Tag Archive for Advent

The Uncrossable Gap

2016-01-24 Devotional with Hymn No comments

God is holy.
We were born into sin.
It is all we have ever known.

God is pure light.
As creatures of the darkness,
we instinctively run from Him.

God is love.
In our selfishness
we are suspicious of Him.

God is Spirit.
To us physical creatures,
He seems unreal.

God is perfect wisdom.
To our ignorance,
He seems foolish.

God is all in all, and He offers Himself to us freely and completely.
In ourselves, we cannot see,
cannot know, and
cannot accept Him.

But now God has crossed all the barriers between Him and us.
The Transcendent One has taken flesh and blood.
Holy God is now and forever
wholly human.
He has come all the way to us in Jesus Christ.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Eternal Light
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God with Us: Completed in Jesus

2016-01-21 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read John 1:14-18

As God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:8), Jesus came delighting to walk among His people.

As God was to Hagar the “God Who Sees” when He met her needs in the wilderness (Genesis 16:13), Jesus truly saw the needy all around Him, talking with them, touching them, healing them, and feeding them.

As God revealed His presence to the undeserving Jacob (Genesis 28:10-22), Jesus acted out God’s gracious presence and forgiveness to the most undeserving around Him, even those murdering Him (Luke 23:34).

As God came with fire, smoke, and awe-full terror on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19), Jesus came with gentleness and compassion, as one of us. Where the law brought condemnation on our weakness, Jesus brought grace and truth — the unfailing love and absolute dependability of our Heavenly Father (John 1:14-18).

As God tabernacled with His people in the wilderness (Exodus 25 – 40), Jesus tabernacled among us as God made flesh (John 1:14; see the NASB margin).

As the temple was for a time the symbol of God’s presence and rulership among His people (1 Kings 6:12-13), Jesus is the eternal reality of God’s presence and rulership among all who trust Him.

Jesus is
the Child born to us,
the Son given to us,
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Eternal Father, and
Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

He is the virgin’s son, the promise of our soon-coming deliverance. He is, now and forever, in every way, God with us (Isaiah 7:14).

Listen and sing:
Hymn: You Came to Us
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Jesus Is God with Us

2016-01-07 Devotional, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Matthew 1:18-25; 28:16-20

Jesus is God with Us. He is the loving God who eagerly comes to His people, even when they don’t deserve Him or His grace. That is the clear message of Matthew 1, the first chapter of the New Testament. Matthew opens with the genealogy of Jesus, showing that Messiah descended from a family with its share of moral outcasts. He then applies to Jesus the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (NASB). This son of a disgraced Jewish maiden, conceived before marriage, was indeed God with us.

Matthew 2 continues with the same theme, showing that gentiles from far outside God’s people were among the very first called to worship this King of all Kings.

Jesus’ earthly ministry ends the same way in Matthew’s last chapter, with Jesus commanding His disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19, NASB). This God with us was to be the Father’s gift to all people, including those who had never known Him and never sought Him.

Jesus’ life was thus framed with His purpose to be God with us. All the days in-between were filled with the same. He only did the Father’s works:

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does…By myself I can do nothing.” (John 5:19, 30, NIV)

He only spoke the Father’s words:

“These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:24, NIV)

Jesus came saying what the Father would say and doing what the Father would do among us: healing, teaching, cleansing, feeding, and calling us to join Him in His work. The Father sent His only Son out of His burning desire to be truly with His people.

God Born Among Us

2015-12-24 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Isaiah 8:19 – 9:7

Isaiah 8:19-22 describes the fate of those who ignore God. When times get tough and they face the ultimate issues of life, they will know only distress, despair, and darkness.

But what a contrast in the verses that follow, Isaiah 9:1-5! Isaiah strains to adequately communicate wonderful, unbelievable blessings that will come to the neediest of God’s people – blessings that are far beyond their experience and imagination. These blessings will be like:

  • A Great Light where there had been only gloom and darkness (vv.1-2)
  • A gladness and joy as at a bountiful harvest, or as when they receive a financial windfall (v.3)
  • A sense of complete freedom as when we’ve finally been released from a long and difficult oppression (v.4)
  • A deep and permanent peace as when war has ended forever (v.5)

What will bring these indescribable, unimaginable blessings? The birth of a child – a child who will become a great, eternal, magnificent, and righteous King.

In the Bible, names often signify who a person truly is – that person’s character, purpose, and importance. A name is more than a label for someone. It is the person’s identity. And if names could describe this magnificent King, what would His names be?

  • Wonder of a Counselor
  • God of Might
  • Father of Eternity
  • Prince of Peace 

He will rule forever with perfect justice and righteousness. He and His decisions will always be just and right as God Himself is just and right. The peace, harmony, and complete well-being of His Kingdom will grow and grow forever.

How can we be sure that these incredible promises will actually be fulfilled? Because the burning, unquenchable love of the Unchanging God, I AM WHO I AM, Lord of All the Heavenly Armies, guarantees it!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Isaiah 9
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Share in Christ

2015-12-13 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Consider the people nearest to Jesus during His life on earth:
His mother,
His father,
His disciples.
Those closest to Him shared His sufferings.
In their own degree, they bore what Jesus bore.
Their relationship with that one man cost them everything.

For them, the mysteries of the transcendent God weren’t abstract and far away.
They witnessed those mysteries close up.
They tasted them.
They journeyed through them.
They wrestled with them daily –
the light, the darkness,
the privilege, the pain,
the waiting, the questions, the wrenching self-sacrifice.

For each, it started with a personal call.
They sensed it was the call of the Living God,
and that decided their response,
though they couldn’t see the end from the beginning.
Mary answered the angel,
“I am the Lord’s servant…May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38, NIV).
Joseph obeyed a dream and took a pregnant woman as his fiancé.
The disciples, average working men with deep local connections,
dropped everything familiar and
followed a homeless, itinerant teacher.

The price was real,
but the result was life rich beyond imagination,
permeated with truth and peace,
love and fruitfulness,
eternal meaning and undying glory.
That is still the price and the reward for all who share in Christ. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Partners in the Mystery
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Pictures of the Messiah

2015-12-06 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Hear these descriptions of the coming Messiah:

He will endure as long as the sun,
as long as the moon, through all generations.
He will rule from sea to sea…
to the ends of the earth. (Psalm 72:5, 8, NIV)

He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth. (Isaiah 42:2-4, NIV)

“Here is your God!”
See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and his arm rules for him…
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young. (Isaiah 40:9-11, NIV)

When we think of Christ at Christmas,
we picture an infant in a manger.
But that is only one small part of
the living, eternal Christ.
The Psalms and the prophets draw many pictures of
all He is and
all He is to us.
He is a king,
a warrior,
a mighty champion,
a priest,
a prophet,
a shepherd, and
a servant who suffers willingly, horribly for His people.
He is the glory of God,
a light to the nations,
the cornerstone chosen and precious.

As you think of Him this Advent and Christmas,
as you celebrate Him,
celebrate all He is and
all He is to you. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ Is Come
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Make God Flesh and Blood

2015-11-29 Devotional with Hymn No comments

What an amazing concept! Our loving God, an infinite Spirit being, holy, unseen, and transcendent, made Himself a real human being. He longed for us to know Him. He wanted us to trust Him. He wanted to assure us that He understood us. He became like us in every way, sharing our existence, our life, our temptation, our pain, even our death. He became like us so that we could become like Him.

That is incarnation: God made flesh…God become human. God became incarnate in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is no longer with us in physical form. But God’s deep longing to be incarnate has not cooled. He still burns to be seeable and touchable. He still desires to be flesh and blood here on this earth, among the human beings who need to know Him and come to Him. Incarnation is still what He wants.

How can He be incarnate here? We, His children, His Church, are His incarnation. As soon as Jesus returned to the Father, He poured out His own Spirit on all who trusted Him. By the Spirit of God we make God flesh and blood, here and now. We make Him real to needy people. We are His face, His hands, His feet, His heart. We are His love, His compassion, His holiness, His peace, and His unconquerable joy.

Our wonderful God become seeable and touchable. What an amazing possibility! And each of us and all of us can play a part. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Be the Incarnation
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Kingdom of Peace

2015-11-22 Devotional with Hymn No comments

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9, NIV)

Peace begins in God.
It begins with His completeness in Himself and
with the love and perfect unity among the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Peace comes to us in Christ.
He who is one with the Father and one with the Spirit
became one of us.
And as we simply trust Him, like children,
He becomes one with us.

When Christ has finished what He has started,
when we are one with Him, we will be
one with the Father and
one with the Spirit as well.
As we are one with them,
we will also be one with each other,
and the peace of God will be perfect and complete.
Creation itself will then be transformed.
As Romans 8 says:

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
For the creation was subjected to frustration…
in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and
brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (vv.19-21, NIV)

Peace will reign in all creation:
no more disharmony; only
unity,
contentment,
completeness, and
well-being;
full, open, fruitful, unimpaired relationships throughout all reality.
Just imagine!

Beauty and truth,
pleasure and purity,
humanity and holiness,
justice and mercy,
will be full and in perfect harmony,
just as they have always been full and in perfect harmony in God.
Art and science,
celebration and reflection,
giving and receiving,
worship and play
will simply be facets of being in Him constantly and completely.

Everyone will be
beautiful in their God-breathed individuality.
We will be
like Him,
with Him, and
complete in Him
forever.

O come, Prince of Peace! 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Sweet Peace
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Promises

2015-11-15 Devotional with Hymn No comments

During Advent we see Jesus, not as flesh and blood reality, but as a promise, a hope, a silhouette of our coming salvation. During Christmas He is still a helpless baby who only does…what babies do. Yet even before the human Jesus did anything, simply through His coming He painted a beautiful portrait of our God:

  • This God has worked for millennia to save us from death and bring us back to Himself. His plan was born long before we were, and it will continue until it is completed.
  • While we wait for that completion, He encourages and draws us through promises. And He carefully keeps every promise, even when the wait seems endless. Christ’s birth proves that God keeps His promises. Be assured that His promised second coming will happen as well.
  • God describes Himself in terms we can understand. But no description, no name, no combination of roles does Him justice. He is a King, yet a Servant…a Mighty Warrior, yet a Shepherd. He is both Prophet and Priest…a powerful Lion and a Lamb to be slaughtered. Our God overflows all these descriptions.
  • God is also a patient gardener. He loves to grow things! He is growing for us a life that is deep and rich and fruitful beyond our wildest imaginings. But it starts from a tiny seed and must grow slowly and naturally. We have to nurture it. We have to wait for it.
  • Beyond all these, first and foremost, our God is a Father.
  • This Father dearly loves “ordinary” people. He loves them like His own children.
  • God embraces human life from the roots up. This 100% God became 100% human that we might become 100% like Him. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: See How God’s Flower Blossoms
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Son of Man

2014-12-21 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Hear these words from Daniel 7:

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon,
Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind
as he was lying on his bed.
He wrote down the substance of his dream. 

“As I looked,
thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. 

“In my vision at night I looked,
and there before me was one like a son of man,
coming with the clouds of heaven.
He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.
He was given authority, glory and sovereign power;
all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away,
and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
(vv.1, 9-10, 13-14, NIV)

Daniel 7 records Daniel’s dream, his visions of the future. Four fantastic beasts arise from the sea, each representing a different kingdom that would come and exercise authority for awhile, then pass away.

As the fourth beast is ruling and raging boastfully, the scene changes. Now Daniel sees a vision of the throne room of the universe. God, the Ancient of Days, is ruling in unearthly splendor, surrounded by vast multitudes.

Then Daniel witnesses a stunning, almost unbelievable sight. Into this highest, holiest heaven, a human being, a “son of man,” arrives on the clouds and is led into the presence of the Ancient of Days. He is given glory, sovereign authority, and eternal power over all people on earth.

Imagine: a “son of man”, a human being, a member of our rebellious race, is gloriously escorted into God’s holy presence and given sovereign, universal authority that will never pass away.

While Jesus walked this earth, what was His favorite designation for Himself? It was “Son of Man”. This eternal, glorious, divine Being, who had been in the Father’s presence from the beginning, chose to refer to Himself as the “Son of Man”. He gladly embraced His humanity. He willingly shared our suffering and our curse of death, knowing that when He returned to the Father’s presence, He would bring a countless train of redeemed human beings with Him.

When He is finally crowned, we will be there. We will reign with Him and share His magnificence and His glory. Never again will anyone say, “I am only human”. Our curse will be gone forever.

Father,
Creator,
Sovereign Savior,
thank You for all that we are becoming in Jesus Christ!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: See All That Human Can Be
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