If you will be home this Christmas, but would like to have an edifying time with your family or whomever you will be with for the day when Christ’s birth is celebrated, check out the following devotional meditation. Consider taking time to reflect on what the Lord has brought and perhaps share what you learn with someone else. Pray in the Spirit and pray with others who are seeking the Lord at this time.
Exodus 1-3
Moses – Son of Levi, Son of Adam, Lawgiver
Birth preceded by a time of oppression of Hebrew people.
Birth marked by signs in the sky, noted by astronomers. (Josephus)
Pharaoh furious at the coming of a deliverer for his slaves.
Pharaoh wanted the midwives to expose the newborn boys.
The midwives refused to betray the boys.
Pharaoh wanted to wipe out a generation of Hebrews.
Moses escaped to the desert.
Moses later returned to the land of his birth when told the vengeful Pharaoh had died.
The Lord appeared to Moses in a bright bush commissioning him for his life purpose though he was just a shepherd.
Moses was promised in Deuteronomy 18:15 that another prophet like him would come from the Hebrew people.
Matthew 2; Luke 2:1-21
Messiah – Son of Judah, Son of God, Savior
Birth preceded by a time of oppression of Jewish nation.
Birth marked by a star in the east, noted by wise Arab magi. (Dec 25, 1BC=Jupiter&Regulus?)
Herod hated the coming of Messiah the deliverer.
Herod wanted the magi to reveal the location of Messiah.
The magi refused to betray the birthplace of Messiah.
Herod wiped out a generation of children in Bethlehem.
Messiah escaped to Egypt.
Jesus later returned to the land of his birth when Joseph was told that Herod had died.
The Lord sent angels to shepherds keeping their flock commissioning them with good news of the Messiah.
Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of promises and prophesied the coming of the Holy Spirit in John 14:6.
The Gift of Gifts – A Christmas Prayer
O Source of All Good,
What shall I render to You for the gift of gifts: Your own dear Son, begotten, not created, my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute, His self-emptying incomprehensible, His infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp.
Herein is wonder of wonders: He came below to raise me above, was born like me that I might become like Him.
Herein is love when I cannot rise to Him, He draws near on wings of grace to raise me to Himself.
Herein is power: when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart, He united them in indissoluble unity, the Uncreated and the created.
Herein is wisdom: when I was undone, with no will to return to Him, and no intellect to devise recovery, He came, God incarnate, to save me to the uttermost, as a man to die my death, to shed satisfying blood on my behalf, to work out a perfect righteousness for me.
O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds and enlarge my mind. Let me hear good tidings of great joy, and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore, my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose, my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father; place me with ox, donkey, camel, goat, to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face, and in Him account myself delivered from sin. Let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart, embrace Him with undying faith, exulting that He is mine and I am His.
In Him, You have given me so much that Heaven can give no more.
Based on a prayer in The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, ed. Arthur Bennett. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust © 1975.
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