TAKING INVENTORY

“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”  (Colossians 3:1-4 NRSV)

As we stand here at the beginning of a New Year it is a good time to reflect on the year that is ending and look forward into the year that is soon to begin. It is also a good time for God’s people to take inventory of their walk with the Lord. We should take a very close look at where we are in our relationship with Him. We need to examine ourselves and see where we have been, where we are and where the Lord wants us to be. This passage gives us the opportunity and the challenge to do just that.

-- Yohan Perera in a sermon entitled “New Year Sermon: An Old Challenge for a New Year"


#4746

UTILIZING THE GIFT

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…”  (Ephesians 2:8 NRSV)

A young couple decided that the wedding gift they received from the groom’s great- grandmother should become a priceless heirloom, so they kept it folded in its original package and stored it in a drawer. On the 25^th anniversary of their marriage, the bride decided to set a beautiful table for dinner using that heirloom, a special lace tablecloth. To her dismay, it fell apart as she took it out of the package. During the years of neglect it had rotted, been partly eaten by moths, and become useless and ruined.

In a similar manner, unless we exercise our gift of faith and are constant in worship and constant in contact with God’s Word, our faith will become dull, static, and stale.

-- adapted from Howard Kramin in “Hebrews: The Fulfillment of Faith”


#4745

THE WISE MEN BROUGHT GIFTS

“When [the wise men] saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”  (Matthew 2:10-11 NKJV)

Out of their travel bags they pulled treasures that they had brought. The Scriptures had predicted that kings from very far away would bring gifts. Baby Jesus must have been fascinated by the sparkling treasures and reached out to touch them eagerly. Little did He know that they symbolized and foretold that He would be a king, a priest… and a sacrifice.

-- Source Unknown

#4744

THE WISE MEN WORSHIPED HIM

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.’… And behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”  (Excerpts from Matthew 2 NKJV)

In the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords we can do nothing less than stand in awe and praise at His majesty and bow before Him in worship.  The glory of the Lord cannot be compared.  It cannot be fathomed.  It is higher, more awesome, more wonderful, more majestic than anything we can comprehend with our finite mind and limited senses.  The glory of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.

-- From “God Will Make a Way… Stories of Hope”


#4743

ROOM FOR CHRIST

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing.”

One response was given by the innkeeper when Mary and Joseph wanted to find a room where the Child could be born. The innkeeper was not hostile; he was not opposed to them, but his inn was crowded; his hands were full; his mind was preoccupied. This is the answer that millions are giving today. Like a Bethlehem innkeeper, they cannot find room for Christ. All the accommodations in their hearts are already taken up by other crowding interests. Their response is not atheism. It is not defiance. It is preoccupation and the feeling of being able to get on reasonably well without [Christ in their lives].

-- Billy Graham

#4742

JOY TO THE WORLD

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing.”

Nobody would have expected the great King of all to arrive like that. All the royalty in Grimm’s Fairy Tales arrive in carriages drawn by a team of white horses. Can you believe that your Lord and Master arrived on earth through the birth process? And had nothing to wear but strips of cloth? And was laid in a manger (i.e., an animal’s feed trough)?

Does the humility of the divine entrance disappoint you? discourage you? offend you? Were you expecting trumpets? armies? silks, ermine, golden mace, jewel-studded crowns? If you were near that cattle pen that night, would you have bowed down in worship?

Yes, we would! If God helped frantic parents and shocked shepherds and wealthy Magi from the East to see their Messiah in the Baby, he would have found a way to turn on the lights in our brains as well. People of earth, receive your King! Each Christmas is practice for the moment of Christ’s second coming, when “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:10-11)

Prepare a place for Christ in your heart. Sing! Let everyone in your world know that you are happy that Jesus came all that way to claim you.

-- Adapted from “An Advent Playlist: Hymn-Based Devotions”

#4741

THE CRY OF ADVENT

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned… For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  (Isaiah 9:2 & 6 NIV)

Christmas is the time of year when everything is amplified -- the joys and sorrows, the celebration and grief, the gift of community and the pain of isolation. That’s why it is so important to be mindful of Advent. It is a time for keeping watch in the darkness, for naming the anguish of waiting, and for pressing forward with hope, even when everything seems bleak and desolate.

Name your longings to God. Offer the cry of your heart, the ways you are waiting for light to dawn in the darkness. Ask God for the courage to wait and hope.

It is the cry of Advent -- the cry for Jesus to come and save and rescue and redeem, the cry for Jesus to come as Light and Life, to come and enter the dark chaos of the world and shine like the dawn upon all who walked in the shadow of fear and despair and death. It is the cry of Advent, the cry for Jesus to come.

-- Adapted from “Shades of Light” by Sharon Garlough Brown


#4740

IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS

In looking for ideas for Christmas gifts I found these suggestions from Oren Arnold: For your enemy, forgiveness. For an opponent, tolerance. For a friend, your heart. For a customer, service. For every child, a good example. For yourself, respect.

That got me thinking about some other gift suggestions as well: For your neighbor, charity. For a coworker or classmate, encouragement. For your pastor, support. For the lonely, companionship. For the grieving, a remembrance. For all everywhere, the love of God in Christ Jesus. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” (John 3:16a)

Maybe this prompts you to think about Christmas gifts in a different way. We’d love to hear from you about your ideas for Christmas giving this year.

-- David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry


#4739

LIGHT BREAKS INTO DARKNESS

“The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.”  (Isaiah 9:2 NIV)

Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness.  It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life.  It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual…when our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us… Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying, "You are accepted."

-- Paul Tillich in “The Shaking of the Foundations”


#4738

I AM WITH YOU

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”  (Isaiah 41:10 NKJV)

God is the God of the future, and that is good news to our longing for something better to come. But the truly radical good news resides in the fact that God is not content to rest up until kingdom come. “I am with you” declares, among other things, that matters dear to God’s heart like justice and love, compassion and righteousness, are God’s pressing desires for the current day. God’s presence affirms that we have not been left behind or abandoned to fend for ourselves. Divine presence provides notice of God’s transformation of this world for the good. Jesus’ life and ministry serves as that notice made incarnate for our sake and for the sake of this God-filled world. As individuals and communities who follow Jesus, God invites us to make those our priorities as we trust holy presence to dispel fear and lead us on the way ahead.

-- John Indermark in “Do Not Live Afraid”

#4737

FEAR NOT

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  (Luke 2:8-11 ESV)

With remarkable frequency, the first word God speaks to individuals and groups poised at the edge of momentous decision or holy encounter is this: “Do not be afraid. Do not fear.” What is intended goes beyond an attitude adjustment on our part. What is intended are lives empowered by that decisive word, so that “do not be afraid” finds its fullest expression when we do not live afraid. Faith [in the Savior] does not call us merely to live without fear inside the sanctuary. Discipleship calls us to confront appeals to fear in the world around us and to live our lives and bear our witness [to Christ the Lord] accordingly.

-- John Indermark in “Do Not Live Afraid”


#4736

THE WORD BECAME FLESH

“In the beginning was the Word.” (John 1:1)

The words “in the beginning” take us to the beginning. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) The baby Mary held was connected to the dawn of time. He saw the first ray of sunlight and heard the first crash of a wave. The baby was born, but the Word never was.

“All things were made through Him.” (1 Corinthians 8:6 NCV) Not by Him, but through Him. Jesus didn’t fashion the world out of raw material He found. He created all things out of nothing.

Jesus: the Genesis Word, “the firstborn over all creation.” (Colossians 1:15) He is the “one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.” (1 Corinthians 8:6 NLT)

And then, what no theologian conceived, what no rabbi dared to dream, God did. “The Word became flesh.” (John 1:14)… The Word of God entered the world with the cry of a baby.

-- Max Lucado in “God’s Story Your Story”


#4735

PREPARING OUR HEARTS

“But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess.”  (1 Peter 3:15 NET Bible)

In the same manner that we clean and prepare our homes in anticipation of the arrival of welcomed guests and family members this Christmas season, let us also prepare our hearts in anticipation of the Lord’s coming. Christ, our most honored and eagerly anticipated guest, desires to meet with us in hearts prepared for His arrival. So eager is He to meet with us that He offers to help us with our spiritual housecleaning, working with us; creating a resting place for Himself within our hearts.

-- Katherine Walden


#4734

A SPECIAL PREPARATION

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”  (Isaiah 7:14)

It was not suddenly and unannounced that Jesus came into the world. He came into a world that had been prepared for Him. The whole Old Testament is the story of a special preparation… Only when all was ready, only in the fullness of His time, did Jesus come.

-- Phillips Brooks in “The Consolations of God: Great Sermons of Phillips Brooks”


#4733

GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS

“Don’t be afraid!” [the angel] said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior -- yes, the Messiah, the Lord -- has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!”  (Luke 2:10b-11 NLT)

Computers are amazing. I [remember discovering] Google Earth that connects to the Internet and begins with a digital picture of the earth on the screen. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can zoom in on a country. A few more clicks and you can zoom in on a state, on a city, on a neighborhood, on a street, and eventually, even on a house. The entire program was put together using data and pictures collected by satellites that orbit the earth. It is an amazing thing to start with the globe and slowly zoom in on virtually any location around the world.

Reading Christmas Day Scriptures is like Google Earth in reverse. We start a specific focus on an overcrowded inn, one with a small stable in the back where a birth is taking place. We back up a little further, and we discover all this is happening in a town called Bethlehem, not far from the outskirts of Jerusalem. A few more clicks and we realize that we are in Israel during the time of Roman occupation. A few more clicks and we see the entire globe affected by the events in the city of David; but in this case, there are a few more mouse clicks to go. With an additional click, we begin to cross more than geographical boundaries and see the world before Jesus' time, during Jesus' time, and stretching into the world of future generations to come. What took place in Bethlehem that first Christmas has global implications for all people, at all times, in all nations.

-- Kevin Baker in “Hail the Heaven Born”


#4732

A HUMBLE BIRTH

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”  (Luke 2:11)

Politicians compete for the highest offices. Business tycoons scramble for a bigger and bigger piece of the pie. Armies march and scientists study and philosophers philosophize and preachers preach and laborers sweat. But in that silent baby, lying in that humble manger, there pulses more potential power and wisdom and grace and aliveness than all the rest of us can imagine.

-- Brian D. McLaren


#4731

GOING BACK TO LOOK FORWARD

“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”  (Isaiah 9:6-7 NKJV)

The Advent season is that time when we seek to, in a manner of speaking, mute our memory of what has already happened, that we might brighten our joy that it happened. We leave the already of His advent to taste the bitter of the not yet. We, in short, go back, that we might look forward to His coming. 

-- R. C. Sproul

#4729

SOMETHING ON THE HORIZON

“’The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; He will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD Our Righteous Savior.'”  (Jeremiah 33:14-16 NIV)

The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before ... What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.

-- Jan L. Richardson

#4728

OH, COME, LET US ADORE HIM

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” says St. John in the prologue to his gospel (1:1). And what a mighty Word He is! Words communicate important information. In person Jesus came to reveal the true God to mankind: a God who is kind, wise, omnipotent, and who loves people.

When Satan outs himself, when he and his demons take possession of a human being, they abuse and destroy. Jesus’ humble presence in His little manger is a foretaste of His humility on the cross, the mighty work through which God’s wrath was diverted from us onto Himself, and through which God’s favor was diverted from Him onto us. By faith we can experience this amazing swap -- you give Christ all your sins and He gives you the Father’s forgiveness.

What can we say in response to this but glory be to God in the highest! What can we do but worship Him. Oh, come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

-- Adapted from “An Advent Playlist: Hymn-Based Devotions”


#4727

FAR AS THE CURSE IS FOUND

“No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found.”  (The third verse of “Joy to the World” by Isaac Watts)

The reversal of the curse is promised in the coming of the Messiah and the fulfillment of His atoning work. Implicit in this third verse is the promise of the new creation. We live in light of that promise, even as we look back to Bethlehem and as we celebrate Christmas.

But look carefully at the reference to the curse. Christ’s victory over sin is declared to extend “far as the curse is found.”…

He redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us. The sinless Son of God became incarnate as the Word became flesh and dwelled among us. That sinless Son of God became sin for us, in order that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). He became a curse for us, by hanging on a tree, in fulfillment of Scripture…

How far does the gospel reach, and to what lengths must it be taken? Far as the curse is found. Go and preach. Go and tell. Teach the good news that Christ has redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come.

-- R. Albert Mohler, Jr.


#4726