Archive for the ‘ Gospel ’ Category
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 15:13, ESV
God came to us as one of us, dying for our forgiveness but rising again, giving us hope for eternal life. We now have His Holy Spirit as a deposit of that hope, so may we feel joy and peace in knowing our eternal destination.
12 years ago, I wrote a series of Christmas devotional thoughts. For my church for 2023, I edited those and made a short, 6-day devotional booklet.
I am putting it here for your downloading pleasure.
It is a simple, fun yet still serious look at how some people responded to Christ’s birth 2000 years ago with some added application for today.
I pray you enjoy and are blessed by it.
Merry Christmas!
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:35, ESV
God showed His love by becoming like us and dying for us. The absolute least we can do is love each other in the Church, lest we show we are not His disciples. Love with Jesus’ patient, gracious love.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:17, ESV
Christ came to save us and show us how to live, and that is to glorify God in every part of our lives, giving thanks for all His blessings and lessons in every circumstance.
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
John 14:21, ESV
God sent His Son to show us the truth of His expectations and commandments, and as the only truly Faithful One He has called us to follow and helps us by the Holy Spirit to obey.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
Psalm 95:6, ESV
We should bow down and worship our sovereign Creator, knowing He has saved us through the cross.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1 John 4:15, ESV
To know God and be known by Him is to believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God who saves us from sin and wrath, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Only then do we have true hope for the future.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
Matthew 6:25, ESV
When we believe Jesus – truly God and truly man – lived and died for our salvation and rose to life again, giving us hope for eternity, the fear of want and need has less hold on us, knowing God has us in His hands.
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.“
Isaiah 40:3, ESV
Did shows His greatness by Declaring John the Baptist’s arrival 700 years prior, and now He calls us to do the same for Christ’s second coming. John declared Priest who saves at His first coming, now we declare the King who judges at His second.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13, ESV
We have faith in Christ’s work to save, hope in His resurrection of eternal life, and by these we know He loves us. Let us now love each other.
a simple man of God 