Christmas Devotional '21 "His hands made the universe. All glory was His."

    

    So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.  And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn….                                                                                                                                   And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger…. And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.           Luke 2:6-7,16,20                                                                                                                                                                                           

 

Sleep! Holy Babe! upon Thy mother’s breast;

 

Great Lord of earth and sea and sky,

 

How sweet it is to see Thee lie

 

In such a place of rest.

 

Sleep! Holy Babe! Thine angels watch around,

 

All bending low with folded wings,

 

Before th’incarnate King of kings,

 

In reverent awe profound.

 

Sleep! Holy Babe! while I with Mary gaze

 

In joy upon that face awhile,

 

Upon the loving infant smile

 

Which there divinely plays.

 

Sleep! Holy Babe! ah! take Thy brief repose;

 

Too quickly will Thy slumbers break,

 

And Thou to lengthened pains awake

 

That death alone shall close.

 

EDWARD CASWALL~ Sleep! Holy Babe

 

How wonderful this was!  We must remember who it was that was thus born.  The birth of another child in this world was nothing strange, for thousands of children are born every day.  But this was the Lord of glory.  This was not the beginning of His life.  He had lived from all eternity in heaven.  His hands made the universe.  All glory was His.  All the crowns of power flashed upon His brow.  All mighty angels called Him Lord.  We must remember this if we would understand how great was His condescension…. 

 

      Christ’s glory was folded away under robes of human flesh.  He never ceased to be the Son of God; and yet He assumed all the conditions of humanity.  He veiled His power, and became a helpless infant, unable to walk, to speak…lying feeble and dependent in His mother’s bosom…He laid aside His sovereignty, His majesty. What condescension!  And it was all for our sake, that He might lift us up to glory.  It was as a Saviour that He came into this world.  He became Son of man that He might make us sons of God.   He came down to earth and lived among men, entering into their experiences of humiliation, that He might lift them up to glory to share His exaltation.              

 

J.R. MILLER~Come Ye Apart

Advent Devotional I '21 "At His birth, a manger for the Child, a star for the Son..."

 

 

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. Thou shalt multiply the nation, Thou shalt increase their gladness; they will be glad in Thy presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil…. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace…”

ISAIAH 9:2-3,6-7

 

 

Christ, whose glory fills the skies,

Christ, the true, the only Light,

Sun of Righteousness, arise,

Triumph o’er the shades of night;

Dayspring from on High, be near;

Day-star, in my heart appear.

Dark and cheerless is the morn

Unaccompanied by Thee;

 

Visit then this soul of mine,

Pierce the gloom of sin and grief;

Fill me, Radiancy divine,

Scatter all my unbelief;

More and more Thyself display,

Shining to the perfect day.

 

CHARLES WESLEY~1740

Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies

 

        We have two words, Child and Son: neither waste. Born and given. Born of the Virgin His Mother, given by God His Father. All along His life you shall see these two. At His birth, a manger for the Child, a star for the Son: a company of shepherds viewing the Child, a choir of angels celebrating the Son. In His life; hungry Himself, to show the nature of the Child; yet feeding five thousand, to show the power of the Son. At His death, dying on the Cross, as the Son of Adam, at the same time disposing of Paradise, as the Son of God.

 

BISHOP ANDREWS

 

        “Little Bethlehem!” That Birth is sure too big for this place! What shall we make of this? Nothing but what cometh from it of itself without straining; that with God it is no new thing to bring great out of little…For little Bethlehem’s sake then love the virtue that is like it. Honor it, there is a star over it, there is a Savior in it. More good comes out of that poor town than from all the great and glorious cities in the world. Bethlehem gives us a Guide, if we will follow Him, Who will bring us to Paradise; and Him we must follow, if ever we mean to come there.

BISHOP ANDREWS

 

        During the First World War a little boy was walking out with his father one night. Each home which had given a son to the war displayed a small silver star in the front window. When the houses were left behind, the little boy looked up at the dark sky. There was no moon, and all but one of the stars had forgotten to shine. There it was, just one bright star. The little boy went very quiet, then asked, “Daddy, did God give a Son, too?”

J. SIDLOW BAXTER

Awake My Heart