Day 12

Read:  Luke 1:67-80

Christmas is truly a musical holiday. I love the “soundtrack” that plays in the background of December every year. Whether you are in church, driving in the car, or even shopping at the local mall, songs of our Savior fill the air from Thanksgiving to New Year’s.

Sometimes we think that our love for music at Christmas time is a part of the commercialization of the holiday, but a closer look at the biblical account of Christmas reveals that the first Advent was also a musical. From Mary’s “Magnificat” to angels singing, music and poetry were key ways heaven and earth welcomed the newborn King.

As you look at the albums first recorded around the birth of Christ, however, you will notice that both famous AND more obscure songs were recorded around the time of the manger. Right after Mary’s hit song, Zechariah records what some may see as the “B side” to her 45. You may have skipped this track in the past, but today, I want you to “press play” and read its beautiful lyrics found in Luke 1:67-79.

Zechariah sings a song at the circumcision ceremony on the eighth day of his son John’s life.  After waiting a lifetime for the joy of fatherhood, it is striking that Zechariah spends most of the time at his son’s circumcision singing about Jesus, not John. Zechariah “got it” . . . he understood that the real joy in his AND John’s life would be their connection to Jesus. Zechariah waited a lifetime to be a father, but God’s people had waited a few millennia for the Messiah’s birth. Therefore, the song centers around Jesus and His work.

At the end of the song, is one of the most poetic and beautiful statements about the work of Jesus in all of Scripture. “Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

I am so thankful that in Christ we have a hope that one day all death will be replaced with life eternal, and all darkness will be illuminated with His light. This is the reason Zechariah sings . . . and the reason we sing as well.

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 11

Read:  Luke 1:57-66

One of the key elements of certain television sitcoms is their ability to weave together smaller stories into one larger story.  Throughout the episode, there may be four individual plots that seem disconnected until the episode’s final moments, when all the “streams” contribute to a larger meta-story. 

In the real world, each of us have our own dramas and disappointments, highs and lows.  At one level, we are all living out our own stories, but at another level, our stories all weave together into a bigger picture of what God is doing in the world.

So what matters?  The macro story of God’s will or the micro moments of our lives?  I’d say both. 

Luke 1 follows the macro story of Jesus coming into the world, the biggest thing that’s ever happened.  Along the way, the micro story of John the Baptist and his parents Zachariah and Elizabeth, is also told.  Even though John’s life has its ultimate meaning in the role he will play as the forerunner to the Messiah, there is clearly a micro story being told that gains resolution in Luke 1:57-66.

In this micro story, Zechariah and Elizabeth’s personal celebration unfolds.  For their entire life they had longed to have children, but were barren.  This personal sorrow marked their private life.  In today’s verses we see John being born!  At the macro level, John would come in the spirit and power of Elijah, but at the micro level, God heard the cry of the childless and answered their prayer.  They had the joy of naming this boy, circumcising him, and raising him to be the man God intended.  Sure, the bigger picture is the supernatural purpose that lay on John’s life.  This was what was reported by all the neighbors in the Judean hills.  But let’s not miss the joy of these new parents who are praising God for answering their micro level prayer.

Dear friends, God cares for you.  Not just in world-changing macro level ways, but in our day-to-day lives.  So this day, take some time to pray to God and thank Him for the small things in your life, and ask Him to work in the micro level details.  He is the God of both the big and the small.

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 10

Read:  Luke 1:54-56

Jesus lives eternally.  There has never been a time when He did not exist.  Of course Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but that was just an arrival in human form: His full divinity taking on full humanity, not the beginning of His existence.  Since this is the case, we see God making promises related to Jesus’ arrival throughout the Old Testament.

Consistently, God promised His people Israel that one day He would send the promised Messiah.  This Savior would “crush the head of the snake” (Genesis 3:15), “reign on David’s throne forever” (2 Samuel 7:16), and “wash their sins white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).  Even the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) were given promises of worldwide blessing through their family line – ultimately through the coming Messiah (Genesis 12:1-3).  

At the conclusion of Mary’s song in Luke 1, she sings of the help her Son would be for Israel, and how He would fulfill the Old Testament prophecies to Abraham and others.  God would make good on those promises through the very same Jesus who was resting in Mary’s womb!

Christmas is a season of planning.  You plan parties, gifts, travel, meals, and charitable activities.  It is a full time of the year.  In very few years do we actually do all the holiday activities we plan.  But for that very first Christmas morning, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, through the earthly life He lived, and through His second coming (which has yet to transpire), God fulfilled and will fulfill every single one of the plans and promises that He made.

Our eternal God can be trusted to keep His promises, and for this reason we rejoice!

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 9

Read:  Luke 1:50-53

“God helps those who help themselves.”  

Have you ever heard this saying?  Do you know where this sentence is found in the Bible?  It actually isn’t in the Bible at all!  The Bible does not present God as merely the judge of the universe who helps the fit and noble.  The Bible introduces God as the One who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love!  The idea that God only helps those who are “help-able,” though popular, is not accurate.  God is gracious and merciful, helping those who cannot help themselves.

This is great news!  The more we get to know ourselves and humanity, we realize that our problems are worse than we knew.  We are sinful people, possessing a wicked tendency to walk away from God and disobey Him in what we think, say, and do.  As it pertains to our eternal salvation, we simply cannot help ourselves.  We need a Savior!

Thankfully, God the Father sent God the Son to be our Savior.  Of Him, Mary continues her song and celebrates His mercy, His strength, His ability to exalt the humble, and His ability to fill those who are empty.  Mary knows that her role as the mother of Jesus and the blessing that will come because of her faith in Him is not because of her righteousness, but because of His.  The powerful and proud of society, Mary notes, will be brought low, while the humble and God-fearing will be exalted.  God helps those who cannot help themselves, and He does so through the work of Jesus!

Take a moment today reflecting on the grace and mercy of God and your own sinfulness.  The best Gift ever, Jesus’ death upon the cross offering forgiveness for our sins, did not come to those on the “nice” list, but those who understood their personal need.  Thank the Lord for the merciful work of His strong arm!

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 8

Read:  Luke 1:46-49

What are you magnifying?  What are you focused on?  

In high school I was exercising at a health club with a friend.  We were running together on adjacent treadmills carrying on a conversation.  As we were talking, my face was pointed in his direction, and subtly, gradually, my body began to drift in that direction – an inch at at time.  Eventually, I had gone so far in his direction that my foot left the conveyor belt of the treadmill and hit the hard (and very stationary) plastic on the outside.  That foot came to a quick stop, careening me into a faceplant on the conveyor belt, which then shot me across the room like a rocket.  I came to my senses about 10 feet behind the treadmill and quickly tried to hop to my feet, pretending nothing had happened – as if I had “stuck the landing.”  Across the gym a couple of people saw the whole thing transpire and erupted in mock applause.  I decided not to take a bow.

I was focused on my friend, so I drifted ever closer in his direction, until it eventually changed the entire trajectory of my experience.

After visiting Elizabeth, Mary responded in song.  “The “Magnificat,” as it is called, is recorded in Luke 1:46-53.  At the beginning of the song, Mary reveals that she is focused on the Lord!  Because she is choosing to magnify the Lord, she is remembering many things about Him.  He is her God, her Savior, the One who looks graciously upon her in her humble estate, the One who has blessed her and done great things for her, and the One who is holy.  

Mary focuses on the Lord instead of a number of things:  the reactions of her parents or Joseph to her pregnancy, any anxiety she may have felt for being “not enough” for this moment, or the aches and pains of carrying a child.  She did not magnify herself or her problems.  Instead, she magnified the Lord.  As a result she was drifting toward a deeper relationship with God, and this changed the entire trajectory of her life.

So, let me ask you again.  What are you magnifying this Christmas?  Your difficulties?  Your uncertainties?  Your problems?  Yourself?  Or the Lord?  Take some time today to meditate on the opening of Mary’s song and focus on that today.  Let’s run toward Him.

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 7

Read:  Luke 1:39-45

Life and adversity create strange fraternities.  We feel a special kinship with those who have endured similar experiences.  People who have dealt with cancer relate well with those are dealing with this disease.  People who have adopted children lean in toward others who are also adopting.  Family members of military servicemen bond over their shared situation. 

After Mary finds out that she, though a virgin, is bearing the Son of God, what does she do?  Where does she go?  She is drawn to a special sorority that was forming in the Judean hills.  Gabriel had told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was also pregnant and had also experienced an angelic visit.  So, pregnant Mary departs Nazareth and heads a few days’ journey south to the home of Elizabeth.  Why?  Most likely because these were the only two women in the world who had a pregnancy revealed by an angel of the Lord!

You can imagine young Mary dazed and confused by what was happening inside of her.  Had the angel really said this child would be the “Son of the Most High?”  Was this really happening?  Were these events really ushering in the long-awaited Messiah to the world?

So Mary goes all this way to experience the fellowship of maybe the only other person in the world who understood.  God’s grace to Mary and God’s grace to Elizabeth did not take the form of 24/7 angelic companionship.  Gabriel’s visit was only for an afternoon!  The day-to-day encouragement would take a far more human form: expectant mothers side-by-side with babies in their wombs.

What are you going through this Christmas season?  Has your recent health diagnosis, job development, or family situation initiated you into a new fraternity or sorority that you have not chosen?  “Cancer patient,”  “divorcee,”  “widower,”  “parent of the wayward child,” “unemployed”?  In this new club that you have involuntarily joined, are you looking for help, straining to see God’s grace and goodness in the eye of the storm?  Well, look around.  Perhaps in your new community you will find a Mary or an Elizabeth who God has graciously sent into your life to walk through this season with you.  The encouragement will flow both ways, and you will be blessed if you believe the Lord through this new season. 

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 6

Read:  Luke 1:34-38

Suppose you were asked to make a purchase – something you wanted, something you needed – but alas, you did not have the funds necessary complete the transaction.  Do you want to buy this home?  It costs $200,000, and in order to purchase it has to be purchased RIGHT NOW.  You look in your wallet, and you have $9, and in your bank accounts you have an additional $4,217.  So in total you have $4,226 to your name.  You are $195,774 short.  This purchase would be impossible.

Or would it …

What if you had an “angel investor,” someone who was willing to make the impossible, possible.  Someone who could give the necessary funds to complete the sale.  Suddenly, what was completely out of reach is infinitely attainable.  What if?

I know what you are thinking:  “That never happens in real life!”  But what if it did?  What if it could happen to you?

When Gabriel tells Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus, her response was “No way!  That is impossible, for I am still a virgin.”  It is as if Mary looked into her spiritual bank account, counted the “funds” and saw them wanting for this particular task.  It seemed impossible.

Or was it …

Gabriel goes on to say that nothing is impossible with God!  In this case, the angel tells Mary that the investor is God Himself.  The Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of God would bring her this child.

When it comes to our salvation, on our own we have insufficient righteous resources in our account to enter our eternal home.  We are not good enough in our own strength to merit salvation.  However, the salvation that is impossible for us is absolutely doable for Jesus.  He saves us by paying the price our sins deserve and giving to us His righteousness, reconciling us to God.  What is impossible for us is possible for Him.

So, take stock of your accounts and recognize your sinfulness.  Listen to the angel Gabriel and trust in Jesus to be your Savior.  It was a miracle when He was conceived, and the salvation He offers is a miracle as well.  

Has this salvation happened in you?

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 5

Read:  Luke 1:26-33

Sometimes I will get text messages offering me jobs with unreal pay and fantastic benefits.  They come from a number I don’t recognize and they are for jobs I never applied for, so I assume they are either a mistake or someone phishing for information with the intent to harm and not to bless.  I delete these messages and mark them as spam.

2,000 years ago, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary at her home in Nazareth. Gabriel announced that Mary had been graced by God, and that she would have a new job – being the mother of Jesus, the Son of the Most High!  Though Mary knew God, she had never received a call from an angel, and since she had not applied for the job as “Mother of Jesus,” she was greatly troubled.  

The angel puts Mary at ease by continuing to share the unreal blessings and fantastic benefits that would come from Jesus’ arrival.  Her son would be the Son of God who would assume the throne of David and have a kingdom that would know no end!  Could He be the Messiah?  Was this too good to be true?

We live in a world that often over-promises and under-delivers.  We get so many “too good to be true” offers that we often delete them or ignore them, assuming they are intended to harm us instead of help us.  Though that strategy might prove beneficial in our treatment of text messages, if applied to our spiritual life it could prevent us from receiving the blessings God is offering.

Jesus really is the Son of God, who will sit forever over His Kingdom.  He is a great king … the King of Kings, and He invites us into His care.  Though this offer may sound too good to be true it is no less real.  By His grace, the One born to Mary is offering us salvation and eternal life.  Don’t delete the offer!  Embrace it and enjoy the unbelievable benefit of life in His eternal kingdom.

You can find the full devotional in pdf here!

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