. And no one's on it because they've been "nice." In fact, the Bible says no one is good enough to be on this list - not you, not me, not the most religious person you know. Because no one even comes close to living up to a holy God's standard of perfection. Using that as His standard, God says in the Bible, "There is none righteous, no not one" (Romans 3:10).
The list God has is one it's critical to be on - eternally critical. Jesus called it the "Book of Life" - that's eternal life. God has the names of every person who's going to heaven in that book. And your name is either in that book or it isn't. Jesus told some people who had put their trust in Him to "rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). And in our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 20:15, there's a sobering picture of that book being opened on Judgment Day, and a compelling reason why we really need to be sure our name is there. The Bible says: "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
That's not what God wants. The Bible says that "He is not wanting that anyone should perish" (2 Peter 3:9). So, in the most incredible act of love in human history, God sent His one and only Son that first Christmas, for the express purpose of ultimately paying the price for our sin in our place. On that first Christmas, the angels told those shepherds, "A Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). That's "Savior" as in rescuer - someone who saves you from a deadly situation you can't possibly save yourself from. That's us! We're the rebels of the universe.
The angels do what God tells them, the heavens do what God tells them, and even demons must obey His commands. We're the only ones who dare to say to God, "You run the universe. I'll run me, thank you." We may never say it that way, but we've all turned our back many times on what God wants haven't we? We've lived our life our way. That's spiritual hijacking, punishable by eternal death.
But there's this Book of Life. People who will never have to pay that death penalty they deserve. Why? The Bible says, "He that has the Son (that's Jesus, the Son of God) has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:12). For you to be rescued by the One who came to save you, you have to grab Him like He's your only hope. The moment you do, every wrong thing you've ever done is erased from God's book and your name is entered in God's Book of Life in indelible ink. God made His move at the cross. Now it's your move.
Do you sense that tug in your heart? Well that's Jesus saying, "Open up to Me." Listen to that. That's God drawing you, and you can't come without it. This is way too important to postpone. It's way too important to ignore. Let this be the day when you turn from running your own life and you give yourself to the Man who died so you can live.
Do you want that? Go visit our website. You'll see there laid out in very clear and simple terms from God's Word how to be sure you have a relationship with God beginning this very day. That website is ANewStory.com.
I don't know when your last chance will be to have your name entered in God's Book of Life, because no one does. But the risk of missing heaven is not worth delaying. This could be the day you literally cross over from spiritual death to eternal life. Right now He is waiting to enter your name.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Genesis 26, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: JESUS MAKES ROOM
Some of the saddest words on earth are we don’t have room for you. Jesus knew the sounds of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.” And when He hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? We don’t have room for you in this world.
Today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if He might enter. Every so often, He’s welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites Him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise, “In my Father’s house are many rooms…” (John 14:2). We make room for Him in our hearts. And Jesus makes room for us in His house!
Read more God Came Near
Genesis 26
There was a famine in the land, as bad as the famine during the time of Abraham. And Isaac went down to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2-5 God appeared to him and said, “Don’t go down to Egypt; stay where I tell you. Stay here in this land and I’ll be with you and bless you. I’m giving you and your children all these lands, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I’ll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. All the nations of the Earth will get a blessing for themselves through your descendants. And why? Because Abraham obeyed my summons and kept my charge—my commands, my guidelines, my teachings.”
6 So Isaac stayed put in Gerar.
7 The men of the place questioned him about his wife. He said, “She’s my sister.” He was afraid to say “She’s my wife.” He was thinking, “These men might kill me to get Rebekah, she’s so beautiful.”
8-9 One day, after they had been there quite a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac fondling his wife Rebekah. Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So, she’s your wife. Why did you tell us ‘She’s my sister’?”
Isaac said, “Because I thought I might get killed by someone who wanted her.”
10 Abimelech said, “But think of what you might have done to us! Given a little more time, one of the men might have slept with your wife; you would have been responsible for bringing guilt down on us.”
11 Then Abimelech gave orders to his people: “Anyone who so much as lays a hand on this man or his wife dies.”
12-15 Isaac planted crops in that land and took in a huge harvest. God blessed him. The man got richer and richer by the day until he was very wealthy. He accumulated flocks and herds and many, many servants, so much so that the Philistines began to envy him. They got back at him by throwing dirt and debris into all the wells that his father’s servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham, clogging up all the wells.
16 Finally, Abimelech told Isaac: “Leave. You’ve become far too big for us.”
17-18 So Isaac left. He camped in the valley of Gerar and settled down there. Isaac dug again the wells which were dug in the days of his father Abraham but had been clogged up by the Philistines after Abraham’s death. And he renamed them, using the original names his father had given them.
19-24 One day, as Isaac’s servants were digging in the valley, they came on a well of spring water. The shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds, claiming, “This water is ours.” So Isaac named the well Esek (Quarrel) because they quarreled over it. They dug another well and there was a difference over that one also, so he named it Sitnah (Accusation). He went on from there and dug yet another well. But there was no fighting over this one so he named it Rehoboth (Wide-Open Spaces), saying, “Now God has given us plenty of space to spread out in the land.” From there he went up to Beersheba. That very night God appeared to him and said,
I am the God of Abraham your father;
don’t fear a thing because I’m with you.
I’ll bless you and make your children flourish
because of Abraham my servant.
25 Isaac built an altar there and prayed, calling on God by name. He pitched his tent and his servants started digging another well.
26-27 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his advisor and Phicol the head of his troops. Isaac asked them, “Why did you come to me? You hate me; you threw me out of your country.”
28-29 They said, “We’ve realized that God is on your side. We’d like to make a deal between us—a covenant that we maintain friendly relations. We haven’t bothered you in the past; we treated you kindly and let you leave us in peace. So—God’s blessing be with you!”
30-31 Isaac laid out a feast and they ate and drank together. Early in the morning they exchanged oaths. Then Isaac said good-bye and they parted as friends.
32-33 Later that same day, Isaac’s servants came to him with news about the well they had been digging, “We’ve struck water!” Isaac named the well Sheba (Oath), and that’s the name of the city, Beersheba (Oath-Well), to this day.
34-35 When Esau was forty years old he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite. They turned out to be thorns in the sides of Isaac and Rebekah.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Read: Genesis 28:10–17
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it[a] stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.[b] 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Footnotes:
Genesis 28:13 Or There beside him
Genesis 28:14 Or will use your name and the name of your offspring in blessings (see 48:20)
INSIGHT
Sometimes our perceptions of God get a startling adjustment. That was the case for Jacob in today’s passage. From our perspective we know through the Old and New Testament Scriptures that God is everywhere and is always with us. But Jacob’s knowledge was limited. His statement in Genesis 28:16 hints that he thought he was out of “God’s area.” How comforting it must have been to Jacob to realize that though he had left his family and his home, he was still in the presence of God.
How does knowing that God is always present comfort you? - J.R. Hudberg
Home for Christmas
By Tim Gustafson
I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. Genesis 28:15
One year Christmas found me on assignment in a place many of my friends couldn’t locate on a map. Trudging from my worksite back to my room, I braced against the chill wind blowing off the bleak Black Sea. I missed home.
When I arrived at my room, I opened the door to a magical moment. My artistic roommate had completed his latest project—a nineteen-inch ceramic Christmas tree that now illuminated our darkened room with sparkling dots of color. If only for a moment, I was home again!
A Light has entered the world to show us the way home.
As Jacob fled from his brother Esau, he found himself in a strange and lonely place too. Asleep on the hard ground, he met God in a dream. And God promised Jacob a home. “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying,” He told him. “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring” (Gen. 28:13–14).
From Jacob, of course, would come the promised Messiah, the One who left His home to draw us to Himself. “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am,” Jesus told His disciples (John 14:3).
That December night I sat in the darkness of my room and gazed at that Christmas tree. Perhaps inevitably I thought of the Light that entered the world to show us the way home.
Lord, no matter where we are today, we can thank You for preparing a place for us to be with You. And we have the presence of Your Spirit today!
Home is not so much a place on a map, as it is a place to belong. God gives us that place.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Experience or God’s Revealed Truth?
We have received…the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. —1 Corinthians 2:12
My experience is not what makes redemption real— redemption is reality. Redemption has no real meaning for me until it is worked out through my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences, I am left with something not produced by redemption. But experiences produced by redemption prove themselves by leading me beyond myself, to the point of no longer paying any attention to experiences as the basis of reality. Instead, I see that only the reality itself produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source of truth— Jesus Christ.
If you try to hold back the Holy Spirit within you, with the desire of producing more inner spiritual experiences, you will find that He will break the hold and take you again to the historic Christ. Never support an experience which does not have God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions or insights you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you place your experiences above Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. Then there will come a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience, and you can truthfully say, “I do not care what I experience— I am sure of Him!”
Be relentless and hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about the experiences you have had. Faith based on experience is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The attitude of a Christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognize that God is behind it for purposes of His own. Biblical Ethics, 99 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Decorated, But Dead - #8073
The Christmas tree has always been a big deal at our house. The boys go on our annual pilgrimage to pick it out. Then we have the annual decorating ceremony, and we're pretty good at it if I do say so myself. The lights, the beautiful decorations you accumulated over the years, the bright star on the top. Our Christmas tree is the center of our family life all during the Christmas season, and then comes January. Yeah, I hate to mention it now, but the decorations come off and the tree comes down. After which, I unceremoniously carry it to the curb for the garbage man to dispose of. The ugly secret is painfully obvious that day. Even though that tree has been glowing with decorations, it was dead all along!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Decorated, But Dead."
Tragically, there are a lot of people whose spiritual condition might be described as "Christmas Tree Syndrome." They're decorated, but they're dead-spiritually, that is. The Bible makes it disturbingly clear that you can be decorated with all kinds of Christian decorations and look very much alive spiritually, but still be what the Bible describes as spiritually dead.
One of the most unsettling scenes in the story of the first Christmas, our word for today from the Word of God, provides an example of this. It's especially unsettling for those of us who consider ourselves religious. When the three wise men told King Herod about the baby they were seeking, Matthew 2:4 says, "He called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, and he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 'In Bethlehem in Judea,' they replied, for this is what the prophet has written: 'But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah...out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.'"
And that's all it says about them. Apparently, they knew all the facts about Christ, they quoted the verses but they didn't do anything about it! These men were the religious leaders in their area. They knew all the verses about Christ coming. They looked like they were spiritually alive, they talked like they were spiritually alive, everybody thought they were spiritually alive, but apparently they made no move to meet Jesus.
If they could miss Jesus, so can we. See, it's easy to be around Jesus a lot, to know a lot about Jesus, but mistake that for actually knowing Jesus. We have the look of someone who belongs to Him, we sound like someone who belongs to Him, but we've never actually experienced Him for ourselves. Maybe when you hear a speaker talk about making Christ your personal Savior, you inwardly say, "Oh, been there, done that." But "been there, know that" is very different from "been there, done that."
Now, as we celebrate Jesus' coming again this Christmas, wouldn't this be a wonderful time to finally really let Him come into your heart? You know you cannot have a relationship with God, you can't get to heaven until all the sins of your life have been erased from God's book, they've been forgiven. Jesus died to pay that price so you could be forgiven, but you've got to take Him for yourself by an act of conscious total commitment to Him.
Could it be that you've never really begun your own personal relationship with Jesus? If so, this would be a wonderful time to get that settled, wouldn't it? Today as we celebrate His coming, you can celebrate His coming into your heart finally and into your life. Tell Him you're putting your trust totally in Him to be your own Savior, and you're beginning that relationship this very day.
I want to invite you to go to our website, ANewStory.com, because I've literally set it up to help you be sure that you belong to Him. This is the day to get it done, to get it right; to know for sure that Jesus is in you heart and you're going to be with Him forever.
What a Christmas this could be. This will be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart!
Some of the saddest words on earth are we don’t have room for you. Jesus knew the sounds of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.” And when He hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? We don’t have room for you in this world.
Today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if He might enter. Every so often, He’s welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites Him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise, “In my Father’s house are many rooms…” (John 14:2). We make room for Him in our hearts. And Jesus makes room for us in His house!
Read more God Came Near
Genesis 26
There was a famine in the land, as bad as the famine during the time of Abraham. And Isaac went down to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2-5 God appeared to him and said, “Don’t go down to Egypt; stay where I tell you. Stay here in this land and I’ll be with you and bless you. I’m giving you and your children all these lands, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I’ll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. All the nations of the Earth will get a blessing for themselves through your descendants. And why? Because Abraham obeyed my summons and kept my charge—my commands, my guidelines, my teachings.”
6 So Isaac stayed put in Gerar.
7 The men of the place questioned him about his wife. He said, “She’s my sister.” He was afraid to say “She’s my wife.” He was thinking, “These men might kill me to get Rebekah, she’s so beautiful.”
8-9 One day, after they had been there quite a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac fondling his wife Rebekah. Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So, she’s your wife. Why did you tell us ‘She’s my sister’?”
Isaac said, “Because I thought I might get killed by someone who wanted her.”
10 Abimelech said, “But think of what you might have done to us! Given a little more time, one of the men might have slept with your wife; you would have been responsible for bringing guilt down on us.”
11 Then Abimelech gave orders to his people: “Anyone who so much as lays a hand on this man or his wife dies.”
12-15 Isaac planted crops in that land and took in a huge harvest. God blessed him. The man got richer and richer by the day until he was very wealthy. He accumulated flocks and herds and many, many servants, so much so that the Philistines began to envy him. They got back at him by throwing dirt and debris into all the wells that his father’s servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham, clogging up all the wells.
16 Finally, Abimelech told Isaac: “Leave. You’ve become far too big for us.”
17-18 So Isaac left. He camped in the valley of Gerar and settled down there. Isaac dug again the wells which were dug in the days of his father Abraham but had been clogged up by the Philistines after Abraham’s death. And he renamed them, using the original names his father had given them.
19-24 One day, as Isaac’s servants were digging in the valley, they came on a well of spring water. The shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds, claiming, “This water is ours.” So Isaac named the well Esek (Quarrel) because they quarreled over it. They dug another well and there was a difference over that one also, so he named it Sitnah (Accusation). He went on from there and dug yet another well. But there was no fighting over this one so he named it Rehoboth (Wide-Open Spaces), saying, “Now God has given us plenty of space to spread out in the land.” From there he went up to Beersheba. That very night God appeared to him and said,
I am the God of Abraham your father;
don’t fear a thing because I’m with you.
I’ll bless you and make your children flourish
because of Abraham my servant.
25 Isaac built an altar there and prayed, calling on God by name. He pitched his tent and his servants started digging another well.
26-27 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his advisor and Phicol the head of his troops. Isaac asked them, “Why did you come to me? You hate me; you threw me out of your country.”
28-29 They said, “We’ve realized that God is on your side. We’d like to make a deal between us—a covenant that we maintain friendly relations. We haven’t bothered you in the past; we treated you kindly and let you leave us in peace. So—God’s blessing be with you!”
30-31 Isaac laid out a feast and they ate and drank together. Early in the morning they exchanged oaths. Then Isaac said good-bye and they parted as friends.
32-33 Later that same day, Isaac’s servants came to him with news about the well they had been digging, “We’ve struck water!” Isaac named the well Sheba (Oath), and that’s the name of the city, Beersheba (Oath-Well), to this day.
34-35 When Esau was forty years old he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite. They turned out to be thorns in the sides of Isaac and Rebekah.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Read: Genesis 28:10–17
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it[a] stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.[b] 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Footnotes:
Genesis 28:13 Or There beside him
Genesis 28:14 Or will use your name and the name of your offspring in blessings (see 48:20)
INSIGHT
Sometimes our perceptions of God get a startling adjustment. That was the case for Jacob in today’s passage. From our perspective we know through the Old and New Testament Scriptures that God is everywhere and is always with us. But Jacob’s knowledge was limited. His statement in Genesis 28:16 hints that he thought he was out of “God’s area.” How comforting it must have been to Jacob to realize that though he had left his family and his home, he was still in the presence of God.
How does knowing that God is always present comfort you? - J.R. Hudberg
Home for Christmas
By Tim Gustafson
I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. Genesis 28:15
One year Christmas found me on assignment in a place many of my friends couldn’t locate on a map. Trudging from my worksite back to my room, I braced against the chill wind blowing off the bleak Black Sea. I missed home.
When I arrived at my room, I opened the door to a magical moment. My artistic roommate had completed his latest project—a nineteen-inch ceramic Christmas tree that now illuminated our darkened room with sparkling dots of color. If only for a moment, I was home again!
A Light has entered the world to show us the way home.
As Jacob fled from his brother Esau, he found himself in a strange and lonely place too. Asleep on the hard ground, he met God in a dream. And God promised Jacob a home. “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying,” He told him. “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring” (Gen. 28:13–14).
From Jacob, of course, would come the promised Messiah, the One who left His home to draw us to Himself. “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am,” Jesus told His disciples (John 14:3).
That December night I sat in the darkness of my room and gazed at that Christmas tree. Perhaps inevitably I thought of the Light that entered the world to show us the way home.
Lord, no matter where we are today, we can thank You for preparing a place for us to be with You. And we have the presence of Your Spirit today!
Home is not so much a place on a map, as it is a place to belong. God gives us that place.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Experience or God’s Revealed Truth?
We have received…the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. —1 Corinthians 2:12
My experience is not what makes redemption real— redemption is reality. Redemption has no real meaning for me until it is worked out through my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences, I am left with something not produced by redemption. But experiences produced by redemption prove themselves by leading me beyond myself, to the point of no longer paying any attention to experiences as the basis of reality. Instead, I see that only the reality itself produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source of truth— Jesus Christ.
If you try to hold back the Holy Spirit within you, with the desire of producing more inner spiritual experiences, you will find that He will break the hold and take you again to the historic Christ. Never support an experience which does not have God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions or insights you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you place your experiences above Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. Then there will come a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience, and you can truthfully say, “I do not care what I experience— I am sure of Him!”
Be relentless and hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about the experiences you have had. Faith based on experience is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The attitude of a Christian towards the providential order in which he is placed is to recognize that God is behind it for purposes of His own. Biblical Ethics, 99 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Decorated, But Dead - #8073
The Christmas tree has always been a big deal at our house. The boys go on our annual pilgrimage to pick it out. Then we have the annual decorating ceremony, and we're pretty good at it if I do say so myself. The lights, the beautiful decorations you accumulated over the years, the bright star on the top. Our Christmas tree is the center of our family life all during the Christmas season, and then comes January. Yeah, I hate to mention it now, but the decorations come off and the tree comes down. After which, I unceremoniously carry it to the curb for the garbage man to dispose of. The ugly secret is painfully obvious that day. Even though that tree has been glowing with decorations, it was dead all along!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Decorated, But Dead."
Tragically, there are a lot of people whose spiritual condition might be described as "Christmas Tree Syndrome." They're decorated, but they're dead-spiritually, that is. The Bible makes it disturbingly clear that you can be decorated with all kinds of Christian decorations and look very much alive spiritually, but still be what the Bible describes as spiritually dead.
One of the most unsettling scenes in the story of the first Christmas, our word for today from the Word of God, provides an example of this. It's especially unsettling for those of us who consider ourselves religious. When the three wise men told King Herod about the baby they were seeking, Matthew 2:4 says, "He called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, and he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 'In Bethlehem in Judea,' they replied, for this is what the prophet has written: 'But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah...out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.'"
And that's all it says about them. Apparently, they knew all the facts about Christ, they quoted the verses but they didn't do anything about it! These men were the religious leaders in their area. They knew all the verses about Christ coming. They looked like they were spiritually alive, they talked like they were spiritually alive, everybody thought they were spiritually alive, but apparently they made no move to meet Jesus.
If they could miss Jesus, so can we. See, it's easy to be around Jesus a lot, to know a lot about Jesus, but mistake that for actually knowing Jesus. We have the look of someone who belongs to Him, we sound like someone who belongs to Him, but we've never actually experienced Him for ourselves. Maybe when you hear a speaker talk about making Christ your personal Savior, you inwardly say, "Oh, been there, done that." But "been there, know that" is very different from "been there, done that."
Now, as we celebrate Jesus' coming again this Christmas, wouldn't this be a wonderful time to finally really let Him come into your heart? You know you cannot have a relationship with God, you can't get to heaven until all the sins of your life have been erased from God's book, they've been forgiven. Jesus died to pay that price so you could be forgiven, but you've got to take Him for yourself by an act of conscious total commitment to Him.
Could it be that you've never really begun your own personal relationship with Jesus? If so, this would be a wonderful time to get that settled, wouldn't it? Today as we celebrate His coming, you can celebrate His coming into your heart finally and into your life. Tell Him you're putting your trust totally in Him to be your own Savior, and you're beginning that relationship this very day.
I want to invite you to go to our website, ANewStory.com, because I've literally set it up to help you be sure that you belong to Him. This is the day to get it done, to get it right; to know for sure that Jesus is in you heart and you're going to be with Him forever.
What a Christmas this could be. This will be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart!
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Genesis 25, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: JOY IS A SACRED DELIGHT
The Scripture says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
No man had more reason to be miserable than Jesus—yet no one was more joyful! He was ridiculed. Those who didn’t ridicule Him wanted favors. He was accused of a crime he had never committed. Witnesses were hired to lie. They crucified him. He left as He came—penniless.
He should have been miserable and bitter but He wasn’t. He was joyful! He possessed a joy that possessed Him. I call it a sacred delight. Sacred because it’s not of the earth, delight because it is just that…it is the joy of God. And it is within reach—in the person of Jesus. He offers it to you, my friend– a sacred delight!
Read more In the Manger
Genesis 25
1-2 Abraham married a second time; his new wife was named Keturah. She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
3 Jokshan had Sheba and Dedan.
Dedan’s descendants were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim.
4 Midian had Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah—all from the line of Keturah.
5-6 But Abraham gave everything he possessed to Isaac. While he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons he had by his concubines, but then sent them away to the country of the east, putting a good distance between them and his son Isaac.
7-11 Abraham lived 175 years. Then he took his final breath. He died happy at a ripe old age, full of years, and was buried with his family. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, next to Mamre. It was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites. Abraham was buried next to his wife Sarah. After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac lived at Beer Lahai Roi.
The Family Tree of Ishmael
12 This is the family tree of Ishmael son of Abraham, the son that Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maid, bore to Abraham.
13-16 These are the names of Ishmael’s sons in the order of their births: Nebaioth, Ishmael’s firstborn, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah—all the sons of Ishmael. Their settlements and encampments were named after them. Twelve princes with their twelve tribes.
17-18 Ishmael lived 137 years. When he breathed his last and died he was buried with his family. His children settled down all the way from Havilah near Egypt eastward to Shur in the direction of Assyria. The Ishmaelites didn’t get along with any of their kin.
Jacob and Esau
19-20 This is the family tree of Isaac son of Abraham: Abraham had Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan Aram. She was the sister of Laban the Aramean.
21-23 Isaac prayed hard to God for his wife because she was barren. God answered his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant. But the children tumbled and kicked inside her so much that she said, “If this is the way it’s going to be, why go on living?” She went to God to find out what was going on. God told her,
Two nations are in your womb,
two peoples butting heads while still in your body.
One people will overpower the other,
and the older will serve the younger.
24-26 When her time to give birth came, sure enough, there were twins in her womb. The first came out reddish, as if snugly wrapped in a hairy blanket; they named him Esau (Hairy). His brother followed, his fist clutched tight to Esau’s heel; they named him Jacob (Heel). Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.
27-28 The boys grew up. Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman. Jacob was a quiet man preferring life indoors among the tents. Isaac loved Esau because he loved his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29-30 One day Jacob was cooking a stew. Esau came in from the field, starved. Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stew—I’m starved!” That’s how he came to be called Edom (Red).
31 Jacob said, “Make me a trade: my stew for your rights as the firstborn.”
32 Esau said, “I’m starving! What good is a birthright if I’m dead?”
33-34 Jacob said, “First, swear to me.” And he did it. On oath Esau traded away his rights as the firstborn. Jacob gave him bread and the stew of lentils. He ate and drank, got up and left. That’s how Esau shrugged off his rights as the firstborn.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Read: Luke 1:11–17
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
INSIGHT
The virgin birth of Christ is not the only miracle in the Christmas story. John the Baptist’s birth was also miraculous. His father, Zechariah, was a priest of the line of Abijah (a priest during David’s time descended from Aaron) who served at the temple in Jerusalem twice a year. John’s mother, Elizabeth, was a cousin of Mary and also a descendant of Aaron (the first high priest). Zechariah and Elizabeth faithfully followed God’s laws, yet they were “very old” and were childless because Elizabeth could not conceive (Luke 1:5–7). God miraculously blessed this elderly couple with a child—and no ordinary child. Their son would be “great in the sight of the Lord” (v. 15) and “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (v. 17).
What in the Christmas story is most meaningful to you? - Alyson Kieda
Breaking the Silence
By Philip Yancey
He will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah . . . to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1:17
At the end of the Old Testament, God seems to be in hiding. For four centuries, the Jews wait and wonder. God seems passive, unconcerned, and deaf to their prayers. Only one hope remains: the ancient promise of a Messiah. On that promise the Jews stake everything. And then something momentous happens. The birth of a baby is announced.
You can catch the excitement just by reading the reactions of people in Luke. Events surrounding Jesus’s birth resemble a joy-filled musical. Characters crowd into the scene: a white-haired great uncle (Luke 1:5–25), an astonished virgin (1:26–38), the old prophetess Anna (2:36). Mary herself lets loose with a beautiful hymn (1:46–55). Even Jesus’s unborn cousin kicks for joy inside his mother’s womb (1:41).
Jesus, You are the gift of redemption and hope for us. Thank You.
Luke takes care to make direct connections to Old Testament promises of a Messiah. The angel Gabriel even calls John the Baptist an “Elijah” sent to prepare the way for the Lord (1:17). Clearly, something is brewing on planet Earth. Among the dreary, defeated villagers in a remote corner of the Roman Empire, something good is breaking out.
You have come to us, and we rejoice! Jesus, You are the gift of redemption and hope for us. Thank You.
Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world. C. S. Lewis (from The Last Battle)
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
The Right Kind of Help
And I, if I am lifted up…will draw all peoples to Myself. —John 12:32
Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is an absurdity and there is absolutely no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but major surgery.
When you find yourself face to face with a person who is spiritually lost, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the cross. If that person can get to God in any other way, then the Cross of Christ is unnecessary. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way— not in a human way that ignores God. The theme of the world’s religion today is to serve in a pleasant, non-confrontational manner.
But our only priority must be to present Jesus Christ crucified— to lift Him up all the time (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). Every belief that is not firmly rooted in the Cross of Christ will lead people astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is trusting in the reality of redemption, his words will be compelling to others. What is extremely important is for the worker’s simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing. His usefulness to God depends on that, and that alone.
The calling of a New Testament worker is to expose sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Savior. Consequently, he cannot always be charming and friendly, but must be willing to be stern to accomplish major surgery. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful speeches. We must be willing to examine others as deeply as God has examined us. We must also be sharply intent on sensing those Scripture passages that will drive the truth home, and then not be afraid to apply them.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Decorated, But Dead - #8073
The Christmas tree has always been a big deal at our house. The boys go on our annual pilgrimage to pick it out. Then we have the annual decorating ceremony, and we're pretty good at it if I do say so myself. The lights, the beautiful decorations you accumulated over the years, the bright star on the top. Our Christmas tree is the center of our family life all during the Christmas season, and then comes January. Yeah, I hate to mention it now, but the decorations come off and the tree comes down. After which, I unceremoniously carry it to the curb for the garbage man to dispose of. The ugly secret is painfully obvious that day. Even though that tree has been glowing with decorations, it was dead all along!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Decorated, But Dead."
Tragically, there are a lot of people whose spiritual condition might be described as "Christmas Tree Syndrome." They're decorated, but they're dead-spiritually, that is. The Bible makes it disturbingly clear that you can be decorated with all kinds of Christian decorations and look very much alive spiritually, but still be what the Bible describes as spiritually dead.
One of the most unsettling scenes in the story of the first Christmas, our word for today from the Word of God, provides an example of this. It's especially unsettling for those of us who consider ourselves religious. When the three wise men told King Herod about the baby they were seeking, Matthew 2:4 says, "He called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, and he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 'In Bethlehem in Judea,' they replied, for this is what the prophet has written: 'But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah...out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.'"
And that's all it says about them. Apparently, they knew all the facts about Christ, they quoted the verses but they didn't do anything about it! These men were the religious leaders in their area. They knew all the verses about Christ coming. They looked like they were spiritually alive, they talked like they were spiritually alive, everybody thought they were spiritually alive, but apparently they made no move to meet Jesus.
If they could miss Jesus, so can we. See, it's easy to be around Jesus a lot, to know a lot about Jesus, but mistake that for actually knowing Jesus. We have the look of someone who belongs to Him, we sound like someone who belongs to Him, but we've never actually experienced Him for ourselves. Maybe when you hear a speaker talk about making Christ your personal Savior, you inwardly say, "Oh, been there, done that." But "been there, know that" is very different from "been there, done that."
Now, as we celebrate Jesus' coming again this Christmas, wouldn't this be a wonderful time to finally really let Him come into your heart? You know you cannot have a relationship with God, you can't get to heaven until all the sins of your life have been erased from God's book, they've been forgiven. Jesus died to pay that price so you could be forgiven, but you've got to take Him for yourself by an act of conscious total commitment to Him.
Could it be that you've never really begun your own personal relationship with Jesus? If so, this would be a wonderful time to get that settled, wouldn't it? Today as we celebrate His coming, you can celebrate His coming into your heart finally and into your life. Tell Him you're putting your trust totally in Him to be your own Savior, and you're beginning that relationship this very day.
I want to invite you to go to our website, ANewStory.com, because I've literally set it up to help you be sure that you belong to Him. This is the day to get it done, to get it right; to know for sure that Jesus is in you heart and you're going to be with Him forever.
What a Christmas this could be. This will be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart!
The Scripture says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
No man had more reason to be miserable than Jesus—yet no one was more joyful! He was ridiculed. Those who didn’t ridicule Him wanted favors. He was accused of a crime he had never committed. Witnesses were hired to lie. They crucified him. He left as He came—penniless.
He should have been miserable and bitter but He wasn’t. He was joyful! He possessed a joy that possessed Him. I call it a sacred delight. Sacred because it’s not of the earth, delight because it is just that…it is the joy of God. And it is within reach—in the person of Jesus. He offers it to you, my friend– a sacred delight!
Read more In the Manger
Genesis 25
1-2 Abraham married a second time; his new wife was named Keturah. She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
3 Jokshan had Sheba and Dedan.
Dedan’s descendants were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim.
4 Midian had Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah—all from the line of Keturah.
5-6 But Abraham gave everything he possessed to Isaac. While he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons he had by his concubines, but then sent them away to the country of the east, putting a good distance between them and his son Isaac.
7-11 Abraham lived 175 years. Then he took his final breath. He died happy at a ripe old age, full of years, and was buried with his family. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, next to Mamre. It was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites. Abraham was buried next to his wife Sarah. After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac lived at Beer Lahai Roi.
The Family Tree of Ishmael
12 This is the family tree of Ishmael son of Abraham, the son that Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maid, bore to Abraham.
13-16 These are the names of Ishmael’s sons in the order of their births: Nebaioth, Ishmael’s firstborn, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah—all the sons of Ishmael. Their settlements and encampments were named after them. Twelve princes with their twelve tribes.
17-18 Ishmael lived 137 years. When he breathed his last and died he was buried with his family. His children settled down all the way from Havilah near Egypt eastward to Shur in the direction of Assyria. The Ishmaelites didn’t get along with any of their kin.
Jacob and Esau
19-20 This is the family tree of Isaac son of Abraham: Abraham had Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan Aram. She was the sister of Laban the Aramean.
21-23 Isaac prayed hard to God for his wife because she was barren. God answered his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant. But the children tumbled and kicked inside her so much that she said, “If this is the way it’s going to be, why go on living?” She went to God to find out what was going on. God told her,
Two nations are in your womb,
two peoples butting heads while still in your body.
One people will overpower the other,
and the older will serve the younger.
24-26 When her time to give birth came, sure enough, there were twins in her womb. The first came out reddish, as if snugly wrapped in a hairy blanket; they named him Esau (Hairy). His brother followed, his fist clutched tight to Esau’s heel; they named him Jacob (Heel). Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.
27-28 The boys grew up. Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman. Jacob was a quiet man preferring life indoors among the tents. Isaac loved Esau because he loved his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29-30 One day Jacob was cooking a stew. Esau came in from the field, starved. Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stew—I’m starved!” That’s how he came to be called Edom (Red).
31 Jacob said, “Make me a trade: my stew for your rights as the firstborn.”
32 Esau said, “I’m starving! What good is a birthright if I’m dead?”
33-34 Jacob said, “First, swear to me.” And he did it. On oath Esau traded away his rights as the firstborn. Jacob gave him bread and the stew of lentils. He ate and drank, got up and left. That’s how Esau shrugged off his rights as the firstborn.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Read: Luke 1:11–17
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
INSIGHT
The virgin birth of Christ is not the only miracle in the Christmas story. John the Baptist’s birth was also miraculous. His father, Zechariah, was a priest of the line of Abijah (a priest during David’s time descended from Aaron) who served at the temple in Jerusalem twice a year. John’s mother, Elizabeth, was a cousin of Mary and also a descendant of Aaron (the first high priest). Zechariah and Elizabeth faithfully followed God’s laws, yet they were “very old” and were childless because Elizabeth could not conceive (Luke 1:5–7). God miraculously blessed this elderly couple with a child—and no ordinary child. Their son would be “great in the sight of the Lord” (v. 15) and “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (v. 17).
What in the Christmas story is most meaningful to you? - Alyson Kieda
Breaking the Silence
By Philip Yancey
He will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah . . . to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1:17
At the end of the Old Testament, God seems to be in hiding. For four centuries, the Jews wait and wonder. God seems passive, unconcerned, and deaf to their prayers. Only one hope remains: the ancient promise of a Messiah. On that promise the Jews stake everything. And then something momentous happens. The birth of a baby is announced.
You can catch the excitement just by reading the reactions of people in Luke. Events surrounding Jesus’s birth resemble a joy-filled musical. Characters crowd into the scene: a white-haired great uncle (Luke 1:5–25), an astonished virgin (1:26–38), the old prophetess Anna (2:36). Mary herself lets loose with a beautiful hymn (1:46–55). Even Jesus’s unborn cousin kicks for joy inside his mother’s womb (1:41).
Jesus, You are the gift of redemption and hope for us. Thank You.
Luke takes care to make direct connections to Old Testament promises of a Messiah. The angel Gabriel even calls John the Baptist an “Elijah” sent to prepare the way for the Lord (1:17). Clearly, something is brewing on planet Earth. Among the dreary, defeated villagers in a remote corner of the Roman Empire, something good is breaking out.
You have come to us, and we rejoice! Jesus, You are the gift of redemption and hope for us. Thank You.
Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world. C. S. Lewis (from The Last Battle)
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
The Right Kind of Help
And I, if I am lifted up…will draw all peoples to Myself. —John 12:32
Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is an absurdity and there is absolutely no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but major surgery.
When you find yourself face to face with a person who is spiritually lost, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the cross. If that person can get to God in any other way, then the Cross of Christ is unnecessary. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way— not in a human way that ignores God. The theme of the world’s religion today is to serve in a pleasant, non-confrontational manner.
But our only priority must be to present Jesus Christ crucified— to lift Him up all the time (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). Every belief that is not firmly rooted in the Cross of Christ will lead people astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is trusting in the reality of redemption, his words will be compelling to others. What is extremely important is for the worker’s simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing. His usefulness to God depends on that, and that alone.
The calling of a New Testament worker is to expose sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Savior. Consequently, he cannot always be charming and friendly, but must be willing to be stern to accomplish major surgery. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful speeches. We must be willing to examine others as deeply as God has examined us. We must also be sharply intent on sensing those Scripture passages that will drive the truth home, and then not be afraid to apply them.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Decorated, But Dead - #8073
The Christmas tree has always been a big deal at our house. The boys go on our annual pilgrimage to pick it out. Then we have the annual decorating ceremony, and we're pretty good at it if I do say so myself. The lights, the beautiful decorations you accumulated over the years, the bright star on the top. Our Christmas tree is the center of our family life all during the Christmas season, and then comes January. Yeah, I hate to mention it now, but the decorations come off and the tree comes down. After which, I unceremoniously carry it to the curb for the garbage man to dispose of. The ugly secret is painfully obvious that day. Even though that tree has been glowing with decorations, it was dead all along!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Decorated, But Dead."
Tragically, there are a lot of people whose spiritual condition might be described as "Christmas Tree Syndrome." They're decorated, but they're dead-spiritually, that is. The Bible makes it disturbingly clear that you can be decorated with all kinds of Christian decorations and look very much alive spiritually, but still be what the Bible describes as spiritually dead.
One of the most unsettling scenes in the story of the first Christmas, our word for today from the Word of God, provides an example of this. It's especially unsettling for those of us who consider ourselves religious. When the three wise men told King Herod about the baby they were seeking, Matthew 2:4 says, "He called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, and he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 'In Bethlehem in Judea,' they replied, for this is what the prophet has written: 'But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah...out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.'"
And that's all it says about them. Apparently, they knew all the facts about Christ, they quoted the verses but they didn't do anything about it! These men were the religious leaders in their area. They knew all the verses about Christ coming. They looked like they were spiritually alive, they talked like they were spiritually alive, everybody thought they were spiritually alive, but apparently they made no move to meet Jesus.
If they could miss Jesus, so can we. See, it's easy to be around Jesus a lot, to know a lot about Jesus, but mistake that for actually knowing Jesus. We have the look of someone who belongs to Him, we sound like someone who belongs to Him, but we've never actually experienced Him for ourselves. Maybe when you hear a speaker talk about making Christ your personal Savior, you inwardly say, "Oh, been there, done that." But "been there, know that" is very different from "been there, done that."
Now, as we celebrate Jesus' coming again this Christmas, wouldn't this be a wonderful time to finally really let Him come into your heart? You know you cannot have a relationship with God, you can't get to heaven until all the sins of your life have been erased from God's book, they've been forgiven. Jesus died to pay that price so you could be forgiven, but you've got to take Him for yourself by an act of conscious total commitment to Him.
Could it be that you've never really begun your own personal relationship with Jesus? If so, this would be a wonderful time to get that settled, wouldn't it? Today as we celebrate His coming, you can celebrate His coming into your heart finally and into your life. Tell Him you're putting your trust totally in Him to be your own Savior, and you're beginning that relationship this very day.
I want to invite you to go to our website, ANewStory.com, because I've literally set it up to help you be sure that you belong to Him. This is the day to get it done, to get it right; to know for sure that Jesus is in you heart and you're going to be with Him forever.
What a Christmas this could be. This will be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart!
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Matthew 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WHEN JESUS CALLS YOUR NAME
John 1:14 says, “The Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.” He lived among us. He donned the costliest of robes, a human body. He became a friend of the sinner and a brother of the poor. He touched their sores and felt their tears and paid for their mistakes. And to all of us frightened ones, He shared the same message, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me…I will come again and receive you to Myself” (John 14:1).
And how do we respond? Some pretend He doesn’t exist. Others hear Him, but don’t believe Him. But then, a few decide to give it a try. And when He calls your name, be ready. Look up. He will reach down and take you home…when Christ comes!
Read more In the Manger
Matthew 17
Sunlight Poured from His Face
1-3 Six days later, three of them saw that glory. Jesus took Peter and the brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light. Then they realized that Moses and Elijah were also there in deep conversation with him.
4 Peter broke in, “Master, this is a great moment! What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain—one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah?”
5 While he was going on like this, babbling, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: “This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him.”
6-8 When the disciples heard it, they fell flat on their faces, scared to death. But Jesus came over and touched them. “Don’t be afraid.” When they opened their eyes and looked around all they saw was Jesus, only Jesus.
9 Coming down the mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. “Don’t breathe a word of what you’ve seen. After the Son of Man is raised from the dead, you are free to talk.”
10 The disciples, meanwhile, were asking questions. “Why do the religion scholars say that Elijah has to come first?”
11-13 Jesus answered, “Elijah does come and get everything ready. I’m telling you, Elijah has already come but they didn’t know him when they saw him. They treated him like dirt, the same way they are about to treat the Son of Man.” That’s when the disciples realized that all along he had been talking about John the Baptizer.
With a Mere Kernel of Faith
14-16 At the bottom of the mountain, they were met by a crowd of waiting people. As they approached, a man came out of the crowd and fell to his knees begging, “Master, have mercy on my son. He goes out of his mind and suffers terribly, falling into seizures. Frequently he is pitched into the fire, other times into the river. I brought him to your disciples, but they could do nothing for him.”
17-18 Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.” He ordered the afflicting demon out—and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well.
19 When the disciples had Jesus off to themselves, they asked, “Why couldn’t we throw it out?”
20 “Because you’re not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus. “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.”
22-23 As they were regrouping in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him—and three days later he will be raised alive.” The disciples felt terrible.
24 When they arrived at Capernaum, the tax men came to Peter and asked, “Does your teacher pay taxes?”
25 Peter said, “Of course.”
But as soon as they were in the house, Jesus confronted him. “Simon, what do you think? When a king levies taxes, who pays—his children or his subjects?”
26-27 He answered, “His subjects.”
Jesus said, “Then the children get off free, right? But so we don’t upset them needlessly, go down to the lake, cast a hook, and pull in the first fish that bites. Open its mouth and you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to the tax men. It will be enough for both of us.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Read: Luke 19:1–10
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
INSIGHT
Do you know someone who has broken hearts by turning their back on friends, family, or faith? Is that person now living as someone who has lost their way?
Consider Zacchaeus. Though Jewish, he was no friend of Israel. Working for the Roman occupation he collected taxes from his countrymen and lived off the wealth of his overcharges. Who wouldn’t resent someone who loved money more than family, country, or neighbor?
That’s why Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus. He wasn’t just trying to see over the religious crowd that had their reasons for hating him. He was a lost child of Israel and maybe the most unlikely person in Jericho to be given special notice and honor.
That was the day God chose Zacchaeus to show us, or maybe those who are hiding from us, that no one is too lost to be found and changed by Jesus. - Mart DeHaan
Extreme Measures
By Joe Stowell
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10
A few years ago, a friend of mine lost track of her young son while walking through a swarm of people at Union Station in Chicago. Needless to say, it was a terrifying experience. Frantically, she yelled his name and ran back up the escalator, retracing her steps in an effort to find her little boy. The minutes of separation seemed like hours, until suddenly—thankfully—her son emerged from the crowd and ran to the safety of her arms.
Thinking of my friend who would have done anything to find her child fills me with a renewed sense of gratitude for the amazing work God did to save us. From the time God’s first image-bearers—Adam and Eve—wandered off in sin, He lamented the loss of fellowship with His people. He went to great lengths to restore the relationship by sending His one and only Son “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Without the birth of Jesus, and without His willingness to die to pay the price for our sin and to bring us to God, we would have nothing to celebrate at Christmastime.
Christmas is about God taking extreme measures to reclaim those who were lost.
So this Christmas, let’s be thankful that God took extreme measures by sending Jesus to reclaim our fellowship with Him. Although we once were lost, because of Jesus we have been found!
Heavenly Father, in the midst of all the joy of Christmas, remind me that the true meaning of this season lies in the depth of Your love. Thank You for sending Jesus to reclaim undeserving people like me!
Christmas is about God taking extreme measures to reclaim those who were lost.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
The Focus Of Our Message
I did not come to bring peace but a sword. —Matthew 10:34
Never be sympathetic with a person whose situation causes you to conclude that God is dealing harshly with him. God can be more tender than we can conceive, and every once in a while He gives us the opportunity to deal firmly with someone so that He may be viewed as the tender One. If a person cannot go to God, it is because he has something secret which he does not intend to give up— he may admit his sin, but would no more give up that thing than he could fly under his own power. It is impossible to deal sympathetically with people like that. We must reach down deep in their lives to the root of the problem, which will cause hostility and resentment toward the message. People want the blessing of God, but they can’t stand something that pierces right through to the heart of the matter.
If you are sensitive to God’s way, your message as His servant will be merciless and insistent, cutting to the very root. Otherwise, there will be no healing. We must drive the message home so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are, until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus for their lives. Their response may be, “We can never be that.” Then drive it home with, “Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You can’t, unless you have a new Spirit” (see Luke 11:13).
There must be a sense of need created before your message is of any use. Thousands of people in this world profess to be happy without God. But if we could be truly happy and moral without Jesus, then why did He come? He came because that kind of happiness and peace is only superficial. Jesus Christ came to “bring…a sword” through every kind of peace that is not based on a personal relationship with Himself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
The Christmas Invitation - #8072
It was the biggest night of the year in a little town called Cornwall. It was the night of the annual Christmas pageant. Since there are no nearby malls or cities to compete with, the pageant is pretty much packed out every year. It's an especially big deal for the children in town. They get to try out for the roles in the Christmas story, and everybody wants a part.
Which leads us to the problem of Harold. See, Harold wanted to be in the play, too, but he was...well, he was kind of a slow and simple kid. The directors were ambivalent, I mean, they knew Harold would be crushed if he didn't have a part, but they were afraid he might mess up the town's magic moment if he did. Finally, they decided to cast Harold as the innkeeper-the one who turns Mary and Joseph away the night Jesus is to be born. He only has one line: "I'm sorry, we have no room." Well, no one could imagine what that one line was going to do to everyone's Christmas.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Christmas Invitation."
The night of the pageant the church was packed, as usual. I mean, the set was in place, and there was an entire wall with scenes of Bethlehem painted on it, including the door of the inn where Harold would greet-and then turn away-the young Jewish travelers.
Backstage, the angels were playing Frisbee with their halos, and the shepherds were waiting 'till the last minute to put on their annually laundered bathrobes, and Harold was being personally coached by the nervous directors. "Now remember, Harold, when Joseph says, 'Do you have a room for the night?' you say...you say..." Hesitantly, Harold said, "I'm sorry. We... We have no room." The directors looked at each other somewhat hopefully. They'd done all they could.
Well, the Christmas story unfolded according to plan-angels singing, Joseph's dream, the trip to Bethlehem. Finally, Joseph and Mary arrived at the door of the Bethlehem Inn, looking appropriately tired, discussing whether the baby might come tonight. Joseph knocked on the inn door. Backstage, the directors were just out of sight, coaching Harold to open the door now. And wouldn't you know it-the door was stuck! The whole set shook; Harold tried to get that door open. When he finally did, Joseph asked his question on cue: "Do you have a room for the night?"
Harold froze. From backstage, a loud whisper: "I'm sorry. We have no room." And Harold mumbled, "I'm sorry. We have no room." And, with a little coaching, he shut the door. Well, the directors heaved a sigh of relief-prematurely. As Mary and Joseph disappeared into the night, the set suddenly started shaking again, and the door opened. Harold was back! And then, in an unrehearsed moment that folks would never forget, Harold went running after the young couple, shouting as loud as he could, "Wait! Wait! You can have my room!"
I think little Harold may have understood the real issue of Christmas better than anyone there that night. How can you leave Jesus outside? You have to make room for Jesus. And that may be the issue for you this Christmas season. What will you do with this Son of God who came to earth to find you? This One who trades a throne room for a stable, angel praise for human mockery, this Creator who gives Himself on a cross? The Bible gives us the only appropriate response in Galatians 2:20, our word for today from the Word of God, "The life I now live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." You look at what Jesus did to pay for your sin on that cross, and you say those life-changing words-"For me."
Jesus is at your door this Christmas. Maybe He's been knocking for a long time and maybe He won't keep knocking much longer. All your life-even in the events of the last few months-it's been to prepare you for this crossroads moment with Jesus your Savior.
I'd love to help you cross over as the Bible says, "from death to life" belonging to Jesus. Our website is there for that purpose - ANewStory.com. Please go there. Don't leave Him outside any longer. Open the door this Christmas season. "Jesus, I cannot keep You out any longer. Come on in. You can have my room. You can have my life."
John 1:14 says, “The Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.” He lived among us. He donned the costliest of robes, a human body. He became a friend of the sinner and a brother of the poor. He touched their sores and felt their tears and paid for their mistakes. And to all of us frightened ones, He shared the same message, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me…I will come again and receive you to Myself” (John 14:1).
And how do we respond? Some pretend He doesn’t exist. Others hear Him, but don’t believe Him. But then, a few decide to give it a try. And when He calls your name, be ready. Look up. He will reach down and take you home…when Christ comes!
Read more In the Manger
Matthew 17
Sunlight Poured from His Face
1-3 Six days later, three of them saw that glory. Jesus took Peter and the brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light. Then they realized that Moses and Elijah were also there in deep conversation with him.
4 Peter broke in, “Master, this is a great moment! What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain—one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah?”
5 While he was going on like this, babbling, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: “This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him.”
6-8 When the disciples heard it, they fell flat on their faces, scared to death. But Jesus came over and touched them. “Don’t be afraid.” When they opened their eyes and looked around all they saw was Jesus, only Jesus.
9 Coming down the mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. “Don’t breathe a word of what you’ve seen. After the Son of Man is raised from the dead, you are free to talk.”
10 The disciples, meanwhile, were asking questions. “Why do the religion scholars say that Elijah has to come first?”
11-13 Jesus answered, “Elijah does come and get everything ready. I’m telling you, Elijah has already come but they didn’t know him when they saw him. They treated him like dirt, the same way they are about to treat the Son of Man.” That’s when the disciples realized that all along he had been talking about John the Baptizer.
With a Mere Kernel of Faith
14-16 At the bottom of the mountain, they were met by a crowd of waiting people. As they approached, a man came out of the crowd and fell to his knees begging, “Master, have mercy on my son. He goes out of his mind and suffers terribly, falling into seizures. Frequently he is pitched into the fire, other times into the river. I brought him to your disciples, but they could do nothing for him.”
17-18 Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.” He ordered the afflicting demon out—and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well.
19 When the disciples had Jesus off to themselves, they asked, “Why couldn’t we throw it out?”
20 “Because you’re not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus. “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.”
22-23 As they were regrouping in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him—and three days later he will be raised alive.” The disciples felt terrible.
24 When they arrived at Capernaum, the tax men came to Peter and asked, “Does your teacher pay taxes?”
25 Peter said, “Of course.”
But as soon as they were in the house, Jesus confronted him. “Simon, what do you think? When a king levies taxes, who pays—his children or his subjects?”
26-27 He answered, “His subjects.”
Jesus said, “Then the children get off free, right? But so we don’t upset them needlessly, go down to the lake, cast a hook, and pull in the first fish that bites. Open its mouth and you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to the tax men. It will be enough for both of us.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Read: Luke 19:1–10
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
INSIGHT
Do you know someone who has broken hearts by turning their back on friends, family, or faith? Is that person now living as someone who has lost their way?
Consider Zacchaeus. Though Jewish, he was no friend of Israel. Working for the Roman occupation he collected taxes from his countrymen and lived off the wealth of his overcharges. Who wouldn’t resent someone who loved money more than family, country, or neighbor?
That’s why Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus. He wasn’t just trying to see over the religious crowd that had their reasons for hating him. He was a lost child of Israel and maybe the most unlikely person in Jericho to be given special notice and honor.
That was the day God chose Zacchaeus to show us, or maybe those who are hiding from us, that no one is too lost to be found and changed by Jesus. - Mart DeHaan
Extreme Measures
By Joe Stowell
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10
A few years ago, a friend of mine lost track of her young son while walking through a swarm of people at Union Station in Chicago. Needless to say, it was a terrifying experience. Frantically, she yelled his name and ran back up the escalator, retracing her steps in an effort to find her little boy. The minutes of separation seemed like hours, until suddenly—thankfully—her son emerged from the crowd and ran to the safety of her arms.
Thinking of my friend who would have done anything to find her child fills me with a renewed sense of gratitude for the amazing work God did to save us. From the time God’s first image-bearers—Adam and Eve—wandered off in sin, He lamented the loss of fellowship with His people. He went to great lengths to restore the relationship by sending His one and only Son “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Without the birth of Jesus, and without His willingness to die to pay the price for our sin and to bring us to God, we would have nothing to celebrate at Christmastime.
Christmas is about God taking extreme measures to reclaim those who were lost.
So this Christmas, let’s be thankful that God took extreme measures by sending Jesus to reclaim our fellowship with Him. Although we once were lost, because of Jesus we have been found!
Heavenly Father, in the midst of all the joy of Christmas, remind me that the true meaning of this season lies in the depth of Your love. Thank You for sending Jesus to reclaim undeserving people like me!
Christmas is about God taking extreme measures to reclaim those who were lost.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
The Focus Of Our Message
I did not come to bring peace but a sword. —Matthew 10:34
Never be sympathetic with a person whose situation causes you to conclude that God is dealing harshly with him. God can be more tender than we can conceive, and every once in a while He gives us the opportunity to deal firmly with someone so that He may be viewed as the tender One. If a person cannot go to God, it is because he has something secret which he does not intend to give up— he may admit his sin, but would no more give up that thing than he could fly under his own power. It is impossible to deal sympathetically with people like that. We must reach down deep in their lives to the root of the problem, which will cause hostility and resentment toward the message. People want the blessing of God, but they can’t stand something that pierces right through to the heart of the matter.
If you are sensitive to God’s way, your message as His servant will be merciless and insistent, cutting to the very root. Otherwise, there will be no healing. We must drive the message home so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are, until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus for their lives. Their response may be, “We can never be that.” Then drive it home with, “Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You can’t, unless you have a new Spirit” (see Luke 11:13).
There must be a sense of need created before your message is of any use. Thousands of people in this world profess to be happy without God. But if we could be truly happy and moral without Jesus, then why did He come? He came because that kind of happiness and peace is only superficial. Jesus Christ came to “bring…a sword” through every kind of peace that is not based on a personal relationship with Himself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
The Christmas Invitation - #8072
It was the biggest night of the year in a little town called Cornwall. It was the night of the annual Christmas pageant. Since there are no nearby malls or cities to compete with, the pageant is pretty much packed out every year. It's an especially big deal for the children in town. They get to try out for the roles in the Christmas story, and everybody wants a part.
Which leads us to the problem of Harold. See, Harold wanted to be in the play, too, but he was...well, he was kind of a slow and simple kid. The directors were ambivalent, I mean, they knew Harold would be crushed if he didn't have a part, but they were afraid he might mess up the town's magic moment if he did. Finally, they decided to cast Harold as the innkeeper-the one who turns Mary and Joseph away the night Jesus is to be born. He only has one line: "I'm sorry, we have no room." Well, no one could imagine what that one line was going to do to everyone's Christmas.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Christmas Invitation."
The night of the pageant the church was packed, as usual. I mean, the set was in place, and there was an entire wall with scenes of Bethlehem painted on it, including the door of the inn where Harold would greet-and then turn away-the young Jewish travelers.
Backstage, the angels were playing Frisbee with their halos, and the shepherds were waiting 'till the last minute to put on their annually laundered bathrobes, and Harold was being personally coached by the nervous directors. "Now remember, Harold, when Joseph says, 'Do you have a room for the night?' you say...you say..." Hesitantly, Harold said, "I'm sorry. We... We have no room." The directors looked at each other somewhat hopefully. They'd done all they could.
Well, the Christmas story unfolded according to plan-angels singing, Joseph's dream, the trip to Bethlehem. Finally, Joseph and Mary arrived at the door of the Bethlehem Inn, looking appropriately tired, discussing whether the baby might come tonight. Joseph knocked on the inn door. Backstage, the directors were just out of sight, coaching Harold to open the door now. And wouldn't you know it-the door was stuck! The whole set shook; Harold tried to get that door open. When he finally did, Joseph asked his question on cue: "Do you have a room for the night?"
Harold froze. From backstage, a loud whisper: "I'm sorry. We have no room." And Harold mumbled, "I'm sorry. We have no room." And, with a little coaching, he shut the door. Well, the directors heaved a sigh of relief-prematurely. As Mary and Joseph disappeared into the night, the set suddenly started shaking again, and the door opened. Harold was back! And then, in an unrehearsed moment that folks would never forget, Harold went running after the young couple, shouting as loud as he could, "Wait! Wait! You can have my room!"
I think little Harold may have understood the real issue of Christmas better than anyone there that night. How can you leave Jesus outside? You have to make room for Jesus. And that may be the issue for you this Christmas season. What will you do with this Son of God who came to earth to find you? This One who trades a throne room for a stable, angel praise for human mockery, this Creator who gives Himself on a cross? The Bible gives us the only appropriate response in Galatians 2:20, our word for today from the Word of God, "The life I now live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." You look at what Jesus did to pay for your sin on that cross, and you say those life-changing words-"For me."
Jesus is at your door this Christmas. Maybe He's been knocking for a long time and maybe He won't keep knocking much longer. All your life-even in the events of the last few months-it's been to prepare you for this crossroads moment with Jesus your Savior.
I'd love to help you cross over as the Bible says, "from death to life" belonging to Jesus. Our website is there for that purpose - ANewStory.com. Please go there. Don't leave Him outside any longer. Open the door this Christmas season. "Jesus, I cannot keep You out any longer. Come on in. You can have my room. You can have my life."
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