Christmas Day Family Devotional
A short devotional to use at home with your family as you celebrate Christmas Day.
Telling About the Gift
It is unexpected to get an angelic visit. It is unexpected to find a baby in a barn, laying in a feeding trough. It is unexpected when you are at the bottom of the social ladder to get an invitation to a royal birth. But that is how God rolls. We can find His Son in the unexpected.
Rewarding Expectation
It's amazing what you can learn if you hang around a place for a time and just listen. Opinions, gossip, ideas, predictions. In a world that was filled with the anticipation of a Messiah coming, what do you think you might have heard if you were hanging around the Temple, the religious center, all the time? We will trace the story of one such person, Anna. She was old but her heart was young and hungry.
Expecting Comfort
Most of us suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out). We hear about good things that happen for or to other people and wonder why they experience those things, but we haven’t yet. What if there was a way to position ourselves to receive those kinds of opportunities? There is, and we will find the secret as we continue our series “Expecting Jesus in the Unexpected” this weekend.
Series of Choices
Life is a series of choices. And the cumulative effect of every smaller, wise choice is a big outcome. Such is our story this week. One man makes the choice to adopt his orphaned cousin. He mentors her, guides her, encourages her. He acts justly and righteously. And the impact? God’s people are spared, and their influence broadened.
Leading from a Second Chair
Leadership does not always mean being in the top position. There is such a thing as leading from the second chair. It means recognizing God’s call on someone else’s life to be in a position we feel we should rightfully have. Are we willing to sacrifice a temporary position for an eternal purpose?
Mediator
Sometimes in marriages or other relationships, God uses one person to protect another from themselves. Or at times they are used to protect or proclaim God’s plan in the life of another. Such is our story this weekend. A wise woman makes a sacrificial choice that results in far more than diffusing an immediate conflict.
God’s Intentions
“I Choose” is the title of our new series. Ever have someone hurt you deeply and then you get into a circumstance where you have the power to pay them back for what they did? Then what? It is a moment to choose. But we must choose wisely because every choice carries an outcome, for good or for bad. This week we look at a familiar story to find how our choices are not always easy and they are not always isolated. Life, and eternal life, is a series of choices.
Your Training
There is a scene in the movie “Greyhound” where they are in the midst of battling a German submarine and one of the sailors blurts out there is a torpedo in the water. Tom Hanks, who plays the captain, calmly but forcefully says, “Your training son; bearing, range?” If we are going to navigate the treacherous waters of living today, we can’t just blurt out what’s wrong, we need to identify the target and apply a solution. That is why we will study this weekend about God as our Father.
Artistry of the Potter
People are broken and lives are shattered. The Bible paints the picture of a master potter taking the broken pieces and skillfully putting them back together in such a way that the cracks become part of the story but not “the” story.
Giving Directions
What if you were able to read the newspaper that was to be published three years from now? All the news then is still our future. But because you are the only reader, you have insight no one else has. It would be troubling and exciting at the same time. Such was the experience of Daniel as he was given a glimpse into the future by God.
The Power of Consistency
Chicken or egg? You know the question: which came first? When we consider life, which comes first, consistency or opportunity and influence? If our lives were a book and people were turning the pages from chapter to chapter, what would they see? As we have done so with Daniel’s life, there is a thread that traces down from beginning to end: the thread of consistency. We will see the outcome of a consistent life as we continue our series “Long Haul Leadership" and look at one of the most famous stories in the biblical narrative in Daniel 6.
Speed Limits
People who have had a huge impact over time are those who have stood out from the crowd, who have had the courage to stand alone. Their actions are so stark that it cannot go unnoticed. This week we will see how one act of courage can impact a whole nation, and that act of courage could be yours.
Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Truckers spend long hours alone, delivering the goods for the rest of us. But when issues start happening on the road, you find the truckers band together to assist each other. This contributes to the safety and longevity for each of them for the long haul. This week we will see how banning together for the common good is a key to longevity in our faith journey.
Proper Inspection
Longevity. It takes persistence, consistency, and desire. It takes always doing the next right thing. What habitual practices aid us in choosing what the next best thing to do is? It all starts with a good foundation.
Righteous Resistance
What can we do? That is the cry we hear most frequently when we feel like the systems we have relied on forever have become corrupt. The only option seems to be radical resistance. But what if that radical resistance is not using power against power but rather us simply doing what is right no matter what everyone else is doing? Standing for the good is God’s solution for a broken world.
Convictions
Jesus brings extreme clarity about the relationship between attitude or motivation and action. And in the midst of His discussion, He gives the key to true transformation for our lives, a transformation that gives both freedom and a basis for powerful convictions.
Shine
Unless you are on a no sodium diet, most of us would say a tasteless meal needs some _____? You walk into a dark room, and you turn on a _____? Flavor is needed in the first instance, and we need help to see in the second. Such is life. And such is the call of Jesus on our lives, to be _____ and _____.
I Choose
Jesus let us know that in this world we, as His followers, will face persecution. It is a given. But a key phrase that is vital for us to remember is about the why. Twice He says, “for the sake of righteousness” or “for My sake.” We can be resilient in the face of these things when our why has to do with Jesus and not ourselves or our affiliations.