Worship

“Behold” by Phil Wickham, featuring Anne Wilson

Scripture

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16, ESV

The Journey to Bethlehem

It’s the glorious season of Christmas when we understand, in part, what God did in full for our eternal righteousness. We go with eager expectation and wide-eyed curiosity all the way back to Bethlehem. As we journey, we explore the way, the why, and the how God came to dwell with His people. It’s a month of reflection and worship and wonder as we unwrap the gift of Jesus.

It’s my desire to set a table for a Christmas advent each week, where we can prepare our hearts to encounter Him in all His glory and humility. For the next four weeks, this devotional will look different with new sections to help you prepare your heart for this season. May this be both a preparation and a reset for you this month. Prepare to open gift No. 1: the gift of love.

The Divine Initiative of Love

For God, so rich in mercy, saw us devastatingly separated from any intimacy with Himself. It broke His heart and set a plan in motion that would sweep all of humanity for all of eternity forever. For in all the fullness of His uncontainable affection toward us, He expresses such a deep longing and desire for His people. And in the heartbreak of a moment of sin came a tsunami of a pulsating affection that reverberates across time and space. A new expression of love was born in that moment that would manifest in the greatest suffering and sacrifice ever known. Love now had a bullseye target: to redeem man and bring us back to intimacy with the Father. This love came with a great cost and a great passion in a baby’s cry.

For God so loved the world.

This love—this unexplainable love that human language doesn’t have adequate wording for. Our vocabulary is too simplistic to describe this wondrous love. This love that knows no boundary of space or time, no measure that humanity’s performance could limit, no height or depth or breadth or width that could contain this love. It’s a love that comes from a Father, through a son, born of virgin, in the most humble of conditions. Such a scandalous love. It’s a love that is well pleased with, so fond of, and so enamored by His precious people. It swallows up your most righteous actions and most hideous sin. It’s a love that runs to us, with a brow drenched in blood, into our brokenness and frailty and sweeps us up with undeserving mercy. It pulls us close and rips out the daggers the enemy thrusts into us. Love lifts our shields of faith once again. This love shifted all of history forever so we could experience the fullness of Life Himself. This Jesus is the One who encapsulated the very essence and presence of love, so we could be truly saved and set free.

Oh, this patient, protecting, pursuing love that comes to you this Christmas—to lift your hands in victory, your heart in healing, and your mind in peace. He’s so kind and so tender. This love that comes to you in humble invitation to worship the One who has the power to restore everything the enemy has stolen and every wound your soul has endured. This love breaks the silence of 400 years when God said not a word. This love bounds across the skies, so much so that angels descend to Earth in worship. This love comes to you today to make all things new and pull you back to the heart of your Father. He’s running to you like He did 2,000 years ago. Joy to the world!

He gave His one and only Son.

The Gift of His Only Son

There was only one answer, and that was His Son. He had to come and build a bridge through a wooden cross so we could get back to the Father. A bridge over tumultuously troubled waters. Thousands of years of blood sacrifices of innocent animals would never be enough. There would come one sacrifice that would be the highway of holiness back to the Father. I can’t imagine the reaction of Heaven as Jesus left to enter the womb of a teenage girl who was so unsuspecting. This Son, His perfect Son, is born to save us and to become our most Wonderful Counselor and Everlasting God.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16, ESV

So that everyone who believes will experience everlasting life.

We are invited to come and see and to watch and to be transformed as we look upon His precious face this Christmas. Bend low and look upon it as shepherds and angels and wise men once did. It will be our very confidence that we know the One whom we have believed—whom we have trusted with life and with eternity. This One, who is pure love, invites us to come and believe, that we would experience the fullness of life. This Christmas, we come again to the manger, in the shadow of the cross, and we worship as we behold the experiential knowledge of His goodness and His mercy and His grace this Christmas.

Receive Your Gift

I invite you to open your hands and receive the presence of love.

Jesus, will You come and envelop this one reading these very words, with the weight of Your presence? Love, come and heal the wounds the enemy has inflicted. Love, come and bind up the brokenhearted and give peace to those whose minds are troubled. Love, come and destroy the chains that block these ones from being able to walk as royalty, bringing their gifts to this King of Kings. Love, come and pour out the unfathomable and uncontainable love that Heaven sent 2,000 years. Come again, like You did then, in glorious wonder, and sweep Your beloved off their feet this Christmas.

Christmas Around the World: South Asia

Will you pray for the people in South Asia who live in the remote mountain villages? Will you pray for them to experience their first Christmas this year? There is a team heading there this week to tell them of a Savior who was born for them and died so they could experience everlasting life. Pray for a harvest of souls and for many to experience the wonder of Jesus this Christmas!

Go and share this message from every mountain top and on every street. Jesus is here; love has come! Share this devotional with those to know they are seen and loved and pursued this Christmas!