Max Lucado Daily Devotional
Max Lucado
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Hollywood would recast the Christmas story. Joseph’s collar is way too blue. Mary is green from inexperience. The couple’s star power doesn’t match the bill. Too obscure, too simple. The story warrants some headliners. And what about the shepherds? Do they sing? A good public relations firm would move the birth to a big city. The Son of God deserves a royal entry. Less peasant, more pizazz.
But we didn’t design the hour. God did. And God was content to enter the world in the presence of sleepy sheep and a wide-eyed carpenter. No spotlights, just candlelight. No crowns, just cows chewing cud. If God was willing to wrap himself in rags, then all questions about his love for you are off the table. When Christ was born, so was our hope. That’s why I love Christmas.
Read more Because of Bethlehem
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The Christmas tree hunt is on! The preferences are different, but the desire is the same—we want the perfect Christmas tree. You search for the right one, you walk the rows, you examine them from all angles. This one is perfect!
God does the same. He has picked you. He knows just the place where you’ll be placed. He has a barren living room in desperate need of warmth and joy. A corner of the world needs some color. He selected you with that place in mind. God made you on purpose with a purpose. He interwove calendar and character, circumstance and personality to create the right person for the right corner of the world, and then he paid the price to take you home.
1 Corinthians 6:20 (NLT) says, “God bought you with a high price.” The Christmas promise is this: we have a Savior, and his name is Jesus.
Read more Because of Bethlehem
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A remarkable gift can arrive in an unremarkable package. One did in Bethlehem. We don’t often think of Paul in our Christmas reflections, yet we should. His words in Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV) are the Bible’s most eloquent summary of the Bethlehem promise:
“Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God…but rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross. Therefore, God called him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!”
Read more Because of Bethlehem
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Christmas is a season of interruptions. Some we enjoy, some we don’t. You may be facing an interruption during this season of life. What you wanted and what you received do not match, and now you’re troubled and anxious. Everything inside you and every voice around you says, “Get out. Get angry.” But don’t listen to those voices. You cannot face a crisis if you don’t face God first.
Colossians 1:16-17 (MSG) says, “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.” God holds it all together, and he will hold it together for you.
Read more Because of Bethlehem
For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.
Would you like to see God? Take a look at Jesus. Hebrews 1:3 (NLT) says, “Jesus radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God.” In John 14:9 (NIV) Jesus himself said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Anyone who has seen me weep has seen the Father weep. Anyone who has seen me laugh has seen the Father laugh. Anyone who has seen me determined has seen the Father determined. Everything changes when we see the face of God.
He came with tears too. He knows the burden of a broken heart. He knows the sorrow life can bring. He could have come as a shining light or a voice in the clouds, but he came as a person. Does God understand you? Look into God’s face and be assured. Find the answer in Bethlehem.
Read more Because of Bethlehem
For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.