Devotion.al

Tag: Advent

Devotionals specifically for the Advent Season.

  • Bridal Restoration

    Psalm 51, John 3:27–29 (read online ⧉)

    This Psalm is the result of a person’s . This is not to say that the Psalm is about the sin per se, but about a person standing before God after being confronted about the sin. While there is a lot of symbolism in the Psalm the symbols reflect a heart that recognizes the wrong done. Note there are no excuses. It is what it is. How many times have you confessed a sin and then surrounded it with excuses? What is interesting here is that a request to is made. This is not a request to be able to make a joyful noise. This is a request—a plea—to hear God’s joy in , and the joy of those who surround God. The Psalm makes a turn from repentance and sorrow to, basically, asking to not be cast away from God’s .

    While there is a penalty that goes along with what was done, restoration was still completed. There was joy again. Often we cannot find joy because there is something in our hearts that keeps out of the presence of God. Whether that something resulted in shame or sin or what have you, something may indeed be keeping you from even going toward the presence of God.

    John the Baptist alludes to Jesus and his in this short passage from the of John. Who is Jesus’ bride? The church. Who is the church? We all are. John is filled with joy that the (whom John calls his friend) gets the bride! Jesus’ marriage as the joyful culmination of his ministry. What makes this interesting, too, is that the marriage is a “not yet” scenario. That means that while John the Baptist is speaking in the present, John (the writer of the Gospel) is looking toward the future, when Jesus returns.

    1) Why does John the Baptist tie joy to the marriage of the groom (Jesus)?

    2) How can we say that joy is or complete in marriage in the of the tensions in our own marriages, and the divorces that ravage the church and the world?

    3) How could being or not being in God’s presence affect your joy?

  • The Rot of Forgot

    2 Chronicles 30:13-27, Nehemiah 8:7-12, Jeremiah 15:16

    The world is supposedly becoming Post-Christian. The thought behind the term is that the “Christian Era” was when Christianity was dominant throughout the world as if Emperor Constantine’s edict of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire made Christianity instantly accessible, understandable, and pervasive.

    The sad part is there is a superficial truth to that. What did happen is that Western Europe and then by extension North America became the dominant influencers for generations. The church ignorantly (or stupidly) allowed governments to drape themselves in religious imagery and language. The rot finally came to a culmination point, and the church and the governments are dividing. Many in the church (and many politicians who derived from the people in the church) are decrying the . Yet, acknowledging the rot we collectively allowed to set in will be a good step moving .

    The real rot is ignorance. The church itself has allowed ignorance of its own beliefs to set it. It would avoid the the world asked, then stick its head into the sand, as if that would somehow fix everything.

    In 2 Chronicles, the people were ignorant of how to celebrate Passover. Think of it as forgetting how to celebrate Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost all at once. They were afflicted as a result of their ignorance, but in the , poured out and true was expressed.

    We are at the point that the Jews were at in the passages we read today. The passage in Nehemiah displays the ignorance of the Jews regarding their own history and religious practices. The disconnect between what they knew and the Truth caused many to mourn. Despite their ignorance, they were there in body, , soul, and mind. That is what mattered. Joy poured out of them!

    Jeremiah’s words apply not just to the passages that we read in the Old Testament, they apply to us today! Ignorance is not a good excuse! God can and will use anyone who responds. Sometimes, though, we have to where we went wrong. Then we can see where God moved us and proclaimed us his children of the inheritance. Then joy will pour out of us, too.

    1) Why are people ignorant of the underpinnings of the Christian faith? What is one thing you can do (while speaking the Truth in love) to help that?

    2) Why might an understanding of God’s grace lead to true joy?

    3) If grace leads to true joy, what can you do to extend grace to to demonstrate God’s grace?

  • Strength and Joy

    Deuteronomy 28:45–48, Isaiah 29:17–21, John 15:11 (read online ⧉)

    “The of the Lord is my ”
    Nehemiah 8:10
    Why is it God’s joy, and not our own this our strength? First, we are finite. Even the physically strongest person alive is not stronger than God. Second, our joy as much as it can be Godly is still . Our perception of joy is so flawed because we are so flawed as a result of the Fall, and our ongoing battle with the worst of our thoughts and behaviors, plus all of the ungodly stuff that the throws at and on top of us.

    Oddly enough, sometimes joy is a duty. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Yet, often we do as we ought because we ought because God is who we have to follow. Joy does come out of that, just not always immediately. This is another aspect of ourselves, we always want to feel the joy, not just have it.

    Joy does come in obedience, not necessarily blind obedience, but obedience that trusts in the one who is obeyed. Those that God even when obedience costs something, are those who put God first, and themselves second. This is where we can find Godly joy. God is our Creator, why would we not find joy in following?

    wants us to be part of Godly joy. He told his disciples that their joy would be complete if his joy was in them. Who wouldn’t want that in them? Well, Judas had left the gathering at that point. That’s pretty telling. While we don’t know what Jesus said every day for 3 years, this couldn’t have been the only time he had said something similar. Judas just didn’t get it. Sadly, most people don’t. It would be nice if the ratio of believers in the world matched the ratio of believers of the disciples. However, it’s almost the opposite.

    1) How can joy the world? How can your joy change the world?

    2) What do you think about feeling joy versus having joy?

    3) Are obedience and joy truly tied ? Why or why not?

  • God Seeks Everyone

    Job 33:14–30, Nehemiah 12:31–43, Luke 15:3–7 (read online ⧉)

    Elihu (from Job) is probably the most enigmatic person in the Book of Job. He just appears and disappears. It is almost as if there is something more going on than just a tirade. Now, Elihu definitely said things that were wrong, but many of his words are the . Just like any of us, we cannot take all of his words and reject or accept, we must take his words wisely. Most of the words we read today are not, ultimately, in line with God’s heart. However, the underlying Truth is that God seeks to keep everyone from separation from God (or Hell). God will sometimes use extreme measures that we can see this, while we often willingly maintain our blindness.

    of our right with God is pictured in Nehemiah. Finally, the Jews get it (even if only for a time). Thanksgiving processions of hearts and tears, plus and offerings. The people had rediscovered joy, and their neighbors heard it. God had never given up on the Jews…ever. God just understood that they didn’t understand where real joy was. He had to, as much as it pained him, them space to it.

    This is part of Jesus’ constant frustration with many people. They categorized people into the redeemed and unredeemable categories. There wasn’t a “not yet” in their thinking. They forgot that God is in the business, and never stops redeeming. So many stories that the Jews shared (and gifted to Christianity) are about God’s redemptive work in the world, specifically in the Israelite (now Jewish) people. Yet it was forgotten.
    We should always be aligning ourselves with the ways of Heaven. Rejoicing in the redemption of is an essential practice. In fact, even if we are the 99, we should be just as loud as Heaven for the 1, for we, at one point, were the 1, too.

    1) How are your redemption categories? Do they need to be realigned with Jesus’?

    2) Redemption results in rejoicing. The , full of humans, often struggles with rejoicing for the redemption of “certain” people. Why do you think that is? How should the church respond to redemption in comparison to the world?

    3) Why is it important to realize that to God no one is unredeemable?

  • Childless Futurism

    Genesis 18:1–11, Luke 1:5–25, Luke 1:36–56 (read online ⧉)

    We are now in a time where having children is no longer an assumed item on the checkboxes of . As people, especially women, become more educated the birth rate drops. The practical reality is that because women are educated they too can provide for the family in ways other than housework and childbearing. This is a cultural (actually across many cultures) reality. It does not mean it should be, only that it is. As women are increasingly joining the workforce, having children becomes less of a priority (for both husband and wife), for careers prominence.

    There is something else that is occurring, and that is the rise of anti-natalists. These are people who believe that having children is immoral, because of ecological reasons or because of the normal condition of suffering. In many respects, they have a point. What’s interesting is that this is not an abortion thing, so the pro-live versus abortion debate doesn’t really have a place (generally) with anti-natalists.

    These reasons, along with advances in medical science, start to affect how we look at the stories of Sarah and Elizabeth. In our , either there is no excuse to not have children (other than ), or there is no good reason to have children.

    This is not to disparage anyone’s choices, but to help peel back the layers of yet another thing that the world no longer understands: the joy of a woman who had lost to have children, but now God would her with one.
    Mary’s visit to Elizabeth ties the messenger and the message . God has come! God is here! While it is called Mary’s Magnificat, how could Elizabeth have not worshiped and rejoiced with Mary in this wonderful redemptive movement of God. Through old and barren Elizabeth’s pregnancy to Mary’s impossible -made pregnancy, God was doing something new! REJOICE!

    1) Why is tied to joy? How are they different?

    2) If you were to decide to not have children, what is another way you might express or show an example of that kind of joy?

    3) Whose joy was better/greater, Elizabeth’s or Mary’s? Why?

  • Humble Joy

    Proverbs 15:29–33, Zephaniah 2:1–4, Luke 1:26–38

    Yesterday, it was hinted that is a requirement to experience true (Godly) . If you didn’t catch that (or didn’t read yesterday’s devotional), that’s perfectly fine. Humility as part of Godly joy is front and center today.

    In Proverbs, we read two things to focus on today. First, that God is far from the wicked. This is one of those strangely worded passages that doesn’t mesh well with how we actually view God. God is always present, even among the most wicket of all. It is the wicked whose hearts, souls, and minds are far away from God, and in typical pride, it must mean that God is far away from us. This is why the (as is understanding truly who God is compared to who we are) of God and humility are so important. If we are so arrogant so as to believe something of God that is really about us, then we have a lot to .

    Humility seeks God before self, which makes things much easier for us when asked by God to do hard things. It also makes it easier when we have to decide between the world and God. As Zephaniah says, when we submit to God in humility, recognizing who is God and who is not, we to God so that God will do great things.
    Mary is a symbol of that humility. She didn’t understand what was happening. Let’s be honest with ourselves, we wouldn’t be any better than she was. However, her humility meant that God moved into the world in a new way through her. While we should not elevate Mary too much, she is still a example to follow when it comes to aligning ourselves with God’s plans.

    Ultimately, Mary’s humility gave her a Godly joy that none of us could ever truly understand. Mothers get a large portion of it, but not even they can say that they were the mother of God or the Messiah.

    1) Have you ever been asked by God to do something that required submission of your will in deep humility? Did you follow it? Why or why not? What was the result of that decision?

    2) We look back on Mary’s and read what we’ve learned and believed into it. Why does that often minimize Mary’s actions and ?

    3) What is the difference between humiliation and humility? Why do we often confuse the two in regards to our decisions?

  • Full Joy

    Psalm 126, Isaiah 12:1–6

    Around Christmas, is used a lot. Many Christmas songs use the word, a lot. What is joy? Without defining it, we leave it to the world to define it for us, which is dangerous, for the world misses so much without God. For us, we need to look at joy as a deep-seated emotion that provides assurance, resolve, positive outlook, and is – through building up of self and and is based upon the and nature of God—Father, , and .

    Is this an all-encompassing understanding of joy? Probably not. In fact, joy is often used, even in Scripture, to mean something different. This is why it is so important to set our expectations for joy and what we are actually looking for when we seek joy.

    True joy is fully dependent upon our with God. A person who touches on the joy of God (such as having children) gets a taste, but it is not the full expression of joy. In many respects, we will not fully understand joy in this life. Even the most devout believer still only gets a taste of joy on this side of things. So, imagine the person who doesn’t have that depth with God. The “taste” they get is even less than the taste experienced by believers. It makes sense that joy is often confused in the world.

    1. Why should we put such a strong point of God being integral to joy?
    2. If you were to the definition of joy given about, what would you add, remove, or change?
    3. Why is it important to look for joy?

  • Hope and Fulfillment

    Psalm 33:16–22, Luke 21:25–28, Titus 2:13–3:7 (read online ⧉)

    Waiting is hard. The psalmist is waiting for God. The psalmist grasps the that an army—no matter how big and powerful—will not a soul. Such an army might save the physical wellbeing, but physical wellbeing is not the ultimate goal of God’s salvation. Often God will act on our physical circumstances. That doesn’t reduce the importance of the in salvation. It actually emphasizes it. The other—perhaps more important—piece is that the physical saving is a moment in time, while salvation is eternal and timeless. That salvation is both a moment in time (i.e., when we “were saved”) and is ongoing (i.e., we are still being and will continue being saved) is at the of understanding God’s own nature.

    When “arrived”, the people were waiting for the Messiah. Some were waiting in optimism (i.e., “wouldn’t it be nice if the Messiah showed up?”). were waiting in hope (i.e, “God has saved us before. God will save us again.”). While Jesus was walking on the Earth, he conveyed that (such as we just read) that his time then was, even as Messiah, a foreshadowing of his final , which would unite all of with God. So, even while fulfilling the hopes of the Messiah, there was still more to come! There was still more to wait for!

    understands this as he refers to his “present age” with the acknowledgement that Jesus would return. Paul had missed Jesus on Earth. Yes, he had had a -changing encounter with Jesus, but it wasn’t the same as the other Apostles had had. For Paul, Jesus’ return was hope and fulfillment. As Jesus would be returning, Paul wanted everyone to be encouraged to continue on. He didn’t want them to lose heart or hope. For Paul, and any Christian, Jesus’ return is always just around the corner.

    1) What do you hope for? Is it hope, or is it optimistic wishing?

    2) How does the timelessness of salvation affect hope?

    3) Why do you think so many people concern themselves with the exact date of Jesus’ return?