watchman

Opening Prayer: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice.  Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 

     If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

     I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 

     O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.  He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. (Psalm 130:1-8, NIV)

Scripture: Luke 2:21-35

Journal: What does the life of Simeon have to teach you today?  How is God calling you to be more like him?

Reflection: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.  My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.”

I wonder how many times Simeon had prayed the words of this ancient prayer?  I’ll bet he had prayed them often.  I’ll bet they were his constant companion.  After all, he was a watchman who was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.”  For years and years he had been watching and waiting for God to come near—which is what the Greek word for consolation (paraklēsis) literally means.  And that moment had finally arrived.     

On this particular day, his dreams had come true.  His long “shift” standing on the wall as a watchman of Israel was finally over.  You can hear the joy and the delight and the relief in his voice: “Finally, O Lord, you have come.  Finally, my work is done.  My long shift as a watchman has come to an end.  Now allow me to depart this life in peace, for with my own eyes I have seen the Savior, the One who has come to redeem his people.  For with you, O Lord, there is unfailing love, and with you there is full redemption.  You, yourself, have finally come to redeem Israel of all their sins.  All praise be to you!”

Watching and waiting are so important in the spiritual life.  They keep us sharp and alive and attentive, that is if we don’t grow weary and get discouraged.  Luckily, Simeon did not.  He was paying attention.  He faithfully and diligently kept watch; isn’t that what a watchman is supposed to do?  How else would he be able to recognize—out of the thousands of babies he had seen come and go over the course of his lifetime—the Savior when he finally arrived?  And now he was being rewarded for his efforts.  His entire life had been lived for this one moment in time, and when it came he didn’t miss it.

We could learn a lot from Simeon.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: “God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; it’s now out in the open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32, MSG)

messengers

Opening Prayer: O Lord, you come not to the proud and arrogant and loud, but to the meek and lowly and humble.  Make me into someone who is willing and open and receptive to however, wherever and whenever you choose to come.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 2:15-20

Journal: How do you need to be more like the shepherds?  What keeps getting in the way of that?

Reflection: If you had an incredibly important message that you needed to share with the world, how would you go about it?  My guess is that you would start with the most credible, powerful, influential, and connected people you could find, right?  Well, that’s not at all what God did.  He did not start with the “influencers” of the world, but with just the opposite.  God chose shepherds: lowly, uneducated, irrelevant shepherds.  God chose the most ordinary, humble, lowly, outcast group he could find.  Which shouldn’t be surprising at all since God seems to always start with the fringe, rather than the core.  I wonder why?

Maybe he chose shepherds because they were the most open and willing and eager ones he could find.  Maybe because they would be the ones most likely to drop everything—including the sheep—at a moment’s notice and leave it all behind, in order hurry off and find the Newborn King.  I mean, Herod would not even leave the palace, right? 

Maybe God chose the shepherds because he knew they would not get in the way of what he was trying to do; they were to ones least likely to try and hijack—manipulate, control, or profit from—what God was up to.  They had no agenda, no need to make an impact, no need to try and spin it or use it for their own gain.

Maybe the reason God chose shepherds was because they were the ones who were the most free: free to receive, free to respond, free to share the news in a way that it was not about them, but about God.  And that’s exactly what they did.  They found their friends and their families and their co-workers—not exactly the who’s who of Bethlehem—and told them exactly what they had seen and heard.  And the people were amazed.  God had entered human history in the most random, unassuming, covert way possible, and these would be the perfect ones to tell the world about it.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to always remember that this life is about you, not about me.  Help me to keep it that way.

 

today

Opening Prayer: Forgive us, Lord Jesus, when we get so consumed with our own plans or demands or regrets or concerns that we miss you in the here and now.

Scripture: Luke 2:10-12

Journal: What hinders or distracts you most from being able to fully receive the gift that Jesus is offering you today?

Reflection:

today

today in the town of david

a savior has been born to you

there is a gift

in the present moment

if you are willing

and able to receive it

if the grip of

current demands

or past regrets

of future concerns

do not rob you of

the gift of today

today there is

good news

of great joy

for all people

so don’t miss it

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help us, Lord Jesus, to find you today.

setting the stage

Opening Prayer: O Lord, the excitement is building as the time has finally come for you to enter your world.  The journey is nearing its completion; it has been a long and arduous one.  We are filled with hope, with excitement, and with joyful anticipation.  We are breathlessly expectant of all that is to come—the birth of our Savior.  Come, Lord Jesus!  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 2:1-6

Journal: How is God setting the stage in and around you for his coming? 

Reflection: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was great with child.  While they were there the time was fulfilled for the baby to be born.” (Luke 2:1-6)

Random events are almost never random; they often have God’s fingerprints all over them.  I mean, a census?  Really?  But then why else would a man drag his nine-month-pregnant wife, who is great with child, on a four-day, ninety-mile journey when she was about to pop?   

Probably because it wasn’t random at all; the stage was being set for a glorious unfolding.  All of the characters were being set in place for a script that had been written hundreds of years in advance (Isaiah 7:14) and had existed in the heart of God before the foundations of the world.  And now everyone was in place and just awaiting that one little word from the Master Director: “Action!”

How is God setting the stage in and around you, on this Christmas Eve, for his coming?  He is, you know!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus!  Amen.

 

he comes

Opening Prayer: Get out the message—God Rules!  He put the world on a firm foundation; He treats everyone fair and square.  Let’s hear it from Sky, with Earth joining in, and a huge round of applause from Sea.  Let Wilderness turn cartwheels, animals, come dance, put every tree of the forest in the choir—an extravaganza before God as he comes, as he comes to set everything right on earth, set everything right, treat everyone fair. (Psalm 96:10-13, MSG)

Scripture: Psalm 96:7-13

Journal: What does it do within you to know that not only will God come to redeem, but he will also come to judge?

Reflection: “Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.  He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.” (Psalm 96:13)

I don’t know about you, but I often forget during the season of Advent that God comes not only to redeem, but also to judge.  He comes to make everything whole once again, and he also comes to make everything right once again.  And that is actually the thing that causes all creation to rejoice.  The evil and the violence and the hatred and the fear and the oppression and the corruption and the perversion that is so prevalent in our world and our in culture will be done away with once and for all and everything will be just the way he intended it to be.  Now that’s worth trembling over and rejoicing over.  Come, Lord Jesus!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help us to never forget that when you come it will not be just to redeem, but also to judge.  You come into this dark and broken world, not just to make us whole, but to make everything right once again.  Therefore we, like the earth, should all tremble before you.

 

oveshadowed

 (This is from a new devotional series I've been working on called Order My Steps)

Silence: “Hasten unto Him who calls you in the silences of your heart.” ~Thomas R. Kelly

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord God, that Mary said yes to being overshadowed.  I pray that I will be brave enough and willing enough to do the same.  Amen.

Read: Luke 1:26-38

Listen: What is God saying to you through his word today?  Write about it in your journal.

Reflect: The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (Luke 1:35)

What an absolutely beautiful phrase: The power of the Most High will overshadow you!  It is the essence of the spiritual life; Mary shows us that.  The angel comes to her and says that the power of the Most High God will overshadow her, and her response is simply, “I am the Lord’s servant.  Let it be to me as you have said.”  She recognizes that her life is not about her, but about God.  He is the one writing the story, and a far bigger story than she can possibly imagine.  A story in which he is the focal point—his holiness, his character, his love—and she is simply the willing recipient.  We would do well to follow her lead. 

For some reason, we continually try to make it all about us.  We are deeply resistant to the idea of being overshadowed.  And the world in which we live reinforces that resistance.  Our world encourages us to never let anyone or anything overshadow us.  Be heard!  Be seen!  Demand that those around you take notice of you!  Yet the life of the Spirit encourages the direct opposite of this.  Be last.  Be lowest.  Be least.  That is the life Jesus calls us to.  That is the life in which the work of the Spirit is on full display.

Mary was willing to be overshadowed.  The Greek word used here is episkiazō, which means to cast shade upon, or to be enveloped in a haze of brilliance.  It is the same word used to describe what happened at the Transfiguration when the disciples were enveloped by the cloud (Luke 9:34).  Simply put, Mary was willing to disappear into God, to be completely enveloped by him.  She was willing to give up all rights and expectations and demands for herself because, ultimately, she was the Lord’s servant—his desire, his life, and his glory was what really mattered.

What about me?  Am I willing to be overshadowed by the power of the Most High?  Am I willing to live the overshadowed life?  Am I willing to disappear into God, that he may live his life in and through me?  Thanks be to God that Mary was willing to be overshadowed.  I pray that I will be as well.

Respond: How are you drawn to the idea of being overshadowed by the power of the Most High?  How are you resistant to it?  What is God inviting you to?  What is your response to his invitation?

Pray: Ask God for a willingness to be overshadowed, whatever that may mean; not overshadowed by a shadow of darkness, but overshadowed by a shadow of brilliant light.

“Yes, Father!  Yes!  And always Yes!”  ~Francis de Sales

Rest: Rest in the presence of the One who sees you, knows you, and loves you.

 

no room

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, give us the wisdom and the courage and the grace to always make room for you.

Scripture: Luke 2:7

Journal: What are you full of these days?  How does that keep you from making room for Jesus?  How will you make room for him during this season?

Reflection: “Because there was no room for him.”  Is that not one of the saddest lines in all of the Scriptures?  And, unfortunately, not much has changed in the last two thousand years.  We are still too full; and I don’t mean that in a good way.  Mostly, we are full of ourselves.  So full of ourselves, in fact, that there is no room for Jesus. 

Thus, there is a making room that is necessary.  And making room for him does not happen automatically, it must be done intentionally.  Choices must be made.  We cannot say “yes” to everyone and everything. We must say “no” to the things that keep us from being able to say “yes” to him.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Forgive us, Lord Jesus, when we allow our lives to get so full of our own plans and agendas and pursuits and distractions that we leave no room for you.  Help us to arrange our lives in such a way that busyness and hurry and rushing around are not our default mode of operation.  During this time and this season, teach us how to stop and be silent and make space for you to move and speak and act.  Amen.