Daily Devotions

In the Old Testament, the sacrificial system of the temple depended on the sacrifices of innocent animals.

The most typical of these sacrifices was the perfect, spotless lamb. Even in Old Testament times, as in Isaiah 53, the lamb was used as a symbol of the Messiah to come, and his work of removing the sin of his people.

When Jesus arrived, John the Baptist announced him as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” In the gentleness and meekness of the lamb, we can see the true nature of God.

"Lamb of God" stirs biblical overtones: of the Passover lamb, and of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah, led like a lamb to the slaughter, bearing our sins.

In his book “Eternity in their Hearts”, Don Richardson a Missionary writes of cultural compasses in other cultures and their language that point to one and only one person, Jesus, preparing the way for the Gospel to be heard.

A story is told of Robert Morrison who landed in China in 1807 and began to translate the Scriptures into the Chinese language with the help of a Chinese man with a limited English vocabulary. Chinese uses more than 200 pictures to combine in different ways to make Chinese words. When he got to the word righteous, he asked how to translate it and when his Chinese helper wrote the word in Chinese, Robert Morrison saw him use two symbols. 

On top was a picture of a lamb and on the bottom was the symbol for I, first person singular. So when the Chinese were writing the word righteous, they were writing the symbols which means the lamb over me. Jesus, the Lamb of God, spoke through the Chinese language and that became the cornerstone for Robert Morrison introducing them to Jesus, the lamb under whom you and I are found to be righteous.

God comes to us as a lamb, as the Lamb of God, to prove that He is for us, not against us.

Loving Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Jesus as the true Lamb of God Who has taken away all my sins. I am so thankful that Jesus died on the Cross for me, becoming the only substitute for my sins. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.

 

Daily Devotions

In Hebrews 9:15 we learn from Paul that Jesus  “is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that those called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—since a death has taken place that redeems them from violations under the first covenant.”

A mediator is one who stands in between and communicates between two people who are often estranged.

As such, Jesus is the mediator between God and humankind. Everything that God has revealed about God’s-self to humanity is  through Jesus and therefore the access that we have to God is also through him.

Bonhoeffer once wrote, “[Christ] is the Mediator, not only between God and humankind, but between human and human, between us and reality.”

I recently read an article on mediation and laughed when the author (a lawyer who has mediated over 7000 cases) shared a personal reflection. She said that her 90 year old parents still mediate between her and her sisters! Just think, a trained lawyer and veteran mediator still needed the practical help of her parents to mediate conflict with her siblings.

We can consider mediation as third-party-peacemaking. Scripture speaks of mediation in a number of places But the most profound illustration of mediation is Jesus Himself. “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and human beings, Christ Jesus, himself human” (1 Timothy 2:5).

In the greek, mediator is best understood as someone who is a go-between, arbiter, agent of something good. In Rabbinic teaching there is a common saying that a mediator is “the one who is sent is like the one who sent him”

O God, you are my God, and I praise you for making access to you so freely available. I know that if left to my own power, I would have no strength or righteousness with which to approach you. Yet in your grace, you have provided a mediator for my approach to you. Jesus, I thank that you intercede and speak for me! Thank you, Jesus, for making this prayer known to the Father as I pray in your name. Amen. 

Daily Devotions

The prophet Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be called “Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14) which means “God with us”.

This summarises the purpose of God in sending Jesus to this earth. Through him, God came to be with us and through Jesus, God doesn’t stand apart from humanity. He became one with us.

There was an obvious “oneness” with humanity at Jesus’ birth.

The greatest union between God and humanity, though, happened at the cross where God, in Christ, took upon himself the sin of the world, in order to save all who trust in him.

In the name of Jesus, ‘Immanuel’ or ‘God is with us’, we can look at everything he does, and everything that happens to him with these words echoing like a chorus or featured like a backdrop behind him. Because of him we are all Immanuel; God is with us still in a special way because he was in Jesus in a special way. We could look this day at everyone we meet and say ‘Immanuel’.

On his deathbed, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, spoke and repeated these final words, "The best of all is, God is with us.” Andrew E Pratt, born 1948, took Wesley’s last words and wrote this hymn.

1 Best of all is God is with us,
God will hold and never fail.
Keep that truth when storms are raging,
God remains though faith is frail.

2 Best of all is God is with us,
life goes on and needs are met,
God is strongest in our weakness.
Love renews, will not forget.

3 Best of all is God is with us,
hearts are challenged, strangely warmed,
faith is deepened, courage strengthened,
grace received and hope reformed.

4 Best of all is God is with us,
in our joy and through our pain,
till that final acclamation:
‘life is Christ, but death is gain’.

5 Best of all is God is with us
as we scale eternal heights,
love grows stronger, undiminished;
earth grows dim by heaven’s lights.

Holly Sprink, in her book Faith Postures: Cultivating Christian Mindfulness, writes, “God simply told us to think of Jesus as Immanuel, which means ‘God with us.’ How amazing that one of the main ways God wants us to think about the person of Jesus is as ‘a sharing, an embrace of life by Life, a total identification of God with the object of his love.”

Immanuel, God is with us! Amen

Daily Devotions

The New Testament was written in the Greek, with the first letter of the alphabet  called “alpha” and the last letter is called “omega”. The idea of God being the first and the last is also found in the Old Testament.

However, in the New Testament, this is applied to Jesus, and expressed by the name “Alpha and Omega”. In Revelations 22:13 we read, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Explicitly, this is saying that Jesus is before all things and that all things proceed from him. It also points out that Jesus is also unending, so that all things find their conclusion in him and that he should be our focus at the beginning, the centre, and at the end of our lives.

"From start to finish," "from top to bottom," "from first to last"—each of these phrases expresses completeness, thoroughness, totality. In our verse today, Jesus asserts his totality using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet: "I am the Alpha and the Omega." And then, to make sure we get it, he adds, ". . . the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." Jesus uses this name for himself nine times in the book of Revelation.

As "the Alpha and the Omega," Jesus declares his divinity, and he asserts his sovereignty as Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator and the final Judge to whom every knee shall bow.

Jesus also links the claim "I am the Alpha and the Omega" with his declaration "I am coming soon." With pain and suffering so rampant in our world, the promise of his return to make all things right is a great comfort. As with many of Jesus' words, however, his coming again presents challenges too.

Father God, thank you for the blessings of the past year. Please guide me as I seek to use your blessings in what lies ahead. Inspire my confidence about your future for me and fill me with joy because of your salvation. For all that has been good, holy, and gracious, I give you thanks and praise. For all the ways I've sinned, failed, or stumbled, I ask for your forgiveness. And for tomorrow, and another new day, I wait with anticipation and gladness, for I know that I will can be at home with you where days and years no longer matter. In Jesus' name the Alpha and Omega, I pray. Amen.

 

Daily Devotions

Today our title given to Jesus is "The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6)

The word “prince” refers to the one who has full authority over something, or who is the ultimate source.

As the “prince of peace” Jesus is the one who is both the centre and origin of peace. The prophet Isaiah prophesied the Messiah to come would be the “prince of peace.” Jesus made peace and reconciled all things through his blood shed upon the cross. As a result, we can be justified and have peace with God.

During many an advent service the the familiar words of Isaac 9:6 will be read or sung as part of the annual rendition of Handle’s Messiah, “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.”

Gordon McDonald tells this story: “A Nigerian woman who is a physician at a great teaching hospital in the United States who came out of the crowd to say something kind about the lecture he had just given. She introduced herself using an American name. 

‘What’s your African name?’ McDonald asked. She immediately gave it to him, several syllables long with a musical sound to it. 

‘What does the name mean?’ He wondered. 

She answered, ‘It means “Child who takes the anger away.”’ 

When he inquired as to why she would have been given this name, she said, ‘My parents had been forbidden by their parents to marry. But they loved each other so much that they defied the family opinions and married anyway. For several years they were ostracised from both their families. Then my mother became pregnant with me. And when the grandparents held me in their arms for the first time, the walls of hostility came down. I became the one who swept the anger away. And that’s the name my mother and father gave me.’”

Jesus came as our Prince of Peace to bring us wholeness, perfect unity between us and God, harmony among creation and a victorious sense of well-being. Jesus Christ is the only reason we can truly live peacefully with God and others.

The peace Jesus brings is one that is beyond comprehension. It is a peace that comes from knowing that God has everything well in hand, even when it doesn’t look like it. It is a sense of well-being, knowing you are perfectly safe in the middle of the storm because you have something beyond what is visible to anchor you. It is knowing that you are part of the an unshakable Kingdom where you are safe, loved and abounding with grace. This peace comes from knowing your identity is secure in Christ and your destiny is sure.

Perhaps we should pray,

Wilt Thou pitifully enter,

Son of Man, and lay Thy head?

Enter, then, O Christ most holy;

Make a Christmas in my heart;

Make a heaven of my manger:

It is heaven where Thou art. Amen

George Stringer Rowe (b. 1830)

Daily Devotions

In Luke 9:35 we find this remarkable incident  “A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

Here we find God the Father declaring Jesus to be his “beloved Son”. This happens twice in the gospels, at Jesus baptism and the Transfiguration.

This didn’t mean a son in the sense of someone physically born, but a “Son” in the sense of someone beloved above all, who inherits all his father has.

In the Old Testament, we see Jesus prefigured in the beloved sons of Isaac, Joseph, and David.

In the New Testament, Jesus himself prefigures our own standing as beloved sons and daughters of God as a result of our salvation through him.

Later in John's gospel we read, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

A six-year-old Scottish girl named Lulu wrote a letter to God: “To God, How did you get invented?” Lulu’s father, who is not a believer, sent her letter to various church leaders: the Scottish Episcopal Church (no reply), the Presbyterians (no reply), and the Scottish Catholics (who sent a theologically complex reply). He also sent it to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent the following letter in reply:

Dear Lulu,

Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –

‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected. Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like. But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’

And then he’d send you lots of love. I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lots of love from me too.” +Archbishop Rowan

The greatest sign he sent is his Son.

Loving God, giver of all light and life,

you sent your Son Jesus Christ into the world

not to condemn, but to save.

Help us to lift up the light of Christ

so that the world might believe in him

and receive the gift of eternal life;

through Christ, the light of the world. Amen 

Daily Devotions

As we move through  this Advent season we will examine titles given to Jesus, starting with the first designation of Redeemer. The meaning of a “redeemer” comes from the idea of “buying back” or “paying the price” for something or someone considered lost. Slaves could be redeemed by buying them and giving them their freedom.

In the Old Testament, God is called the redeemer because he saved his people from captivity.

However, in the New Testament, the focus falls on Jesus as the redeemer who gives himself to save that which was despised. In other words redemption turns what is worthless into precious beyond  gold. But when it comes to Jesus as Redeemer it is not just some kind of spiritual transaction, in essence, it is the God of Love for us embodied in Jesus.

It was Martin Luther Jr who said, “Love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can't stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they'll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That's love, you see. It is redemptive.”

Charles Dickens’s, A Christmas Carol, offers a familiar and seasonal illustration of the arc of judgment and redemption through the eyes of Ebenezer Scrooge. Tracing his sin of greed through its origins (past), effects (present), and ultimate consequences (future), we see judgment met with redemption and reconciliation. 

Why not prayerful ponder the words of Keith Greens hymn

There is a redeemer,
Jesus, God’s own Son,
precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Holy One.

Jesus, my Redeemer,
name above all names,
precious Son of God, Messiah,
Lamb for sinners slain.

When I stand in glory
I will see his face
and there I’ll serve my King for ever
in that holy place.

Thank you, O my Father,
for giving us your Son,
and leaving your Spirit
till the work on earth is done. Amen