New Year's Devotional: "To Him who loves us & released us from our sins by His blood"

Grace to you and peace…from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 1:5-6

…for now our salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Romans 13:11

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus

Born to set Thy people free

From our fears and sins release us

Let us find our rest in Thee

Israel's strength and consolation

Hope of all the earth Thou art

Dear Desire of every nation

Joy of every longing heart

Born Thy people to deliver

Born a child and yet a King

Born to reign in us forever

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone

By Thine all sufficient merit

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

CHARLES WESLEY

         The position they assigned to Him was superlative. They said with one voice, “To Him be the glory and the dominion until the ages of the ages.” An age of days is long, an age of years incomputable, but an age of ages is eternity; and it was their desire and belief that through uncounted eons, every star would shine, every jewel would flash, every wave break, every voice sing, and every creature live to promote the everlasting radiance of His crown, that it should embrace all beings, in all spheres, for all ages, without rival or successor; that the Man of Nazareth and Calvary should be the only Ruler; that the Lamb should be seated in the supreme place of authority—such was the confident expectation and the desire of the church as reflected here. But on what ground did the early believers base their estimate of our Savior’s superlative claims?  Whatever else might have been urged, this was their supreme consideration, that “He had loosed them from their sins by His own blood” (vs.5) This was His greatest contribution to the world’s need; and it was for this that they ascribed to Him, “blessings and honors and glory and might, unto the ages of the ages.”(Rev.7:12)

         Now is our salvation nearer then when we believed. Jesus is about to appear the second time unto salvation. The bodies of the saints are to be set free from the power of death, and raised in the likeness of the body of Christ’s glory: The creature is to be emancipated from the bondage of corruption; the last remains of Satan’s rule over our world are to be destroyed. The golden ages are to return. From the watchers and holy ones the song of redemption is yet to ascend: “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.”(Rev. 7:10)

F.B. MEYER

1847-1929

          

Christmas Eve Devotional "Awake ! my heart, and lift thine eyes!"

“…for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

                         Luke 2:10-12

     From heaven high I wing my flight.

To bring new tidings of glad delight ;

Or tidings good so much I bring,

Thereof I'll speak, and thereof I'll sing.

For unto you a Child, this morn,

Is of a chosen virgin born;

A Child so blest, and fair to see,

He shall your joy and your comfort be.

Salvation 'mong you will He share,

Which God the Father did prepare,

That in the heavenly kingdom ye

Might dwell both now and eternally.

Then mark ye well the sign He chose,

The crib and lowly swaddling clothes;

There shall ye find the Infant lain

That earth and all things doth sustain.

Let us rejoice, then, every one,

And with the shepherds wander on,

To see what gift the God of heaven

To us, e'en His dear Son, hath given.

Awake ! my heart, and lift thine eyes!

Behold what in yon manger lies!

What is this beauteous Babe so mild?

It is the lovely Jesus child.

      O Jesus, whom my heart holds dear,

Make thee a warm soft cradle here;

Within my breast a dweller be,

That I may ever remember Thee.

        Glory to God on highest throne,

Who sent to us His only Son ;

Therefore rejoice, ye angel throng,

Of this new year to sing the song.

MARTIN LUTHER

Tr: Henry William Dulcken

        The sun sets on the twenty-fourth of December on the low roofs of Bethlehem, and the gleams with wan gold on the steep of its stony ridge.  The stars come out one by one.  Time itself, as if sentient, seems to get eager, as though the hand of its angel shook as it draws on towards midnight.  Bethlehem is at that moment the veritable centre of God's creation.  How silently the stars drift down the steep of the midnight sky!  Yet a few moments, and the Eternal Word will come.

F.W. FABER

        He, that, as Job saith, taketh the vast body of the sea, turns it to and fro as a little child, and rolls it about with the swaddling-bands of darkness; He to lie there, the Lord of glory, without all glory!  Instead of a palace, a poor stable; of a cradle of state, a beast's cratch; no pillow but a lock of hay; no hangings but dust and cobweb!  Christ, though as yet He cannot speak, yet out of His crib, as a pulpit, this day preaches to us, and His theme is, "Learn of Me, for I am humble."  This is the praecepe of praesepe, as I may call it, the lesson of Christ's manger.

BISHOP ANDREWS

        When therefore the first spark of a desire after God arises in thy soul, cherish it with all thy care, give all thy heart into it; it is nothing less than a touch of the divine loadstone, that is to draw thee out of the vanity of time, into the riches of eternity.  Get up therefore, and follow it as gladly as the wise men of the east followed the star from heaven that appeared to them.  It will do for thee as the star did for them, it will lead thee to the birth of Jesus, not in a stable at Bethlehem in Judea, but to the birth of Jesus in the dark centre of thine own soul.

WILLIAM LAW

Christmas Devotional ~"It was Jesus that rolled the stars on their orbits, to tell forth the glory of God..."

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  This One was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it….

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

JOHN 1:1-5,14

A Branch so fair has blossomed

From tender parent stem,

Out of the rod of Jesse,

As told by godly men,

And brought a Flow’r so bright,

Well in the midst of winter

And darkness of the night.

This little Rose, so lovely,

That sprang from Jesse’s rod

A lowly virgin brought us,

The favored one of God;

By His decree and might

A holy Child she bare us

One blessed Christmas night.

This little Flow’r, so fragrant,

My heart fills with delight,

For with its shining splendor

It drives away the night.

True man, and yet God’s Son,

Saves us from sin and sorrow,

And when life’s day is done.

15th Century German Carol

He was born of a woman; yet He made woman. He ate and hungered, drank and thirsted; yet He made corn to grow on the mountains, and poured the rivers from His crystal chalices. He needed sleep; yet He slumbers not, and needs not to repair His wasted energy. He wept; yet He created the lachrymal duct. He died; yet He is the ever-living Jehovah, and made the tree of His cross. He inherited all things by death; yet they were His before by inherent fight….

It was the voice of Jesus that said, "Let there be light"; and the new ethereal substance spread like a haze of glory through space. It was the hand of Jesus that made the expanse between cloud and sea, in which the birds fly (Gen. 1:20). It was the bidding of Jesus that drove the turbulent waters from the land into the ocean-bed which He had scooped. It was the thought of Jesus to splinter the mountain peaks; to thrust the frozen glacier down into the valley by inches; to pour forth the rivers; and to shake down over the hills the falling foam of the cataract. It was Jesus that carpeted the earth with flowers, and devised the innumerable sorts of plants, and planted the noble forest-trees. It was Jesus that rolled the stars on their orbits, to tell forth the glory of God, and to keep time on Nature's dial. It was Jesus that made the fish to flash in the deep; the reptile to creep in the brake; the firefly to glance through the forest; the birds to sing in the woods; flocks to browse on the hills; and herds to traverse the prairies.

It was Jesus who created the human nature which, in after years, He was to assume. He made man in the image and after the likeness of what He was Himself to be in the fullness of time. What strange emotions must have filled his heart as He built up that first man from the red earth!

Not a flower

But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain,

Of His unrivalled pencil.

All life--natural and physical, animal and intellectual, spiritual and religious--is in Him. The whole universe of living things was not simply brought into being by Christ; but it is kept in existence and sustained in living beauty by the constant communications of His fullness --as a vale is kept in fertile beauty, luxuriant with vegetation, by the spray of a perennial waterfall. As the Word, He creates; as the Life, He sustains. As the Word, He declares God; as the Life, He communicates His essence. "As the Word, He is God without us; as the Life, He is God within us."

Apart from Christ, you may exist; but you have no life in you. "He that hath not the Son of God, hath not life." You may have many attractive and amiable qualities, much that is correct in behavior, and beautiful in appearance; but you have no life.

But if you are in Christ, opening all your being to Him, door behind door, back into the most sacred chambers of your being, so that He has free and unhindered entrance into your entire nature; then, as the Nile, descending through the channels cut by the Egyptian peasantry, bears life and fertility into their gardens and cornfields, so will He bring His own life, the life of God, "life indeed," into you, and though you were dead, yet shall you live (John 11:25).

F.B. MEYER

The Gospel of John

"We take refuge in our refuge when we set our faith on God, & tell Him all that threatens or troubles us."

My soul, wait in silence for God only,

For my hope is from Him.

 He only is my rock and my salvation,

My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.

On God my salvation and my glory rest;

The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.

 Trust in Him at all times, O people!

Pour out your heart before Him;

God is a refuge for us.  ~Selah.

Once God has spoken;

Twice I have heard this:

That power belongs to God;

And loving-kindness is Yours, O Lord,

PSALM 62:5-8,11-12

         The Psalmist’s whole being is, as it were, but one stillness of submission. The noises of contending desires, the whispers of earthly hopes, the mutterings of short-sighted fears, the self-asserting accents of an insisting will, are hushed, and all his nature waits mutely for God’s voice. No wonder that a psalm which begins thus would end with “Once God has spoken, twice I have heard this”; for such waiting is never in vain. The soul that leaves to God is still; and, being still, is capable of hearing the Divine whispers which deepen the silence which they bless. “There is no joy but calm”; and the secret of calm is to turn the current of the being to God. Then it is like a sea at rest.

         The psalmist’s silence finds voice, which does not break it, in saying over to himself what God is to him. Not only does his salvation come from God, but God Himself is the salvation which He sends forth like an angel. The recognition of God as his defense is the ground of “silence”; for if He is “my rock and my salvation,’ what can be wiser than to keep close to Him, and let Him do as He will? The assurance of personal safety is inseparable from such a thought of God.

         Every man who has learned that God is a refuge for him is thereby assured that He is the same for all men, and thereby moved to beseech them to make the like blessed discovery. The way into that hiding-place is trust. “Pour out before Him your heart,” says the psalmist. “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God," says Paul. They both mean the same thing. We take refuge in our refuge when we set our faith on God, and tell Him all that threatens or troubles us. When we do, we are no longer in the open, defenseless before the rush of enemies, but housed in God, or, as Paul puts it, guarded in Christ Jesus, as in a fortress. No wonder that the psalm pauses for a moment on that thought, and lets the notes of harp and horn impress it on the listeners!

         So far the psalmist has spoken. But his silent waiting has been rewarded with a clear voice from Heaven, confirming that of his faith. It is most natural to regard the double revelation received by the psalmist as repeated in the following proclamation of the two great aspects of the Divine nature —Power and Loving-kindness. The psalmist has learned that these two are not opposed nor separate, but blend harmoniously in God’s nature, and are confluent in all His works. Power is softened and directed by Loving-kindness. Loving-kindness has as its instrument Omnipotence. The synthesis of these two is in the God whom men are invited to trust; and such trust can never be disappointed; for His Power and His Loving-kindness will cooperate to “render to a man according to his work.” Such “work of faith” will not be in vain; for these twin attributes of Power and Love are pledged to requite it with security and peace.

ALEXANDER MACLAREN

The Expositor’s Bible –Psalms Vol.II

There is the joy whereto each soul aspires,

And there the rest that all the world desires,

And there is love and peace and gracious mirth;

And there in the most highest heavens shalt thou

Behold the Very Beauty, whereof now

Thou worshippest the shadow upon earth.

From the French of

DU BELLAY (1550), tr. By A. LANG