Tag Archives: religion

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God’s Gift to Us (Part 1) – Greg Laurie

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For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  – John 3:17

When you’re a child, Christmas is all about receiving gifts. In December, your head is swimming with nothing but images of your favorite toys.

But the true message of Christmas is not the presents we give to one another. The true meaning is the gift that God gave to us, His Son Jesus Christ.

During the next two days, I want to point out to you three things about the gift God gave to us in that tiny manger in Bethlehem.

The first thing we want to realize about God’s gift to us is that it came in simple wrapping. Some people will go to great lengths to wrap presents beautifully. But God’s gift came to us not in beautiful, ornate wrapping, but in a dirty manger found in a cold cave in a little-known town called Bethlehem.

That’s the beauty of the Christmas event. Jesus took His place in a manger so that we might have a home in heaven. The Savior was not wrapped in satin sheets, but in common rags. There in a manger rested the greatest gift in the plainest of wrapping.

The second thing I want to point out about God’s gift to us is that we don’t deserve it. Consider this: God gave us the ultimate gift of His Son Jesus Christ while we were still sinning against Him (see Romans 5:8).

We did nothing whatsoever to merit or deserve His gift. That is the amazing truth of Christmas. Despite who we are, God sent His Son so “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

With Christmas just days away, begin to prepare your heart for the celebration of the birth of our Savior. Meditate on the fact that Jesus was born to die so that we might live.

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David’s Devotion – Charles Stanley

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Psalm 42:1-8

Do you want to know who God is and what He cares about most in your life? You may have stored up lots of intellectual information about the Bible; that is important, but it’s not the main issue. You may serve the Lord, which is also necessary. And you may give generously to the church—another significant aspect of Christian life. But what matters most is the depth of your personal relationship with the Lord. Knowledge, service, and tithes can never replace intimacy with God.

The psalmist-king understood this truth, and it strengthened him in times of trouble. When his son Absalom tried to take over the throne, David fled to the desert, where he wrote these words: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:1-2). He knew that even in raging adversity, he could count on the Lord’s unfailing love being poured down on him (v. 8).

Throughout his psalms, we repeatedly see David’s hunger and thirst for the Lord. It was that passion—not his brute strength, savvy charisma, or remarkable ability to command an army—that made him a great man. And even though he made several significant mistakes, the Bible describes him as a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14).

It’s not enough to read the Bible, volunteer your services, and give money to kingdom work. God wants to know you personally. While physical expressions of our devotion are important, they should be the result of a mature relationship with God. When we seek to know Him first, the rest will follow.

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Immanuel – Ravi Zacharias

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Impossible to miss in any mall, grocery store, elevator, or voice mail system, Christmas music is as ubiquitous as snow in Alaska. I have yet to walk into a store this Christmas season that wasn’t playing “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” I’m sure you are familiar with the song and can hear the tune in your head: With kids jingle belling/ and everyone telling you/ “Be of good cheer,”/ It’s the most wonderful time of the year. With this music all around me, I can’t help but begin to hum along, and feel uplifted as if it truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

And yet, for many individuals, Christmas is anything but wonderful. In fact, the joviality, décor, and the music simply strike dissonant chords because of the memories, emotions, and experiences associated with this season. Families in Aurora, Colorado, Portland, Oregon and now Newtown, Connecticut in the United States feel the emptiness of loss, the hemorrhage of violence, and the undertow of grief as a result of horrific gun violence. Sadly, these kinds of tragedies—and especially these two so close to Christmas day—will mark every Christmas for those bereaved for the rest of their lives.

There are others who also grieve the loss of a loved one—not necessarily from gun violence—but from the violence of a body turned against itself through cancer or some other debilitating or destructive disease. For all of these who are grieving, Christmas reminds them of yet another empty chair. Others experience joblessness or underemployment, numbing loneliness, disappointed expectations, ruptured relationships, and rejection that twist and distort the joy of the season into a garish spectacle. Instead of uplifting them in celebration, the most wonderful time of the year seems a cruel mockery.

For all of these, and many others, the Christmas season seems more like the opening verse of Christina Rossetti’s haunting Christmas hymn, “In the Bleak Midwinter.” In the bleak midwinter, frost wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone. All the excitement, anticipation, and beauty of the season can easily be frozen by pain, disappointment and grief; instead of singing songs of joy, a bitter moan emanates like the cold, frost-bitten wind.

Yet Christians still insist through the celebration of the Advent Season that it was into this world—the world of the bleakest midwinter—God arrived. Not sheltered from grief or pain, God descended into a world where poverty, violence, and grief were a daily part of God’s human existence in the person of Jesus. Joseph and Mary, barely teenagers, were poor, and Mary gave birth to the Messiah in a strange place far from her own home. Herod the Great used his power to slaughter all the male children who were in Bethlehem under the age of two. Shepherds slept on grassy hills, their nomadic homes. Even in Jesus’s public ministry, his cousin, John the Baptist, would be beheaded. Jesus would experience rejection and eventually die a criminal’s death, with only a few, grieving women remaining at his side.

Into this world—our world of bleak midwinter—God arrives. God arrives in the midst of pain and suffering, doubt and disappointment, longing and loneliness and makes a home with us, to be alongside of us. The Gospel of John tells us that God did not stay removed from us or from our sufferings, but that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). For those who find the Christmas season far from the “most wonderful time of the year,” Immanuel, God with us, comes to be with us in our bleak midwinter, and comes to offer consolation and care in the tears of those who weep with us when we weep.

Those who rejoice and who celebrate this season as the most wonderful time of the year can demonstrate that celebration in ways that take it far beyond lights, trees and presents.  The beauty, joy, and celebration of the season can be brought to those in bleak midwinter, as those who come alongside sharing in their suffering—doing our part, giving our all, sharing our hearts.

Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning   “Rend your heart, and not your garments.” / Joel 2:13

Garment-rending and other outward signs of religious emotion, are easily

manifested and are frequently hypocritical; but to feel true repentance is far

more difficult, and consequently far less common. Men will attend to the most

multiplied and minute ceremonial regulations–for such things are pleasing to

the flesh–but true religion is too humbling, too heart-searching, too

thorough for the tastes of the carnal men; they prefer something more

ostentatious, flimsy, and worldly. Outward observances are temporarily

comfortable; eye and ear are pleased; self-conceit is fed, and

self-righteousness is puffed up: but they are ultimately delusive, for in the

article of death, and at the day of judgment, the soul needs something more

substantial than ceremonies and rituals to lean upon. Apart from vital

godliness all religion is utterly vain; offered without a sincere heart, every

form of worship is a solemn sham and an impudent mockery of the majesty of

heaven.

 

Heart-rending is divinely wrought and solemnly felt. It is a secret grief

which is personally experienced, not in mere form, but as a deep, soul-moving

work of the Holy Spirit upon the inmost heart of each believer. It is not a

matter to be merely talked of and believed in, but keenly and sensitively felt

in every living child of the living God. It is powerfully humiliating, and

completely sin-purging; but then it is sweetly preparative for those gracious

consolations which proud unhumbled spirits are unable to receive; and it is

distinctly discriminating, for it belongs to the elect of God, and to them

alone.

The text commands us to rend our hearts, but they are naturally hard as

marble: how, then, can this be done? We must take them to Calvary: a dying

Saviour’s voice rent the rocks once, and it is as powerful now. O blessed

Spirit, let us hear the death-cries of Jesus, and our hearts shall be rent

even as men rend their vestures in the day of lamentation.

 

Evening    “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy

herds.” / Proverbs 27:23

Every wise merchant will occasionally hold a stock-taking, when he will cast

up his accounts, examine what he has on hand, and ascertain decisively whether

his trade is prosperous or declining. Every man who is wise in the kingdom of

heaven, will cry, “Search me, O God, and try me”; and he will frequently set

apart special seasons for self-examination, to discover whether things are

right between God and his soul. The God whom we worship is a great

heart-searcher; and of old his servants knew him as “the Lord which searcheth

the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men.” Let me stir you up in

his name to make diligent search and solemn trial of your state, lest you come

short of the promised rest. That which every wise man does, that which God

himself does with us all, I exhort you to do with yourself this evening. Let

the oldest saint look well to the fundamentals of his piety, for grey heads

may cover black hearts: and let not the young professor despise the word of

warning, for the greenness of youth may be joined to the rottenness of

hypocrisy. Every now and then a cedar falls into our midst. The enemy still

continues to sow tares among the wheat. It is not my aim to introduce doubts

and fears into your mind; nay, verily, but I shall hope the rather that the

rough wind of self-examination may help to drive them away. It is not

security, but carnal security, which we would kill; not confidence, but

fleshly confidence, which we would overthrow; not peace, but false peace,

which we would destroy. By the precious blood of Christ, which was not shed to

make you a hypocrite, but that sincere souls might show forth his praise, I

beseech you, search and look, lest at the last it be said of you, “Mene, Mene,

Tekel: thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”

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Bearing with an Exhortation – John MacArthur

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“I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation” (Heb. 13:22).

Hell is undoubtedly full of people who did not actively oppose Jesus Christ, but simply drifted into damnation by neglecting to respond to the gospel. These are the kinds of people the writer challenges in Hebrews 2:1-4. They were aware of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, but weren’t willing to commit their lives to Him. As a result, they were drifting past the call of God into eternal disaster.

The Word of God always demands a response. Any effective teacher of it must do more than just dispense facts; he must warn, exhort, and extend an invitation. He may have impressive knowledge of the truth, but if he doesn’t have a passionate concern for how people react to it, he is not a worthy representative of Jesus Christ.

Jesus had that kind of compassion. Despite the rejection of His own people, He ached for their salvation: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen ushers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (Matt. 23:37). You can feel His heart go out to the people.

Paul had similar compassion: “I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of My brethren, my kinsman according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:2-3). A true teacher is interested in more than just academics; he is concerned that people respond rightly to what is taught.

Just as the writer of Hebrews had to warn and exhort his readers, at times it becomes necessary for us to warn those we are witnessing to. If you want to see unbelieving friends, relatives, or associates come to Christ, warn them. Let them see the passion in your heart and your love for them. Please don’t allow anyone to slip into eternal destruction without being warned sufficiently.

Suggestion for Prayer:     Ask God to give you wisdom regarding when to warn the people you are witnessing to.

For Further Study:   Read Hebrews 3:7–4:13, 6:4-8, 10:26-31, and 12:25-29 noting the pattern the writer followed in presenting these other warnings.

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Hope in a Seemingly Hopeless Situation – Greg Laurie

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It’s Christmas time.

Parents bundle up their children for another day of school before Christmas vacation starts in the small town of Newtown, Connecticut. There’s shopping to do and errands to run before they pick them up. Then the worst imaginable scenario takes place.

A young man walks into Sandy Hook Elementary School and begins shooting. When the horror finally stops, 20 children and 6 adults have been shot and killed. 12 little girls and 8 little boys had their lives cut short.

This is just heartbreaking.

What can be said at a time like this? The experts will opine on why this happened. All I can say is, this was pure evil. The heartlessness and wickedness of this man that did the shooting is really unimaginable.

I know from personal experience that the pain of losing a child is a fate worse than death for a parent.

At times like this we must reflect on the essential message of Christmas, which is Immanuel has come. Immanuel means God is with us.

I know God is there, ready to bring His comfort to those grieving right now in Connecticut. I know He is here right now to bring comfort to all of us who are heartbroken to hear such news.

At times like this, we need perspective—an eternal perspective.

We need to remember this life on earth is not all there is. There is an afterlife where earthy wrongs are righted. There is a final judgment for this man and others like him that commit these heinous crimes, and they will have to face God.

There is also great safety for those beautiful children, who I believe are all in Heaven right now, resting in the arms of Jesus. No harm will come to them again. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14).

And there is comfort available to their parents, who are in the deepest valley of pain and grief right now. Yes, even at a time like this, there is hope. The hope is this: If that parent will put their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord they can have the assurance they will see their dear children again.

As King David said when his child died, “I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23).

In the busyness of this season, I hope we all will take time to count our blessings. To let our children know that we love them and not take them for granted.

And I hope that we will remember that Jesus is there, Immanuel. He will bring His comfort to us as we trust in Him.

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The Message of the Manger – Charles Stanley

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Luke 2:1-7

Sometimes it is difficult to see how God can bring good from our bad situations. But He draws value from even the most disastrous of circumstances, such as when the conquering Romans (the bad) literally paved the road for the gospel (the good).

Before the rise of Rome, the predominant world power was Greece, whose attractive culture led many to desire Hellenization. In addition, as Alexander the Great conquered lands, he forced subjugated men to serve in his military. So they could understand orders, he made conscripts learn common Greek. On discharge, these men took the new language home, thereby helping to create a shared tongue between people groups. This was the perfect set-up for spreading the revolutionary message that would erupt from Israel a few centuries later.

The Romans paved roads throughout the territories they had conquered and then guarded land routes and seacoasts from encroaching enemies. Doing this ensured the relative safety of early Christian missionaries who carried the gospel.

Perhaps Joseph and Mary traveled one of those roads on their trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Whether they did or not, God again turned hardship—a forced census—into blessing: Jesus the Messiah was born at precisely the time and place prophesied.

From the moment in Eden when Satan’s defeat was promised until the instant Christ fulfilled that prophecy on the cross, the Father continually brought good from bad situations. He was advancing His plan to save the world. The Romans made the roads, but God paved the way for a Savior.

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The Property of Tears – Ravi Zacharias

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Five year-old Samantha was the victim of a cruel and tragic murder, and her own tears were the evidence that sealed the case against her abductor. “[S]he solved the crime,” said her young mother. “She was her own hero.”(1) DNA in the form of teardrops was found on the passenger-side door of the killer’s car, irrevocably making their mark on the crime scene and everyone who imagines them.

It is impossible to hear stories like this, of heinous murders, of calculated school shootings, without retreating to the deepest whys and hows of life. The abrupt ending to these lives is another wretched symptom of a sick and desperate world. The problem of evil is a problem that confronts us, sometimes jarringly. The problem of pain is only intensified by the personal nature of our experience with it.

The first time I heard Samantha’s story my numbed mind was startled by this property of tears. I had no idea that our tears were so personally our own. Samantha’s tears solved the case because there were none others like hers. They were unique to the eyes they came from, intricately a part of Samantha herself. In the pains and joys that cause us to weep and to mourn, we leave marks far more intimate than I ever realized. We shed evidence of our own makeup, leaving behind a complex, yet humble message: I was here, and my pain was real. There are a lot of really bad and unhelpful things that people say in the face of tragedy and particularly to those who mourn. For me this brings new meaning to the wisdom of being silent with the grief-striken, sharing tears instead of advice.

There is no doubt something deeply necessary about the Christian hope that pain will one day be removed and tears will be no more. We are rightly comforted by the image of heaven as the place where God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of the weeping. There is much hope in the promise that there will one day be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.(2) But perhaps there is first something deeply necessary about a God who has marked our tears so specifically even now, declaring that our pain is far from a generic or empty occurrence.

There is a line uttered by the psalmist that was comforting to my grandmother through many years of loss and life. To God the psalmist confesses, “You have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle” (Psalm 56:8). Tear-bottles were small urns of glass or pottery created to collect the tears of mourners at the funerals of loved ones. They were placed in the sepulchers at Rome and in Palestine where bodies were laid to rest. In some ancient tombs these bottles are found in great numbers, collecting tears that were shed with great meaning to the ones unique to them.

How assuring to know that our pain is not haphazardly viewed by the one who made tear ducts able to spill over with grief and anguish. God keeps count of our sorrowful struggling, each tear recorded and collected as pain steeped with the life of the one who wept it. Like a parent grieving at a child’s wound, God knows our laments more intimately than we realize.

But also more than a parent wiping eyes and collecting tears, God has shed tears of his own, taking on the limitations and sufferings of creation personally, declaring in body that embodiment is something God takes very seriously. In her book Creed or Chaos, Dorothy Sayers writes:

“For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine… He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.”(3)

I know of no equal comfort in the midst of life’s sorrows, no other answer within the problem of pain and evil. God has sent a Son as unique and personal as the very tears we shed crying out for answers and consolation. Every tear is marked with the intricacies of a Creator, every cry heard by one who wept at the grave of Lazarus, every lament collected in his bottle until the day when tears will indeed be no more.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) “Justice for Samantha,” People, June 06, 2005, Vol. 63, No. 22, pp. 73-74.

(2) Revelation 21:4.

(3) Dorothy Sayers, Creed or Chaos? (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1949), 4.

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning  “I remember thee.” / Jeremiah 2:2

Let us note that Christ delights to think upon his Church, and to look upon

her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as the wayfarer

hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue the object of its

choice. We cannot look too often upon that face which we love; we desire

always to have our precious things in our sight. It is even so with our Lord

Jesus. From all eternity “His delights were with the sons of men;” his

thoughts rolled onward to the time when his elect should be born into the

world; he viewed them in the mirror of his foreknowledge. “In thy book,” he

says, “all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when

as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 139:16). When the world was set upon its

pillars, he was there, and he set the bounds of the people according to the

number of the children of Israel. Many a time before his incarnation, he

descended to this lower earth in the similitude of a man; on the plains of

Mamre (Gen. 18), by the brook of Jabbok (Gen. 32:24-30), beneath the walls of

Jericho (Jos. 5:13), and in the fiery furnace of Babylon (Dan. 3:19, 25), the

Son of Man visited his people. Because his soul delighted in them, he could

not rest away from them, for his heart longed after them. Never were they

absent from his heart, for he had written their names upon his hands, and

graven them upon his side. As the breastplate containing the names of the

tribes of Israel was the most brilliant ornament worn by the high priest, so

the names of Christ’s elect were his most precious jewels, and glittered on

his heart. We may often forget to meditate upon the perfections of our Lord,

but he never ceases to remember us. Let us chide ourselves for past

forgetfulness, and pray for grace ever to bear him in fondest remembrance.

Lord, paint upon the eyeballs of my soul the image of thy Son.

 

Evening  “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in

and out, and find pasture.” / John 10:9

Jesus, the great I AM, is the entrance into the true church, and the way of

access to God himself. He gives to the man who comes to God by him four choice

privileges.

1. He shall be saved. The fugitive manslayer passed the gate of the city of

refuge, and was safe. Noah entered the door of the ark, and was secure. None

can be lost who take Jesus as the door of faith to their souls. Entrance

through Jesus into peace is the guarantee of entrance by the same door into

heaven. Jesus is the only door, an open door, a wide door, a safe door; and

blessed is he who rests all his hope of admission to glory upon the crucified

Redeemer.

2. He shall go in. He shall be privileged to go in among the divine family,

sharing the children’s bread, and participating in all their honours and

enjoyments. He shall go in to the chambers of communion, to the banquets of

love, to the treasures of the covenant, to the storehouses of the promises. He

shall go in unto the King of kings in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the

secret of the Lord shall be with him.

3. He shall go out. This blessing is much forgotten. We go out into the world

to labour and suffer, but what a mercy to go in the name and power of Jesus!

We are called to bear witness to the truth, to cheer the disconsolate, to warn

the careless, to win souls, and to glorify God; and as the angel said to

Gideon, “Go in this thy might,” even thus the Lord would have us proceed as

his messengers in his name and strength.

4. He shall find pasture. He who knows Jesus shall never want. Going in and

out shall be alike helpful to him: in fellowship with God he shall grow, and

in watering others he shall be watered. Having made Jesus his all, he shall

find all in Jesus. His soul shall be as a watered garden, and as a well of

water whose waters fail not.

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Christ’s Superior Destiny – John MacArthur

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“To which of the angels has He ever said, ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet’? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” (Heb. 1:13-14).

“At the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth” (Phil. 2:10). That great promise confirms that Jesus Christ is destined to be the ruler of the universe.

Yet notice this about Christ’s rule: “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). Christ is subordinate to His Father, but only in His role as the Son. While the eternal Son is equally divine, He is officially in subjection to God.

Eventually God will put all kingdoms, authorities, and powers of the world in subjection under Christ when He comes in glory at His second coming. “He will rule [the nations] with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS'” (Rev. 19:15-16). Christ’s eternal destiny is to reign over the new heavens and the new earth.

But what about the angels? While Christ has the greater destiny, it is their destiny to serve forever those who will inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14)–and that’s us!

Angels protect and deliver the believer from temporal danger. They rescued Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom. They went into the lions’ den with Daniel and protected him. In addition to being forever in God’s presence, our destiny is to be served by angels forever–service that begins the moment of our salvation.

Suggestions for Prayer:  Thank God for the many ways He takes care of you: by saving you, having Christ intercede for you, giving you the Holy Spirit to teach you, and sending His angels to serve you.

For Further Study:  Read 2 Kings 6:8-23 and note the amazing way that angels served the prophet Elisha.

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Because Christ Came – By Dr. Charles Stanley

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This time of year, church services typically focus on the amazing narrative of Jesus’ humble birth. Unfortunately, this story can become so familiar that we take for granted the miracle of God taking on human flesh and walking among us. We also have difficulty understanding the profound impact Christ’s advent (or coming) had on humanity’s relationship to the Father. Let’s examine just a few benefits we can enjoy because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

 

1. Complete Assurance of Forgiveness

Under Old Testament law, God prescribed sacrifices and other rituals that would serve as reminders about the seriousness of sin.

In what way was the system limited, according to Hebrews 10:1-4?

Why do we no longer have to offer animal sacrifices (Heb. 9:11-12; 24-26)?

 

2. The Guarantee of Eternal Life

First John 5:13 says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (emphasis added).

Read 1 John 5:1-13, paying special attention to verses 1-5 and 11-12. What “things” does John mention to help a person know if he or she possesses eternal life?

Sum up the analogy Jesus used in John 10:27-29 to indicate the secure nature of our relationship with Him.

Even when believers sin, they don’t forfeit eternal life. Why not (Romans 8:1-2; 33-39)?

 

3. Personal Access to God’s Presence

The Hebrew temple was divided into sections. Only Jewish men were allowed into the inner court; Gentiles and Jewish women were restricted to the outer courts. Access to the Holy of Holies, where the presence of the Lord dwelled, was even more limited.

How often did someone enter the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:6-7)? What rituals had to be observed beforehand?

What happened when Christ rose from the dead (Matt. 27:50-51)? Explain the symbolic significance of this event.

Read Hebrews 10:19-22. Who is now the high priest for all believers? Why can we approach the throne of God confidently?

Reflect on how limited access to the Father would have been under the old covenant, especially for a Gentile or woman. How does this impact your perspective on spending time alone with God?

 

4. The Indwelling Holy Spirit

Old Testament saints experienced the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit resting on them, often to help in carrying out God’s specific plans. But His presence in their lives was not guaranteed.

The first two kings of Israel, Saul and David, both had the Spirit of God rest on them. Why did the Spirit depart from Saul (1 Sam. 15:22-23; 16:14)?

Under the New Covenant, what is the requirement for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 2:38?

For believers today, fellowship with God is available all the time. How does 1 Corinthians 6:19 describe the relationship between the Spirit and a follower of Christ?

The Holy Spirit performs many functions in the life of a believer. He reminds us of Christ’s words (John 14:26), is a deposit guaranteeing eternal life (Eph. 1:13-14), intercedes on our behalf (Rom. 8:26), and equips us to speak the gospel boldly (Acts 4:31). One of the Spirit’s most important functions is that He changes our nature and empowers us to live righteously.

Describe the benefit of being a “new creation” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

 

5. Freedom from the Law

Because of the advent of Christ, followers of God no longer have to carry out the rituals described in Exodus and Leviticus. For instance, Christians don’t have to avoid certain foods for spiritual reasons or make animal sacrifices to atone for our sins.

The Galatians—mostly Gentile believers—were under pressure from some of the Jewish Christians to follow the old covenant ritual of circumcision. What was Paul’s reminder to them (Gal. 5:1)?

List two cautions regarding freedom from the law (Gal. 5:13, 18).

Meditate on the fact that you don’t have to follow spiritual rules to earn your salvation (Rom. 3:28). How does that make you feel?

 

This doesn’t mean that believers have permission to live unrestrained lives, but that we are now governed internally. The Holy Spirit changes our fundamental nature so we no longer want to sin—we desire to please God with our lives (Jer. 31:31-33).

Fill your mind with biblical truth and surrender to the Spirit’s leading. He will give you the power to resist sin and accomplish God’s will (Gal. 2:20-21).

Do you have questions about how to depend on the Holy Spirit for holy living?

Trust the Lord to reveal the answers to you in His timing.

Prayer: The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus radically changed the way in which humanity can relate to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Express your gratitude to the Father, and ask Him to show you how to meditate on His gifts in the midst of this year’s Christmas festivities.

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning  “Come unto me.” / Matthew 11:28

The cry of the Christian religion is the gentle word, “Come.” The Jewish law

harshly said, “Go, take heed unto thy steps as to the path in which thou shalt

walk. Break the commandments, and thou shalt perish; keep them, and thou shalt

live.” The law was a dispensation of terror, which drove men before it as with

a scourge; the gospel draws with bands of love. Jesus is the good Shepherd

going before his sheep, bidding them follow him, and ever leading them onwards

with the sweet word, “Come.” The law repels, the gospel attracts. The law

shows the distance which there is between God and man; the gospel bridges that

awful chasm, and brings the sinner across it.

From the first moment of your spiritual life until you are ushered into glory,

the language of Christ to you will be, “Come, come unto me.” As a mother puts

out her finger to her little child and woos it to walk by saying, “Come,” even

so does Jesus. He will always be ahead of you, bidding you follow him as the

soldier follows his captain. He will always go before you to pave your way,

and clear your path, and you shall hear his animating voice calling you after

him all through life; while in the solemn hour of death, his sweet words with

which he shall usher you into the heavenly world shall be–“Come, ye blessed

of my Father.”

Nay, further, this is not only Christ’s cry to you, but, if you be a believer,

this is your cry to Christ–“Come! come!” You will be longing for his second

advent; you will be saying, “Come quickly, even so come Lord Jesus.” You will

be panting for nearer and closer communion with him. As his voice to you is

“Come,” your response to him will be, “Come, Lord, and abide with me. Come,

and occupy alone the throne of my heart; reign there without a rival, and

consecrate me entirely to thy service.”

 

Evening  “Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine

ear was not opened.” / Isaiah 48:8

It is painful to remember that, in a certain degree, this accusation may be

laid at the door of believers, who too often are in a measure spiritually

insensible. We may well bewail ourselves that we do not hear the voice of God

as we ought, “Yea, thou heardest not.” There are gentle motions of the Holy

Spirit in the soul which are unheeded by us: there are whisperings of divine

command and of heavenly love which are alike unobserved by our leaden

intellects. Alas! we have been carelessly ignorant–“Yea, thou knewest not.”

There are matters within which we ought to have seen, corruptions which have

made headway unnoticed; sweet affections which are being blighted like flowers

in the frost, untended by us; glimpses of the divine face which might be

perceived if we did not wall up the windows of our soul. But we “have not

known.” As we think of it we are humbled in the deepest self-abasement. How

must we adore the grace of God as we learn from the context that all this

folly and ignorance, on our part, was foreknown by God, and, notwithstanding

that foreknowledge, he yet has been pleased to deal with us in a way of mercy!

Admire the marvellous sovereign grace which could have chosen us in the sight

of all this! Wonder at the price that was paid for us when Christ knew what we

should be! He who hung upon the cross foresaw us as unbelieving, backsliding,

cold of heart, indifferent, careless, lax in prayer, and yet he said, “I am

the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour … Since thou wast

precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee:

therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life!” O redemption,

how wondrously resplendent dost thou shine when we think how black we are! O

Holy Spirit, give us henceforth the hearing ear, the understanding heart!

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Christ’s Eternal Existence – John MacArthur

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“Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay a foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands; they will perish, but Thou remainest; and they all will become old as a garment. And as a mantle Thou wilt roll them up; as a garment they will also be changed. But Thou art the same, and Thy years will not come to an end” (Heb. 1:10-12).

Jesus Christ is no creature. To be able to lay the foundation of the earth and create the heavens in the beginning implies that He must have existed before the beginning. The apostle John testified to this when he said, “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). Christ is eternal.

Jesus is also immutable, which means He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.” We need to hang onto this truth as we approach a day when much of what we know will change drastically.

One day what looks so permanent will fold up. Like the people Peter warned, we are tempted to think that “all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation” (2 Pet. 3:4). But Hebrews 1:11 tells us that one day Jesus will discard the heavens and the earth, just as we would a useless garment.

Even more amazing, verse 12 specifies that Christ will roll up the heavens. Revelation 6:14 says, “The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” During the time of the tribulation, the heavens, as if stretched to all corners, will roll right up like a scroll.

But we can be confident that although creation will perish, Jesus will not, and He will create a new heaven and a new earth. Living creatures, worlds, and stars are subject to decay, but not Christ. He never changes and is never subject to change. What confidence that should give us for the daily issues of life we face each day!

Suggestion for Prayer:  Thank the Lord for His unchanging plan for your life and His ability to keep it.

For Future Study:  Read 2 Peter 3 and develop an approach to answering charges unbelievers make about biblical prophecies regarding the end times.

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The Road to the Manger – Charles Stanley

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Galatians 4:1-7

The manger scene captures one of the most pivotal moments in history. But when we see a Nativity, we often forget the long road that led there—not simply the wearying trip Joseph and Mary took to be counted in the census, but also the trail blazed through history by conquering rulers and displaced peoples. As countries erupted into political turmoil or arose with new ideals, God was carving a path to the Holy Land, the perfect cradle for the Messiah.

The route began in Eden, where blood was first spilled to atone for sin. The temporary solution—animal sacrifice—would suffice until God enacted His permanent plan in the “fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4). Establishment of the nation and delivery of the law marked Israel as God’s people; these, too, were steps toward the destination, as was the taking of the Promised Land, where Christ would be born.

As the Israelites turned to false gods, the Lord’s patience waned, and He withdrew His protection. They were conquered and taken captive to Babylonia, where in time, they developed synagogues—local places to worship God. The Medes and Persians defeated the Babylonians 70 years later and let Israel return home. The ones who did brought the adaptations of Judaism they’d been practicing, including synagogues.

Together, prophecy and history reveal how God continued to pave the way from the manger to modern faith. Synagogues hosted men like Paul, who preached and sent letters about the Messiah born in Bethlehem. And today missionaries still use his epistles—and all of Scripture—to lead unbelievers to faith.

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning    “Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.” / Ruth 1:14

Both of them had an affection for Naomi, and therefore set out with her upon

her return to the land of Judah. But the hour of test came; Naomi most

unselfishly set before each of them the trials which awaited them, and bade

them if they cared for ease and comfort to return to their Moabitish friends.

At first both of them declared that they would cast in their lot with the

Lord’s people; but upon still further consideration Orpah with much grief and

a respectful kiss left her mother in law, and her people, and her God, and

went back to her idolatrous friends, while Ruth with all her heart gave

herself up to the God of her mother in law. It is one thing to love the ways

of the Lord when all is fair, and quite another to cleave to them under all

discouragements and difficulties. The kiss of outward profession is very cheap

and easy, but the practical cleaving to the Lord, which must show itself in

holy decision for truth and holiness, is not so small a matter. How stands the

case with us, is our heart fixed upon Jesus, is the sacrifice bound with cords

to the horns of the altar? Have we counted the cost, and are we solemnly ready

to suffer all worldly loss for the Master’s sake? The after gain will be an

abundant recompense, for Egypt’s treasures are not to be compared with the

glory to be revealed. Orpah is heard of no more; in glorious ease and

idolatrous pleasure her life melts into the gloom of death; but Ruth lives in

history and in heaven, for grace has placed her in the noble line whence

sprung the King of kings. Blessed among women shall those be who for Christ’s

sake can renounce all; but forgotten and worse than forgotten shall those be

who in the hour of temptation do violence to conscience and turn back unto the

world. O that this morning we may not be content with the form of devotion,

which may be no better than Orpah’s kiss, but may the Holy Spirit work in us a

cleaving of our whole heart to our Lord Jesus.

 

Evening   “And lay thy foundations with sapphires.” / Isaiah 54:11

Not only that which is seen of the church of God, but that which is unseen, is

fair and precious. Foundations are out of sight, and so long as they are firm

it is not expected that they should be valuable; but in Jehovah’s work

everything is of a piece, nothing slurred, nothing mean. The deep foundations

of the work of grace are as sapphires for preciousness, no human mind is able

to measure their glory. We build upon the covenant of grace, which is firmer

than adamant, and as enduring as jewels upon which age spends itself in vain.

Sapphire foundations are eternal, and the covenant abides throughout the

lifetime of the Almighty. Another foundation is the person of the Lord Jesus,

which is clear and spotless, everlasting and beautiful as the sapphire;

blending in one the deep blue of earth’s ever rolling ocean and the azure of

its all embracing sky. Once might our Lord have been likened to the ruby as he

stood covered with his own blood, but now we see him radiant with the soft

blue of love, love abounding, deep, eternal. Our eternal hopes are built upon

the justice and the faithfulness of God, which are clear and cloudless as the

sapphire. We are not saved by a compromise, by mercy defeating justice, or law

suspending its operations; no, we defy the eagle’s eye to detect a flaw in the

groundwork of our confidence–our foundation is of sapphire, and will endure

the fire.

The Lord himself has laid the foundation of his people’s hopes. It is matter

for grave enquiry whether our hopes are built upon such a basis. Good works

and ceremonies are not a foundation of sapphires, but of wood, hay, and

stubble; neither are they laid by God, but by our own conceit. Foundations

will all be tried ere long: woe unto him whose lofty tower shall come down

with a crash, because based on a quicksand. He who is built on sapphires may

await storm or fire with equanimity, for he shall abide the test.

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The Restriction of Man’s Destiny – John MacArthur

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“Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy companions” (Heb. 1:8-9).

In these days it’s difficult for us as Christians to be totally supportive of our governmental leaders when we see so much of what God calls righteous compromised or ridiculed. But the King of kings–Christ Himself–is the only leader who has a perfectly right attitude toward righteousness.

Christ rules from an eternal throne, and He rules eternity as God and King. The scepter He holds is symbolic of His rule, particularly as a rule of righteousness.

But there’s more to it than that: He just doesn’t act righteously; He loves righteousness itself. How often have we obeyed without joy, expressing an attitude of willing condescension? But Jesus gives us a different model.

James 1:17 says, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” True righteousness never varies from what is true, just, and good. And 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” God is total light and total righteousness. Everything Jesus did resulted from His love of righteousness.

Because Christ loves righteousness, He hates lawlessness. Since He loves what is right, He must hate what is wrong. The two are inseparable–one cannot exist without the other. You cannot truly love righteousness and also like sin. When there is true love for God, there will also be true love for righteousness and total hatred of sin.

The more you and I become conformed to Jesus Christ, the more we will love righteousness. Our attitudes toward righteousness and sin will ultimately reveal how closely we are conformed to Christ. Check out your attitudes and actions. How are you doing?

Suggestion for Prayer:  Like the psalmist, ask God to show you any hurtful way in you (Ps. 139:24).

For Further Study:  Read Psalm 119 and note how many times the psalmist makes reference to either his love for God’s law or righteousness.

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The Greatest Gift of All – Greg Laurie

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I heard that someone actually tried to calculate how much it would cost to give the gifts named in the classic Christmas song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” The grand total came to about $15,000.

Some items were affordable, like a partridge in a pear tree for $34.99. Six turtledoves will run you somewhere around $50. Six geese-a-laying will cost around $150.

But the price soars when you add 11 pipers piping. That is $1,000 right there. Then there are the 12 drummers drumming. With current union scale for musicians, they will run you another $1,000.

The price really soars when you get 12 lords-a-leaping. We are talking $3,000 for them. Granted, I don’t know where you would find them, but they are very expensive.

But the real message of Christmas is not the gifts we give each other. Rather, it is a reminder of the gift that God has given to each of us. It is the only gift that truly keeps on giving, so I want to point out four things about it.

First, it is surprising. When Christmas rolls around, you often try to figure out if certain people have bought that gift you really wanted. Maybe you already know what they bought, because they didn’t hide it very well. Or maybe you uncovered it by accident—or maybe not. But when the day comes and you open the present, you have to pretend you’re surprised. Yet all along, you knew what it was. God’s gift to us, however, was a complete surprise. It was not expected and, as you examine it more carefully, you realize how great a gift it actually was.

Second, God’s gift came to us in the humblest of wrappings. What would you think if you saw a gift under your Christmas tree that was wrapped in newspaper and tied up with string? At first, you would probably assume that a guy wrapped it.

But think about God’s gift to us. Jesus was not born in a palace of gold; He was born in a stable. He was clothed in rags. He was laid in a feeding trough. Yet these things do not, in any way, diminish the story of Christ’s birth. If anything, they help us realize the great sacrifice God made for us. God’s gift to humanity, the ultimate gift of eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ, came in the simplest and humblest of wrappings.

Third, we don’t deserve this gift. At Christmas, we give gifts to the people we care about, the ones who have been kind to us over the past year, or the ones who have given us a gift first. We don’t give gifts to the person who has been slandering our name, or to the angry neighbor who never has a kind word to say. Yet God gave us His gift when we were His enemies. He didn’t give this gift to us because we deserved it. In fact, it was just the opposite. The Bible tells us, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NKJV).

Fourth, the gift tells us something about the giver. When you want to give someone a gift, you start thinking about it ahead of time. Hopefully, you try to find what that person wants or needs. When God decided to give us the gift of eternal life, it wasn’t something that He just thought of on the fly. Long before there was a town called Bethlehem, a garden called Eden, or a planet called Earth, a decision was made in eternity that God would send forth His Son, born of a woman, to redeem those who are under the law.

The Bible says that He was slain from the foundation of the world (see Revelation 13:8). Make no mistake about it: this gift that God has given to us was the most sacrificial thing He possibly could have offered.

So Christmas isn’t about those gifts that you have under your tree right now. All of those things will be gone one day. All that will be left after this life is the human soul, and that will live forever. We will put so much stock in what we have, but this is all going to pass away.

Life is about what happens beyond the grave. Life is about knowing the God who made you and who gave you the greatest gift you will ever receive.

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The Power of the Gospel – Charles Stanley

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Romans 1:16-17

Lightning storms captivate me; they are a visual display of God’s amazing strength. Even more powerful, however, is something He has entrusted to us—the gospel.

This term comes from euangélion, the Greek for “good news,” which was translated as godspel in Old English. Salvation in Christ truly is good news, for though sinfulness reigns in men’s hearts, God can overcome the darkness and redeem our souls.

This is the message of the entire Bible, from creation to eternity. In Genesis, we see the love of God for man, but we are also shown how His heart broke when sin entered the human race through Adam and Eve. Mankind was lost until Jesus took our sins upon Himself. As our substitute on the cross, He endured the penalty we all deserved, and then defeated death with His resurrection. This is triumph, indeed.

Think about the strength of the gospel. God’s Word isn’t simply ink on a page; it is living, active, and sharper than a sword (Heb. 4:12), with power to change anyone—even the vilest of sinners. Even us.

Think about what divine truth is able to do: it can break the chains of sin, heal brokenness, and change hearts. It also guides us into wisdom and choices that bring life. Friend, we have access to the most powerful message in existence.

What’s your response to the gospel? Are you grateful for being entrusted with God’s life-giving Word? The Lord tells us to meditate on Scripture daily and to obey eagerly, as it is the life-source for our souls. He also instructs us to share the wonderful news of salvation with a hurting, hopeless world.

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Cynical Christmas – Ravi Zacharias

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It is the task of marketing departments of all varieties to keep a calculating finger on the pulse of culture, particularly when it comes to consumer trends. The entertainment industry alone has a multi-billion dollar reason to keep their fingers close—which means their research into the entertainment needs of the world is essential. For those of us fascinated with cultural studies, it also means their research into what the public will respond to favorably or unfavorably offers an interesting glimpse into the current cultural landscape.

But even the researchers are getting confused, and especially during the holidays. They find we are sending mixed signals. An article in The New York Times quotes one researcher describing “a curiously widespread contradiction in modern American pop culture—the desperate, self-negating need to be both cynical and sentimental at the same time.”(1) Film historian David Thomson notes of film in general, “One of the main problems in the industry is that young kids do not take the story material seriously. They think it’s mocking.” As a result, “the things we once took very seriously, we half-mock them now.”(2)

 

By and large, the cultural trend marks a growing distrust and rejection of story and meaning and a general embrace of cynicism. And yet, in recent market research, executives found that audiences of all ages reacted badly to advertising that too sharply dismissed or disrespected the notion or story of Christmas. There is quite measurably a greater desire for storylines with hopeful implications in December. Apparently, we want to joke about life’s meaninglessness, but only 11 months out of the year. The typical cynicism governing the production and marketing of motion pictures is entirely toned down at Christmastime. It seems we want to argue the cake doesn’t exist and eat it too.

I have always appreciated the brave confession of C.S. Lewis that he was once living in a whirl of contradictions. This is a difficult thing even to notice of one’s life, let alone to admit it aloud. Self-deception is always one of the more powerful forces of interpretation; the general human ability to see the lives of others far more critically than our own is another. Yet Lewis observed of himself, “I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world.” Our own contradictions often exist glaringly amongst our thoughts, even as they go unnoticed.

Yet there is a promise for those who will seek, for those willing to confront their own contradictions, and it comes near in the Incarnation we celebrate in December—the event remembering God’s willingness to reach humanity by becoming human, exaltating humanity into the life of God. Indeed, this exalted one who knows what it means to be human is continually at work flattening our altars of inconsistency, uncovering our contradictions, urging us into eyesight, and leading us into humanity as God intended. The child we welcome in December remains among us every month thereafter. In the momentous words of a hymn that speaks much to the hope Christmas:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King…

Let men their songs employ…

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make his blessings flow

Far as the curse is found.

Perhaps we are right to exchange cynicism for hope this Christmas. Might we learn to employ its songs long after the season.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) As quoted in the New York Times, (Dec. 14, 2004).

(2) Ibid.

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Christ’s SuperiorNature – John MacArthur

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“Of the angels He says, ‘Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.’ But of the Son He says, ‘Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever'” (Heb. 1:7-8).

People today who claim that Jesus was just a man, an angel, a prophet, or some inferior god are in error and bring upon themselves the curse of God. The Bible, and especially the writer of Hebrews, are clear about who Christ is.

First, the writer deals with the nature of angels when he says, “Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.” “Makes” simply means “to create.” The antecedent of “who” is Christ. Therefore it is obvious that Christ created the angels.

They are also His possession: “His angels.” They are His created servants, who do not operate on their own initiative, but on the direction of Christ.

But the greatest difference between the nature of angels and Christ is that He is the eternal God. The Father says to the Son, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.” That is one of the most powerful, clear, emphatic, and irrefutable proofs of the deity of Christ in Scripture.

Jesus throughout His ministry claimed equality with God. He said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The apostle John closed his first epistle by saying, “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

God the Son came to help us understand that God is truth and that Christ Himself is the true God. Our faith is based on the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Suggestion for Prayer: Ask God to give you a greater understanding of the reality that Jesus is in fact God.

For Further Study: Read John 1:1-18 and mark the verses that define Christ’s relationship to God. If an unbeliever were to ask you what that passage means, how would you answer him or her?