Christmas Devotion (Day 3) - God Chooses a Tribe

Read Genesis 49

Genesis 49:9-10 - Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. 

Jacob had twelve sons, and God moved them to Egypt for a while so they would become a unique nation, separated from the other people with whom they shared a language. God wanted them to be His people, not because of who they were, but simply because He had chosen them to be the nation from which the Messiah would be born. Of the twelve sons, Judah was selected by God to begin the tribe which would become the kingly tribe. God’s promise in our verse today was unequalled in history – never before, and to only one man since, was the promise made: a king of this tribe would always carry the title of ruler. Even though Israel had no physical king after their slavery in Babylon, the royal lineage was kept in the records to know exactly who would be the next in line.

However, it would be about 400 years before the first king from the Tribe of Judah would be crowned – David.

*How often are you impatient for God to keep His promises to you?

Advent Devotion (Day 4) - A Difficult Miracle

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. – Matthew 1:18 

Newly engaged to be married. A young woman, most likely 13 or 14, and a young man. Promises of a good life together, children, memories shared, vows made. They were just starting out with all the hopes and dreams of any young couple. 

But then..."before they came together (before they were officially married), she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit." Wow! What an incredible miracle! God had promised, through the prophets, for hundreds of years, that there would be a Messiah. A baby born, fully God and fully man. And now here, with this young girl, was the answer to that prophecy. There had never been nor would there ever be a more miraculous birth! Somehow, God took on human flesh.

Can any human being truly understand how this happened? I don't think so. But Matthew is clear that it is exactly what did happen. This is where faith is so necessary. Even though we can't understand how it happened...we can understand why it happened. It happened because God said it would happen. It happened because God desired to be fully human yet would continue to be fully God. Jesus wanted to become one of us so that He could fully understand us. 

But it was also a difficult miracle...difficult for Mary and her promised husband. “Her situation was the most distressing and humiliating that can be conceived. Nothing but the fullest consciousness of her own integrity, and the strongest confidence in God, could have supported her in such trying circumstances, where her reputation, her honor, and her life were at stake.” (Clarke)

It would take absolute faith and trust in God on the part of Mary and Joseph as they walked this road together. There would be joy and pain and uncertainty. But God would be with them each step of the way, as He is with us when the journey seems uncertain. When there is joy and pain in what we experience, there is always God with us! 

Christmas Devotion (Day 2) - God Chooses a Man to Begin a Nation

Read Genesis 12 and 15

Genesis 22:17-18 - I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

Mankind continued in their sin until God destroyed everyone except for Noah and his family – eight people. Then the day came that God chose one man to make a nation from whom this “seed of the woman” – the Messiah – would be born. This man was Abraham.

God could simply have given Abraham many children and said the Messiah would come through one of these many children, but instead God gave Abraham a very specific promise. Even though Abraham had several children after he was an old man, God gave him one special son, miraculously born of his wife who was also too old to have children, and promised the Messiah would come from this man – Abraham’s son, Isaac.

Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob, and God again promised the nation and the Messiah would come from just one of them - Jacob.

*What promises of God do you have trouble believing will be fulfilled completely?

Advent Devotion (Day 3) - God with Us

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. – Isaiah 7:14 

What must Isaiah have thought when God told him to write these words? Isaiah ben Amoz was a prophet, living in Jerusalem 680 years before Jesus was born. He lived in the time just prior to the Babylonian captivity (when Babylon overthrew Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah and took many Jews into captivity while destroying the city). 

Much of the book of Isaiah contains warnings to the Jews that they need to return to worshipping God or they will be punished. It lays out the takeover of Babylon and the eventual collapse of that great empire. Isaiah then goes on to speak of Cyrus the Great, a ruler of the Medo-Persian empire, who would allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Amidst all this prophecy, warnings of doom and words of restoration, Isaiah suddenly pens the words: "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." 

What did it mean? Isaiah himself may not have known. These words were a prophecy that would need to wait for 680 years before fulfillment through the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ. But the promise is there for all of us...His name was to be Immanuel which means "God with us." 

"Henry David Thoreau decided to get into Walden Pond one day and sink down until the water was at eye level, so he could see the world through the eyes of a frog. I always thought, How stupid; and really, who cares? But I began to think about Henry David Thoreau this week. I began to think about Christmas, and I began to think about God. Do you realize that’s what God did? The God of the universe, with no limitations, allowed Himself to be born of the Virgin Mary. He looked through human eyes and grew up like you and me, so that He would understand us and know how to relate to us. If Christmas is anything, Christmas is the story of God changing worlds and putting limitations upon Himself. It’s the story of a baby born in Bethlehem, who was more powerful than the Roman Empire that existed that day." John Maxwell 

God with us...that is who Jesus is. He is God and He made us, yet He came to earth to live with us. To walk the paths we walk, to be tempted by the same things we struggle with, to know hunger, pain, rejection and sorrow, just as we do. Why...to show us that He knows us, knows what we face, can understand our weaknesses, and wants us even with all our ugliness and sin. He is God with us. 

Christmas Devotion (Day 1) - God's Answer to Man's Sin

Genesis 3:15 - I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed (offspring) and her seed (offspring); he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

The story of Christmas begins at the beginning of the Bible. God had created a universe, earth, an animal kingdom, and finally mankind, and had said it was good. There was no sickness, or war (even between the animals), or hatred. Then Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, and sin entered the world and all creation.

But God was not caught by surprise. He already had a plan for how He would redeem mankind. He had given them the choice to obey or disobey, and now He would make a way so mankind could choose to return to Him without being destroyed.

However, the greatest angel God created had also chosen to sin. Satan hated God so much he wanted to destroy everything God had created. Satan could not force Adam and Eve to disobey, so he tempted them to do so. He still tempts us today – not because he wants us to be with him, but simply because he hates God so much.

God’s first prophecy came in reply to this first sin: His promise that Jesus would one day come – the only man ever to be born just of a woman without the seed of a man.

Advent Devotion (Day 2) - O Little Town of Bethlehem

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” – Micah 5:2

It's not how I would have done it. If I was coming to earth to show the people I had created who I was in the hope that they would believe and follow me, I would have done things much differently. For one...I would have come as the most powerful being they had ever seen. One look at me and they would have known that I was God.  A super hero of super heroes. But that's not how Jesus did it.

I would have chosen a family that was rich, powerful, mighty, with servants galore. Their influence would have been world-wide. At my birth there would have been no doubt that I was the King of Kings, God in the flesh. The Messiah. But that't not how Jesus did it.

The setting for my birth would have been the center of the world...a New York City, London, Beijing or in that time...Rome. That way, as soon as I was born, those with influence and power would have known about it. And the news would be spread by the most reliable news carriers to the four corners of the globe. But that's not how Jesus did it.

No, "Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful." 1 Corinthians 1:27  He came as a humble baby to a poor family who could only find a bed for Him in an animal trough. He chose to bless a small town, in the shadow of mighty Jerusalem, with His birth.

Isn't that like our God? He so often chooses the small, the humble, the weak and the powerless to work His mighty deeds. No matter how little or insignificant you may feel, God can and wants to work through you to further His Kingdom. Just like Bethlehem, though small among the clans of Judah, your life can be the fulfillment of God's promises as you draw others to Him.

Prayer:
God, thank You that You came as a Baby King in the most surprising way at the most surprising time. We need Advent this year, particularly. We need to see Your face in the middle of chaotic and challenging times when our souls are tired of the worldly rush and rage and unrest. Help us to see You, focus on Your astonishing incarnation into a messy world, and celebrate You. Ignite our wonder and awe! We love you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Advent Devotion (Day 1) - To Us a Child is Born

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 9:6

Today is the first day of Advent. The four weeks of Advent, which end on Christmas day, are a time to pause amidst the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season and reflect on what this time is about. It's so easy to put up the decorations, listen to the carols, shop and wrap the presents and attend the parties and school plays, yet not really focus in on the reason we celebrate Christmas.

Jesus is the Reason. That may sound trite and a bit overused but it's the truth. God our creator, the maker of the universe, did not stay in Heaven. He did not create this world and us and then leave to watch from afar. Instead, He left His majesty, His incredible power and glory, the thousands upon thousands of angels worshipping Him, His throne on high and somehow, somehow, embodied Himself in a young woman's womb. Took on flesh and bone, blood vessels and nerve endings, ears, eyes and a mouth, and was born as a human baby.

Why...why would God do this? Because He loves us. Because He wants each person He created to know the awesome truth that they are loved. That they are not alone on this earth. That there is a plan for life, a plan for eternity. That there is a God in Heaven who knows their name and who cares about each day that they live.

He became a baby, a child, an adopted son. For those who know Him as Lord He is Wonderful, the best Counselor ever, the only Mighty Lord worthy of worship and adoration, the Everlasting Father because through the Trinity, God the Son and God the Father are one and...the Prince of Peace.

I pray that during these next four weeks you will take a moment and ask the Lord Jesus to help you see Him as He really is. May this advent season be a time when you see the face of God in the face of a baby and know that there is nothing that God would not do for you in order to bring you with Him to Heaven for eternity.

Squanto - A Special Instrument of God

As Thanksgiving approaches I'd like to share the true story of Squanto...the Native American who helped the Pilgrims survive that first year. 

Historical accounts of Squanto's life vary, but historians believe that around 1608, more than a decade before the Pilgrims arrived, a group of English traders sailed to what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts. When the trusting Wampanoag Indians came out to trade, the traders took them prisoner, transported them to Spain, and sold them into slavery. It was an unimaginable horror.

But God had an amazing plan for one of the captured Indians, a boy named Squanto.

Squanto was bought by a well-meaning Spanish monk, who treated him well and taught him the Christian faith. Squanto eventually made his way to England and worked in the stables of a man named John Slaney. Slaney sympathized with Squanto's desire to return home, and he promised to put the Indian on the first vessel bound for America.

It wasn't until 1619, ten years after Squanto was first kidnapped, that a ship was found. Finally, after a decade of exile and heartbreak, Squanto was on his way home.

But when he arrived in Massachusetts, more heartbreak awaited him. An epidemic had wiped out Squanto's entire village.

We can only imagine what must have gone through Squanto's mind. Why had God allowed him to return home, against all odds, only to find his loved ones dead?

A year later, the answer came. A shipload of English families arrived and settled on the very land once occupied by Squanto's people. Squanto went to meet them, greeting the startled Pilgrims in English.

According to the diary of Pilgrim Governor William Bradford, Squanto "became a special instrument sent of God for [our] good . . . He showed [us] how to plant [our] corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities . . . and was also [our] pilot to bring [us] to unknown places for [our] profit, and never left [us] till he died."

When Squanto lay dying of fever, Bradford wrote that their Indian friend "desir[ed] the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen's God in heaven." Squanto bequeathed his possessions to the Pilgrims "as remembrances of his love."

Who but God could so miraculously convert a lonely Indian and then use him to save a struggling band of Englishmen? It is reminiscent of the biblical story of Joseph, who was also sold into slavery, and whom God likewise used as a special instrument for good.