Christmas Eve Reading: Mark 1 1-8

Key Verse: Mark 1 3
3  The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Devotion:
When was the first time that someone actually sat down with you and told you the truth about God and about Christ? I know there are many churches and religious organisations and even temples where people meet to pray amongst other things; but when was that time when someone sat down and explained things properly to you like the Ethiopian Eunuch had Christ preached to him? Can you remember who that person was?

I know that the person who explained things to me was doing it because he knew Christ; I could tell that because he gave God’s Word a new meaning that I had not seen in the churches that I had been to. I can remember scraps of information from when I was very young and was in Sunday school. I can remember being in churches and going to confirmation classes, but it was not until one of my school peers sat down and explained what Christ did for me that I sat up and took note for the first time.

Sometimes it takes a sudden event or a change in scenery in order for us to stop and take note to what is being taught to us. Sometimes it just takes someone different; and by the description given to us about John here, we have someone very different to the normal! And yet man had been told that this is what was going to happen all along. Man had been warned about the coming of Christ. Man had been told to stop the sin and repent… but man continued to go on his own merry way, thinking that everything was going to be ok because it was all too much to think about.

If you look back in your life you will see some pretty extraordinary people who have crossed your path one way or the other. Each one setting a different ball in motion so that God’s will can be accomplished according to His will and according to His timetable. Yes we may well have been fighting all along the way, but God is pretty consistent and insistent! We are the ones who need to open our ears and eyes to the truth and to accept that truth when we hear it… But not just any stories, but God’s Word, God’s truth. Tomorrow is nearly here!

Points to Ponder:
Have you been listening to God’s Word?

Are you allowing God to explain things clearly?

Sunday Reading: Luke 2 1-5

Key Verse: Luke 2 4
4  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

Devotion:
You have heard it said that nothing is impossible with our God; well I put it to you that there are many things which are not probable but God continues to accomplish them too. God had given word that Jesus was to be born in the city of David, in Bethlehem. How was that going to be accomplished when Mary and Joseph were not living there? Simple! God moved everyone back to their birth places to make sure that they were exactly where they should be for the birth of Christ!

We always put limits on what God can do or constraints around Him that we think He should be able to work within – God does not need nor want these measures. God wants us to trust in His ways and to leave the things of God to Him and not to be held within limits according to us. God allowed things to happen this way to show us that there are no limits as to what He will do or can do in order for His will to be done and His way to be had!

In our lives we impose limits on things because we want to make sure that things happen according to plan. We have budgets that we try to keep to (rightly so) and hours within which we work so that we are not totally exhausted at the end of the day. And yet we still seem to get things wrong and we still have to go back and fix things and set them right again. We are going to find that in our spiritual lives is we try to impose those same sort of constraints.

If we wanted to hire someone to do something for us the best way of getting the most out of them will not be to impose your ways every step of the way but to give them a certain amount of freedom to show what they can do. If we wanted someone to build something for us but insisted they work exactly as we do instead of as a builder, they probably would not get a lot of work done! If we want to be able to invite Christ into our lives and allow Him to work effectively, then we have to allow Him to work in His ways and according to His plan – only that way will we then see how effective He can be!

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are an effective worker?

Are you limiting God to your ways of working?

Saturday Reading: Luke 1 39-45

Key Verse: Luke 1 43
43  And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Devotion:
I wonder what the excitement was like as Mary and her cousin were both getting closer to having their children. Elizabeth knew that the child that Mary was carrying was very special and when she heard the voice of Mary her baby jumped inside her. If you have not yet felt a baby kick inside their mother’s womb then that is something very special that you must try to experience before it’s too late. Feeling that life inside of another human is rather special. I cannot imagine what it must feel like with that movement actually being inside of you!

If ever there was a time when the bible explained just how special a child is during the months where it grows inside it’s mother, then these verses should be what counts! Each person is very special from the moment of conception right through to the time when they finally pass on – but that is certainly not the end of it because our eternal existence starts from that moment onward. But God is the one who knows that soul from the very beginning when He breathed life into it!

For John to leap inside his mother must have meant that both Elizabeth and her child knew that Christ was coming! Everything was now coming to a head when the time would be to bring forth a baby in a manger, a very special child that would grow up to be a beautiful, perfect and final sacrifice for each and every one of us. No wonder the excitement was building!

It is bad enough as we get close to Christmas that you have to try and stay calm with so much being planned and ready to erupt; never mind a major solution and step in history unfolding before your eyes! Tomorrow will be the last Sunday before Christmas, a time to draw closer to our Lord and Saviour, a time when we should be leaping for Joy knowing that this is the time When Christ was born so many years ago! I wonder whether you are leaping for joy that you have a Saviour. I wonder whether you are celebrating a joyous event or just a stressful time of year. I wonder what is inside your heart this Christmas time.

Points to Ponder:
What do you think of at Christmas time?

How special is Christ to you?

Friday Reading: Matthew 1 18-19

Key Verse: Matthew 1 19
19  Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.

Devotion:
I love trying to put faces to people in the bible. Nowadays we don’t get much choice as we are bombarded with videos, photos, paintings, drawings and all manner of graphics to try and impress on us what others thought bible characters looked like. The movies makers come up with some pretty strange choices as to what they think others looked like with choices being made based on various characteristics; but how accurate do you think they are?

I had always imagined Mary to be a slight lady because that is what has been depicted in paintings and drawings; but when you start to think about her, how many children she had, what environment she was brought up in and then look at the local people from this day and age – just maybe we come up with a very different picture. And that just typifies how we look at things – it is all about appearance and not about what is on the inside!

God looks on the inside of people and judges us by how we actually are and not what we look like. God continues to uphold what is actually right and not what looks right at the time! We don’t get that many physical descriptions of what people looked like in the bible because that is not what is important; what is important is what God sees of us and what we are actually like. Joseph may have been a rugged character and we often think of him as such because of his background and job; and we think of Mary as being so innocent and hence a small or slight lady.

But what we should be doing is looking at what they we like on the inside to see why God chose them. Joseph was a man who wanted to uphold the law, why else would he be thinking of putting Mary away, or divorcing her. But he was not going to make a big scene of it but rather just wanted this all to fade away without anyone noticing. Little did he know that God had other plans! But when God explained what was going on, Joseph had no problems with standing proud and making sure that God’s will was done. We may want to guess what he looked like, but to God he was a man of integrity. What do you think you look like to God?

Points to Ponder:
What do others make of you?

Do you project your real worth?