Dec 19 2020

Christmas Tests Our Treasure

In the end, as cheerfully as we may give, we cannot outgive the truly cheerful Giver. Willingly, he gave his own Son (John 3:16; Romans 8:32), as he had decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion but with overflowing joy. 

God loves cheerful givers because he is one—the supreme one. And every gift we give in Christ is simply an echo of what we have already received and of the immeasurable riches to come (Ephesians 2:7).

Consider three truths for Christmas spending and year-end giving:

1. Money is a tool that can be used for long-term Godward goals, not just short-term selfish purposes.
2. How we use money reveals our hearts.
3. Surplus and sacrifice vary from person to person.

Father in heaven, here at Christmas save us from the heart of Scrooge and make us more like you. You are truly the ultimate Giver. Christmas expresses your stunning generosity. You gave your own Son to the constraints and miseries of our humanity and world. And what love you have demonstrated in history, for all to see, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So, Father, bend our hearts to be more like yours this Christmas. May we know, as never before, the heights and depths and riches of the blessedness of giving. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 19 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts

Dec 18 2020

Christmas Doesn't Ignore Your Pain

Christ did not come to put on a show or make a cameo appearance in history. He came to bring life to the dead, to rescue the perishing, to heal the sick, to destroy the works of the devil.

Christmas doesn’t ignore our many pains; neither does it bid us wallow in them. Christmas takes them seriously—more seriously than any secular celebration can—and reminds us that our God has seen our pain and heard our cries for help (as in Exodus 2:23-25; 3:7-9; 6:5), and he himself has come to deliver us.

Father in heaven, in our toughest seasons of life, it’s good to know that you’re not pressuring us to feign merriment. You see our pains. You hear our cries for help. And what greater demonstration of your care and concern could we have than that you sent your own Son into our world of sin and chaos and frustrations that first Christmas to come to our rescue? O Father, in our sufferings and stress, grant that we do not ignore the great display of your love in sending your Son to die for us. Touch our souls this Christmas. Show us that real joy is possible, even in the midst of pain. Give us a glimpse and foretaste of the glory to come. In Jesus’ healing name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 18 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts

Dec 17 2020

Learning the Habit of Christmas

An important part of practical redemption and holiness, by the power of the gospel and God’s Spirit, is the creation, over time, of new habits—daily habits of hearing God’s voice in his word and having his ear in prayer and walking with him in glad obedience; and weekly habits of belonging to and gathering with his body in worship.

Father in heaven, how marvelous that your people waited centuries, and yet here we are, in the age of the Messiah, conscious of your grace and your grand design to visit us in the person of your Son. Rekindle our awe in this final week before Christmas. The incarnation of your Son is truly awe-inspiring. Keep us from being steamrolled by secular assumptions and patterns. Inspire in us fresh initiatives and habits to remember what’s at stake and who we celebrate in these precious days. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 17 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts

Dec 16 2020

You Were Made for Christmas

God himself arrives not only to save us from sin and death but to rescue us for himself.  Christ comes and will pay the ultimate price in suffering and death "that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18) and that risen he would be our exceeding joy (Psalm 43:4).

Jesus himself is the great joy that makes all the attendant joys of our salvation so great.

Father in heaven, we acknowledge that the great joy of Christmas is Christ himself, and we marvel that such joy in us is not icing on the cake or some added extra, but the live concern of God Almighty. With all your heart and soul, you see to it that the souls of your people are satisfied in your Son, to the glory of his name. Exalt him in us this Christmas. Satisfy our thirsty souls in him: not just in his salvation but in your Son himself. We receive him as the great gift of Christmas and gladly declare that we were made for him. In his precious name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 16 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts 

Dec 15 2020

How God Became a Man

That he would send his own Son to live and mature and labor in relative obscurity for some three decades, before “going public” and gaining recognition, has something to say to us about the dignity of ordinary human life and labor—and the sanctity of slow, incremental growth and maturation.

Father, grant that we do not begrudge you the glory of our long, arduous maturation processes. As we stumble, and even flounder, in our awkward stages and hardest moments, we are tasting the growing pains that your Son knows well. And he stands ready to help us persevere until your process is complete. So we lean on Jesus our brother and the power of your Spirit, who upheld him. Show us yourself, and your Son, in our growth in favor with you and others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 15 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts 

Dec 14 2020

 God Grew Up In a Forgotten Town

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? The answer to Nathanael’s question is an emphatic yes. And not only good but the greatest. And because our God loves to produce his best in the places we least expect, perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised when he makes the forgotten places in our stories into his chosen channels of our greatest good. 

Father, we believe you are sovereign over, and present in, the most modest and uninteresting aspects of our lives. Forgive our disdain for the things you have ordained for us. Banish from us any lust for the limelight that would send us running from our Nazareth, prematurely angling for Jerusalem. Father, grant us the faith and patience to live with joy in the callings you’ve given us, as we marvel at the faith and patience of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 14 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts 

Dec 13 2020

Jesus Obeyed His Parents

[Jesus] own self-humbling—which began in coming as an infant and now extends in submitting to his parents—will culminate “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). 

Jesus’ highest and final submission was to heaven. Submission on earth, however proper, would not keep him from obeying his Father, dwelling in his Father’s house, or even parting from his parents for three days. His Father in heaven was the sole recipient of his absolute allegiance, even as his father and mother on earth received his real and substantial respect.

Father, we marvel at this “admirable conjunction” in your Son: fully God, yet fully man, and submissive to his human parents. Asking questions to grow in his understanding, and humbly formulating answers because you have spoken. Father, give us, like your Son, the humility of submission to the human authorities you’ve given us. May we, like him, know that the path of glad submission is the path of full and lasting joy. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 13 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts 

Dec 12 2020

 Exceeding Great Joy.

At Jesus' birth, God is making wizards into worshipers.  If such sinners as these can approach the Christ and fall down in worship, so may all - so may we.

Father in heaven, as we come and we wait in this Advent season, we long to be appropriately joyful and triumphant. We do not want to be chipper or emotionally thin or triumphalistic. Nor do we want to underappreciate the glory of your own Son coming among us. Father, grant that we may be more like the magi—that we rejoice, and do so exceedingly, and with great joy. And give us, in such joy, rooted in the security of your own Son, the wherewithal to endure the waves of pain that will come or are already upon us. Great joy does not mean no sorrows. But it does mean you have prepared us for them and will keep us in them. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 12 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts 

Dec 11 2020

 The Irony of the Epiphany 

The chief priests and scribes know the answer to the wise men's question "Where is the Messiah to be born?"  However, they did not act on this information.  Dirty shepherds leave their flocks.   Pagan astrologers traverse afar.  Meanwhile, the religious leaders, full of inside knowledge and Bible jargon and pat answers, don't bother to make the relatively short journey to Bethlehem.  Biblical training does not guarantee that our hearts incline toward worshipping the true king.

HERE is a song by Sovereign Grace Music entitled We Will Seek You 

Wise men saw a starry sign  

And left their homes behind for You

We too have seen the Morning Star

And hope has filled our hearts anew

So like the wise men we will come

Father, here, almost halfway through Advent, we check our hearts. Advent is not for the mere increase of knowledge. Advent is for adoring your Son. Remove whatever barriers in us are keeping us from falling to our knees with the magi. Forbid that we would stand idly by, puffed up in our seeming knowledge, yet unwilling to come and worship. Save us from the traps of man-made religion and its pride, and give us the humble desperation of worshipers who don’t pretend to be worthy. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 11 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts 

Dec 10 2020

 We Three Kings from Orient Aren't.

God calls out for himself, and his son, worshipers from the most unexpected of places.  Not only would God graciously draw Gentile sinners to himself and permit them to come near to his son, but he would provide eternal salvation for astrologer-sinners like these three men, and sinners like us too, through the willing death of that very child they came to honor.

Father in heaven, we remember that we were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from your people and strangers to your covenants, having no hope and without you in the world (Ephesians 2:12). But now, O God, in Christ Jesus, we who once were far off, like magi, have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13). Christmas is a tribute to your grace, not our deservedness. Advent marks your coming in Christ to pluck us from our sin, and only then our coming to Christ to bow the knee in worship. He came not to call the righteous but sinners. We own our rebellion and many failures and gladly bow before your Son. In his name, we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 10 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HERE are other Advent posts 

Dec 9 2020

Hark, The Long-Lost Verses Sing

Hark!  The Heard Angels Sing (verses 1 through 3)

Hark!  The Lost Verses (verses 4 and 5)

Come, Desire of nations, come 

Fix in us thy humble home 

Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed 

Bruise in us the serpent’s head 

Now display thy saving pow’r 

Ruin’d nature now restore 

Now in mystic union join 

Thine to ours, and ours to thine 

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface 

Stamp thy image in its place 

Second Adam from above 

Reinstate us in thy love 

Let us thee, tho’ lost, regain 

Thee, the Life, the Inner Man

Oh! to all thyself impart 

Form’d in each believing heart

From Day 9 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

Dec 8 2020

The Arrival of Great Joy

Christ's coming is not simply an occasion for joy but for GREAT JOY!
This great joy is for all people.
This great joy endures the many trials and sufferings we face in this age.

At Jesus' birth, the good news of GREAT JOY was brought to the shepherds (Luke 2:10).

And the angel said to [the shepherds], “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.

When the wise men found Jesus, they rejoiced exceedingly with GREAT JOY (Matthew 2:10).

When [the wise men] saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

At the resurrection, the women departed the grave with GREAT JOY (Matthew 28:8)

So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples

Right after the Ascension, the disciples returned to Jerusalem with GREAT JOY (Luke 24:52).

And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 

Jesus is our GREAT JOY, in the manger, on the cross, and at the right hand of the Father.  

Father in heaven, we thank you for the great joy of Christmas. The coming of your Son, for us and for our salvation, is indeed a cause for great joy—and he himself the greatest of all joys. Father, stir in us in this Advent season a joy in Christ that is increasingly high and wide and deep enough to endure the many trials and sufferings we face in this age. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 8 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

Dec 7 2020

Glory to God In the Lowest

Glory to God in the lowest.  The angels announced this good news of great joy to shepherds, men living near the lowest rung.  Jesus was not only announced to lowly shepherds, he came as a child to lowly accommodation.

"The shepherds returned, GLORIFYING & PRAISING GOD for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them."  Luke 2:20

Christmas is not about the worth and goodness of humanity but the mind-blowing mercy and glory of God.

Father in heaven, make us more like these shepherds, glorifying you through our joy in you, and praising you through our words and witness in the world. We don’t want to pretend to be strong and wise and noble. We acknowledge our lowliness and marvel that you sent your Son from the heights of heavens to the lowliest of earthly accommodations to announce and accomplish this good news of great joy. In his name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 7 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

Dec 6 2020

The Word Became Flesh

Jesus is fully human.  Advent is a ripe opportunity for reflecting on not just the easy parts of the incarnation but also the uncomfortable and challenging aspects of what it means that our Lord is fully human.  Jesus took on a human body to save us.  

Father, these truths are past finding out. We follow where your word leads, but we don’t pretend that our mere human experience can make full sense of it. But as we look at your unique and spectacular Son, the one God-man, we marvel. What a Savior, brother, and friend. This man is indeed worthy of our worship, and as God, he will be the focus of our happy praise forever. In his majestic name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 6 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

Dec 5 2020

The Word Became Flesh

God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were sinners [the Word in the Flesh] died for us (Romans 5:8).  The Word became flesh and has two natures - fully human and fully divine.  Because Jesus is both, we have permanent proof that Jesus "in perfect harmony with his father, is unstoppable for us."

The hypostatic union is the personal union of Jesus’ deity and humanity—or the one-person union of his two natures.  It is immeasurably sweet, and awe-inspiring, to know that Jesus’ two natures are perfectly united in his one person. Jesus is not divided. He is not two people. He is one person—one Christ.

Father, we marvel at the singular person of your Son. He was fully divine, in infinite bliss with you, from all eternity, and yet he took on our humanity and subjected himself to the pains and miseries of our sin-sick world “for us and our salvation.” Your love for us in and through Christ is far beyond our finding out, but we want to know more. And what we do know is cause for great worship. We worship your Son, dear Father, and long to know and enjoy him more, and all the more in this Advent season. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 5 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

Dec 4 2020

What Child Is This?

We know the answer. It has been plainly revealed. 

God himself has become a man in this child and has come to rescue us. The eternal Word has become flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14).

He is God himself who became a man in this child and has come to rescue mankind.  The manger is for all sinners because the cross is for all sinners. 
The lowliness of the manger to
a life of lowly sacrifice with no place to lay his head (Luke 9:58) - and
finally to the ultimate lowliness:  when he was condemned unjustly as a criminal, stripped of his garments, and raised up to the most odious of public executions.  

None of us are too lowly or too exalted to bow the knee this Advent.

Father in heaven, we do indeed worship your Son. We bow before him in awe and wonder that he would descend from such heights and that he would go so low, to rescue us. We thank you that he came for both peasants and kings. None of us are too lowly or too exalted to bow the knee this Advent and forever. In Jesus’ mighty and merciful name we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 4 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

Dec 3 2020

 The Glory of Jesus' Virgin Birth - Luke 1:35

Jesus' virgin birth highlights the supernatural, shows that humanity needs saving that it cannot bring about for itself, and puts God's initiative on display.

We marvel at his peculiar glory as the God-man, fully divine and fully human, conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Father, we adore your Son. We marvel at his peculiar glory as the God-man, fully divine and fully human, conceived of the Holy Spirit, in one spectacular, pre-existent, incarnate, and now reigning person. Father, in this Advent season, open our eyes to Jesus’ glory. As we turn and admire the diamond of his majesty, work within us new heights and depths of love for your Son. In his name, we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 3 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

Dec 2 2020

The Eternity Before Christmas - John 1:1 -  2.

The glory of Christmas is that it is not the beginning of Christ.  It is a becoming.  Jesus was not created.  Jesus came.  Jesus existed before the incarnation and before creation because of his divinity.  And Jesus is before, and better than, anything in this created world.

Father in heaven, may your Son assume his rightful place in our hearts this Advent. At this most material time of the year in our materialistic society, your Son’s pre-existence reminds us of his preciousness over every party and present, over all the trees and trimmings. He is before, and better than, anything in this created world. Cause our hearts to swell in this season at the gift of the person of Christ as our greatest treasure. In his precious name, we pray. Amen.

Quotes from Day 2 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

Dec 1 2020

A Christmas Carol for the Weak -  Luke 1:46 - 55

Mary's Christmas Song is about praising God because of what he has done for her.  This song is a celebration of God and his ways.  God humbles the strong and magnifies his strength by exalting the weak.

God is magnified in us not through human pride and confidence, nor through human wealth and strength, but through the humble heart that rejoices in.

Father, you humble the proud and exalt the humble, and we stand in awe. We recognize that the way we feel fragile, exhausted, and burdened this Advent may mean we are right where you want us. You sent your Son to help the weak and weary. Open our eyes to the weaknesses we try to ignore and cover over. In your Son, we are safe to own them and come humbly to you, to rejoice in you and your strong arms, not ours. Magnify yourself in us this season through our rejoicing in you and your Son. In his name, we pray.  Amen.

Quotes from Day 1 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect

HEREare other Advent posts 

Advent 2020

 

This Advent season my family is reading David Mathis' The Christmas We Didn't Expect.

To find out more about this book   go to https://www.desiringgod.org/books/the-christmas-we-didnt-expect

Starting on December 1st, I will be posting quotes from each day's entry.

I want to encourage each of you to do something this Advent.

Mathis writes, "Advent is not the mere increase of knowledge.  Advent is for adoring Jesus."

Come, let us adore Him, not just this Advent season but every day.

Below is a post originally made on 11.22.17 as the first of series of Advent posts related to a class I taught.

WHAT IS ADVENT?
There are two different ways Advent can be celebrated.
Churches can have Advent readings and candles on each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas.
Individuals can do Advent readings and activities beginning December 1 through December 24.

This word Advent has several definitions that will help you understand why using an Advent devotional/reading during this time of the year is helpful.  These definitions are taken from www.latin-dictionary.net/search/latin/Advent.  My thoughts are in italics.

1. arrival, approach - Advent celebrates the arrival of the Messiah - Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.  It also reminds Christ-followers of the anticipatory hope we have that Jesus is coming again.
2. invasion, incursion - Advent reminds us of our sin problem.  While Jesus did come as a baby in a manger, His purpose was to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).  He did this through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.  He came for God's glory and so that we could have victory over sin.
3. ripening - Of the four definitions given this is the one that might seem the most strange at first.  However when you consider one of Merriam-Webster's definitions of "ripening" - to bring to completeness or perfection along with Galatians 4:4-5; Romans 5:6-8, it provides a great visual reminder.  The time was ripe for Jesus' birth.  
4. visit, appearance - Advent is about so much more than a baby in a stable.  It is about the appearance of God's grace, Jesus, who brings salvation (Titus 2:11).  It also reminds us that Jesus will appear again (Titus 2:13).

We are not commanded to celebrate Advent throughout December.  However, we are told to consider who Jesus is and what He has done for us (Hebrews 3:1-2; Hebrews 10:19-25; Hebrews 12:3).   

HERE is an article that gives Seven Reasons to Celebrate Advent. 

Use this Advent season to do what we should be doing all the time, glorying God by making much of Jesus Christ.  

Advent Resources:
Dawning of Indestructible Joy - free ebook
Good News of Great Joy - free ebook and/or podcast
Come, Let Us Adore Him - book to purchase and videos
The Bible Projects four-part advent series - videos