With Christmas Over

With Christmas over, and the long winter stretching ahead, it is easy to forget the song, to let the music fade. For there are more important things to think about. It is time to quit the carols and get back to the real world. Put away the decorations, and accept a dreary existence. After all, Christmas only comes once a year. Right?

Wrong.

“The child sleeping in the night … He will bring us goodness and light.”

Not only at Christmas, but in the midst of the deadlines and aching muscles, in spite of the conflict and tension, in the heart of the hours that are too long and the breaks that are too short.

Goodness and light. Hope. Himself. The child. The Son of God. With us always, even to the ends of the world.

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This reading is taken from Finding Christ in the Carols, inspired by lyrics from well-known Christmas Carols. Available for only $2.99 this month, this devotional will help you find refreshing moments of devotion and reflection during the busy holiday season.

God is With Us

God is here. God is with us. Emmanuel. It might be only in a glimmer, a single cheery word or heartfelt wish. Or it might fill the hours until the seams of the day itself is bursting. But He is here.

God with man is reconciled. This is what Christmas wrought.

 

The day looms before me. Deadlines. Conflict. Tension. Sore muscles. Breaks that are all too short. Work hours that are all too long.

Where is the song?

But in moments of silence, when I quiet my heart, I hear it. “High above the trees, with a voice as big as the sea.”

It is a song of hope.

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This reading is taken from Finding Christ in the Carols, inspired by lyrics from well-known Christmas Carols. Available for only $2.99 this month, this devotional will help you find refreshing moments of devotion and reflection during the busy holiday season.

Jesus Christ is Born

Hiding at Christmas

Even we who know God are very good at hiding from Him. We hide behind our good works or lofty ideals. We hide behind church pews or political systems. We hide behind the gifts we give to the poor, or the prayers we pray for the lost.

We are good at hiding. But thank God, He is better at finding us than we are at hiding from Him.

This is the story of Christmas. He reached down toward us, though we had hidden from Him and run from Him for so long. “God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn.”

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This reading is taken from Finding Christ in the Carols, inspired by lyrics from well-known Christmas Carols. Available for only $2.99 this month, this devotional will help you find refreshing moments of devotion and reflection during the busy holiday season.

A Torn Veil – Christmas Prayer

Lord Jesus, so many times I have not recognized You in my life. The veil is thick, so thick, between earth and heaven, between flesh and spirit, between you and me. Or at least that is how it seems.

But the veil has been torn. And You have entered the world so that all could enter in. Thank You that no longer is the Spirit of God hidden behind a thick curtain for only one person to behold once a year. No, with Your sacrifice all are ushered directly into the presence of God through You, His Son.

Thank You for taking on the veil of flesh so that the veil between God and man could be removed.

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This reading is taken from Finding Christ in the Carols, inspired by lyrics from well-known Christmas Carols. Available for only $2.99 this month, this devotional will help you find refreshing moments of devotion and reflection during the busy holiday season.

Be an Angel – A Christmas Devotional

 

Angel means messenger. If your created purpose was to relay a message, wouldn’t you want to share the greatest message ever? The birth of a child “who will save the people from their sin”?

We have that privilege. Today. It is no longer Heaven’s best-kept secret, but sometimes we tend to act like it is. I know I do. But the world deserves to know who Jesus is, what He has done, and how they can meet Him.

Let the whole world know “what the gladsome tidings be.” Be a messenger. Be someone’s angel today.

Lord, help me to take the time to tell someone today. Tomorrow. Every day. Christmas is such a wonderful time to do it, to share the “gladsome tidings” of Your Son, Jesus.

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This reading is taken from Finding Christ in the Carols, inspired by lyrics from well-known Christmas Carols. Available for only $2.99 this month, this devotional will help you find refreshing moments of devotion and reflection during the busy holiday season.

Heaven’s Secret – a Christmas Devotional

For thousands of years, it was Heaven’s best-kept secret. Only slight hints were whispered from time to time, visions to one prophet, words to the next. Spaced over hundreds of years, the image that was slowly built, frame upon frame, was disjointed and difficult to understand.

But Heaven knew. The angels knew. I wonder how the messengers kept it a secret. At times, I wonder if they were bursting with the news. When they would visit earth to relay a message to the prophets of old, I wonder if it was difficult for them to keep quiet. “It will not be long now,” I wonder if they wanted to say. “He is coming soon. Your deliverer. And guess what His name is?”

But one day, one night, He was born.

Jesus. A name that means “God saves.”

From the dawn of time, He knew that He would save. Heaven had only to wait for the time appointed, when He would traverse time and space to enter a virgin’s womb and be born of her in a stable.

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This reading is taken from Finding Christ in the Carols, inspired by lyrics from well-known Christmas Carols. Available for only $2.99 this month, this devotional will help you find refreshing moments of devotion and reflection during the busy holiday season.

A Christmas Prayer

Sometimes the striving and sorrow seem too much. Sometimes the poverty and pain I see make me wonder where You are, and why You can’t do anything.

I know You have granted freedom and we do the wrong things. I understand that, but when innocent are hurt, it is as though I can hear the whole world groaning, crying out for deliverance.

But You cried out for deliverance too, as You hung on a cross. And Your only deliverance was death. What a humiliating end for the Son of God.

It was all part of that incomprehensible plan that enabled You to save our hearts here and now. Today. And You will heal the whole world one day, making it new and pure as it once was.

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This reading is taken from Finding Christ in the Carols, inspired by lyrics from well-known Christmas Carols. Available for only $2.99 this month, this devotional will help you find refreshing moments of devotion and reflection during the busy holiday season.

The Wonder of a Seeking God – A Christmas Prayer

Lord, it is a wonder that You would seek after one such as me. That You would search and rescue me. You have 99. You have a thousand. A million. A billion, yet You seek after me.

And when You find me, you do not let me go. No matter how many times I wander, You comfort me with Your words and woo me with Your love and draw me home again.

Thank You for this heart of love that seeks after the wanderer, or the part of us that wanders, and rejoices when it is found.

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This reading is an excerpt of a devotional from Finding Christ in the Carols, a devotional inspired by lyrics from well-known Christmas Carols. Available for only $2.99 on Amazon, Finding Christ in the Carols will help you find moments of personal devotion and reflection during the busy holiday season.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy – A Christmas Devotional

The shepherd seeks after us. “I am the Good Shepherd,” Jesus said. “The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

How far does he search? To the ends of the earth. How long does He search? As long as it takes.

Until.

And then, how completely does He remove our sin? As far as the east is from the west.

“God rest ye merry, gentlemen” and women and children and teenagers. God rest us merry, everyone. Let us rest in the knowledge that although we go astray, no place is too far to be sought for, searched out, picked up, carried close, and brought home again. Rejoiced over and given a place at His side.

“Jesus Christ, the Savior, was born on Christmas day to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.” When we are gone astray, even a part of our heart, or a portion of our hope, or a piece of our mind. He seeks and brings it home.

Truly, these are “tidings of comfort and joy.”

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This reading is an excerpt of a devotional from Finding Christ in the Carols, a devotional inspired by lyrics from well-known Christmas Carols. Available for only $2.99 this month, Finding Christ in the Carols will help you find moments of personal devotion and reflection during the busy holiday season.