Advent Dec. 4

Exodus 3:1-14, 33:18-23, 34:4-7     Key Verse: Ex. 34:6  "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness."

"How can this be?"

Christmas can best be explained by the love of God.  When Moses wanted to see the glory of God, the LORD passed by and showed Moses as much as he could stand.  The words mercy, compassion, love and faithfulness jump out at me as I look at this encounter in Ex. 33 and 34.  God is describing His basic essence to Moses as that of a loving and faithful God who is willing to come to earth and reveal Himself to the human race.

I am sure that Moses' mind went back to his first wilderness encounter with God which we read about in Exodus 3.  There, God revealed Himself to Moses for the first time in the form of a burning bush.   God told Moses that He had heard the cries of His people and He had come down to rescue them.(vss. 7 & 8).  Later in the conversation, Moses asked God to give him His name.  God said " I AM WHO I AM".  It is a name that means He is the self existent One.  We pronounce it as YaHWeH and it usually appears in English Bibles as LORD(upper case letters).   To tell someone your name is to get personal with him or her.  God wants to have a personal relationship with us.  When Jesus came He said, "before Abraham was, I AM"(John 8:58), using the same wording that God had used with Moses.  Christ's meaning is obvious.  He is the same God who always is, who came down to earth and entered time to rescue His people through Moses.

Advent is a time of hope--of expectation.  Whatever you are going through, the LORD hears your cries and comes to help.    He is the One who has always been, and is able to deliver you.  He has shown that His nature is that of love, mercy, compassion, and faithfulness, so He is also able to deliver you.  Just as the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, so He will incarnate Himself into our lives if we allow Him.  You may be very low, but not too low for the LORD to come down and rescue you.  You may feel that you are on top of the world right now, but the LORD still loves you and wants to be with you to express His love to you and then on to others.  He wants to get personal with us.  He wants to show us as much about Himself as we can stand.  Let us be overwhelmed by the love of God as Moses surely was.

As Moses came down from the mountain, he had a glow that reflected the glory of the LORD.   As we learn more about God and experience Him, we are changed.  Even if we are on the mountain top and must come back down to the real world we can bring His presence with us.  In every situation the LORD loves us and will be with us.  This is the message of Christmas.

Advent Dec. 3

Read Genesis 12:1-3, 15:1-7      Key verse Gen. 1:3b   "All the families of the earth will be blessed through you."

"How can this be?"

The question of Christmas is answered first of all by the fact that God cares about us.  In the first pages of the Bible we see how the human race messed up, big time.  The first humans disobeyed the only rule God gave them.  Their first child killed his younger brother.   Violence filled the earth.  God saved the only people worth salvaging from a great flood.  Their descendents tried to be their own gods(Gen. 11).  The world was in a mess.  But God started a long process to bring the human race back to Himself.

This reclamation project started with a man named Abram who would become Abraham.  In spite of the human condition the Lord was going to use a man.  It would be God who saved us, but He would use humans in a long process that would lead to the Lord Himself becoming a man.   Why God chose Abram and ultimately  his descendents to be line for the Christmas event is a question which only  the Lord Himself knows the answer.  But we can certainly surmise that it was out of His own goodness and greatness that the Lord chose Abram and chooses us.

There is a Dennis the Menace cartoon in which Dennis and a friend are eating cookies baked by Mrs. Wilson.   The friend comments to Dennis that he must be awfully good for Mrs. Wilson to bake him such good goodies.  Dennis astutely remarks that Mrs. Wilson made him the cookies, not because he is so good, but because Mrs. Wilson is so good.  God loves us and saves us, not based on our goodness but His. 

Your world may be a mess.  But Christ came into our world to fix it and to fix us.  He will come to everyone who will receive Him and be a blessing.  Dennis had to eat the cookies to enjoy it and we must have faith in Christ to enjoy His salvation.   You may be a saved person in a terrible mess.  You can never be so far away from God that He can't help you.  No problem is too big for Him.  He said to Mary, "Nothing is impossible with God"  This Advent season gives us hope because we know that God cares.  He proved it beginning with Adam, Eve, Abraham and many others, completing it in Christ.  He will come into every heart that opens up to Him and lets Him in (Rev. 3:20).   A good Christmas prayer is, "O holy child of Bethlehem!  Descend to us, we pray;  Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today."

Advent Dec. 2

Read Genesis 3:1-9 Key verse: Gen. 3:9 "Where are you?"

"How can this be?"

Mary's question has many implications for us. When pondering Christmas we might ask, "How can God even care about us?"
The first man and woman had it great in the garden of Eden. They were in charge of looking after the creation. They lived in a beautiful place and they only had one rule. They were told that if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would die.

Can you imagine only one rule? When you were a teenager, how would you have loved it if your parents had said the only rule is do not stay out at night past 3am? Don't you think you could have lived with that and been able to obey? Adam and Eve had it made! One rule--and a very easy one to obey. And not only that--they had a perfect relationship with God. They were His very image. And they gave it all up by listening to the serpent's lie.

The devil convinced them that God did not have their best interests at heart, that He was holding out on them. So they ate the fruit and immediately were ashamed, hiding from God. But God came looking for them, calling out, "Where are you?" God then took the life of an innocent animal and covered their nakedness and shame.

Our sins have caused us great harm and shame. But God is a god of love. He has come looking for us even as we have tried to hide from Him. He calls out to us, "Where are you?", not because He doesn't know where we are, but because He wants us to know that He cares. How could God care for us? Because He is God and He is love. He even became the innocent Lamb of God, shedding His blood to cover our shame.

The first prophecy of the advent of Christ is given by God as He prepares to redeem a now-fallen world, saying that the seed of the woman would one day crush the head of the serpent(Gen. 3:15). Prepare for Christ by understanding that God is a great and loving God who cared enough to send His very best.

ADVENT DAILY DEVOTIONALS: Dec, 1

December 1

Read Luke 1:26-38

Luke 1:34    "How can this be?"

Maybe like me you are in awe over the whole concept of God becoming a man.  The angel Gabriel paid a visit to a virgin teenage woman named Mary to tell her, "You will conceive and give birth to a son...The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and He will reign over  Israel forever; his kingdom will have no end."(Luke 1:31-33)  Mary was naturally confused so she asked, "How can this be?"

This question is likely the one we all ask at one time or another.  There are times in our lives when we are unproductive, discouraged, alone, afraid, guilty, unloved, confused,  helpless or resentful.  We wonder if God cares, if He wants to do something about it, if He can do something, how He might do it,  what role we are expected to play, why we might deserve it, and/or what will others think.

Christmas is a great mystery.  The incarnation is a supernatural act of God that boggles the mind.  Advent is a good time to ponder the coming of Christ and to plan how we should receive Him.  Let's just remember that God is God.  He can do anything He wants to do and He loves us.  You may be in a tight situation and see no way out.  Just remember that just as the Son of God became a man to save a lost world, He can come into your world to deliver you from your affliction.  How He will do so is His decision and is done in His way.  All he asks is that we ask and that we invite Him into our lives.  "I am the Lord's servant" was Mary's response and it is a good one for us as well.  Total surrender to Him opens the door for God's activity in our lives.   

The devotional thoughts of this Advent season will follow this theme over the next 24 days.  "How can this be?"  A good question which I will attempt to answer through the Word of God.      

Christmas

Just as Christ came to be with us two thousand years ago, He is here with us through His Holy Spirit.  Christmas reminds us that the Lord is concerned about us and is active in our lives.  The season also calls us to care about other people and to be active in bringing God’s love into their lives.

 This is a special time of year when people seem to love each other more than at other times.  Perhaps this extra sense of love comes to us because we realize that we have been given so much.  Even most unbelievers have a feeling that much of what they have is a gift.  We Christians know that all we have is a gift from our loving heavenly Father. 

The greatest gift of all is the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.   I would have to say that the resurrection of Jesus is the greatest miracle of all.   But, if there is no incarnation and crucifixion, then there is no resurrection.  I can understand why the Father would raise His Son from the grave.  There is no way I can fathom why He would send His Son in the first place—to come as a human, to live as a commoner, and to die as a thief.  I just don’t get it!  How could He love me that much when I have sinned against Him so often?

So He came.  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”.    If I can imagine the magnitude of His love, I still cannot see how God can become a little, helpless baby and still run the universe.  But He can and He did.  He is an amazing God—big enough to rule the cosmos yet willing and able to become small for our sakes.  This is what we celebrate

During the season of Advent I am going to re-run the devotional blogs from last year.  I will try to put one up each day.  My prayer is that you will enjoy them and experience Christmas in new and wonderful ways. 

Giving Thanks and Giving

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"   II Corinthians 9:15

Read II Cor. 9:5-15

Ever wonder why there are almost 20,000 species of butterflies?  Can you tell me why God made so many different shades and colors?  Why did He make the amazing number and variety of animals?  Have you ever stood at the top of a mountain and looked out at, what seems like, hundreds of other mountains--one after another going on as far as you can see, sometimes with beautiful little puffs of clouds down in the endless valleys?  Sometimes God's extravagance overwhelms me!  As near as I can figure out, the abundance of His creation simply because the Lord is the ultimate gift-giver.  He is a cheerful giver who invented and practices the concept of sowing and reaping.  I haven't planted much, but I have planted enough to know that the more seeds you put out, the more results you have.  And how we have been blessed by God's abundant planting!

He tells us that the one who receives a gift, and realizes it is truly a gift, will be thankful.  So, here is how it works:  God blesses us with wonderful gifts resulting in our giving thanks to Him.. Then, when we understand that we have been blessed, we give gifts of love to others who, in turn, give thanks to God.  Then they give to others and on it goes.  Our awesome God has created a cycle giving that ultimately comes back to Him.

God's ultimate gift, of course, was the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus and the work of His cross is God's indescribable gift to us.  I cannot even describe why we have so many butterflies!  How can I describe why He would give His only Son to come to earth and die a terrible and undeserved death for me who was and is a such sinful man?  He sowed the seed of love in His Son and now is reaping many sons through the resurrection of that first and only begotten Son.

We really have no choice but to be eternally thankful to God and to be abundant givers ourselves.  We live in a needy world and the Lord wants us to be His vehicle to bring, out of His blessings to us, His blessings to other people.  The result will be abundant thanksgiving to the God who loves us and gave His Son for us.

Lost

Have you ever been lost?  When I was a child I thought I was lost.  It was a scary feeling!  But the time just before I realized that I was lost, I was just as lost—I simply didn’t know it yet.  Evangelism is about helping people to be found by God. 

Most lost people don’t know they are lost yet.  Part of our job is to make them see how hopeless their life is without a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Knowing Christ will give them direction, among other desirable things.  They will be able to find their way in life and ultimately into the gates of Heaven.  But now they are almost hypnotized by their aimlessness.  They have become used to their lostness and may think that is the way life is supposed to be.  We have “good news” for them.  God loves them and has a purpose for their lives.  They can find that purpose in Jesus Christ.  Some lost folks have come to realize that they are lost.  They know something is terribly wrong but they don’t know what to do about it.  They may have tried organized religion but found it stale or judgmental.  They need to know the utter joy of being found by the Great Shepherd, Jesus.  We can help them.  We must help them.  We get to help them.

Have you ever lost a child?  I am fortunate in that I have not, but once I could not find my six-year-old son.  The few minutes of sheer panic were unbelievably painful for me.  It is hard for us to understand how an infinite and perfect God could have a similar pain in His heart for His creatures that are lost but the Bible teaches that He does.  His ache for us was so strong that He sent His only begotten Son to die on a cross to bring us back home.  If you have wandered away from the Lord He is looking for you.  From the very moment Adam sinned God came looking for him and called out, “Adam, where are you?”  He will find you if you let Him and He will bring you home and put love, joy, and peace back into your heart.