Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. (NLT) -Psalm 107:1
We witness God's love for as we get together with our loved ones. Relationships may be difficult at times but God has brought us together for a reason. If love of family filled the air, let's be thankful to our heavenly father. If it's been a challenging day dealing with siblings, parents, cousins or in-laws, lean on God even harder and trust that there is a greater purpose for the events that have taken place.
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She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. (NLT) -Luke 2:7
Jesus's entrance to this world was quite humble. And yet it's a paradox for the King of the earth to arrive in modest conditions. He came, in his righteousness, to serve us, those who are unrighteous. As an adult Jesus taught us to love our enemies which sounds backwards. These paradoxes are different from how you would expect a real king to arrive.
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Evening, Dec 25
And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
— Job 1:5
What the patriarch did early in the morning, after the family festivities, it will be well for the believer to do for himself ere he rests tonight. Amid the cheerfulness of household gatherings it is easy to slide into sinful levities, and to forget our avowed character as Christians. It ought not to be so, but so it is, that our days of feasting are very seldom days of sanctified enjoyment, but too frequently degenerate into unhallowed mirth. There is a way of joy as pure and sanctifying as though one bathed in the rivers of Eden: holy gratitude should be quite as purifying an element as grief. Alas! for our poor hearts, that facts prove that the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting. Come, believer, in what have you sinned today? Have you been forgetful of your high calling? Have you been even as others in idle words and loose speeches? Then confess the sin, and fly to the sacrifice. The sacrifice sanctifies. The precious blood of the Lamb slain removes the guilt, and purges away the defilement of our sins of ignorance and carelessness. This is the best ending of a Christmas-day—to wash anew in the cleansing fountain. Believer, come to this sacrifice continually; if it be so good tonight, it is good every night. To live at the altar is the privilege of the royal priesthood; to them sin, great as it is, is nevertheless no cause for despair, since they draw near yet again to the sin-atoning victim, and their conscience is purged from dead works.
Gladly I close this festive day,
Grasping the altar’s hallow'd horn;
My slips and faults are washed away,
The Lamb has all my trespass borne.
Sent from Morning & Evening app for Android:
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