GOD CAME NEAR- Jesus’ Humility

(To go along with this advent devotional, we’ve also made a Spotify playlist! Check it out here.)

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“But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.'” –  Luke 2:10

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      Good News. That’s what the angels proclaimed to the shepherds who had been keeping watch over their flocks that night. Make no mistake, shepherds were not at the top of the social order. Shepherds were outcasts of society, marginalized within their own culture. They were dirty, uneducated, and poor. Yet they were the very first people God chose to deliver the good news of the birth of the King! What kind of God makes the grand announcement of the Savior of the World to a bunch of rag-tag shepherds?

      In this, we catch a glimpse of God’s heart and character towards his people. And in Jesus, we see the ultimate example of humility. He came to serve, not to be served. He came as a King but lived like a servant. He was fully God, yet did not consider that something to be grasped. Paul writes this about Jesus:

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“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” – Philippians 2 6-8

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      Jesus bent to wash feet. He spent time with the lowly, the sick, and the outcast. His entire ministry on earth was focused on loving and serving people who were not otherwise considered in culture. 

      This is why Christmas is Good News for us! This is why the angel proclaimed the birth of Jesus as, “good news that will cause great joy for all people.” Good news not just for certain people, but for all people! Not just for those in palaces, but for those in prisons. Not just for those in power, but for those in poverty. Not just for those with a perfect record, but for those with a broken past in desperate need of a Savior. 

      And Christmas is still Good News today! The humility of Jesus far outreaches the boundaries of time and social order. If Jesus had been born in a palace and laid in a cradle of gold, it would not have been good news for the shepherds and it would not be good news for us! In a palace, the shepherds would not have been welcomed, and we would not have been invited! But there in a barn, placed in a wooden feeding trough– all are welcomed! What a King to come and behold. 

      The humility of Jesus allows us to approach Him confidently and compels us to love others humbly. His humility is the thing that draws us near to Him and drives us to want to follow Him. Jesus is the King who came to serve! And when we follow His authority, we will be moved to model His humility.

      If it’s hard to find purpose and motivation in this season, do this– take a long, hard look at Jesus! Look at how He came, how He lived, and how He laid his life down for our sake! Let that motivate you. Let His purpose become your purpose– to love others, to serve others, and to consider others above yourself!

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“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). – Matthew 1:22-23

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 Reflect & Respond: 

Acknowledge: Are there places in your life where you feel the need to make much of yourself? Are there places in your life where pride keeps you from seeing others the way Jesus sees them? Write them down. 

Posture: The posture of humility often comes in the form of bowing down. In the time of Jesus, this is how one would approach a king. It’s also how we see Jesus, often on His knees while serving others, and spending time with His Father. You may have never done this before, but take a moment to get on your knees, and posture yourself in humility before your Savior.

Prayer: “Jesus, thank you the life you lived in humility & servanthood. May it compel me to draw in closer to you, and closer to others, seeing them how you see them. Give me eyes to see places to bend a knee and serve someone else. It’s because of your life, death, and resurrection that I get to participate with you in the redemption of all things. May I see everyone around me as a chance to be a vessel of your grace, mercy, and humility. Amen.”

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(If you didn’t check it out before, check out our advent playlist here. Merry Christmas!)

GOD CAME NEAR- Jesus’ Humanity

(To go along with this advent devotional, we’ve also made a Spotify playlist! Check it out here.)

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      It’s no secret, this year has been like no other! For some of us, this year has been a dry and desolate season. Some of us have experienced grief and pain. While many of us have felt physically, emotionally, or spiritually isolated.

      If you can relate, this season brings good news! This time of Advent– a season of anticipation and preparation for Christmas– is a beautiful time to look back and remember God’s incredible faithfulness to us in sending His Son Jesus! We also look ahead believing that faithfulness is God’s character. He has never failed us, and He never will!

      In the birth of Jesus that first Christmas– God became human! He didn’t have to put on flesh. He didn’t have to depend on lungs and a beating heart. He didn’t have to, but he chose to because this was His redemption plan! 

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So the Word became human and made his home among us.  He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  – John 1:14 (NLT)

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      The humanity of Jesus is what brings light into dark places. His humanity is what tells us that it is okay to draw near to Him. He gets us. He’s been us. He experienced weakness, pain, brokenness, sickness, and even death. He felt tired, hungry, and thirsty just like we do.

      Jesus experienced sadness, joy, compassion, empathy, and even anger. All very basic human feelings, and Jesus felt them all. The book of Isaiah called Jesus “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” Jesus felt the deepest parts of Him moved when stung with grief.

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Have you walked through difficult circumstances this year?

Have you experienced loss or grief this year? 

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Jesus gets you! He relates. 

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      Jesus brings us peace from His presence that the world cannot take away. He offers rest to those weary from grief. He lavishes His lovingkindness and mercy on those who feel unworthy. He extends his grace to the places that we are simply not enough. 

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Jesus stooped to become us, to be with us.

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      The Good News of God becoming human is that we have a God who came near! A God who is familiar with us, and willing to enter into our mess. A God who loved us enough to come to us, to be with us! To come as a baby, born into poverty, into political unrest, into our broken world. In the birth of Jesus, God showed up! 

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“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” – Luke 2:11

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Reflect & Respond: 

Acknowledge:  First, we need to recognize the difficulties of this year. Write down the difficult places where you may have felt grief, pain, brokenness, weakness. In what way is it hard for you to believe that Jesus can relate to your humanity?

Posture:  Now, take a moment to consider this:  even in the places, circumstances, and emotions that are most difficult to believe Jesus can relate to you, He does! Breathe in the reality that Jesus gets you! He’s been where you’ve been, and He is not afraid to meet you where you are right now.

Prayer:  “Jesus, thank you for becoming like us in order to be with us! Because of your humanity, I can draw near with confidence that you get me. You get where I am right now. Thank you for loving me and meeting me right where I am today!”

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(If you didn’t check it out before, check out this week’s advent playlist here.)

“How Do I Discern God’s Voice?”

(To go along with this advent devotional, we’ve also made a Spotify playlist! Check it out here.)

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Last week, we spoke about God’s work- even in the midst of silence. We then invited you to take time to practice silence as an opportunity to trust God. But silence can be scary.

          When we sit in silence, it oftentimes does not take long for shame to creep in. Shame infiltrates our thoughts quietly but can control our thoughts loudly. Shame is the voice that tells you to hide rather than to share and to bury rather than to simply be. Have you heard that voice before? It’s the voice that speaks your insecurities as truth and calls you unworthy. Often, we confuse the voice of shame and God’s voice, but this misinterpretation is nothing new. 

          When we look back to the advent story in Luke chapters 1&2, we see that shame was wrapped around the culture Jesus was born into. Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, was an older woman who couldn’t live up to the expectations of her community by having children. In that cultural context, this was shameful. The shepherds were men outcast and stereotyped by society who lived marginalized simply because of their job. Shame. Mary was a young, unmarried woman who, though she was a virgin, became pregnant with a baby. Mary too, was well acquainted with shame. 

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But it was not shame that Mary was bearing. In fact, Mary held the remedy to shame that enslaved the world around her: HOPE. 

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Our world belittles people with shame. But our God does not speak the language of shame.

We have a God who speaks fluently in hope.

          Hope for the world was born that night as a crying baby. And the world crying from the pain of shame was soothed with a lullaby of hope. A hope that would bring light to darkness. A hope that defeated death on a cross. A hope that brought the marginalized into belonging and the broken into restoration. Jesus, the light of the world, our living hope, entered the world that first Christmas night! 

          As a believer, it is normal to experience an inner tension because shame and hope are two opposing forces in the movement of the soul. Shame holds you back, but hope pulls you forward!

          So where the world cast shame on the old woman without child, God spoke hope of a child who would pave the way for the coming Messiah. Where the world placed shame on the marginalized shepherds, God extended an invitation to witness Hope being born. Where the world shouted shame on the unmarried pregnancy, God whispered hope for the world. 

Where we see shame, God speaks hope. 

          Maybe you have been living captive to shame. You should know that hope is the candle lit for you this season. And the constant flame can be a continual reminder that our King has entered the world, and his presence rattles our culture that believes we deserve shame. God does not speak in shame. He speaks hope over your life and over the world. 

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Here is how you can start to discern God’s voice: 

Take some time in the midst of this week to find a quiet place to acknowledge silence, posture your heart, and pray to God.

• Acknowledge : Write out your thoughts. 

-What parts of your life has shame claimed? Write them down.

-Can you identify where that shame is coming from? Remember that God does not speak shame.

• Posture : Now take those thoughts captive. 

-Write down this phrase: “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.” 

-As you focus on the areas where you feel shame, open your hands as a physical posture of release. 

-Now try and posture your heart to God. What would it look like to replace those areas of shame with hope? 

• Prayer : Now invite God into those thoughts. 

-Pray and ask God to speak hope into your life. 

-Isaiah 40 reminds us that “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength”.

-“God, as I posture myself to trust you with my shame, help me to discern your voice. Renew me with your strength and give me a confidence in Jesus who is my Living Hope.”

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(If you didn’t check it out before, check out this week’s advent playlist here.)

        Happy Easter! We hope you spend time today to celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus our Savior! 

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Easter Sunday: “Jesus is alive!”

“He is not here, he is risen!”

“In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words.” – Luke 24:5-8

Today remember this… Jesus lived the perfectly sinless life we could not live, died the wrath absorbing death we deserved to died, and rose from the grave to new life so that we might also have newness of life through Him. He has risen! Jesus really was who He said He was and He really did what He said He would do. This is the good news of Easter! Happy Easter!

Read: Luke 24
Easter Sunday Account: Matthew 28:1–20

        We created these daily readings for the week of Easter to help prepare our hearts to remember and celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus our Savior!  We encourage you to spend some time each day in these readings, not only reading them but processing their implications on your life and your love for God!

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Good Friday: “Right Time”

The good news of the gospel begins with the bad news… we were sinners in need of a Savior!

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:6-8

At just the right time Jesus came to die. That “right time” was not a year, or a century, or a period of time, but was when we were powerless, it was while we were still sinners. That was the right time for Jesus to die. The Friday of Easter Week is called Good Friday. Here’s what is so good about that day. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross we don’t have to clean ourselves up or get our life straight before we come to Jesus, we just come as we are trusting in His finished work of the cross!

Read:  John 19:30, Romans 4:25
Good Friday Account: Matthew 27:1–61