Prepare the Way

“He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:16–17)

What John the Baptist did for Israel, Advent can do for us. Don’t let Christmas find you unprepared. I mean spiritually unprepared. Its joy and impact will be so much greater if you are ready!

So, that you might be prepared . . .

First, meditate on the fact that we need a Savior. Christmas is an indictment before it becomes a delight. “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). If you don’t need a Savior, you don’t need Christmas. Christmas will not have its intended effect until we feel desperately the need for a Savior. Let these short Advent meditations help awaken in you a bittersweet sense of need for the Savior.

Second, engage in sober self-examination. Advent is to Christmas what Lent is to Easter. “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23–24). Let every heart prepare him room . . . by cleaning house.

Third, build God-centered anticipation and expectancy and excitement into your home — especially for the children. If you are excited about Christ, they will be too. If you can only make Christmas exciting with material things, how will the children get a thirst for God? Bend the efforts of your imagination to make the wonder of the King’s arrival visible for the children.

Fourth, be much in the Scriptures, and memorize the great passages! “Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:29)! Gather ’round that fire this Advent season. It is warm. It is sparkling with colors of grace. It is healing for a thousand hurts. It is light for dark nights.

John Piper 

When tragedy strikes, what do you do?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. Romans 8:17

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

How do you enlist suffering to make it your servant?

First, you receive it as a gift from God. Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21b).

Second, rely on God’s grace, because with the gift comes His grace. 2 Corinthians 9:8 promises, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” God is going to be near you in a special way.

Finally, reflect on the glory of God. No greater Christian ever lived than the Apostle Paul. His greatest motive in all he endured was the glory of God. His pain became a platform from which he declared the glory of God.

ACTION POINT:

Receive suffering as a gift. Rely upon God’s grace. Reflect upon God’s glory. Choose to glorify Him through it.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Converted Jew and Converted Gentile Sinners Have Become One In Christ

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

Converted Jew and converted Gentile, once enemies, now granted to become one body of believers, in Christ.

Once separated by the Jewish legalistic binding power of ceremonial law, we have become one.

The blood of the slain Christ, was the ordained acceptable price for all who believe Christ is able to satisfy the wrath of God for sin. 

A remarkable mystery, coming true by the death and resurrection of Christ.

Our sinful selves are reconciled to God by His Son.

Christ being the Head, converted Jew and Gentile brothers being the body, what a marvelous mystery!

By His indwelling Spirit, we have become the body of Christ.

Hallelujah and Amen!

The Triumphant Shame of the Cross

[Christ did not] offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:25–26)

It is not to be taken for granted that there should be a welcome for sinners in heaven.

God is holy and pure and perfectly just and righteous. Yet the whole story of the Bible is how such a great and holy God can and does welcome dirty, unholy people like you and me into his favor. How can this be?

Hebrews 9:25 says that Christ’s sacrifice for sin was not like the sacrifices of the Jewish high priests. They came into the holy place yearly with animal sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people. But these verses say Christ did not enter heaven to “offer himself repeatedly . . . for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 9:26).

If Christ followed the pattern of the priests, then he would have to die yearly. And since the sins to be covered include the sins of Adam and Eve, he would have had to begin his yearly dying at the foundation of the world. But the writer treats this as unthinkable.

Why is this unthinkable? Because it would make the death of the Son of God look weak and ineffective. If it has to be repeated year after year for centuries, where would be the triumph? Where would we see the infinite value of the sacrifice of the Son of God? It would vanish in the shamefulness of a yearly suffering and death.

There was shame in the cross, but it was triumphant shame. “[Jesus despised] the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

This is the gospel of the glory of Christ, the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4). I pray that no matter how dirty or unholy with sin you are, you will see the light of this glory and believe.

John Piper 

Can you rejoice always?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17-18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In Habakkuk’s day, there was an economic recession. There were no cows in the barn, no harvest in the fields. “Yet…” he writes. Oh, how I love that “yet” in verse 18. “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Where was his joy? In the Lord, not circumstances.

If circumstances are what gives you your joy, you can’t say “rejoice always,” because circumstances change. You might lose your job, your health, your friends, or your prestige. But Habakkuk said, “Yet will I joy in the God of my salvation.”

There’s one way to find out where you’re getting your joy. If it’s from your job, we can take your job and see if you still have joy. If it’s from your health, if your health fails, see if you still have joy.

ACTION POINT:

The only joy anyone can have is in the Lord, because He never changes. Your joy can be threatened if you get it anywhere else. It’s not wrong to have joy in your health, your job, or your friends. But that kind of joy can be threatened. You need a joy which supersedes earthly things. Psalm 16:11: says, “Thou will show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Only Conscience-Cleanser

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14)

Here we are in the modern age — the age of the Internet, smartphones, space travel, and heart transplants — and our problem is fundamentally the same as always: Our consciences condemn us and make us feel unacceptable to God. We are alienated from God. And our consciences bear witness.

We can cut ourselves, or throw our children in the sacred river, or give a million dollars to charity, or serve in a soup kitchen, or a hundred forms of penance or self-injury, and the result will be the same: The stain remains and death terrifies.

We know that our conscience is defiled — not with external things like touching a corpse, a dirty diaper, or a piece of pork. Jesus said it is what comes out of a man that defiles, not what goes in (Mark 7:15–23). We are defiled by attitudes like pride and self-pity and bitterness and lust and envy and jealousy and covetousness and apathy and fear.

The only answer in this modern age, as in every other age, is the blood of Christ. When your conscience rises up and condemns you, where will you turn? Hebrews 9:14 gives you the answer: “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

The answer is: Turn to the blood of Christ. Turn to the only cleansing agent in the universe that can give you relief in life, and peace in death.

John Piper 

Too many blessings to list

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. Psalm 100:4. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Colossians 3:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If worry is the opposite of faith, then giving thanks is the expression of faith—in fact, the highest expression. You say, “I don’t know if I have as much to thank God for as some other people.” The apostle Paul was in a filthy Philippian jail awaiting possible beheading, when he wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

God has blessed you. You may not think so, because you’re measuring blessings by the barometer of health, wealth, and happiness. Sometimes those are blessings, sometimes they’re not. Some people are cursed with wealth. Some don’t know how to use health. And happiness keeps some people from seeking the Lord.

Let me tell you what blessings we have: “Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits…” (Psalm 68:19). God has loaded your wagon. How often? Daily! “It is of the LORD’S mercies we’re not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning…” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Every day you wake up to blessings. Thank Him for simple blessings like good, clean water. Enough food. Shelter. We are so blessed.

ACTION POINT:

I’ve noticed un-thankful people are never happy people. They’re filled with bitterness, fear, negativism, selfishness and self-pity. Refuse to worry, but carry everything to God in prayer. Rejoice in the presence of the Lord, leaning upon His power and provision. Rest in the peace of the Lord. Do everything with thanksgiving.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers