Day 25

Read:  Luke 2:20

We don’t live our lives on Christmas morning.  The calendar continues to move.  After a few days the decorations will be boxed up, thank you cards will be written, and life will move on.  

I say this not to be negative, but simply to state a fact.  December leads to January and beyond, and most of our life is not spent in Bethlehem.  This was also true of the shepherds.  Though they visited the manger when Jesus was born, Luke 2:20 tells us that they eventually returned to their normal lives. 

We too will return to some degree of normalcy after the holidays are over.  Is there anything else we might learn from the shepherds to help us make the transition to the day after Christmas?

Well, the shepherds returned to their sheep, but they returned as changed men.  They returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.  In our study of God’s Word over the past 25 days we have seen many reasons to praise the Lord.  May we enter the new year continuing to praise Him for all He has done and is doing for us.

Additionally, it is important to understand that Jesus did not stay in Bethlehem.  He grew up, spending a brief time in Egypt before being raised in Nazareth and then conducting a three year public ministry primarily in the Galilean region.  He made friends, built buildings, related to family, and perfectly lived out the Law of God.  If Jesus had stayed in Bethlehem, only making a short appearance as a baby before ascending back to heaven, we would be at a loss for how to live our lives today.  Instead, Jesus lived a life, recorded by Luke and others, so that we might hear His call to “follow Me,” and know where to go.  

Jesus’ birth enabled His eventual death on a cross 33 years later to pay the penalty for our sins.  Jesus didn’t stay in Bethlehem, so we should not allow our faith to remain there either.  Let us have more than a ceremonial religious observance of a holiday, but instead have an active relationship following Jesus and living for His glory all the year through.  

Christmas morning saw the Son rise on a new day after all!

You can find the full devotional in pdf here!

You can find more information about our church and Christmas programs by visiting wildwoodchurch.org

Day 24

Read:  Luke 2:19

Moms make scrapbooks.  At least my mom did.  In my parent’s house are a number of books full of pictures and newspaper articles chronicling my growing up years, both on and off the court/field.  Loving moms do this sort of thing.  They treasure the moments they have with their children in their hearts.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was no different.  She treasured the moments of Jesus’ life and pondered them often in her heart.

I am so thankful that she did!  Not just because it shows Mary’s love for Jesus, but because her scrapbook of memories have been passed down through history to you and I today.  Many of the events that we have read about over the past month in Luke 1-2 would have been lost to history unless Mary had kept pondering about them.  Luke found himself in Israel for an extended season between 57-59AD while his traveling companion Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea.  It is speculated that during this time in the Middle East Luke talked to the eyewitnesses that provided the source material for his Gospel.  If that is true, then when Luke talks to a 70-something year old Mary to find out her memories of Jesus, their conversation was 60 years removed from Jesus’ actual birth.  Guided by the Holy Spirit, though, Mary shared the precise details with Luke of Gabriel’s visit, her time with Zechariah and Elizabeth, the journey to Bethlehem, and the arrival of the shepherds.  She had treasured those events for six decades, and no doubt was overjoyed to open the “scrapbook” to show Luke her family pictures.

Aren’t you glad Luke wrote them down?  Moved along by the Spirit, Luke records the true identity of Jesus Christ so that we might also treasure Him in our hearts today.

This Christmas, take some time to ponder what you know about Jesus.  What do you treasure about Him and all that He has done for you?  Spend time thanking and enjoying Him today.  And, like Mary, share the things you treasure about Him with someone else.  You both will be blessed if you do.

You can find the full devotional in pdf here!

You can find more information about our church and Christmas programs by visiting wildwoodchurch.org

Day 22

Read:  Luke 2:15-16

Faith leads to action.  When we actually believe something is true it influences what we do.  I might say that going to church is important, but if I never went to church, what do I really believe?  I might say that loving others as Jesus loves them is the Christian ethic, but if I only complain about, criticize, and cut down others, what is my true confession?  And if I say that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, yet worship a plurality of gods in order to “cover my bases,” my core conviction becomes transparent.

What we truly believe will show up in our behavior.  

If I say that I believe a chair will hold my weight when I sit in it, but never actually sit in the chair (for fear of it collapsing) my words don’t match my conduct.  If that happens consistently enough some might ask if I really believe what I say about the chair.

In Luke 2:15-18, the shepherds had a choice.  They had heard from the angels that the Messiah had been born.  They had been given instructions where to find Him.  They had been told that this child was the Savior who would bring peace!  No doubt, while the angels were in front of the shepherds they would have confessed that they believed what they were told about the Child.  But, what would they do next?  If they truly believed that the Savior of the world was a short walk away, they would go and see Him!  Would their belief influence their actions?  

Absolutely!  The shepherds moved to the manger.

How about you?  You may have heard about Jesus all your life.  You may have confessed faith in Him at church camp.  You may say that He is the treasure of your life.  But if someone audited your actions, would your life map to your mouth?

This Christmas, don’t just say “Merry Christmas,” believe it … and act accordingly.

If the shepherds had heard the announcement and stayed in the field, they would have missed the moment.  May we not miss our moment to trust and obey and follow Him today.  What we truly believe will show up in our behavior.

You can find the full devotional in pdf here!

You can find more information about our church and Christmas programs by visiting wildwoodchurch.org

Day 21

Read:  Luke 2:12-14

I grew up in the 1980’s so video games played a big role in my childhood.  In many of these old games you could improve both your powers and your chances by grabbing a special object that would make your character glow and operate with super powers of near invincibility.  Super Mario eating the mushroom was a total game changer!

When the Son of God was born into the world, He was born into humble circumstances.  When the angels invite the shepherds to go see the baby they have announced, they did not give them an address, but informed them to find the baby who was lying in a manger.  Why was this direction needed?  Because Jesus was not glowing with super powers.  He had no halo above His head.  He looked like a regular baby, so the only way they could tell He was the Son of God was by finding the one baby in Bethlehem that night resting in an animal’s feeding trough.  Jesus’ presence that night WAS a game changer, but at first it didn’t look that way.

To help validate the experience, a multitude of angels filled the sky and praised God together saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!”  The shepherds then had a moment.  Would they listen to the Word of God delivered to them through the angels, or would they trust their eyes that saw a normal looking child in humble estate?

The same tension exists for you and I today.  God has spoken His truth to us through His Word.  Will we take God at His Word in the Bible, or will we trust our “eyes” instead?  With our eyes we see people who believe in different paths to salvation through other world religions, and these people seem so sincere.  Will we believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, or will we think that all religions are equally able to deliver salvation?  With our eyes we see people trying to justify all sorts of behavior the Bible calls sin.  Will we stay faithful to the biblical ethic or will we justify deviant behavior?

Like the shepherds, let us take God at His Word.  2,000 years later, the shepherds are heroes in our Christmas story because of their faithful response.  Let’s follow their lead.  

You can find the full devotional in pdf here!

You can find more information about our church and Christmas programs by visiting wildwoodchurch.org

Day 20

Read:  Luke 2:10-11

We have a tendency to prepare for the worst.  If someone that we do not know comes up to us and says, “I’ve been looking for you,” we default to believing that the person wants to harm us … or serve us legal papers for a lawsuit … or punch us in the mouth!  We walk around with this kind of negative bias.  At some level it is because we carry a fair amount of guilt for our past or present behavior.

There is even an urban legend that the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once sent a note to a friend that said, “All is discovered.  Flee at once!”  Though the note provided no context, the friend took off immediately!  Indeed we have a tendency to prepare for the worst!

When the angel appeared to the shepherds outside Bethlehem, the shepherds cowered in fear.  As we saw yesterday, they were overcome by the glory of the Lord that shone around them.  They also anticipated that the angel had come to announce to them bad news.  They must be in trouble, otherwise why would God pay them a visit?

The angel clears up this misconception, telling them to “fear not” because it was good news, not bad news, that was being announced.  The joyous reality is that the Savior had been born that night, and the shepherds were invited to the celebration.

Shepherds were considered religious outsiders in their day.  By taking care of the animals they were considered unclean and unable to enter the Temple area for worship.  Additionally, they were always working with these animals, so it seemed like they had no chance of redemption, cleansing, and access to God in worship.  In order for them to be cleansed, the “Temple” had to come to them.  And He did when Jesus was born.  Through His eventual death on the cross, Jesus would make the way for the dirty to be forever cleansed.

Though our sin, if found out, would make us want to “flee at once,” before running, we need to remember the good news of Jesus Christ.  For unto the dirty, was born that day in the city of David the Savior who is Christ the Lord.  Let us flee to Him at once and find the forgiveness and cleansing we all need.

Now that is good news!

You can find the full devotional in pdf here!

You can find more information about our church and Christmas programs by visiting wildwoodchurch.org

Day 19

Read:  Luke 2:9

I live in Oklahoma.  We are very used to severe weather.  When a tornado forms, Oklahomans first look out the window before heading to shelter.  I bet people from other climates react more quickly to these storms!  Our familiarity with them gives us a false sense of confidence. 

In Luke 2:9, the shepherds outside Bethlehem tending their flocks at night are met by an angel of the Lord, and the glory of the Lord shone around them!  When we read this, we are so unfamiliar with Bethlehem that we might assume angels were always interacting with shepherds in those fields.  After all, the only shepherds we know from Bethlehem (David and these shepherds in Luke 2) both had supernatural events in these fields:  David was anointed king by the prophet Samuel and the other shepherds were visited by an angel on the night Jesus was born!  The trouble with this line of thinking is that these two events are unique and separated by 1,000 years!  To our knowledge, the night Jesus was born was the only one time in history angels visited shepherds in Bethlehem.

The shepherds were not expecting an angelic visit, so they responded with great fear. As Linus says in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, they were “sore afraid.”  When someone of superior strength and power appears in your presence unexpectedly you tend to respond with fear.  In Luke 2:9, the angel appeared with the “glory of the Lord” around them.  As a result, the shepherds are awestruck.

Do you have a proper respect for God?  Though we have tremendous access to Him in Christ, may we never forget who we are approaching in prayer and worship and to whom we will one day give an account for our lives.  When people see the true glory of the Lord, they do not shrug their shoulders or look out the window.  When thinking properly, they move to shelter immediately and bow in humility.  Let us always approach God with respect and honor.  Though His glory is veiled in this life, it is no less real.  He is our Father, and He loves us, but He is also awesome and mighty.

Think about the attitude with which you approach God, and calibrate it with the shepherds’ interaction with merely the Lord’s angel.  In humility, let us approach Him and take our shelter in Jesus Christ.

You can find the full devotional in pdf here!

You can find more information about our church and Christmas programs by visiting wildwoodchurch.org