Daily devotion

The Christmas Lamb

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And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. Luke 2:16-17 NKJV

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The beautiful manger scene at the entrance to the Assisted Living facility looked a little funny to me the first time that I passed it the other day. I saw wise men and shepherds; Mary, Joseph and lots of sheep but where was Jesus? When I asked at the desk they told me that one of the residents had pointed out that they couldn’t put Jesus in before Christmas because He wasn’t born until then. It seemed pretty logical to me so I shrugged my shoulders and laughed and then went in to sing carols. The following day as I brought some gifts that our church had donated I noticed a change in the Nativity. There was still no baby but someone had felt the empty manger needed an occupant and so a lamb was put in the place of Jesus. What better story could be told than the lamb of God laid in the manger at Christmas and laid and nailed on the cross just 33 Christmases later. God Bless and Merry Christmas!

 

Happy Birthday Jesus!

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“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?  For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  Matthew 2:2 ESV

Long ago when we were bringing children from our neighborhood to church we go to know a five year old boy named Dylan. One week when it was almost Christmas they were having a special Sunday school program, but Dylan wanted nothing to do with it unless one of us went with him. So I gently took his hand and we walked down the stairs to the little classroom together. There we sat in a circle on grade school sized chairs as the teacher talked about the Christmas story. Then she passed out cupcakes with a candle for each child.

blue and white candle on cupcake

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“Now Jesus was born on Christmas so let’s sing happy birthday to Him!” the teacher said smiling. First she carefully lit each candle and then we began to sing. Just as the last note faded Dylan happened to look up at a picture on the wall behind the teacher. There was a painting of Jesus but instead of a nativity scene, it depicted the Last Supper. As he looked closely, Dylan’s eyes got bigger and bigger until in excitement he jumped up, pointed to the wall and shouted, “Look it’s Jesus’ birthday party!”

Now, thirty years later, I have forgotten all the sermons I heard preached in that church, but the words of Dylan remain in my heart. This Christmas morning as we remember the wise men, shepherds angels, remember with Dylan whose birthday it is as you offer your heart to Him!

 

Our Special Muslim Friends

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Last year we moved from a house along a busy city street to a planned community. We miss the hustle and bustle and choice of Latino, Asian and Italian food, but we are happy to live in a neighborhood where the people next door aren’t moving in and out every six months. We were also pleasantly surprised to learn that at least two of the other families on the street were Evangelical Christians like us.  What we didn’t expect was to learn that the nice people who lived right across the street from us were Muslim. Now that almost eighteen months has passed since we began to unpack our boxes I have come to some startling conclusions.

The first surprising thing is that even though our Christian neighbors like us and we get along fine, it is the Muslims who are the easiest to talk to.  Secondly they not only greet us with friendly smiles and small talk but also loaned us their pressure washer so we could clean our driveway. Then Christmas rolled around and guess who came to give us a beautiful tin of cookies at Christmas? You got it! What a blessing that our Muslim neighbors are now our Muslim friends!  All of this has made me stop to reevaluate how Jesus looks at our Muslim neighbors all over the world .

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Luke 2:10-12 KJV

If the angels were sent to Bethlehem today they would be probably waking up Muslim shepherds. Stranger still is that this idea is more than okay with God. Notice how in the story from Luke there was no special guidance given to the angels. They were not directed to find only folks who attended synagogue regularly. Instead they were sent to people who would be willing to have a conversation and do something about the news. Then consider the message itself. God sent a message of “Great joy…for all people.” Who better to send a missive on joy to than some shivering shepherds who had to stay up all night watching stupid sheep!  Last of all God decided on people who He was certain were going to tell others. Christmas was not some sort of top secret “For your eyes only” communication. If God wanted to keep Christmas quiet He could have gone to the high priest or some of the higher ranking members of the Sanhedrin. They would not have agreed with the good news for everyone part of things so they probably wouldn’t have told a soul. But instead God chose shepherds and a carpenter and strange wise men from Persia to show His love to that night. Since the first Christmas the angels have passed on to us their job of good news telling. Maybe we should ask ourselves who God might be wanting us to tell tonight!