Are You Ready for
Christmas Day?
Good Morning Friends,
The preparation is over. For the last weeks we have been preparing for Christmas like we prepare for a hurricane. We spent time fixing up the outside of our house. We dragged out boxes from the attic. We did last minute shopping in crowded stores. We watched special programming on television. We were surrounded by family. We called all our relatives. We bought more food than normally. We took off days from work and sang Christmas Carols. And we even contemplated the reality of a tree being inside our home. But now the preparing is over. It is time to accept the incredible power and experience. Are You Ready for
Christmas Day?
Scripture: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John 10:10 (NRSV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ‘ From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
John 1:1-18 (NRSV)
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Isaiah 9:2-7 (NRSV)
Message: Isaiah’s scripture prophecies of a plan of peace to an estranged world. It refers to the time before the Messiah had come, a time of when the people were living in darkness and needed help in getting out of its emptiness. They did not need an empty and systematic way of understanding their feelings. They needed, as we need today, the Prince of Peace. So today we search for identity, meaning and Truth in our culture’s practice of celebrating Christ’s birth. Matthew and Luke share the circumstances leading up to the birth of Jesus foretold in Isaiah. But the book of John does not deal with the historical events, nor the traditions we have added to the experience of the event of Christ coming to live with us. John is different. He launches directly into the message… The message is that God has given us an incredible gift…that by faith, in Christ, we can become children of God, born neither of natural descent, nor of human decision or will of man, but born of God. The message is that when we accept Christ, we are ushered into the reality that we are part of Christ’s family. Permission to join in the heavenly celebration has been given. So today we celebrate the infinite becoming an infant. Today we realize that Jesus got his start way before He was born. Today as you listen to the scripture let it unwrap the word of God in each of us. On this Christmas somehow let the incomprehensible God becomes intelligible, somehow let all the preparation bring meaning into this celebration of the arrival of Jesus…into the storms of our lives… into the eye of our hearts… into the hurricane party of Christmas.
Pray that today we dwell in the center of the divine grace of God the Father. Pray that God has prepared out hearts for the coming of Jesus. Pray that we realize our greatest need is the love of forgiveness. Pray that God makes Himself fully known to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Pray that the hurricanes of our lives diminish. Pray when we are offered light we accept it. Pray when we are offered peace, we embrace it. Pray we remember Christmas’ past in hope of their future. Pray we see the light and remember for a purpose. Pray we are victorious. Pray we find Peace in our hearts. Pray Christ fill Christmas Day with the Holy Spirit.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 