Devotion.al

Feed Your Soul

  • Wait For It

    Micah 5:2-4; Psalm 96; Luke 2:1-20

    The beauty and of God’s comes alive when it comes to . Much of the prophecy that surrounds Jesus is in the middle of statements that on their own may have seemed insignificant. However, when so many words and phrases, seemingly disconnected, are fulfilled by the coming, life and of one person, one cannot help but take notice.

    We think of Bethlehem as significant. For Christians, it is. For the Jews, it was a backwater. Yet, God set it down in his word as the origin point of the great leader of Israel. From a human , it seems that God is rewriting what was . The reality is that mankind cannot comprehend the depth of God. Only as scripture was revealed through Christ could people have a “duh” moment.

    On Christmas Eve, there is a old song being sung, but with a new meaning. to God in the Highest!

    God came down. God came down here. God set aside , might, glory, holiness, and became a baby born where animals lived. Just as Bethlehem was looked down upon, where Jesus was born was looked down upon, as an outcast. There was no room for them.

    In our Western culture, too many people are concerned about dates of such and such event. The date? That is a point in time. Perhaps we ought to look to those not of Western culture where the event (the presence), not the time (or date), takes precedence. GOD CAME DOWN! God came down where God promised! The world has become concerned about time and date, for then we can be distracted from the event.

    On this day, can you sit and just wait? Are you able to not look at your watch (or phone)?

    The Jews waited centuries for their Messiah. The event, the , of the Messiah was what they waited for. Expectation. Advent and especially Christmas Eve are all about expectation. Expecting the Messiah.

    1) Are you actually expecting the Messiah? Have you replaced expectation of the Messiah with expectation for gifts or food?

    2) With the first Christmas in the past, why is important to wait expectantly for Christmas now?

    3) If the Messiah were to come tomorrow, would you be looking for him?

    KD) Why did God decide to start life as a baby? What does that say about God?

  • How to Come Back

    How to Come Back

    1 Corinthians 11:17–33 It’s almost over it seems. The time of being masked and constrained nears its end. On the other hand, already another strain of COVID is showing up, but the reality is that we, as an entire world, are at our limits. It seems great that we’re almost there, except that we really…

  • Future Tensely

    Future Tensely

    Psalm 126; Isaiah 40:1-11; Romans 8:22-25 Have you realized that Advent is weird? I love Advent, don’t get me wrong. However, the world has done a successful job of retraining us on what Advent is all about. Partially, I think, this is because of the image of an unthreatening baby Jesus with lambs, other baby…

  • Seeing Christ In The Lives of Others

    Romans 12:16–21 As part of our college ministry many years ago, we asked our college students to come up with their mission statement. It was coached in a business/organization language; it should have been better phrased as a Rule of Life. Mine was: Seeing Christ in the Lives of Others. Yes, the title was my…

  • A Movement: Of Priest and Temple

    A Movement: Of Priest and Temple

    …if we…focus too much on the outside, the temple comes crumbling down, for the internal structure cannot hold up the facade shown to the world, and we then dishonor God by our fallen temple.