Daily Archives: December 25, 2025

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – Jesus, the Greatest Gift

Leave a comment

 

They opened their treasures and presented [Jesus] with gifts. Matthew 2:11

Today’s Scripture

Matthew 2:1-2, 7-12

Listen to Today’s Devotional

Apple LinkSpotify Link

Today’s Devotional

“What sweeter music can we bring/ Than a carol for to sing/ The birth of this our heavenly King?” The lines of this seventeenth-century poem “What Sweeter Music” by Robert Herrick were reimagined by modern-day choral composer John Rutter to become an Advent season favorite. Its gentle melody describes a long, cold season of waiting that’s thawed by the springtime feeling of Jesus’ arrival. The singers bring Him a Christmas carol; the listeners are invited to bring their hearts.

Rutter’s arrangement was commissioned to correspond with a church reading on the wise men who brought Jesus gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These mysterious magi traveled a great distance to meet baby Jesus with the express purpose of worshiping Him (Matthew 2:1-2). When they finally found Him, they “were overjoyed,” bowed down in reverence, and “opened their treasures” at His feet (vv. 10-11). Warned in a dream, they left without informing wicked King Herod (v. 12).

The Christmas season shouldn’t focus on material gifts—but it’s certainly about giving and receiving gifts. God gave His Son to heal a broken world. If we’ve never given Him our hearts, today’s a wonderful day to do so. If He already reigns there, let’s offer a carol of peace and joy as we think about His arrival all those years ago in Bethlehem—and wait for His return.

Reflect & Pray

What are some of the greatest gifts of Christmastime? What might you be reluctant to give over to God?

 

Dear Jesus, You’re the greatest gift of all. Everything I am, and everything I have, I give back to You.

 

Discover more about the Christmas story.

 

Today’s Insights

Matthew’s gospel is bookended by the worship of Jesus (2:1; 28:17). In both accounts, readers see what the proper response to Christ should be. Based on what had been revealed to them, “Magi from the east came to Jerusalem” (2:1), bearing gifts to honor Jesus. They asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (v. 2). “Worship[ed]” (vv. 2, 8, 11) translates the word proskyneō—meaning “to fawn,” “to “crouch down” (literally or figuratively), “to prostrate oneself in homage” (reverence, adore). Matthew’s account of Christ shows that worship is the proper response to Him (see 8:2-3; 9:18-22; 14:33; 15:25-28; 28:9). The final use of the word worship[ed] in this gospel occurs in the last scene of the book, after the resurrection: “When they saw him, they worshiped him” (28:17). Today, as we celebrate Jesus—the greatest gift ever given—may we also respond with worship.

 

http://www.odb.org

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Believing the Best

Leave a comment

 

…For out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks.

Matthew 12:34 (AMPC)

The person who is close to God thinks positive, uplifting, edifying thoughts about other people as well as about himself and his own circumstances.

You exhort others with your words only after you have first had kind thoughts about that individual. Remember that whatever is in your heart will come out of your mouth (Matthew 12:34). Thoughts and words are containers or weapons for carrying creative or destructive power (Proverbs 18:21). This is why it is so important to do some “love thinking” on purpose.

I encourage you to send thoughts of love toward other people. Speak words of encouragement. Come alongside others and urge them to press forward in their spiritual life. Speak words that make others feel better and that encourage and strengthen them.

Everyone has enough problems already. We don’t need to add to their troubles by tearing them down. We can build up one another in love (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Love always believes the best of everyone (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Prayer of the Day: Lord, help me think loving, encouraging thoughts about others. Let my words reflect Your kindness and build people up, bringing light, peace, and joy into every situation I face, amen.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Santa visited 1,944 homes per second last night

Leave a comment

 

For many reasons, Christmas is a holiday unlike any other. There are holiday sales, expected to top $1 trillion for the first time. There’s travel, as more than 122 million people are expected to hit the roads and skies between December 20 and January 1. And there’s Santa Claus: to reach an estimated 238 million homes worldwide last night, he had to visit seven million per hour—116,667 per minute or 1,944 per second.

But sales, travel, and Santa are part of Christmas every year. This is not: For the first time since 1925, today’s date is the same as the last two digits of the year. Today is also unusual for those who use the day/month/year format in that it is nearly palindromic: 25/12/25.

I could not have written the first paragraph without help from researchers who knew facts I did not. However, nothing in the second paragraph required specialized skill or scholarship. I could have figured out the rarity of today’s date without the USA Today article explaining it, but I didn’t. This knowledge was available to everyone, but it took someone who knew what I didn’t to help me know what I now know.

The same holds true with the “reason for the season.” According to Gallup, 96 percent of those who celebrate today will do so by exchanging gifts. However, only 54 percent will display decorations with a religious meaning, such as a Nativity scene. And as I noted yesterday, only 47 percent attend religious services on Christmas Eve or today.

Imagine going to a birthday party where the guests gave each other presents while ignoring the person whose birthday prompted the gathering. So it is for Jesus with millions of Americans. Once I point out the fact that today’s celebration is supposed to be about the Christ of Christmas, the truth becomes obvious.

But knowing this and experiencing it are not the same thing.

The most surprising Christmas guests

This week we’re taking Christmas in the order it was revealed: to Mary, then Joseph, then the shepherds, then the Magi. We’re aligning their experiences with the promised Son as “Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father, Mighty God, and Wonderful Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6 in reverse).

So today we come to the shepherds and the promised “Mighty God.” Of Isaiah’s four descriptions of the coming Messiah, this would have been the most troubling and even fearful for them.

Shepherds in first-century Israel lived on the lowest rung of the social ladder. Because they had to tend their flocks for months in the Judean wilderness, they were unable to keep kosher dietary laws and other religious rituals and thus were barred from synagogues and the temple. Because they worked without supervision, they were thought to be thieves as well.

Of all the people Jesus could have arranged to attend his first birthday, they would be the most surprising—to polite society and to themselves as well.

“The Truth that can never be told”

Here’s the good news: The Mighty God—literally the “God who is a champion in might”—is so omnipotent that he can use anyone who is willing to be used. And the shepherds were willing to be used, becoming the first evangelists in Christian history:

They went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child (Luke 2:16–17).

Note the order:

  1. They heard the message (vv. 8–14)
  2. They came to worship Jesus (vv. 15–16)
  3. They told the world (vv. 17–20).

Here’s my ministerial problem: I too often jump from the first to the third. I hear the Christmas story and work to share it with others without stopping at the manger to bow before the Child waiting for my worship.

So I am resolved to make today about Jesus; to take time for silence before his Spirit and reverence before his throne; to focus my mind and heart on my Savior; and to speak my unspeakable gratitude for his wondrous grace. I invite you to join me.

Frederick Buechner spoke of “the Truth that can never be told but only come upon, that can never be proved but only lived for and loved.”

How will you “come upon” this untellable Truth today?

Quote for the day:

“Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?” —Francis Chan

Our latest website resources:

 

Denison Forum

Days of Praise

Days of Praise – God Gave Himself

Leave a comment

 

by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

It is singularly appropriate that we look at this great verse on Christmas Day, for it records the greatest of all gifts. The theme of giving is very prominent in the Bible, with such words as “give,” “gift,” “gave,” etc. occurring more than 2,100 times. The first is Genesis 1:16–17 when God created the sun, moon, and stars “to give light upon the earth.” The last is Revelation 22:12 when Christ will return with His rewards to “give every man according as his work shall be.” He “gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons” as well as “life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 14:17; 17:25).

But the greatest gift, clearly, was when God gave Himself for a lost and undeserving world. It was the greatest gift because it met the greatest need, revealed the greatest love, and had the greatest scope and purpose of any gift that could ever be conceived in the heart of an omniscient Creator.

That was not the end of His giving, of course. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). “Trust . . . in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).

This great gift of God is abundantly sufficient to provide salvation and everlasting life for the whole world. But a gift only becomes a gift when it is accepted, and the greatest of all tragedies is that this greatest of all gifts has been spurned, even ridiculed, or—worst of all—simply ignored by multitudes who need it so much. When they brazenly refuse God’s free gift of everlasting life, they can only perish in everlasting death. God did all He could do when He gave His Son, for when He gave His Son, He gave Himself. HMM

 

 

https://www.icr.org/articles/type/6

My Utmost for His Highest

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers – His Birth and Our New Birth

Leave a comment

 

 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).— Matthew 1:23

His birth in history. “The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He didn’t evolve out of history; he came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ isn’t the best human being; he is a Being who can’t be accounted for by humanity at all. He isn’t man becoming God; he is God incarnate, God coming into human flesh from the outside. His life is the highest and the holiest, entering through the lowliest door. Our Lord’s birth was an advent, an arrival with no precedent.

His birth in me. “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you . . .” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from the outside, so he must come into me from the outside. Have I allowed my personal life to become a Bethlehem for the Son of God? I can’t enter into the realm of the kingdom of God unless I’m born again from above in a birth totally unlike natural birth.

Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This isn’t a command; it’s a statement of fact, the fact upon which our entrance into the kingdom depends. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. The instant he is formed in me, his nature begins to work through me. God manifest in my flesh: this is what is made possible for you and for me by the redemption.

Zephaniah 1-3; Revelation 16

Wisdom from Oswald

The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him. The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L

 

 

https://utmost.org/

Billy Graham

Billy Graham – What Does ‘Merry’ Mean?

Leave a comment

 

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God …

—Luke 2:13

When at this season of the year we wish our friends a “Merry Christmas,” it is essential to realize that true merriment of heart is contingent upon the recognition of the truth that Christ was born in Bethlehem for our salvation. The word “merry” is from an old Anglo-Saxon word which sometimes meant “famous,” “illustrious,” “great,” or “mighty.” Originally, to be merry did not imply to be merely mirthful, but strong and gallant. It was in this sense that gallant soldiers were called “merry men.” Favorable weather was called “merry weather.” Brisk winds were called a “merry gale.” Spenser speaks of London as “merry London.” The word “merry” carries with it the double thought of “might” and “mirth,” and is used both ways in Scripture. One of the early Christmas carols was “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen.” The Christian is to engage in spiritual merriment as he thinks upon the fact that, through the redemption, he becomes a child of God’s family. The Bible teaches that the angels made merry at Christ’s birth.

Prayer for the day

This Christmas my heart is indeed merry when I think of Your birth, dear Lord. I rejoice with the angels and praise Your holy name!

 

 

https://billygraham.org/

GuidePosts

Guideposts – Devotions for Women – Joy to the World

Leave a comment

 

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.—Luke 2:14 (NIV)

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale rejoiced, “Light has come! Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace—Jesus Christ, the Light of Christmas, has come! The day God blessed us with His Son, the only Source of eternal life.” On the advent of our Savior, the arrival of the One who came to save us, thank God for the greatest gift of all time. Extend this love and joy—and bask in His blessings.

Dear Lord, thank You for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, as I celebrate with family and friends, I will savor every moment of the peace, love, and joy of Your presence.

 

 

https://guideposts.org/daily-devotions/devotions-for-women/devotions-for-faith-prayer-devotions-for-women/