A Devotional Thought From The Christmas Story In Luke 2

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.     Luke 2:10

Which shall be to all people!

Christmas is for all people. Many have heard little or nothing about it, and many are made uncomfortable just hearing the word, and many simply do not want it - any other religion’s holiday is okay, but if it’s about Jesus Christ they wish it suppressed, mocked, or so changed and trivialized that it becomes acceptable to an intolerant society.

Why do those who don’t believe react so strongly to a cheery “Merry Christmas,” or a carol being piped in over the intercom at the courthouse, or a nativity scene in the park? Why don’t they just say, “Oh, the Christmas season is a fun time for all of us, even those who don’t believe in it. It helps the economy wonderfully, in fact, without it the economy sometimes teeters on the brink of recession and would probably fall, but Christmas saves the day and makes things better. Christmas keeps the Christians busy, satisfied and politically docile and peaceful, after all they claim the baby is the Prince of Peace. So let’s just enjoy it, and forget about it after it’s over.”

Why don’t they say that? After all, if they don’t believe in or accept the meaning of Christmas what difference does it make to them? Ignore it, grin and bear it, increase business because of it, or pity it as you see fit, but why don’t they leave it alone for the rest of us. It seems logical that any freethinking person who believes in freedom of individuals to celebrate as they choose would express their belief in freedom for all by letting Christmas bless those who wish to enjoy it. So why do they target such an innocuous celebration that is generally helpful, and pleasing to everyone? Could the secret be that somehow in their heart they know that this religion’s story is true, and they want to suppress it? Perhaps they realize that if people learn that the baby of Christmas is a Savior who is Christ the Lord they will go to him in large numbers, and in faith.

Some of the best recognizers of God’s truth in the New Testament where those who refused to receive Jesus as Lord, in fact, His enemies. They recognized that Jesus was claiming to be God’s Son come into the world at Bethlehem, purposed to go to the cross at Jerusalem, but they refused to receive Him.  They, at one point in His ministry, wanted to stone him, and when He asked why they said, “…because that thou, being a man, maketh thyself God” (John 10:33). He was claiming to be God in the flesh, they refused to believe it, and certainly didn’t want society at large to acknowledge His claim by celebrating His birth. They didn’t want society acknowledging His birth, or baptism, or teaching, or miracles or death and resurrection. Neither does modern society.

Why? The great missionary, E. Stanley Jones, has written “The redemptive God is so desperately needed in our world that Jesus is inevitable. We cannot do without him. Can the lungs do without air, the eye without light, the heart without love, life without life? No more can we do without Christ.” (CHRIST AT THE ROUND TABLE, p.277, ©1928). Is the fight against Christmas the world’s acknowledgment of what Jones has written?

Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Devotional Thought From Luke

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David;)     Luke 2:4

Bethlehem.

     With all the swirling soap opera like situations going on in Israel at that moment in history: hopes of a great love; rumors of terrible betrayal; broken hearts; Roman legislation affecting the entire nation; this name stands out-Bethlehem.

     I wonder if Joseph made the connection. He was told the baby would save His people from their sins, so obviously this little one was special, surely anointed by God if He were to be the means of salvation for the Jewish people. Sounds like Messiah, right?

     As Joseph made preparations, as he walked with Mary, as he perspired under the burdens of the supplies they carried, as he became anxious for the trip to be at an end, did it finally dawn on him that the tax demanded by the Romans, with its excessive requirement to travel to one’s tribal/ancestral homeland no matter how inconvenient and difficult, was taking him and the pregnant Mary to the exact place where prophecy said Messiah would be born?

     Wow, this is a hard road, but it leads to God’s anointed one. The trip to Bethlehem, the trip to Christmas, the trip to find the one who is wrapped in swaddling clothes, is worth it for Joseph, for me, and for you, now and forever.

An excerpt from Joseph and Christmas a sermon by Rev. Lewis Kisenwether ©2004

The Christmas story is a salvation story

(Matthew 1: 21) “…he shall save his people from their sins.”

This is God’s breaking news story

For millennia sin had been wrecking lives;

            Murders were happening – sometimes Cain was killing his bro;

            Marriages were failing – committed spouses stopped loving one another, and were throwing over their commitments;

            People were fighting in large numbers about religion, or boundaries, or gold;

            Children were being, neglected, abused, or sold;

            Hearts were hardened against God;

And human life was being disrupted and endangered by these sins and many others.

And God has His angel shout through Joseph’s dream “God is making a way.

The way is the baby.

He will save His people from the sin that doth so easily beset and destroy them.”

When you look in the face of this baby… Joseph, you will see the person who can make people right with God.

A Devotional Thought From Revelation

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.     Revelation 22:15

I just completed a year and a half long devotional reading of the Bible (KJV). In the very last chapter we find this verse announcing God’s screening program for the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city. The city of our God is, of course, heaven, and according to God’s eternal plan there are those who cannot be allowed to enter and they are listed in this verse. They are left outside the walls because such people would defile the holiness of heaven. The list starts with “dogs.” In ancient days dogs were not usually the sweet, fuzzy, loving pets of our day. Mostly, ancient peoples would see dogs who were feral, raiding garbage heaps, terrorizing people, returning to their vomit, and “dog” became a term used for people who were savage, unclean even disgusting (cf. William Barclay, the Revelation of John).

Also, according to Barclay, a “dog” was the nickname for male prostitutes in heathen temples, and represented immoral people. Then in addition, to people represented by this word, “dogs,” John lists sorcerers, those who cooperate in occult religion; whoremongers, those who use or sell sexual services of women, debauching them, and being unfaithful to purity and morality for themselves and others; murderers, those who assault  the image of God in mankind by unlawfully taking the lives of people who should live long lives joyfully to God’s glory; and idolaters, those who worship false gods and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image (Romans 1:23) of corruptible man, birds, creeping things, dollar bills and euros, automobiles, smart phones or anything other than the true God. And, as well, those who love and make a lie; they’re the ones who tell our present society that what God says in His word isn’t true. They say sin is O.K. they say there are no consequences to actions. They say if God has spoken against sin then God is wrong. They say, don’t worry be sinful.

These people are outside the walls spiritually today, and will be literally in that future. But what if there are those among them who don’t want to live in such a way that they will be on the outs with God?

Some years ago I had a DVT blood clot. My physician of nearly 40 years walked in the hospital room and learning of the diagnosis said, “We can fix that!” If a person sees himself/herself in this list in Revelation God can fix that. Jesus died to fix our sins, to wash them away, to make us new, and fit us to be in the heavenly city forever. Trust Him as Savior and your destiny will be changed.

A Devotional Thought From 1 John

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.     1 John 4:9

          How can anyone know that God loves him or her? How do we answer when someone asks us that question? “There are all sorts of religious in the world,” they might say. “They all have their rules and regulations. They all offer whatever ‘salvation’ they envision. If there really is a God, the One true God, then how is it possible for me to know He loves me? Is there any evidence? Is there any proof? Is there any assurance that God, the Infinite Person, loves me, one of the finite creatures of the universe?”

          We Christians love a question like that. Of course, the One and Only God of the universe loves even sinful you. The evidence is Jesus. God sent His only begotten Son into the world. In fact, we Christians will, with great joy, thankfulness, and sentimentality, celebrate that coming as we rejoice in Christmas in a few weeks. Around the world we will be saying look into the cradle in the stable because God so loved the world He sent His Son, Jesus, for us, and you can see Him there with the eyes of faith: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11). If you’ve ever heard of Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem Who died at Calvary, that hearing of His name is proof that God loves you, and all the people of the world.

Something I’m Thankful For

 I’m grateful to have a relationship with God like the one described in Psalm 25:7b (Moffatt).

In KJV: “according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.”

Moffatt: “and in remembering my sins be kind to me.”

Because of my faith in Christ, I am in that kind of fellowship. I can ask for that kind of blessing.

He has done that for me.

What David wrote about in Psalm 103:4 God has done for me. David said of the LORD: “Who redeemeth thy life from destruction….”

My sins would have destroyed my life far more than once – but God was kind to me.

Happy Thanksgiving!   

A Devotional Thought From 1 Peter

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.     1 Peter 2:24

The message we need to constantly keep proclaiming from our pulpits, and in our personal witness day by day, is restated in this verse by Peter. He says, Jesus, when He died on the cross carried our sin. My sins, and I have many, were heaped on Jesus. I don’t know how God was able to do that, but He did. Your sins were placed on Jesus also. And, somehow, He carried our sins in His body, and was crucified for them. That means we were made free of them, or in Peter’s statement here, we died to sin. Sin can no longer make us do anything, and because Jesus did that for us on the cross we are now expected to live differently, righteously. And we can do so, live differently, because of His stripes. The wounds he received from the Roman scourging, which, I think, symbolize the full meaning of His death on the cross.

The message of the church and Christian faith is centered in Jesus and what He did on the cross. “In the cross of Christ I glory towering o’er the wrecks of time.”* The church must glory in the cross. The individual must glory in the cross. One day the world will glory in the cross and the Savior, and then what a wonderful world it will be.

*John Bowring from the hymn