GOLDEN WORDS
Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith:
Christ appeared in the flesh and was shown to be righteous by the Spirit. He was seen by
angels and was announced to the nations. He was believed on in the world and was taken up
into heaven.
1 Tim. 3:16 NLT
Angels Cannot Appreciate It:
There is a picture in Milan which represents a little cherub trying to
feel one of the points of the Crown of Thorns with his finger. A look of wonder is on his
cherub face; he has been told that it means agony, but he cannot feel it. It is all to him
incomprehensible. There is deep spiritual suggestion here. The cherub cannot understand
because he belongs to a different world; he was never born into that condition in which
sin and suffering and sacrifice become terms of awful import.
—James Burns
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December 16
"Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him" (Ezekiel 1:28).
The rainbow represents hope and the fulfillment of promises. The enemy of hope is despair, and this generation has plenty of that. Witness the suicide rate from young to old.
Where is the middle ground wherein hope lies? What is in that person who knows without a doubt that God does care and He will take utmost pains with us? What is the rainbow in that per-son's life? Is it a Person, a person, an ideal, a dream? Is it all of the above? When did God set the rainbow in that person's life and make it radiant?
Let us search for the rainbow God has for us today!
December 17
"As long as the earth endures, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease" (Genesis 8:22).
We should be no less amazed at the orderly processes of nature as we are at its destructions such as hurricanes and earthquakes. This too reveals God's powers. Seedtime is for the wise man who wishes to remain conscientious of the ethical nuances of life. We are growing every day through the seeds planted in our hearts and minds, either through God and His Word or through others who touch our lives. The sowing decides the harvest, for there is indeed a reaping in heaven and earth.
But God answers: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him..." (Gene-sis 17:20).
Pat Nordman ©
Today's Bible Question
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Previous question and Answer: What New Testament character was the "voice crying in the
wilderness?" |
Excerpts from today's Spurgeon's Devotions |
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Spurgeon's Morning for December 16 |
Spurgeon's Evening for December 16 |
| "Come unto me." - Matthew 11:28 |
"Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened." - Isaiah 48:8 |
From the first moment of your spiritual life until you are ushered into glory, the language of Christ to you will be, "Come, come unto me." As a mother puts out her finger to her little child and woos it to walk by saying, "Come," even so does Jesus. |
There are matters within which we ought to have seen, corruptions which have made headway unnoticed; sweet affections which are being blighted like flowers in the frost, untended by us; glimpses of the divine face which might be perceived if we did not wall up the windows of our soul. |
| Spurgeon's Morning for December 17 | Spurgeon's Evening for December 17 |
| "I remember thee." - Jeremiah 2:2 |
"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." - John 10:9 |
Let us note that Christ delights to think upon his Church, and to look upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as the wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue the object of its choice. |
Jesus, the great I AM, is the entrance into the true church, and the way of access to God himself. |
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People Will Talk
Joseph, have you heard what Mary said occurred? W. H. Auden, quoted by Vic Pentz, "On Beyond Zebra," Preaching Today, "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US." 24 And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, 25 and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. |
Christmas Quotation, Fact and Inspiration.
| Advent 2 | Advent 3 | Advent 4 | |
| Advent 5 | Advent 6 | Advent 7 | Advent 8 |
| Advent 9 | Advent 10 | Advent 11 | Advent 12 |
| Advent 13 | Advent 14 | Advent 15 | Advent 16 |
| Advent 17 | Advent 18 | Advent 19 |
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Today's Devotion |
"Merry Christmas" - This Means War! by Tim Knappenberger |
The Star; the Holy Family; the
toddler Jesus; the tender Madonna; the Magi; the gifts of gold, incense and myrrh; and the
slaughter of the babies. Whoa! Wait just a minute! What kind of sick-o are you?! What are
you trying to do to my Nativity reverie!?! Well actually, nothing. Nothing, that is, other
than telling the whole story. Anyone who’s even vaguely familiar with the Christmas story is aware of this seemingly aberrant footnote to the account of Jesus’ birth. It fits in with all of the other warm and soft Christmas imagery about as well as a hair-sprouting wart on the tip of Mona Lisa’s nose. It’s not a detail of the Savior’s advent that we eagerly retell to our own children again and again. For the most part, we read through it and move on as quickly as we can. If we do pause to consider how it does or doesn’t "fit" into the larger story, we all too often end up just shaking our heads and lamenting about the insane cruelty of man against man. Life confronts us with many issues upon which we ponder, but there remains a select few we keep coming back to again and again. Issues with which we particularly struggle in attempts to understand and make sense of. Death is one. Suffering another. And Evil. The Christmas story contains all three. It’s not hard for even the most adamant of agnostics to be drawn to the many icons of Christmas evoking love, mercy, and tenderness. Nevertheless, the real Christmas is more about warfare and battle than lullabies and carols. Or as C. S. Lewis pens; the Savior's "invasion" and His confrontation with the forces of evil . Never ever forget; Jesus’ long awaited incarnation was the loudest "cannon volley" ever heard in the realms of spiritual combat. What God ordained in the Garden was now here. Satan’s uncontested reign of fear, pain, suffering and death was about to be wrestled away and he wasn’t about to give up without a fight. Christmas is marked by numerous contrasts: stars and swords; majestic kingly visitations and twisted kingly agitation; The Light breaking into the dark; angels conversing with shepherds; the children who die, and the Child who gets away;. Mary rejoicing, Rachel weeping. Every contrast represents pitched battle; blow and counter-blow. What does one say to the mothers of those boys? Their deaths made no sense: What did they have to do with earthly thrones and messianic expectations?
Send a note to Tim Knappenberger at: knapp@raex.com |
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| 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found
out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 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 too may go and worship him." 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go
back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. 13 When they had gone, an
angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take
the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is
going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his
mother during the night and left for Egypt, 16 When Herod realized that he had been
outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in
Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time
he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was
fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping
for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." (Matthew 2:7-18 - NIV) |
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