This day’s reading Luke 2:13-14 13Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:14Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors! Ephesians 3:17 17and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, Devotional Inspired by “Angels We Have Heard On High” by Chris Tomlin Jesus’ entrance into this world was the most humble yet the most glorified birth in human history. Humble in the sense that he was born in a room full of farm animals. Humble in the sense that his parents were Jewish with little social status. Humble in that the city he was born in was small and unimportant to the world’s politics at the time. Gloria in Excelsis Deo And yet, his birth radiated glory. It was revealed to shepherds in a field by angels declaring, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14). The glory was so bright, the shepherds went to find the source (Luke 2:15). And later, many others would do the same. Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? What the gladsome tidings be Which inspire your heavenly song? It is a lesson we learn every Christmas: the God of the universe came the earth in such humility that, aside from the angels declaring his name from the heavens, he arrived almost unnoticed. We hear that and are in awe of him even more, as the shepherds were. We acknowledge the celebration he deserved, the crown that should have been placed on his head immediately. And we are humbled by his humility. But we stop there. We forget what the details of his birth mean for us. Jesus entered the earth in the same way he enters our hearts: right in the middle of a big mess. Just like he didn’t look for a palace to be his birthplace and an earthly throne his dwelling, so does he not look for clean hearts to come into of perfect people who have it all figured out. Paul explains in Romans: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He did this so that he could dwell in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). He doesn’t wait until they are clean. While we were still sinners, remember? This is what he has been telling us from birth, an invitation that never expires: Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing Come adore on bended knee Christ our Lord, the new born King Me: I love hearing about the Birth of Jesus. How amazing it was and how humble a birth it was. But we do forget what a time it was for him to be born. No real room to stay in for his mother while she gave birth. A time when it was probably cold and rainy a lot of the time. And in a time when everything was so crazy with the census. It was a big mess just as the devotion says. And thats where we usually ask Jesus into our lives, when its a big mess. Jesus birth has had an amazing effect on the world as well as many of our lives. https://youtube/watch?v=FHkroAFnQwc
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 01:37:09 +0000