Today’s Devotional is offered by Beth Gray.

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It was to be a routine CT scan.

Moments later, he was being rushed to the ER by medical personnel administering CPR.

Throughout the next 48 hours, we began to transition forward into life without my father.

“There is no way I will survive this,” I thought to myself.

So many painful reminders of his absence come with each Holiday, birthday, or special occasion, and then one day it hit me:

God knew, first-hand, of the grief and sorrow that I had been experiencing.
He understood my tears and broken heart.
Afterall, he had lost his only son.

Life isn’t always filled with excitement and happiness. We can feel shattered and broken by events in life. We can feel tangled up — a mess — like strands of Christmas tree lights.

God tells us in John 16:20, “ I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.”

He offers us peace and assurance in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Recently, I read that because of Christmas, we have an eternal Hope that will overcome the heartbreak that we suffer. I like to think that is a gentle reminder of God’s undying love for us, that he is clearly in control of everything, thus we should be at peace and rest in his assurance.

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Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank you for never leaving me alone. Help me to always have the faith needed to trust and obey your word. Cast away my doubts and reassure me that no matter what might happen, you are always with me. Stand beside me as I grow in faith and grant me your peace. Amen.

Today’s Devotional is offered by Chip Fudge.

Philippians 4:7: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

When I hear the phrase “peace on earth” I immediately think of the Christmas story from Luke and the words of the heavenly host: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14, KJV). My thoughts immediately go the ending of war and strife between nations and thoughts of people coexisting in a loving manner. But when I jump to the end of the Bible to see how the story ends (Revelation), I learn that peace on earth will not occur until Christ returns. Is this the peace to which the heavenly host referred?

Isn’t it strange how our thoughts center on the failings of others without looking inward first? Let’s turn this inward. What have I done to make peace in my community? And more intimately, what have I done to make peace with my next door neighbor, my parents, my siblings, my children, my spouse… and, oh yeah…my God? Until I make peace with God, I cannot enjoy His peace (Philippians 4:7). And until I am in a relationship with God, I cannot enjoy real peace with others. So, how do I make peace with God? I begin by coming into agreement with God that I am in need of repentance and by accepting his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Then, I develop and grow in inner peace as I grow in my relationship with God.

God created us to have an intimate relationship with Him. If that is true, then what work can be more important than growing in that intimacy? (This is an important question. Please stop, take a moment, and think about it.)

Though I accepted Christ at a young age, I did not begin working on my intimacy with Him until I was in my forties. I eventually learned the importance of setting time aside for God every day. For me, that is the first thing every morning, for you that may be just before bedtime or at another set time. The key is to set some time aside for God every day. If your days are hectic, start with just 10 minutes at a time. Find a quiet spot where you are less likely to be distracted. During your time with God, speak to him, pray, and read your bible. Be completely honest with Him and with yourself. He knows your innermost thoughts anyway and He understands you better than you understand yourself. If you don’t know where to begin reading, I recommend the Book of John. The key is to commit to giving God this time every day. Do this and watch peace blossom!

Prayer: Lord, help me to take time to grow in my relationship with you so that I may know your peace. Amen

Today’s devotional is offered by Katelyn Smith. Today’s devotional is offered by Katelyn Smith. 

But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. – 1 Peter 4.1

One of the things I am most thankful for is the many opportunities I have had to travel in my life and that God continues to grant me opportunities to travel often. However, I must clarify that when I say I love to travel, I am referring to the joy and excitement of being in a new destination.

I imagine most people would agree that when I say that I love to travel that usually doesn’t mean the actual traveling. The journey, can be a very long, tiring process and sometimes I get very anxious when I travel, especially when I am alone. “What if I don’t get to the gate in time, what if they lose my bags, what if I spend too long in customs and miss my connecting flight, what if the plane falls out of the sky?” Finding peace while traveling sometimes is extremely difficult, and I say several little prayers throughout my journey. It helps to focus on the destination and how I’ll have such a wonderful time when I’m there. My peace comes from knowing God is in control.

Mary and Joseph, I imagine, had a lot of travel anxiety as they journeyed to Bethlehem. As they followed, the path I am sure countless questions ran through their minds. They may have felt extremely anxious, but God was there with them. God had made an intricate, perfect plan and knowing this gave Mary and Joseph peace. Knowing that God is in control and that He will help us to our destination is assuring. Constantly speaking with God, not only as we travel, but all the time puts peace into our hearts as we give all of our concerns and doubts over to him.

During this Advent season as we journey to Christmas, the day of Christ’s birth, there are preparations to be made, and there will be traveling too. Remember that God is always with you, protecting and guiding you. God has an amazing plan and will help guide us safely to our destination. While we are on the journey, He will give us peace and when we rest in Him.

Prayer: Lord, help us to find hope in the journey and peace in our destinations. May we feel your presence, comfort, and love as we follow your guidance. Amen

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
-John 14.27

Today’s devotional is written by Susan Satterwhite

Away in a manger
Away in a manger no crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing the baby awakes
But little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.
I love you Lord Jesus; look down from the sky
And stay by my side until morning is nigh.

Be near me Lord Jesus I ask you to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in your tender care,
And fit us for heaven, to live with you there.

This is my favorite Christmas carol. In fact, I find myself singing it throughout the entire year. It calms me and brings me a peace that I need in my day to day struggles with the busyness of all seasons, but especially this Christmas season. The words are exactly what I need when I feel like my world may fall apart. Just singing the words, asking the Lord to be near me, brings me the calmness I need. Just try it. It works.

Thinking of this makes me think of what really matters during this season. Is it the large gifts under the tree, the countless hours of shopping and wrapping, the messy kitchen from the holiday baking? I don’t think so. When I reflect on my childhood and the traditions that mean the most, it is the simple things. It’s the things that don’t take lots of money or hours of preparation.

I have tried to remember this in raising my girls and making the season what it’s meant to be. The small things are what matter most. This season I urge you to let go of some of the big stressors of the season, and try to find some of the small things that bring peace and joy to your life, such as grabbing your loved one’s hand while praying, sitting around the table to complete a holiday puzzle (ok, well this one is a little more stressful than intended), riding around to see the beauty of the decorations adorning our town. One of my favorite traditions is doing a Family Advent Devotional. If you haven’t done that before, it is really special to prepare for the coming of Jesus one day at a time during Advent.

Focusing on the small things will make the season more special. Baby Jesus was just a small little baby with so much promise for each of us. Our relationship with God started with this little baby boy. The small baby boy who was delivered for you and me, who became our Shephard, our Savior, our King – this is the good news of the season! As we journey through Advent may we focus on the “small things”– the little moments with our family, the beautiful colors and sounds that symbolize all the season means, and most importantly, sweet little baby Jesus who became our King. Our God is near us even when we feel lost and overwhelmed by the commercialization of the season and when we forget, simply sing the words of this sweet hymn so that PEACE may abound in you and through you.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, We deeply thank you for sending your sweet son, Jesus.
As a little baby boy, he brought so much promise to each of us.
As our Savior, we ask you to bring peace to us.
Help us understand that we can’t control people, plans or circumstances, but we can yield those things to you and focus on your goodness.
Help us remember you are near even in times of trouble or times of worry.
As we journey through Advent we ask you to help us focus on what matters and to give thanks instead of worrying.
Forgive us when we fall short.
We love you Lord and thank you for all your many blessings. Amen

The Charge Today’s Devotional is offered by Dave Williams.

When Trudy and I lived in Raleigh we were members of a Presbyterian church. Dr. H. Edwin Pickard, the senior pastor, was a learned, scholarly sort. I found his sermons to be thoughtful and inspiring. For the first time in my life, I consistently looked forward to attending church.

My favorite part of his Sunday morning service came at the very end. He would raise his right arm and recite what I thought was a benediction (a divine blessing), but in hindsight, I now think of it as more of a charge (an exhortation to do the will of Christ as you go about your life). I liked the charge so much I asked Trudy to cross stitch and frame it and hang it where I could see it every day before I went out into the world. Now, forty-two years later, the words are still a great inspiration to me. They come from the last chapter of 1 Thessalonians. My hope is that you will also take inspiration from “The Charge” as we near the final days of this Advent Season.

Go forth into the world in peace;

be of good courage;

hold fast to that which is good;

render to no one evil for evil;

strengthen the fainthearted;

support the weak;

help the afflicted;

honor all persons;

love and serve the Lord,

rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thank you,
Dave Williams December 20, 2017

Today’s Devotional is offered by Steve Timberlake.

Psalm 13.1, 5
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
…But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

Can you imagine how the Israelites felt when they were taken from their homes and loved ones to become captives in a foreign land? Without hope comes to mind. How they must have wished they had listened and followed the call of the prophets as they longed for restoration and a vision of new hope. It is such a horrible feeling to be without hope.

In our difficult times, as we reach for help and answers, hope is the one thing we have to cling to, though sometimes difficult to find. Perhaps that was one of the reasons God came to live with us through His son Jesus…hope and salvation. He came to live and walk with us. He lived to carry the burden of our sins to the cross even to death. And then, he died to rise again in victory. All of this was for you and me…so that we might live with hope.

Here we are in the season of Advent. I try to be careful not to think “here we go again.” In the busine$$ of Christmas, we wait and expect numerous things to take place. The arrival of friends and family, special treats from the kitchen, maybe a gift or two…all of this is good! But this advent, let’s take time and prepare Him room in our hearts, our lives and activities. As we prepare to receive, may we prepare to give in the hope of a new advent. So sweet to celebrate His first coming, how wonderful to know the promise and hope of His second coming.

Prayer: Thank you, Father, for your gift of Jesus. May we all make room in our hearts as we celebrate and welcome His coming with the hope of a new advent. Amen

 

Today’s devotional is offered by Caroline Joyner.

For a child has been born for us,
a son is given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onwards and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
-Isaiah 9:6-7

One of the themes for Advent is hope, and it seems we are always hoping for something. Whether it is a better financial situation, a vacation, our team to win a basketball game, or something special on our Christmas list, we all hope for something.

For thousands of years, the Israelites hoped for the fulfillment of prophecies that foretold of a Messiah that would come and would be the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. This Messiah is a perfect, sinless, lamb, and is God incarnate. The promised child will sit on the throne of David and would rule over an eternal kingdom full of righteousness and justice, something that could not be accomplished by any other king on earth.

The promise has been fulfilled through the birth and resurrection of Christ, and we now have a new hope. The hope is that one day, Christ will return to us and we get to see him atop his eternal throne in heaven where every tribe, tongue, and nation will confess that Christ is King. This hope is something in which we can find assurance.

We are not promised a better financial situation to come, or a tropical vacation in the coming year. We definitely aren’t promised that fancy new iPhone X will be sitting under our tree on Christmas morning. However, our hearts are created to long for eternity with the all-righteous King. And we will find that eternity through the fulfillment of His promise with the birth of our Messiah.

So, during this season of Advent, what is your heart hoping for?

Prayer: Dear God, today I come to you expectant. I come to you with a hope that I know will one day be fulfilled. I know one day hope will no longer be needed because I will see you face-to-face seated on your throne. Sometimes I feel like the Israelites and feel like I am waiting and longing forever. Give me guidance during those times of waiting and remind me of the beauty of what there is to come. Amen.

 

Today’s devotional is offered by retired intern, Chris Redmon.

Luke 1:11-13, 18-20: Then there appeared to Zechariah an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. . .” Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.

It seems downright cruel.

Here’s Zechariah, wondering how his barren, elderly wife will bear their family a child. You don’t need biology degrees to know that this is impossible. Zechariah’s question to his mysterious guest isn’t rude or insulting; it’s honest. Were I in his shoes, I’d have asked it myself—and in a few verses, Mary will ask it too (1:34).

So it seems cruel, Gabriel silencing Zechariah. “You will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.” Stern words, especially when Luke has gone out of his way to tell us what a good man this Zechariah is (1:6). What did he ever do to tick the angel off? Was it his lack of faith? Had priesthood made him arrogant? Had he forgotten the stories in the Hebrew Scriptures of barren women conceiving—Sarah, or Rebekah, or Hannah?

Of course, these questions assume that Zechariah’s silence was a punishment. And maybe that’s not quite right. Maybe it was something else entirely. Maybe it was an opportunity. What if it was a gift?

What if, for this season, Zechariah needed the silence more than anything else? What if he welcomed it as a chance to listen to God afresh, to rethink who God was—even to imitate God, who lives in the sound of sheer silence (1 Kings 19:11-13)? What if these moments in Zechariah’s life were like the speechless moments before creation, preparing Zechariah to speak (1:67-80), and to go before the one who would go before the Lord?

And what if, this busy season, Zechariah was inviting you to be silent too? To quiet your spirit, forget what you thought you knew about the world, listen, and hope for something new?

Prayer: Lord, take away our words and teach us yours. Help us to befriend silence and to hear you within it. Amen.

Today’s Devotional is offered by Natalie Aho

Mark 1.12: And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Have you ever been in the wilderness?

The dry, parched lands. The thirst. No sight of home. No good food.
No relief from the sun. Endless days and nights.
No hope to be found. Little sleep, no rest, and always the routine.

Our journeys through life may not be as physically challenging the desert, however, different times in life can be just as grueling and sometimes it is hard to find hope:

Should I keep this job?
Will we ever have kids?
Is it time for my mother to go into a nursing home?
Can I afford to send my kids to college?
Why is it hard to make friends?
Should I stick this marriage out?
How will I have this baby? (at least I think that’s what Mary would have wondered in Luke 1:34)?

These are agonizing, tormenting decisions that cause us to lash out at others, lose sleep, and wallow in stress. We all share the humanity of wrestling with decisions. We want to follow God’s direction. And, if anything, we have learned that trying to go without God may only lead us to the belly of a whale. So, in our contemplating and analyzing, we struggle to know, what DOES God want me to do?

Yet, sometimes there is just silence. God does not shout in our ear the direction to take. God does not write it on our walls or tell our friends the answers. God does not even send us an angel to tell us why this is happening to us (Luke 1:28-38). Elijah said he heard God in the still small whisper. And sometimes we do, too. But what about those times when we don’t hear anything at all?

It seems we are left to wander in our own wilderness trying to find the way to our promised land. We may seek comfort in friends and family, as Mary did with Elizabeth, or maybe we feel that we have no choice, as Joseph did when he contemplated quietly breaking off the engagement with Mary. Either way, we feel alone. Hope is hard to find.

We’ve framed the Advent season as the prelude to the birth of Jesus and when we picture it, we add three wise men, camels, shepherds and angels. But what if at our nativity scene, we added Moses, Abraham and David gathered around the manger?
These Old Testament characters seem out of place in our Advent story. Yet, I wonder if they point us toward the life we are asked to live in the light of the Advent miracle?
Can they help us put the struggles of Mary and Joseph into our own struggling lives?

When we are facing a period of wandering and feeling directionless, are we repeating the life stories shown to us in the Bible: Moses and the Israelites – wandering for 40 years; Abraham following God’s call to “go to the land I will show you (not have shown you)”; Solomon seeking to find the meaning of life; David running, hiding, trembling from his enemies; prophets gone before us – Jonah, Jeremiah, Elijah; and finally questioning and concerned Mary and Joseph? Each has shown us that wandering and wondering is an unavoidable part of our humanity.

Sometimes it is our own doing: we stray from God and then forget what God’s voice sounds like. Other times, the wilderness is a part of our growth – to prepare us, prune us, mold us, and form us. There are times when it is not explainable, and we will not ever know the answer to why we are in this situation. However, when we are going through our wilderness, we can be comforted by looking at the whole of God’s story, to see that before each journey – God was there, during each journey – God is there, and at the end of each journey – God will be there. Our journey will probably not be toward giving birth to the Son of God in a manger at the end of a day’s travel, but we will definitely receive assurance from the Son of God born to us 2,000 years ago. There is relief and hope in our deserts, and his name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. May we keep wandering.

Prayer: Eternal God, sometimes our wandering feels long, dry, and aimless. Help us by assuring us that you are with us, each step of the way.

Today’s writer is Mary Katherine Washington.

“The angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.”  -Luke 1.30-31

I love the song “Mary, Did You Know?” and picturing the Christmas season from Mary’s point of view.
I wonder what was on her heart while she was pregnant? After the shocking announcement that she would miraculously give birth to the Savior of the World, I can only imagine she would be scared, excited, confused, and asking “why me?”

We have the same emotions and questions in our lives today. When there is news of a surprise pregnancy, a new job, the death of a loved one, or an unwanted diagnosis, I think it is ok to ask, “why me?”
Although we may never know the answer to this question, I find peace in knowing that God knows. He knew what he was doing when he selected Mary to be the mother of Jesus.  He knew what he was doing when he sent his son to die on a cross for our sins. I hope that as Mary prepared for the birth of her baby, that she felt God’s presence and His peace. As we prepare for this advent season, I hope that we will have the peace that only God can provide as we face the uncertainties of this world.

Prayer: Loving God, we live with many questions that cannot be answered, and even acknowledge that sometimes an answered question only leads to more questions. Help us during all seasons, to find strength through our faith, to live with the hard questions of life, and not demand that every question is answered, for that is not faith at all. Amen.