The Unfinished Story of Christmas

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“…when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels… When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe…” 2 Thessalonians 1:7,10.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The Jesus who came the first time is coming again, and Christmas is not complete without the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The incarnation without the coronation would be like east without west. It would be like an engagement without a marriage. The story is not complete until Jesus comes again. 

You may have thought that this was a good Christmas for you—but, friend, I want to tell you…the best is yet to come! The Heavenly Father has so much more in store for us when Jesus comes again. 

You see, we get all wrapped up in the little baby, the baby that was born, and we then go beyond the birth of the baby, saying, “Yes, He came to die for our sins” (thank God He did that), but I want to remind you that the First Coming of Jesus and the Second Coming are linked together. 

The Christmas Story in Luke 1 and 2 speaks not only of the Jesus who redeemed, but the Jesus who reigned. Not only Jesus who came the first time, but Jesus who is coming the second time to sit upon the throne of His father David, to rule over the house of Jacob forever and ever. 

ACTION POINT:

Imagine for a moment what your life would be like without the Resurrection, the Rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus. The most glorious fact of the past is that Jesus came the first time. The most glorious fact of the future is that this Jesus is coming again. The one sure hope of this jittery old world is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

The Prince of Peace

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Luke 2:14 .

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One of the many wonderful names of our wonderful Lord is “The Prince of Peace.” Jesus holds the key to peace, whether it’s personal peace in your heart, domestic peace in your home, or eternal peace in heaven.

Isaiah prophesied that He would be called The Prince of Peace. The angels told the shepherds that His coming was “good tidings of great joy,” for His incarnation meant “peace, goodwill toward men.”

Certainly there is a need for peace. But look around. What has happened to the promised peace? It was purposefully postponed when God sent the Prince of Peace, but the world rejected and then crucified the Prince of Peace. There will be no peace on earth until the world that rejected our Savior receives Him again in power and glory. The only true hope for peace for the church, the nation and the individual is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

ACTION POINT:

This Christmas, do you have peace with God or is the war still going on? The only way you can have the peace that Jesus made is to surrender to Jesus in absolute, total, unconditional surrender. He has fought the battle and the battle is won. But it will do you no good until you bow to Him. Have you laid down your sword of rebellion at His feet? He has made peace with the blood of His cross, but that peace does you no good until you bow to Him in total surrender. There is peace with God. Once you have that peace with God, then you can have the peace of God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

We - The Condemned

Sin no more:

10 Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."]] - John 8:10-11

All sin:

And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." - John 8:7

Those who deny God because He brought death, think again, we, through our rebellion(sin) brought death!

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned- - Romans 5:12

God's mercy to sinful man:

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,

5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. - Titus 3:4-7

Forgiveness and repentance:

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. - Romans 8:1-4

Intercessor:

34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:34-39

Do You Need a Friend This Christmas Eve?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1

“…He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Some people over this holiday season feel so alone. One Christmas Eve I went to talk to a person who was hurting. I said, “Why don't you call a friend?” She said, "I don't have a friend." I said, "Oh yes, you do." And I told her His name. It is the One who said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 

Greek scholars tell us this sentence, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," actually has five negatives in it. Now we say a double-negative is bad English, but evidently it wasn't bad Greek. Here's what it literally says: "I will never, no, not ever, no, never leave nor forsake you." 

Famed research analyst Dr. Abraham Maslow said, "The truth is that the average American does not have a real friend in the world." And psychiatrist Alfred Adler said, "All human failures spring from a lack of love.” People need someone to love, and they need to be loved. Without it, their lives are filled with fear and frustration. Hebrews 13:5 tells us we can face a new year with the certainty of His provision and with His companionship in our hearts and in our lives. 

ACTION POINT:

Who do you know that might need a call from a friend today? A new widow? An empty-nester? A stay-at-home mom? Make that call today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

You Will Die In Your Sin

So he said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come." - John 8:21

You must repent!

4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. - Romans 2:4-5

18 If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.

19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

20 Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand.

21 But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul." - Ezekiel 3:18-21

1 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here I am, here I am," to a nation that was not called by my name. 

2 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;  - Isaiah 65:1-2

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-

3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:1-9

God's Gift:

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. - Ephesians 2:13-22

Why Frankincense and Myrrh?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And the LORD said unto Moses, ‘Take unto thee sweet spices…with pure frankincense…And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy: And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony [Ark of the Covenant] in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy. And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the LORD.’” Exodus 30:34-37.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In Bible times they worshipped the Lord by burning incense, a sweet perfume rising up to the nostrils of God. It was a symbol of worship—to be used in the worship of God alone. Frankincense tells of His sinless deity, the beauties, the fragrance, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Frankincense represents Jesus, our Intercessor, and His intercessory prayers for us. Its fragrance speaks of the love and mercy of God. 

Myrrh was used to embalm the dead. When the Lord Jesus Christ was being buried, they poured spices and myrrh into His grave clothes. “And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight” (John 19:39). Myrrh to embalm the body of Jesus. The gift of myrrh speaks of his sacrificial death. He was born to die. 

ACTION POINT:

Give—worship—witness—serve. These are what a wise man will do. I wonder, are you really wise? Do you understand that He was born to die?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

The Symbol of Gold ~ His Sovereign Dominion

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart's desire…with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.” Psalm 21:1-3.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Gold was a gift fit for a king. The wise men asked, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” Our verse today speaks of kings. They wear a crown, and it is a crown of gold. 

When the wise men brought gold, they were saying, “We recognize this child is the king of the Jews. He’s destined to reign. He has sovereign dominion.” 

“Well, how am I going to crown Him?” you may ask. You can crown Him the way they did—with gold. If all of your wealth is not under His control, you’ve not recognized Him as your sovereign king. He has a right to all you own. You say, “It’s mine.” If He is not Lord of everything you have, He’s not your Savior. His throne is not a duplex. 

ACTION POINT:

How will you serve Him? One way is to serve Him with your wealth. As the saying goes, “He has no hands but our hands.” Serve Him is by showing His love to those in need. He requires your absolute surrender to His lordship. He is the king.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers