December 2011 Devotionals
December 26, 2011
Needed: A Trustworthy Guide for the New Year
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
Walt and son John were in Atlanta, trying to find the new Braves stadium for a game. After several fruitless attempts to follow the highway signs, Walt asked a policeman how to get there. "Just follow the crowd," he said jovially. But which "crowd" in that endless stream of vehicles? They finally arrived-just in time for the sixth inning.
Recently we were in rural area, trying to visit one of our Interim Health Care patients. On a long, straight road, empty fields on both sides, our GPS announced firmly: "Turn right." We kept driving, looking for a road so we could turn right. "Recalculating," the irritated GPS voice said. "Make a U-turn and turn left." We finally did find our patient, but not with the help of our GPS!
Walt and I used to drive once a year from Chicago to Seattle to see his folks. One year we decided to take a new and different route. (This was before the interstates.) Imagine our dismay, as we followed our map, to see the road narrow to two lanes, then to gravel, and finally, a dirt road with a rancher's barbed-wire gate with a no trespassing sign!
We face an uncharted, uncertain new year. Some perils we know, some we don't even suspect-governments toppling, financial chaos, social unrest, even attacks against our treasured values threaten us. If ever we needed Someone to walk beside us, to show us the right way, to protect us from danger, we need Him today. And, thank God, He has promised us His Holy Spirit. He is called "The Comforter," the "One Who Walks Beside Us."
For 33 years, Jesus had walked on this earth. When He was preparing to die on the cross and go back to Heaven, He knew His disciples (and we!) would feel bereft of His presence. But we wouldn't be forsaken, He said, because "The Father will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. . . .When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 14:16; 16:13).
In the Christmas story we read that one of the names of Jesus is Immanuel-God with us. That is bedrock, foundational truth we can stake our lives and happiness on. We can have the very presence of God in our hearts, facing this new year. We can expect His comfort, His guidance, His wisdom. There is absolutely nothing facing us in the coming days except what our loving Heavenly Father has chosen for us, and with His help we can face it unafraid.
That's the promise your Heavenly Father has made you. And, as my dear father used to say, "You have the word of a Perfect Gentleman." God always keeps His promises!
December 19, 2011
Why Jesus Had to Come
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
When we think about the Christmas story, that a Baby was born in a smelly stable because no one would make room for Him, we are filled with pity and awe. But the reason for the Christ-child's coming is infinitely more compelling even than that sweet story.
This came to mind last week when we were talking to a dear friend. Her only son died last year. She still grieves his loss, and time certainly has not healed anything for her. With tears in her eyes she said, "I'm mad at God." Seeming to realize this sounded bad, she quickly added, "But I love Jesus."
And that's the whole reason why Jesus had to come! Why do we tend to think of God as being unloving and harsh? Why do we fear Him but love Jesus? Especially when Jesus said, "If you have seen Me you have seen the Father"? Especially when the Old Testament tells us again and again of God's compassion and mercy? We don't seem to hear that very well.
Why? Perhaps because our feelings of unworthiness are so noisy we can't hear the grace God shows on every page of the Bible. Perhaps because we know how guilty we are. We know we deserve punishment for our sins. So that's mostly what we hear when we read the Old Testament. But that's only half the Gospel message- and that's why Jesus came.
God's passionate love for us is revealed in His most unselfish act of giving His own Son-whom He loves infinitely more than we can love our own dear children-so we could be friends with Him again. God suffered as much as Jesus did when Jesus laid down His life for us.
Here's the Christmas story as told in the Bible Book of Hebrews:
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. . . .
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:14-17)
That's why God tells us, in Hebrews 1:3, "[God's Son] is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person."
Mad at God? It's O.K. He already knows, and understands. Let the Christmas story remind you of how much He loves you and tenderly waits to comfort you.
December 12, 2011
The Year Santa Claus Couldn't Make It
A Cheerful Word from Elizabeth Rice Handford
The Christmas our son John was five years old, he came running into the kitchen shouting, "Mother, come quick! You were wrong! There is a Santa Claus! See, he's on television!"
Sure enough, it turned out, there were lots of Santa Clauses on television that Christmas.
But by the time John was ten, he'd fitted Santa Claus comfortably into a fun, fairy-tale kind of story like Snow White and the seven dwarfs. That year we celebrated Thanksgiving day with my sister's family. She announced that Santa Clause was going to arrive by parachute that very morning at the shopping mall across from their home. So we all lined up in the back yard to see Santa arrive in such an unorthodox way. Sure enough, right on time, a plane circled overhead. The we saw Santa Claus, with a long white beard and in a bright red suit, jump out. His parachute billowed beautifully in the autumn sky. He floated gently down toward the parking lot where children waited breathlessly. But a sudden gust of wind caught him, and he landed upside down in a tree.
Paramedics rushed forward, lowered him gently to the ground, and put him on a stretcher. The last we saw of Santa Claus that year he was being put in an ambulance and rushed to the hospital with a broken leg.
Fortunately for our children, Christmas was not spoiled that year. Oh, they felt sorry for the poor man because he got hurt. But they knew Someone who was so much better than a man with a fake beard who "knows when you've been good or bad, so be good, for goodness' sake!" Yes, Jesus knows when we've been good or bad, but He doesn't leave it to us to try to make ourselves good when we can't. That's why Jesus came to earth: to redeem us.
That Baby born in a stable on Christmas Day was God Himself, come down in a human body, just so we could experience Christmas every day of every year, forgiven, loved, and promised Heaven. What better gift could we ask for?
This Christmas we echo with the Apostle Paul, "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable, indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15)
December 5, 2011
Why Would Jesus Love Somebody Like Me?
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
Last week one of our patients and I talked together about the coming of Christmas. She's a young woman, home-bound with MS. She dearly loves Jesus and wants to celebrate His birth.
But as we talked about His coming just so He could die on the cross for our sins, her face clouded. "I can't understand that," she said. "I haven't done anything to deserve that kind of sacrifice. Why would He die for me, when I am so unworthy?" Then she began to sob.
Of course, that is the mystery of Christmas.
We know it's all about Jesus, the eternal God Himself, coming down to earth as a baby. But when we realize that the whole purpose of His coming was to die on the cross, we suddenly wonder why He'd go to all that bother for somebody as unworthy as we often feel.
I could hardly wait to tell her the answer!
I reached for her hand. "Oh, my dear, you have it all wrong. You are so precious to Jesus, He was eager to do it. In fact He said He could hardly wait for the joy of paying your ransom. He loved doing it for you."
How do I know? Because Jesus Himself said so.
"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?
And not one of them falls to the ground
apart from your Father's will. . . . .
Do not fear therefore;
you are of more value than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:29,31
Our Heavenly Father cares about a little sparrow, shivering in the cold, worth nothing to us, but noticed by Him, though it may only one of millions of sparrows. How much more valuable to Him is our dear patient, who grieves for her "worthlessness." He ransomed her, not with cheap stuff like silver and gold, but with His life. Here's the way I Peter 1:18 says it:
"You were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ."
And you are just as precious to Him. That's why He came to earth on Christmas day. Keep that in mind as you celebrate Christmas.