Advent Day #20- God Remembers!

At the end of the Old Testament, we read from the prophets and receive the message of hope- there is a coming Savior.  And between the Old and New Testaments, we have 400 years of silence.  400 years of WAITING...

I hate waiting at a traffic light (maybe that's why God put me in Haiti where we have NO traffic lights! haha!)... I can't imagine waiting my whole life time for something and never to receive it!

But even though it must have seemed like FOREVER for God's people- waiting was a necessary part of the salvation story.  God waited until the timing was perfect to send His perfect Son.

Today, as we read the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, we are reminded that in our time of waiting... God remembers! (Zechariah's name literally means "God remembers"!)

Zechariah and Elizabeth desperately wanted children, but she was unable to conceive.  One day, as Zehariah was working in the temple, an angel appeared to Him and said, "God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord..." (Luke 1)

ALL THAT TIME of waiting (they were both very old)... but God remembered.  He heard their prayers and not only were they going to have a son, but that son would be John the Baptist... the one who would prepare the way for Jesus to come!

"... he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. He will be a man with the spirit and power... He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord!"

The miraculous birth of John the Baptist came just before the miraculous birth of Jesus. And the beauty of the Christmas story is that the miracle of Jesus birth is for every one of us!  We can ALL receive the miraculous gift of Jesus!!! God remembers our need, and He fills that need with His Son!

The greatest gift we could receive for Christmas, or EVER, is Jesus.  May we not forget that this Christmas!

Advent Day #19- We Are Grateful For...

We are SO close to Christmas.  6 more days!  I can hardly wait!

As I have said before, Christmas is my FAVORITE time of the year.  We get to celebrate the anticipation of the birth of Christ... the weeks leading up to the celebration of the most amazing event of all time!  (God sent Himself in human form to die for the sins of the world... it doesn't get any more amazing and humbling than that!)

Today, we look at the small, prophetic book of Habakkuk. Not your typical scripture reading for the Christmas season... but SO very important!

We have been going through the family tree of Jesus- and we now come to the prophet Habakkuk, who prophesied during the time just before the exile of God's people.  It was hard to find hope during such a difficult time.  Because of their disobedience, God was going to hold up His end of the covenant promise to exile His people because they were unfaithful to Him.  And through their suffering, they would turn back to Him.  God knew it was necessary for repentance... but it sure was hard for Him and for His people...

Habakkuk cries out to God and says, "I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guard post. There I will wait to see what the LORD says and how He will answer my complaint..."

And then he goes onto say that even though everything seems dark, barren and empty... "yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign LORD is my strength!" (Habakkuk 2:1, 3:17-19)

Habakkuk understood what it meant to wait on the Lord and to trust in His salvation... to rejoice even when he didn't understand... to trust when there was nothing he could do in his own strength. 

To be grateful amidst difficulty is hard... but to be continually thankful EACH day helps us to appreciate things when times are tough.

Today, we were given the task of making a "grateful" jar.  We are to write down things that we are grateful for whenever we think of them and place them in the jar.  And this jar can serve as a reminder during tough times, of how very much we have to be thankful for!  We can go to that jar and pull out the many reasons we can praise God!  What are you grateful for? Maybe you could make a jar to help remember ALL that you have to be grateful for too!

Advent Day #18- Use Your Life...

The story of Queen Esther is one of my favorites in all of scripture.  It is a story about a woman who bravely stood in the gap for her people- and saved the lives of thousands.

At the time of the exile, Jews were living in Susa under the authority of King Xerxes.  Xerxes sent for women all over the Kingdom to come to the palace so that he could choose his new queen.  

Esther, a Jewish woman, captured the king's heart and was chosen among the women to become the new queen (although he did not know she was Jewish).  

Shortly after this, an order went out for the Jews to be killed (a secret, conniving plan set up by one of the king's officials Haman- because Esther's Uncle Mordecai refused to bow to him)... and now Esther had to make a decision.

Would she risk her life by going into the king's chamber without permission in order to save her people, God's people!?  

We read in Esther 4 that Mordecai told Esther, "Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this?"  

And Esther responded by saying,

"I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die."  

Esther's faith in God and her commitment to His people saved Israel! As Ann Voskamp puts it in her devotional, God calls us to "Use the life you've been given to give others life."

Right now there are people all around us in need.  Physical needs, spiritual needs.  Needy people who need God's love expressed in real and tangible ways.  Needy people who need to hear the message of salvation that is possible for ALL people because God sent His Son on Christmas.

This Christmas- as we gather together to celebrate with family and friends, share gifts and meals together- may we not forget about those who are in need...

May we use our lives to give others life!

Advent Day #17- Bethlehem IS Me!

Bethlehem... of all the places...

 the tiny, little, insignificant town of Bethlehem is where the Savior of the world was born. 

I don't know what you think when you hear that, but it gives me hope.

It tells me that if God can use a simple, insignificant town, He can use me.  If God can bring something beautiful out of something ordinary... I just know that He can do something beautiful with my ordinary life too!

Sometimes we underestimate ourselves... and what it comes down to is that we are really underestimating God.  It is never about US.  It is always about HIM.  The things that He can do with our lives are beyond anything we can imagine... we just need to give Him free reign to DO those things with our lives.  To allow His Spirit to accomplish great things THROUGH us.

Jesus' birth, in that little town of Bethlehem, is a great reminder for us that God desires to use the least likely, the small and seemingly insignificant... Bethlehem IS Me. (and you!)  

We just need to be available!

Micah 5:2-5 says, 

"You, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you.... He will lead His flock... in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God... And He will be the source of peace."

Advent Day #16- A Lesson from Jonah!

I have thoroughly enjoyed going through this Advent journey with our family, and especially being able to share what God is speaking to me through Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, by Ann Voskamp.

I want to especially note again that this her book we are going through, because today's devotional was SO good I thought it would be best to quote straight from her!

Today, we looked further into the journey through the Old Testament leading to Bethlehem, and we came to the story of Jonah.  Jonah the prophet did NOT want to follow God's command to go to sinful Ninevah.  He had NO desire to be pushed out of his comfort zone and so instead, he ran from God (never a good idea!).  This is what Ann says about how this story compares to us:

"Some days you just really don't want to show up, you don't want to do the hard things you have to do, and you don't want to do the very big or even very little things that God tells you to do.  Which is exactly how Jonah felt..."

Does this sound at all familiar? (It does for me!)

Jonah boarded a boat in the opposite direction, and God caused a storm that nearly capsized the boat.  Jonah knew exactly what was happening... God was trying to get his attention.  So he told the others on the boat to throw him over, and he ended up in the belly of a huge fish...  with a lot of time to reflect on life, to cry out to God, to ask for His forgiveness!

It was in these moments that...

"Jonah got the gift that we all get in every storm: the gift of seeing how much we need God."

Let that soak in for a bit...

Now, flash forward... to the moment when Jesus is in a boat, and a similar storm comes up and the disciples wake him having no idea what to do.  And what does Jesus do? By His word, He would calm that storm, and reveal that He was truly God... and that He has power over every storm!

"... Jesus didn't calm just one storm but all our storms. Jesus throws Himself right into our angriest storms so He can calm our ugliest days. Since Jesus came to save us, there isn't a storm big enough to scare us."

What it came down to with Jonah was whether or not He believed God... whether or not He really trusted Him with his life.

And what it comes down to with us is the same thing.  Doe we believe God?  Do we trust Him with our lives?

He has been performing miracles since... well, for eternity, I imagine! (The whole "outside-of-time-and-space-thing" is well beyond my comprehension!)  He has given us His Word, FULL of those miracles... and we have proof in the text that in the midst of life, no matter what we have going on... He can be trusted!  He is still performing miracles today... and if we give our lives over to Him, we will see even more amazing things than we could ever imagine!

Today... let's thank God for the miracle of Jesus, for the blessing of His calling on our lives, for even the storms that bring us to our knees, and ask for forgiveness for the times we haven't trusted Him- committing TODAY to put our faith in Him and His plan!

Advent Day #15- Modern Day Baals

"How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him..." 1 Kings 18:21

The story of Elijah on Mt Carmel is one of my top 5 favorite stories in the Bible.  The wicked King Ahab and his even more wicked wife Jezebel have handed Israel over to Baal worship, and Elijah is right smack in the middle of it all.  God has called Elijah to be a prophet to His people and by God's command, he confronts this religious apostasy.

He calls together the 450 prophets of Baal and informs them of his plan to show them who is really worthy of their worship!  He tells them to choose a bull and lay it on an altar but not to set it on fire (and he would do the same).  Then, he told them to call upon their god, and Elijah would call upon His God, "and the God who answers by fire, He is God." (1 Kings 18:24)

The prophets called out to their gods from morning til midday, crying aloud and even cutting themselves... "but there was no voice. No one answered: no one paid attention." (verse 29)

Then... Elijah builds an altar, and he doesn't just put wood on it, he builds a trench around it, and then covers the sacrifice and the wood and the altar with water.  Not once... not twice... but three times!  The altar was soaked and the trench was full. And then He called upon the name of the One True God...

And "the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench..." (verse 38)

and what happened when the people saw this amazing display of God's great power and provision?

"They fell on their faces and said, "The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God." (verse 39)

Bowing down to false idols, or making sacrifices to Baal may sound crazy to us, but how often do we set up other "gods" and idols in place of the One True God.  Can you think of any "Baals" that may be present in your life?

Anything that takes our hearts away from God, any possession or position, any person or plan can take the place of God if we are not careful. We can find ourselves worshipping money, power, and fame, or even things like family, comfort and safety... and while the latter things may not seem so bad, we are called to love God with ALL that we are and ALL that we have.  And we are told that NOTHING should be more important in our lives than Him.

Today, as we think about what it means to truly worship Jesus with all that we have and all that we are... is there anything keeping you from worshipping Him alone?  What "modern day Baals" might you need to get rid of, stop trusting in, run away from, that are hindering you from truly embracing Christ this Christmas?

God desires nothing more than to be YOUR God!

10 DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS!!!!

Advent Day #14- A Light Will Shine

Today, we looked at the prophetic words of Isaiah that are such familiar words during the Christmas season.  We listen as they are quoted from scripture in churches... we hear them in songs on our Christmas albums... we see them in Christmas signs...

Isaiah 9 foretells that a Child would be born, a Son would be given, and He would be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace!

The beginning of this chapter in Isaiah is just as poignant for us this Christmas too.  

Isaiah says this:

"The people who walk in darkness will see a great light,

For those who live in a land of deep darkness,

a light will shine..." (Isaiah 9:2)

Here are some things we know about light:

 Light exposes the darkness. Light reveals imperfections. Light brings warmth. Light encourages and enables growth. Light guides our paths. 

Light brings LIFE!

And Jesus...

HE is the light Isaiah was talking about.  And these very things are what Jesus did in the earth, and what He continues to do for us!

The presence of Christ in our lives has the power to light our lives... to expose our dark places and reveal our imperfections... to bring warmth and hope that encourages us to grow... to light our way and to bring us life!

This Christmas, as we look to Christ, may we ask Him to work on areas of our lives that need His bright and perfecting Light.  May we grow so close to Him that we feel His warmth within us and around us... and that no matter how dark things may be, or how difficult the road ahead of us may seem, we never lose sight of the True Light that reveals, redeems, and restores!