Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©
God did an amazing thing when He sent Jesus to this world. We must be carefull that we do not allow this amzing gift to be replaced within our hearts by anything that will keep Jesus from being the focus of our faith!
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This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” –which means, “God with us.”
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christn was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
” `But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ ”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
(Matthew 1:18 – 2:18 (NIV))
Our church had our annual Christmas dinner Sunday evening and due to some issues, the person who normally reads the Christmas Story was not able to attend. Someone stepped up and did another story. At first I was apprehensive about the telling of The Polar Express instead of the story of the birth of Jesus, after all, we, as a church, do not celebrate Santa Claus. We celebrate the birth of Jesus. However, the person telling the story to the kids did bring it back to why we celebrate Christmas and where our true praise should be directed.
Still, this got me thinking. Something still didn’t set right in my spirit.
It all boiled down to one simple question that probably does not have a simple answer.
How many times have we allowed something to take the place of Jesus?
Do we tell ourselves that it is just this one time and it will be okay? Do we try to justify our thoughts and actions by telling ourselves that we know where our salvation comes from? Do we start to allow the world to creep into our faith and dilute it?
Please don’t take this wrong. There are many wonderful things that are presented to us within the world, but if we allow them to take priority over Jesus, then the enemy has won. Soon, our priority has completed shifted away from Jesus and Satan has caused someone else to fall away from their faith.
Do you remember the story of Joshua and Moses and the tabernacle?
The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.
(Exodus 33:11 (NIV))
Joshua did not follow Moses, for he realized that Moses did not have what he wanted. Joshua stayed in the tent so that he could be closer to God.
When we allow something to take the place of Jesus, we are saying that what we want can be found somewhere else. I don’t want anything to take the place of Jesus. I want a heart like that of Joshua.
I want a heart that will follow Jesus!
Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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