Thank God For The Christmas Star

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” Judges 5:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

You know, the stars have to obey our Lord. In the Old Testament, the Bible says the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. Sisera was a general whose army had 900 chariots going to war against God’s people. Imagine—900 chariots! God sent such a tremendous rainstorm that his chariots bogged down and he was defeated.

Later when they wrote a song to celebrate the victory, one of the stanzas says “the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” His kingdom came tumbling down. And ultimately Herod’s kingdom came tumbling down, for Herod stumbled over the stars—the Star of Bethlehem.

Listen to me, the whole universe is against the person who is against God. But the whole universe lines up behind the one who seeks God. Whatever is necessary, God will do it to get the hungry heart who seeks after Him to Jesus. If you want Him, God is a God of might and miracle.

ACTION POINT:

Some of you may be reading this by divine appointment because you’ve been seeking the Lord. Thank God for the miracle of the stars. The star was there to guide those wise men seeking Jesus. It tells me that whatever is necessary, God will guide your hungry heart if you want to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Christmas Is for Freedom

Day 19 Advent

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14–15)

Jesus became man because what was needed was the death of a man who was more than man. The incarnation was God’s locking himself into death row.

Christ did not risk death. He chose death. He embraced it. That is precisely why he came: “Not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

No wonder Satan tried to turn Jesus from the cross — in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11) and in the mouth of Peter (Matthew 16:21–23)! The cross was Satan’s destruction. How did Jesus destroy him?

Hebrews 2:14 says that Satan has “the power of death.” That means Satan has the ability to make death fearful. “The power of death” is the power that holds men in bondage through fear of death. It is the power to keep men in sin so that death comes as a dreadful thing.

But Jesus stripped Satan of this power. He disarmed him. He molded a breastplate of righteousness for us that makes us immune to the devil’s condemnation. How did he do this?

By his death, Jesus wiped away all our sins. And a person without sin cannot be condemned by Satan. Forgiven, we are finally indestructible. Satan’s plan was to destroy God’s rule by condemning God’s followers in God’s own courtroom. But now, in Christ, there is no condemnation. Satan’s treason is aborted. His cosmic treachery is foiled. “His rage we can endure, for, lo, his doom is sure.” The cross has run him through. And he will gasp his last before long.

Christmas is for freedom. Freedom from the fear of death.

Jesus took our nature in Bethlehem, to die our death in Jerusalem — all that we might be fearless in our city today. Yes, fearless. Because if the biggest threat to my joy is gone, then why should I fret over the little ones? How can you say (really!), “Well, I’m not afraid to die but I’m afraid to lose my job”? No. No. Think!

If death (I said, death! — no pulse, cold, gone!) if death is no longer a fear, we’re free, really free. Free to take any risk under the sun for Christ and for love. No more enslavement to anxiety.

If the Son has set you free, you shall be free, indeed!

 John Piper

Wise Men Will See Him

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, His mother, and fell down, and worshiped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.” Matthew 2:11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Wise men seek the Lord. Do you seek the Lord? Is that the burning ambition of your heart and life? You say, “Well, I come to church.” I’m not talking about that. Think about these men from the east. Do you know where “the east” was? They’re talking about Babylon. Three hundred miles across Syrian desert, distance and difficulty.

Now, Christmas cards picture them coming on camels. I don’t know how they came, but I know how they didn’t come…by airplane, bus, automobile, or motorcycle. I know where they didn’t stay. They didn’t stay at the Holiday Inn.

And they came in spite of danger. It was the time of King Herod, insane with jealousy and rage, who had had his own wife and three sons murdered. In the face of that danger, these men said, “We have come to seek Jesus Christ.” Wise men will seek Him in spite of distance, danger and difficulty.

The wise who seek Him will see Him. When they came into the house, they fell down and worshiped Him. It’s worth seeking Him because, friend, when you seek Him, you will see Him. “Ye shall seek Me and find Me when ye shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). They searched, found Him and saw Him.

ACTION POINT:

Do you have a desire to know Him? To love Him? To serve Him? Do you find something drawing you to God? That, my friend, is the Holy Spirit. Thank God for the ministry of the Spirit. Hallelujah!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Christmas Model for Missions

Day 18 Advent

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:18)

Christmas is a model for missions. Missions is a mirror of Christmas. As I, so you.

For example, danger. Christ came to his own and his own received him not. So you also. They plotted against him. So you. He had no permanent home. So you. They trumped up false charges against him. So you. They whipped and mocked him. So you. He died after three years of ministry. So you.

But there is a worse danger than any of these which Jesus escaped. So you!!

In the mid-16th century the missionary Francis Xavier (1506–1552), wrote to Father Perez of Malacca (today part of Malaysia) about the perils of his mission to China. He said,

The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy of God. . . . To distrust him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers could hinder us in the slightest degree.

The greatest danger a missionary faces is not death but to distrust the mercy of God. If that danger is avoided, then all other dangers lose their sting.

In the end God makes every dagger a scepter in our hand. As J.W. Alexander says, “Each instant of present labor is to be graciously repaid with a million ages of glory.”

Christ escaped this danger — the danger of distrusting God. Therefore God has highly exalted him! As he, so you.

Remember this Advent that Christmas is a model for missions. As I, so you. And that mission means danger. And the greatest danger is distrusting God’s mercy. Succumb to this and all is lost. Conquer here and nothing can harm you for a million ages.

John Piper

Are You A Wise Man?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, ‘Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.’” Matthew 2:1-2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Not all “wise men” are wise men. You may be a great entrepreneur, a great businessman, engineer, or nuclear physicist. You may be a physician, lawyer, a gifted artist. But if you don’t know Jesus, you’re not truly wise. There’s a kind of wisdom that’s not wisdom at all; it’s the wisdom of this world. “PhD” may stand for “phenomenal dud” if you don’t know Jesus.

Omar Bradley, a great American five-star general, once said, “We’re living in a time when our achievement, our knowledge of science, has gone far beyond our power to control it. We have too many men of science and too few men of God. We’ve brought about brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We’re living in a time of nuclear giants and spiritual pigmies.”

That’s well said. What is real wisdom? Wise men and women will seek Jesus. Do you know the mark of wisdom, how to determine wisdom? Just tell me what motivates you, tell me the consummate ambition of your life, and I can tell you clearly whether you’re wise or not just by what you seek. The apostle Paul summed up his life in one sentence: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). What he meant was the source, the substance, the subject, the satisfaction of his life was Christ.

ACTION POINT:

Could you put your life in a sentence like that? “For me to live is Christ.” Pause and think about that.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Greatest Salvation Imaginable

Day 17 Advent

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah . . . ” (Jeremiah 31:31)

God is just and holy and separated from sinners like us. This is our main problem at Christmas — and every other season. How shall we get right with a just and holy God?

Nevertheless, God is merciful and has promised in Jeremiah 31 (five hundred years before Christ) that someday he would do something new. He would replace shadows with the Reality of the Messiah. And he would powerfully move into our lives and write his will on our hearts so that we are not constrained from outside, but are willing from inside, to love him and trust him and follow him.

That would be the greatest salvation imaginable — if God should offer us the greatest Reality in the universe to enjoy and then move in us to know that Reality in such a way that we could enjoy it with the greatest freedom and the greatest pleasure possible. That would be a Christmas gift worth singing about.

That is, in fact, what he promised in the new covenant. But there was a huge obstacle. Our sin. Our separation from God because of our unrighteousness.

How shall a holy and just God treat us sinners with so much kindness as to give us the greatest Reality in the universe (his Son) to enjoy with the greatest possible joy?

The answer is that God put our sins on his Son, and judged them there, so that he could put them out of his mind, and deal with us mercifully and remain just and holy at the same time. Hebrews 9:28 says Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Christ bore our sins in his own body when he died (1 Peter 2:24). He took our judgment (Romans 8:3). He canceled our guilt (Romans 8:1). And that means our sins are gone (Acts 10:43). They do not remain in God’s mind as a basis for condemnation. In that sense, he “forgets” them (Jeremiah 31:34). They are consumed in the death of Christ.

Which means that God is now free, in his justice, to lavish us with the all the unspeakably great new covenant promises. He gives us Christ, the greatest Reality in the universe, for our enjoyment. And he writes his own will — his own heart — on our hearts so that we can love Christ and trust Christ and follow Christ from the inside out, with freedom and joy.

John Piper

The Stars And Scars Of Christmas

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“But Thomas, one of the twelve…was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said unto them, ‘Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.’” John 20:24-25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

At Bethlehem there was a bright star pointing the way to Jesus. But there is a darker side to Christmas. Consider the scars of the Lord Jesus. They’re not incidental. They are so fundamental that Jesus carried those scars with Him to Heaven.

Did you know that the only man-made thing in Heaven are the scars of Jesus Christ? When He went back to Heaven, He took some souvenirs of His visit with him…the scars in His hands and side. He has kept those scars as a lasting memorial through all eternity. When Jesus comes again, one of the ways we will know Him is His scars. Zechariah 13:6 says, “And one shall say unto Him, ‘What are these wounds in Thine hands?’ And He shall answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends.’”

ACTION POINT:

I want you to imagine our risen Savior. See Him on the throne of His glory. See in His hands the print of the nails, because He bears them for all eternity. I want you to see those nail-scarred hands reaching to you right now. Would you not like to put your hand in that hand and say, “Save me, Lord Jesus. Thank You that You are the God-man. Thank You that, as a man, You suffered in order to save me.” Pray it and mean it.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers