Advent Devotion for December 24th, Christmas Eve

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: John 1:18

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

 

Devotional: Today we await the birth of a baby whose life among us made God known to us.

God among us is a picture that all of history longed for and was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

God is still God, but we now know God in Christ, because God has chosen to reveal God's Self to us and His ultimate plan for all creation. That revelation is not in law or proclamation or revolution or war. God reveals God's Self most fully and completely in the final episode of the life of the baby we welcome tomorrow.

God dies for us. God is resurrected for us. God ascends to the throne for us and will come again to judge the quick and the dead.

We now know of God's love and God's plan for God's creation. We know that finally God enfleshed will rule this world and will present His Kingdom to the Father.

Tomorrow, we welcome God among us, our Lord, our Savior, our King.

Receive your God with adoration and love and devotion, with faith and trust and obedience and live with God through Christ forever.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 23rd, the 27th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: John 1:16-17

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ.

Devotional: The fullness of God's Grace, God's gift to the world is given us in Jesus Christ. Issuing out of that gift are innumerable blessings, not the least of which is the Truth. Absolute complete Truth is found in Jesus Christ. We long for  Truth as parched land longs for water for we are inundated with falsehoods, exaggerations, full and half truths to the point where trust, faith and reliance are hard to rely upon. But absolute Truth, the Truth that would prove its reliability on the cross is available to all who believe in Jesus Christ. Though all may fabricate and deceive, the self-sacrificing love of God comes to us as a trustworthy gift in Jesus Christ.

God's Grace has been expressed to us through Moses in the law, but the gift of righteousness and the Truth of God come though God's gift of Jesus Christ.

He is the sure foundation, the solid rock of absolute, unqualified Truth. Each of us, all of us, can bet our lives on it.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 22nd, the 26th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Devotional: We have experienced the glory of Almighty God in the Word Jesus Christ. That glory is the unconditional and self-sacrificing love of God, the One and Only for the world God created through Jesus Christ, sustains through Jesus Christ, and reconciles to God's Self in Jesus Christ.

The verb, “to see” in the Gospel of John means more than just physical sight. It means a profound appreciation of and appropriation of eternal meaning. It is somewhat like our expression when we finally thoroughly understand that which once was problematic; “Oh, I see!”

God has approached us, become absolutely intimate with us and rescued us from sin and death. “Oh, I see!” We have seen God's glory in Jesus Christ and that glory is shared with us, imparted to us and gifted to us for all eternity.

                                                  Glory be to the Father

and to the son

     and to the Holy Ghost

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 21st, the 25th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: John 1:12-13

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become Children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will but born of God.

Devotional:  There were then and there are now persons who do receive Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, and believe him to be the Savior of the world.

These persons receive the most radical and wondrous gift. They are changed from human beings born through human agency to children born of God. If you will, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ - such an audacious concept that it exceeds human imagination and must come from God. We are born again, or born anew or born from above. We now in totality belong to God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Our minds cannot conceive of what it means now and for eternity to have God as Parent. What gifts of joy and peace and love are available to us now and for all eternity.
People often talk of being saved by faith in Jesus Christ from hell to heaven. But we are now dealing with a gift that includes but far surpasses such salvation. We are now Children of God forever. Nothing else determines or limits or can enhance our identity and personhood. We are born of God. This absolutely dictates how we live this day, the future and how we die, and how we live forever with our Father in our Brother, Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 20, the 24th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.
 

Scripture Reading: John 1:10-11

He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

 

Devotional:  The Word was not recognized even by those who were of His kin and religion. They did not recognize that He came from God, and was God, and so they did not accept Him.

Surely it must have been because His people did not expect the Word to be sent by God as an act of Grace, a gift. Surely the God who created the world; who chose the Jews as His special people; who gave the Jews the Law and the Prophets - surely this God would not send the Word into the human situation to be God and man at one and the same person. How extraordinary! How unpredictable! How shocking! Yet even those who believed in God at some level had to be impressed with the freedom of God not to conform God's Self to the expectations of humankind. Surely they realized by reading the Old Testament that God is not bound by human reason or logic or intellect or language and tradition. Yet the enfleshment of God was not appreciated or appropriated or accepted by the majority of Jesus' own people. Even in the light of miracles and healing and teaching about God, Jesus was asked to leave. At times the opposition came from His family and His hometown. Finally the leaders of His religious tradition demanded His execution. It looked as if the darkness had won and would continue to win. But God's Will is never thwarted by darkness. The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not and will not overcome it. God's Son is on the side of life, not sin and death, and neither sin nor death can determine the life of one who will receive the Word through faith.

What is true for Christ is true for His Gospel and His Church. Popularity and acceptance of God work in redeeming this world in and through Jesus Christ.

 

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 19, the 23rd day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: John 1:4-5

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Devotional:  In the Gospel of John, Light and Life are joined together as ways to describe the Word, Jesus Christ, and the life of any who have faith in him.

Real life, a life that is not determined by sin and death, is God's hope and expectation for all who live in Christ Jesus, and in whom Christ lives. Real life is a life filled with Light, not just as a private experience, but for all who encounter one in whom there is true life.

Darkness poetically describes sin and death, terror, bewilderment and confusion. One could argue convincingly that this is the state of the world in the absence of the One who is the Light of the World. Darkness is the antithesis of Light and that which wills the destruction of Light and Life. With Light comes the potential for real life, sight, understanding, discernment and absolute allegiance to God who sent the Light and Life into this world.

We now know where Light and Life reside. It is not a location, it is a person, Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

The darkness not only does not understand Light and Life, but is  determined to overcome it, and to conquer it. But the victory of the Light and Life in Jesus Christ is available to any who will accept Him as Lord and Savior, and invest all in Him.

This Advent, as we await the birth of the Light and Life of the World, could be the opportunity to see ourselves objectively and honestly.  Are there areas of darkness and death in your life? Do they appear to be powerful and unconquerable? Jesus Christ, the Life and Light of the World, stands ready to illumine and revitalize any aspect of your life. There is no hope in darkness. There is new eternal life in the Light of the World. Just ask, trust and obey.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 18th, the 4th Sunday of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: John 1:3

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

 

Devotional: We, ourselves, and everything we experience in life were created through the Word, Jesus Christ.

Said differently, it is the Word of God that is the agent God uses to create and recreate everything. The creative energy of Almighty God is expressed in the work of the Third Person of the Trinity.

So Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things, the owner of the world, and in all things. Everything and every being in the world testifies to the love of God and work of God through Jesus Christ. This love is communicated through creation itself, the Holy Scriptures, and the Church of Jesus Christ. Communion with God at some level has always been available to believers and non-believers through nature. The created order itself is a witness to the love of God for the world created in and through Jesus Christ.

For this reason and others, there is no such thing as spiritual divorced from or in opposition to the natural. God reveals God's nature through Jesus Christ in various ways through any medium in creation. Most often, this revelation comes through acts of prayer or worship, but can come through any avenue, for all is created by God in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps we do not always recognize such experiences as witnesses to God's love, but few can be unmoved by the birth of a child, the view of the mountains, the elegance of a flower or the love of another person or a beloved pet.  These and all other experiences in our existence can be, and are, used by God to express God's love for this world in Jesus Christ.

It is all a matter of Grace, God's gift to us in and through Jesus Christ. Therefore, the only appropriate response or way to live is in abject gratitude for everything that we experience in this life and that to come.

Christ is everything!

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus. 

Advent Devotion for December 17th, the 21st day of advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: John 1:b,c,d

...and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Devotional: It is interesting that John refers to Jesus Christ as “the Word”. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit speaks creation into being, “And God said......” It is the speaking of God that brings about “new life” of faith in Jesus Christ. Paul says in Romans 10:17 “.....faith comes through hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

In both Old and New Testaments, the Word of God is the source of life and of eternal life.

The Word of God was with God and the Word was God.

Three in One and One in Three beyond time and space, but who entered time and space to ransom the world from sin and death.

The Word, Jesus Christ was with God from the beginning and was sent by God to do what the world could not do, but which only God could do, and that is to reconcile the world into God's Self. The Word taking our flesh and dwelling among us; this is the great act of God's gracious self-giving love to bring the world into right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

God spoke creation into being. God spoke, and eternal life came into being. God spoke the Word and the world is saved.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 16th, the 20th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

 

Scripture Reading: John 1:1a

In the beginning there was the Word.

 

Devotional: There was no time when Jesus was not. Because of our human limitations of time and space, there is no way to speak of “non-time” so we speak of “the beginning”, and to say that there was no time when the Word was not, we say “In the beginning was the Word.” This, of course, means that God has always been the Trinitarian God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One God.

Years ago there was a religious writer names Robert Capon who in one of his extraordinary books talks about the difficulty humans experience with the eternal nature of the Trinity. He says something to this effect: many of us sort of look at Christianity as we would a football game. That is God the Father, the Creator, plays the first half of the game. In the third quarter, Jesus Christ plays and then in the fourth quarter, it is the Holy Spirit who plays. But the reality that can only be believed is that God's Oneness and Threeness has always been.

This means that the Messiah we await in Advent and receive at Christmas took the form of a newborn babe; not as we do as humans as the first episode of our early life, but as a continuing expression of God's love for this world. Jesus Christ was from the beginning. Becoming both human and God was the most extraordinary act of love of God for this world since creation. And it is because of this most significant birth that the world alienated from its Creator early on, has been reconciled by God unto God's Self.

The baby we welcome is the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of this world – all time, all space, all creation.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 15th, the 19th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into our lives and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:17-20

When they had seen him, they spread concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Devotional: Paul tells us in Romans 10 that faith comes from hearing. The shepherds were speaking their faith experience of the angel and the heavenly host and of what they observed as verification of the angelic message. This is good news to these men, and one simply cannot help sharing good news. Throughout history as verified by news media today, the world is bombarded by bad news. Violence, tragedy, pain, and suffering seem to inundate this world to the extent that in the heart of everyone, there is the longing for good news. The best of the good news is that God became one of us so that in Christ Jesus, we might become like God. It is astounding, and can only be appropriated not by logic or reason, but by faith imparted to us by the Spirit of God.

On one hand, we long to hear good news; on the other hand, we are skeptical that maybe it is too good to be true. Undoubtedly the witness of the shepherds fulfilled both responses. But their job was to witness; God's job is the response. It was true for  the shepherds, so it is true for us. Our part in the Kingdom of God is to be the best witnesses we can possibly be to Jesus Christ; so it was with the shepherds.

But Mary apparently was silent. After all this involved her child. Surely this took being silent and pondering in her heart all that she had experienced from God.

Her witness as the ultimate human example of faith and obedience would influence untold multitudes throughout the history of Christ's Church. The Church would name her “Mother of God”, and her quiet obedience would be the catalyst for faith for many through the ages.

Sometimes witness means speaking. Sometimes it means silent speech expressed not so much in words, but in the living of life.

In my life, there was a certain poor widow who lived in a tiny house built for her by her brother. She was crippled and made dolls for children. We did not have lengthy conversations, certainly not theological conversations. But  when my faith needed help, and I needed to be in the presence of a flesh and blood disciple of Jesus Christ, I would call upon this lady at her house and would just sit in her presence. What I do remember is just silently being in her presence. That was an effective and powerful witness to the good news of Jesus Christ - just being with her.

                   I think Mary must have been that kind of

                   witness. Maybe you can be the same kind

                   to someone in this Advent Season.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 14th, the 18th day of Advent

Prayer:  Come, Lord Jesus, into our lives and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:15-16

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.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in a manger.
 

Devotional: So the shepherds fulfilled the commission given to them by the angel and the heavenly host. What an act of God's Grace to have the birth of God's Son announced to them! But always with God's Grace comes a job – for God not only loves those upon whom God bestows Grace, that Grace always includes a job that affects humankind.

The shepherds leave the sheep and go to find the Christ Child. This was absolute verification of the angel's revelation, and was an essential aspect of their authentic witness to others about their good news.

When we share our experiences of God's Grace in our lives, we become effective evangelists for we embody the reality we proclaim. For the shepherds, it was as had been revealed to them. No longer a theory or theology or illusion or fabrication, this experience which had until then been visual and verbal was now confirmed by their own experience – Christ is born of Mary!

In the early church there were few, if any, forms of mass communication. News was, in large measure, shared verbally. Yet in about three hundred years, Christianity was the religion of the Roman Empire due to communication in the marketplace by Christians. They not only told the story of Christ, they told the story of their experience of Jesus Christ. That is still the most effective way to communicate the Gospel – sharing one's own experience of God's Grace toward us in Jesus Christ.

Maybe this season will provide each of us the opportunity to lovingly share our “experience” of Christ Jesus.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 13th, the 17th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into our lives and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:12-14

“This will be a sign unto you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

          “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to

            men on whom his favor rests.”

Devotional: Sometimes maybe even an angel is not enough to impress us with the significance of God's communication to us. These men are working at night trying to stay awake to protect the sheep. Surely the angel appeared to them and told them of the good news of Christ's birth, and they responded with fear; but sometimes, maybe we are less prone to trust in the reality of any experience that happens at night. So now the angel gives a fact to them about the reality of the revelation. The shepherds can discern a baby has been born in a barn in Bethlehem, and they can find that baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Then accompanying the angel a whole host of heavenly beings sing the song of God's reconciling act toward earth in Jesus Christ. With peace from God comes peace in human society. Jesus was specific about this aspect of the relationship between God and God's creatures, and between human beings. “My peace I give unto you”, says the Christ. It is the peace of God that passes all understanding, and it is universal.

The heavenly hosts proclaim the new reality in Jesus Christ, a potential for the world now and the essence of the Kingdom of God.

So the proclamation of the angel and the song of the heavenly hosts constitute the promise of God in Jesus Christ. This promise is of the ultimate fruition of God's love for this world of strife and conflict among nations and people and with God.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace for all who trust life into His W ill and care.

Perhaps our prayers for this holiday might be for peace on earth, good will toward men. And in the name of Jesus Christ, may we risk being agents of His peace in families, between enemies and among nations. Internally may we experience the peace and joy that comes from a life invested in the babe born in a manger two thousand years ago.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 12th, the 16th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading:  Luke 2:8-11

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

 

Devotional:  Notice to whom the good news of Christ among us was shared. There were the foreigners, people of the wrong nation or nationality, and of the wrong religion. Now these shepherds – the lowest of the lowest socioeconomic group in the society. Not the powerful or prominent, not the celebrities or the political leaders, but with the lowest of the lowly. If this happened today, who might some of these people be – the poorest of the poor? How about the people who work in a car wash facility or collect our garbage or mow our yards or keep our houses?

Why would God choose these kinds of people to receive this history-shattering news? Could it be because the Gospel represents the great equalizer of God in this world of unequals? Could it be that we are restored to intimate fellowship with God, not because of anything we achieve or accomplish in this life, but through faith in God's gracious love for each and all of us in Jesus Christ?

Jesus is the Great Equalizer, and faith in Him is that which dissolves our differences in this world, and presents us naked before God's throne clothed only in Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 11th, the 3rd Sunday of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:6-7

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

Devotional: Away from home with its familiar and probably secure environment, the Holy Family found themselves in a strange place with no lodging available except with the livestock in a barn. Was this because they were too poor to afford lodging in the inn? Was this because Joseph had somehow failed to make  prior arrangements for a place to lodge? As a male, I can identify with the men in this family, perhaps feeling that he, for whatever reason, was not able to care for Mary when she delivers the baby. Surely, any husband and father would have feelings of inadequacy and guilt and perhaps apprehension about the safety and welfare of mother and child.

This is a real human situation and this cannot be the best circumstance for the delivery and care of a newborn. Yet, it is in the midst of such a situation that God comes among us, then and now.

Surely Joseph and Mary were people of great faith and chosen by God to parent the Messiah; yet it is not out of reason to assume that they were anxious about their whole situation, and perhaps shared that anxiety as mates do. So, maybe this was not a blissful situation, at least initially. Maybe there was even some conflict within the family. If so, this makes the birth of Jesus even more significant than the Christmas Card pictures would indicate. Even at His birth, Jesus came into the real world to save the real world from sin and death.

It is in the “real world” that Jesus loves us and gave His life for us so that we might become citizens forever in the truly Real World of the Kingdom of God.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus

Advent Devotion for December 10th, the 14th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:4-5

 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

 

Devotional: Although these two, Joseph and Mary, had had the most extraordinary experience with Almighty God and received the commission to be the parents of the only begotten Son of God, still they had to comply with and conform their lives to the ordinary dictates of being citizens of this world. They had to comply with the orders of the earthly authorities. God did not call them “out of the world”, but in the very midst of their historical existence in time and space.

It is evident that God chose to be one of us in the very midst of our human condition of responsible obligations and duties.

So it is with all of us – God encounters us in the very midst of our humanity as one who shares this humanity and the Divine.

We, like Mary and Joseph, are not called to escape from our human situation, but to invest in it as did God's Son.

Of course, this does not mean that we conform ourselves to this world, but are in such a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ that we are transformed into the very image (in this life) of the One who was truly human and truly God.

We are to be “in” the world but not “of” the world. The only way that can happen is when we follow the One who lived that way. This Advent Season might be a good time to do a personal assessment of who we are and who we long to be.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 9th, the 13th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:1-3

In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

 

Devotional: “In those days” the time when Mary was carrying the baby Jesus and the time of her delivery the “world kept on turning.” Governmental affairs, business affairs, and personal affairs continued as if nothing of eternal cosmic significance had occurred. The persons who knew about Mary's encounter with the angel of God were few in number and of no particular consequence in the world's view. So life just continued on at the time when the most significant event in human history was taking place. God was sending His Son into this world to save and reconcile the world unto God's Self.

Isn't it strange to us how God's love works ofttimes in secret; ofttimes quietly; ofttimes with no fanfare?

The government was going to count its citizens. This occasioned people going to a different location to be counted by some official. Travel plans had to be made; routines interrupted; schedules and locales altered. Certainly for Mary and Joseph this was a stressful situation. How would they travel? What would happen if she delivered on the journey or in a strange place? The ordinary probably became overwhelming. The logistics of life were in no way altered for them. They had to “keep on keeping on.”

Yet, in the very midst of the human situation of the ordinary, God did the extraordinary; the unpredictable; the illogical; and that which few knew about.

The great Mystery of God is that God's love works in the ordinary, the mundane, even the problematic, tedious and boring. As we seek to focus upon the Birth of Jesus, we do so in a season of all sorts of distractions from just the ordinary participation in the Season of Advent and Christmas. In the midst of all that is ordinary and expected this year, may we pause and become aware anew of what God has done, is doing and will do in Jesus Christ in the midst of it all.

May we be filled with joy and peace and hope and love as the world “keeps on keeping on”.

 

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 8th, the 12th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:38

 “I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” The angel left her.

 

Devotional: Mary's statement of faith is the model to all of us who would follow Jesus Christ. Perhaps we do not focus enough in the Protestant Church upon Mary, not only as the Mother of God, but also as the foremost example of faith, i.e. the yielding of one's life to the will of God.

Such faith involves several things of supreme importance. One of these is the capitulation, or surrender, of one's life completely to the will of God. Old time preachers used to speak a lot about “surrendering to the call of God”. This may sound antiquated and maybe even overly dramatic, but this surely is an aspect of obedient faith. Sometimes our will and God's Will concur, but when they don't, we must yield to God's.

Then there is generally lack of details particularly in regard to our future if we surrender our lives to God's Will. Notice, very few details about Mary's life of obedience are shared by the angel with Mary. That is where trust and obedience - when the unexpected happens - are of supreme importance when one yields one's life to God's Will.

Related to this is the absence of any promise of success or security or achievement. Mary had to watch her son be executed. At His death, Mary was given by Jesus into the care of His disciple, John. Surely there was no way to anticipate such, so the only guarantee given to her faith is the intimate union with God through Christ throughout eternity.

Faith like Mary's is surely what puts us in a right relationship with God. Being moral or ethical or responsible are not ways God has ordained to be the source of our reconciliation with God. That source is faith, and faith alone. “I am the Lord's servant.”

As we anticipate the birth of our Christ, no more appropriate occasion can there be for self-examination in regard to our faith journey.

 Maybe the old hymn says it best: “I Surrender All. I Surrender All. All to Jesus I Surrender. I Surrender All.”

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 7th, the 11th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.
 

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:34-37

 “How will this be”, Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month for nothing is impossible with God.”

 

Devotional: As human beings we tend to want to know how something is to happen. We are the products, to some degree or another, of a cause and effect world view. The angel patiently refuses to respond to her question except to say that her pregnancy and the birth of this child comes from God. The angel does give some comfort to Mary in her bewilderment by saying that her relative Elizabeth, who was thought to be barren, is now six months pregnant. Then the profound words the Lord spoke to Abraham and Sarah are spoken to Mary, “For nothing is impossible with God.”

Of course this means that the God who created and nurtures all things is in no way restricted to the realities of the human condition or any limitations of time or space, and will not be limited by anything. God created and rules. This, of course, means that God is not limited by the human questions of “why?” or “how?”.

The fundamental reality that God, and only God, is not bound by that which we may regard as “impossible” is the core aspect of prayer. If God were limited by the possible or even the probable, prayer would be futile; trust in God would be futile; and faith in God's love for us in Jesus Christ would be foolishness at best. 

This means that our part in prayer is not to project upon God any limitations; for there is simply no way that love can be limited, and God is love. One limitation that we tend to attribute to God is predictability. Certainly Mary did not experience God in an anticipated or expected way.

This Advent Season come to God as a child who trusts in the limitless, unconditional love of the God who gave us Jesus; had Him bear our sins on the cross; raised Him from the dead; drew Him to God's throne; and promises to send Him back to us to judge the quick and the dead.

“For nothing is impossible with God.”

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 6th, the 10th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:29-33

 

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Devotional: The reader cannot help but to identify with the astonishment and bewilderment of Mary as she listens to the words of God's angel.

Of course, the angel is privy to her fears, and responds to them by saying the words spoken whenever a human being is encountered by God, “Do not be afraid!”

The fundamental characteristic of humanity, that is in direct opposition to the life God intends for us to have, is fear. The antithesis of faith and the intent God has for us in Jesus Christ is fear.

Paul speaks frequently about fear, labeling it “worry”, and urges us to worry about nothing but rather to place our lives in the hands of the God who loves us in the Son Jesus Christ.

I suppose the fundamental ground out of which all fear emanates is the fear of death. Yet, it is in the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of this child that Mary is to bear, that the ultimate human fear of death and all fears issuing therefrom are conquered.

Because God sent us Jesus Christ, we have not only the license to be, but also the strength to be, fearless people.

Pause a moment in your prayer time and focus upon that which tends to generate fear in your own life. Then concentrate upon how Almighty God addresses that fear in Jesus Christ with victory for those who dwell in Christ and He in them.

 Listen today! God's angel who urged Mary to be fearless in the face of the most extraordinary and astounding  experience is speaking the same message of God to you personally - “Do not be afraid.”

 Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 5th, the 9th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.
 

Scripture Reading:  Luke 1:26-28

 In the sixth month (referring to the pregnancy of Elizabeth), God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

 

Devotional: God is always the initial originator in God's relationship with humankind. Toward us, God is always in overture. This love of God for us that is not caused or initiated or deserved by us, is called Grace, and it is the very object of our faith, and the source of our salvation from sin and death.

Notice that the overture is always an affirmation and a word of comfort, and is usually astounding to us for it articulates not only God's love for us, but also God's faith and confidence in us. And as we shall see, God's Grace toward us always includes a commission from God to fulfill God's Will in this world.

 Mary apparently possesses no evident qualifications from the world perspective to be selected and encountered in this way by God. It is a matter of Grace, a free gift from God.

 To assume that we by desert or merit have any standing or rights before God is an absurdity. Our relationship with God, and our salvation from God, are at God's initiative and overture in Jesus Christ. And it is constant, without ceasing. This is true whether we are aware of it or not. And it comes to us without ceasing as a message of love for us, of confidence in us and with a job attached to it for us in our particular circumstance to be about the business of our Heavenly Father.

 In this Advent Season, let us ask ourselves to be open and sensitive to God's reaching out to us in love and mercy through Jesus Christ, and with confidence and faith in us to carry out right now God's purpose in us and in the world in which we live. May we pray for faith and strength not only to hear and believe, but also to obey.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 4th, the 2nd Sunday of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 2:7-8

 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I may go and worship him.”

 

Devotional: It is interesting that the first concern of Herod was the “exact time” this star revealing the birth of the King of the Jews had appeared. Then he asked that they, the Magi, should report the child's location so that he might also worship Him.

 We know, of course, that Herod never intended to worship this child, rather his intent was to kill Him. Since the Magi did not return and report to Herod, he had all the male children, two years of age or less, slain. The Slaughter of the Innocents!

 Herod either believed the Magi and his own religious leaders, or he was cautious to do away with any child born near the time of the appearance of the Star.

 It is no exaggeration to look at the world and its systems of power structure and realize that deceit and lies are universally prevalent. We pray for the wisdom of Almighty God to be able to discern between truth and falsehood. At the same time, we realize that such discernment was enfleshed in this very child about whom Herod, the deceiver, inquired. He revealed this when He said to us, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Those in whom Christ dwells and who dwell in Christ have the best chance in this life of discerning Truth and acting thereupon.

If Christ is the Truth, then evil is the lie, the deceiver. Jesus says in John 8:44, “He (the devil) was a murderer from  the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

 Advent can be a time to look at one's life and if there is deception or lie, to reject it in the name of Jesus Christ and cling to the truth.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 3rd, the 7th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 2:7-8

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I may go and worship him.”

Devotional: It is interesting that the first concern of Herod was the “exact time” this star revealing the birth of the King of the Jews had appeared. Then he asked that they, the Magi, should report the child's location so that he might also worship Him.

 We know, of course, that Herod never intended to worship this child, rather his intent was to kill Him. Since the Magi did not return and report to Herod, he had all the male children, two years of age or less, slain. The Slaughter of the Innocents!

Herod either believed the Magi and his own religious leaders, or he was cautious to do away with any child born near the time of the appearance of the Star.

It is no exaggeration to look at the world and its systems of power structure and realize that deceit and lies are universally prevalent. We pray for the wisdom of Almighty God to be able to discern between truth and falsehood. At the same time, we realize that such discernment was enfleshed in this very child about whom Herod, the deceiver, inquired. He revealed this when He said to us, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Those in whom Christ dwells and who dwell in Christ have the best chance in this life of discerning Truth and acting thereupon.

 If Christ is the Truth, then evil is the lie, the deceiver. Jesus says in John 8:44, “He (the devil) was a murderer from  the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

 Advent can be a time to look at one's life and if there is deception or lie, to reject it in the name of Jesus Christ and cling to the truth.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.

Advent Devotion for December 2nd, the 6th day of Advent

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus into my life and into the life of Your world.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 2:3-6

 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, 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 are by no means least

                    among the rulers of Judah;

                   for out of you will come a ruler who will

                   be the shepherd of my people Israel.'”

Devotional: The religious leaders were the ones Herod consulted to find the answer to the question the Magi put to him, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews?” It is interesting to note that in consulting the religious leaders instead of the political leaders, at some level at least, Herod recognized that the answer was much more significant than just a political forecast.

 Undoubtedly his advisors consulted the prophet Micah who had foretold that Bethlehem was to be the place of birth of the ruler of Israel.

 Although the Magi were not Jews, they undoubtedly expected a Jewish religious answer to their question. Surely that reality of receiving the revelation in the cosmic medium of the star indicated to them, and even to Herod and his advisors, that the source of such “news” had to be God.

 So it was reasonable to assume that the answer would come from God as articulated through one of God's mouthpieces – a prophet. So the sacred texts were consulted and sure enough, God's intent had been made known to Micah long ago.

 Since God is not limited by time, it is without doubt that the sending of Jesus Christ into this world to save it was within God's eternal purpose for creation and for every person. How wondrous is the heart and mind of our God!!

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.