Advent Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "The Great Search" for Friday, December 30, 2016
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(The shepherds said) "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us"(Luke 2:15b).
Read Luke 2:15-20.
(The shepherds said) "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us"(Luke 2:15b).
Read Luke 2:15-20.
Luke 2:15 No sooner had the angels left them and gone back into heaven than the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go over to Beit-Lechem and see this thing that has happened, that Adonai has told us about.” 16 Hurrying off, they came and found Miryam and Yosef, and the baby lying in the feeding trough. 17 Upon seeing this, they made known what they had been told about this child; 18 and all who heard were amazed by what the shepherds said to them. 19 Miryam treasured all these things and kept mulling them over in her heart. 20 Meanwhile, the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen; it had been just as they had been told.
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This is about the time we started running dangerously low on Christmas cookies. I always hated getting to the bottom of the "animal cookies." I'm not sure why we called them that, since we used all kinds of different shapes: trees, bells, etc. But I would definitely leave all the others behind in my search for that one last animal cookie.
The shepherds had the same feeling about the Christ Child. After the angel army returns to heaven, the shepherds immediately talk it over and decide to leave their flocks behind in search of the Christ Child.
They go to Bethlehem and search until they find Him wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger -- just as the angel had said. How incredible was it to look down into the face of the mighty Son of God? The shepherds share the angel's words with Mary and Joseph and every person they meet. All who hear their words are amazed, but Mary stores up their words and ponders them deep inside.
What the shepherds did in one night, we spend our lifetimes doing. We learn of our Savior in the Bible. We then spend the rest of our lives looking forward to the moment when we will gaze upon His glorious face -- just like they did. Because of His life, death and resurrection, we will be able to remain in His wonderful presence forever.
THE PRAYER: Lord Jesus, the shepherds left their flocks behind to find you. Give me that same excitement that I may leave everything to walk with You through life until I meet You face to face. Amen.
Today's Bible in a Year Reading: Malachi 1-2; Revelation 21Malachi 1:1 A prophecy, the word of Adonai to Isra’el through Mal’akhi:
2 “I love you,” says Adonai.
But you ask, “How do you show us your love?”
Adonai answers, “‘Esav was Ya‘akov’s brother.
Yet I loved Ya‘akov 3 but hated ‘Esav.
I made his mountains desolate
and gave his territory to desert jackals.”
4 Edom says, “We are beaten down now,
but we will come back and rebuild the ruins.”
Adonai-Tzva’ot answers, “They can build,
but I will demolish.
They will be called the Land of Wickedness,
the people with whom Adonai is permanently angry.
5 You will see it and say, ‘Adonai is great,
even beyond the borders of Isra’el.’”
6 “A son honors his father and a servant his master. But if I’m a father, where is the honor due me? and if I’m a master, where is the respect due me? — says Adonai-Tzva’ot to you cohanim who despise my name. You ask, ‘How are we despising your name?’ 7 By offering polluted food on my altar! Now you ask, ‘How are we polluting you?’ By saying that the table of Adonai doesn’t deserve respect; 8 so that there’s nothing wrong with offering a blind animal as a sacrifice, nothing wrong with offering an animal that’s lame or sick. Try offering such an animal to your governor, and see if he will be pleased with you! Would he even receive you?” asks Adonai-Tzva’ot. 9 So if you pray now that God will show us favor, what your actions have accomplished is that Adonai-Tzva’ot asks, “Will he receive any of you? 10 Why doesn’t even one of you shut the doors and thus stop this useless lighting of fires on my altar? I take no pleasure in you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “and I will not receive an offering from you. 11 For from farthest east to farthest west my name is great among the nations. Offerings are presented to my name everywhere, pure gifts; for my name is great among the nations,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. 12 “But you profane it by saying that the table of Adonai is polluted, so that the fruit and food offered deserve contempt. 13 You also say, ‘It’s all so tiresome!’ and sniff scornfully at it,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. “Then you bring animals that were taken by violence, or they are lame or sick. This is the sort of offering you bring. Am I supposed to accept this from you?” asks Adonai. 14 “Moreover, cursed is the deceiver who has a male animal in his flock that is damaged, but vows and sacrifices to Adonai anyway. For I am a great king,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “and my name is respected among the nations.
2:1 “Now, cohanim, this command is for you.
2 If you won’t listen, if you won’t pay attention
to honoring my name,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot,
“then I will send the curse on you;
I will turn your blessings into curses.
Yes, I will curse them,
because you pay no attention.
3 I will reject your seed;
I will throw dung in your faces,
the dung from your festival offerings;
and you will be carted off with it.
4 Then you will know that I sent you this command
to affirm my covenant with Levi,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
5 “My covenant with him was one of life and peace,
and I gave him these things.
It was also one of fear, and he feared me;
he was in awe of my name.
6 The true Torah was in his mouth,
and no dishonesty was found on his lips;
he walked with me in peace and uprightness
and turned many away from sin.
7 A cohen’s lips should safeguard knowledge,
and people should seek Torah from his mouth,
because he is the messenger
of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
8 But you turned away from the path,
you caused many to fail in the Torah,
you corrupted the covenant of Levi,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
9 “Therefore I have in turn made you
contemptible and vile before all the people,
because you did not keep my ways
but were partial in applying the Torah.”
10 Don’t we all have the same father?
Didn’t one God create us all?
Then why do we break faith with each other,
profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
11 Y’hudah has broken faith;
an abomination has been committed
in Isra’el and Yerushalayim.
For Y’hudah has profaned the sanctuary
of Adonai, which he loves,
by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
12 If a man does this and presents an offering
to Adonai-Tzva’ot, may Adonai cut him off
from the tents of Ya‘akov,
whether initiator or follower.
13 Here is something else you do:
you cover Adonai’s altar with tears,
with weeping and with sighing,
because he no longer looks at the offering
or receives your gift with favor.
14 Nevertheless, you ask, “Why is this?”
Because Adonai is witness
between you and the wife of your youth
that you have broken faith with her,
though she is your companion, your wife by covenant.
15 And hasn’t he made [them] one [flesh]
in order to have spiritual blood-relatives?
For what the one [flesh] seeks
is a seed from God.
Therefore, take heed to your spirit,
and don’t break faith with the wife of your youth.
16 “For I hate divorce,”
says Adonai the God of Isra’el,
“and him who covers his clothing with violence,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and don’t break faith.
17 You have wearied Adonai with your words.
Yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?”
By saying that anyone who does wrong
is good from Adonai’s perspective,
and that he is delighted with them;
or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,[Revelation 21:1 Isaiah 65:17, 66:22] for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer there. 2 Also I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “See! God’s Sh’khinah is with mankind, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and he himself, God-with-them, will be their God.[Revelation 21:3 Leviticus 26:11–12; Isaiah 7:14; 8:8, 10; Jeremiah 31:33(34); Ezekiel 37:27; 2 Chronicles 6:18] 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away.”
5 Then the One sitting on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new!” Also he said, “Write, ‘These words are true and trustworthy!’” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the ‘A’ and the ‘Z,’ the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty I myself will give water free of charge from the Fountain of Life. 7 He who wins the victory will receive these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the untrustworthy, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those involved with the occult and with drugs, idol-worshippers, and all liars — their destiny is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, the second death.”
9 One of the seven angels having the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues approached me and said, “Come! I will show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb.” 10 He carried me off in the Spirit to the top of a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It had the Sh’khinah of God, so that its brilliance was like that of a priceless jewel, like a crystal-clear diamond. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates; at the gates were twelve angels; and inscribed on the gates were the names of the twelve tribes of Isra’el. 13 There were three gates to the east, three gates to the north, three gates to the south and three gates to the west. 14 The wall of the city was built on twelve foundation-stones, and on these were the twelve names of the twelve emissaries of the Lamb.
15 The angel speaking with me had a gold measuring-rod with which to measure the city, its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out in a square, its length equal to its width. With his rod he measured the city at 1,500 miles, with length, width and height the same. 17 He measured its wall at 216 feet by human standards of measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of diamond and the city of pure gold resembling pure glass. 19 The foundations of the city wall were decorated with all kinds of precious stones — the first foundation stone was diamond, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh turquoise and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate made of a single pearl. The city’s main street was pure gold, transparent as glass.
22 I saw no Temple in the city, for Adonai, God of heaven’s armies, is its Temple, as is the Lamb. 23 The city has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s Sh’khinah gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 Its gates will never close, they stay open all day because night will not exist there, 26 and the honor and splendor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure may enter it, nor anyone who does shameful things or lies; the only ones who may enter are those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
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This is about the time we started running dangerously low on Christmas cookies. I always hated getting to the bottom of the "animal cookies." I'm not sure why we called them that, since we used all kinds of different shapes: trees, bells, etc. But I would definitely leave all the others behind in my search for that one last animal cookie.
The shepherds had the same feeling about the Christ Child. After the angel army returns to heaven, the shepherds immediately talk it over and decide to leave their flocks behind in search of the Christ Child.
They go to Bethlehem and search until they find Him wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger -- just as the angel had said. How incredible was it to look down into the face of the mighty Son of God? The shepherds share the angel's words with Mary and Joseph and every person they meet. All who hear their words are amazed, but Mary stores up their words and ponders them deep inside.
What the shepherds did in one night, we spend our lifetimes doing. We learn of our Savior in the Bible. We then spend the rest of our lives looking forward to the moment when we will gaze upon His glorious face -- just like they did. Because of His life, death and resurrection, we will be able to remain in His wonderful presence forever.
THE PRAYER: Lord Jesus, the shepherds left their flocks behind to find you. Give me that same excitement that I may leave everything to walk with You through life until I meet You face to face. Amen.
Today's Bible in a Year Reading: Malachi 1-2; Revelation 21Malachi 1:1 A prophecy, the word of Adonai to Isra’el through Mal’akhi:
2 “I love you,” says Adonai.
But you ask, “How do you show us your love?”
Adonai answers, “‘Esav was Ya‘akov’s brother.
Yet I loved Ya‘akov 3 but hated ‘Esav.
I made his mountains desolate
and gave his territory to desert jackals.”
4 Edom says, “We are beaten down now,
but we will come back and rebuild the ruins.”
Adonai-Tzva’ot answers, “They can build,
but I will demolish.
They will be called the Land of Wickedness,
the people with whom Adonai is permanently angry.
5 You will see it and say, ‘Adonai is great,
even beyond the borders of Isra’el.’”
6 “A son honors his father and a servant his master. But if I’m a father, where is the honor due me? and if I’m a master, where is the respect due me? — says Adonai-Tzva’ot to you cohanim who despise my name. You ask, ‘How are we despising your name?’ 7 By offering polluted food on my altar! Now you ask, ‘How are we polluting you?’ By saying that the table of Adonai doesn’t deserve respect; 8 so that there’s nothing wrong with offering a blind animal as a sacrifice, nothing wrong with offering an animal that’s lame or sick. Try offering such an animal to your governor, and see if he will be pleased with you! Would he even receive you?” asks Adonai-Tzva’ot. 9 So if you pray now that God will show us favor, what your actions have accomplished is that Adonai-Tzva’ot asks, “Will he receive any of you? 10 Why doesn’t even one of you shut the doors and thus stop this useless lighting of fires on my altar? I take no pleasure in you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “and I will not receive an offering from you. 11 For from farthest east to farthest west my name is great among the nations. Offerings are presented to my name everywhere, pure gifts; for my name is great among the nations,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. 12 “But you profane it by saying that the table of Adonai is polluted, so that the fruit and food offered deserve contempt. 13 You also say, ‘It’s all so tiresome!’ and sniff scornfully at it,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. “Then you bring animals that were taken by violence, or they are lame or sick. This is the sort of offering you bring. Am I supposed to accept this from you?” asks Adonai. 14 “Moreover, cursed is the deceiver who has a male animal in his flock that is damaged, but vows and sacrifices to Adonai anyway. For I am a great king,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “and my name is respected among the nations.
2:1 “Now, cohanim, this command is for you.
2 If you won’t listen, if you won’t pay attention
to honoring my name,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot,
“then I will send the curse on you;
I will turn your blessings into curses.
Yes, I will curse them,
because you pay no attention.
3 I will reject your seed;
I will throw dung in your faces,
the dung from your festival offerings;
and you will be carted off with it.
4 Then you will know that I sent you this command
to affirm my covenant with Levi,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
5 “My covenant with him was one of life and peace,
and I gave him these things.
It was also one of fear, and he feared me;
he was in awe of my name.
6 The true Torah was in his mouth,
and no dishonesty was found on his lips;
he walked with me in peace and uprightness
and turned many away from sin.
7 A cohen’s lips should safeguard knowledge,
and people should seek Torah from his mouth,
because he is the messenger
of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
8 But you turned away from the path,
you caused many to fail in the Torah,
you corrupted the covenant of Levi,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
9 “Therefore I have in turn made you
contemptible and vile before all the people,
because you did not keep my ways
but were partial in applying the Torah.”
10 Don’t we all have the same father?
Didn’t one God create us all?
Then why do we break faith with each other,
profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
11 Y’hudah has broken faith;
an abomination has been committed
in Isra’el and Yerushalayim.
For Y’hudah has profaned the sanctuary
of Adonai, which he loves,
by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
12 If a man does this and presents an offering
to Adonai-Tzva’ot, may Adonai cut him off
from the tents of Ya‘akov,
whether initiator or follower.
13 Here is something else you do:
you cover Adonai’s altar with tears,
with weeping and with sighing,
because he no longer looks at the offering
or receives your gift with favor.
14 Nevertheless, you ask, “Why is this?”
Because Adonai is witness
between you and the wife of your youth
that you have broken faith with her,
though she is your companion, your wife by covenant.
15 And hasn’t he made [them] one [flesh]
in order to have spiritual blood-relatives?
For what the one [flesh] seeks
is a seed from God.
Therefore, take heed to your spirit,
and don’t break faith with the wife of your youth.
16 “For I hate divorce,”
says Adonai the God of Isra’el,
“and him who covers his clothing with violence,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and don’t break faith.
17 You have wearied Adonai with your words.
Yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?”
By saying that anyone who does wrong
is good from Adonai’s perspective,
and that he is delighted with them;
or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,[Revelation 21:1 Isaiah 65:17, 66:22] for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer there. 2 Also I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “See! God’s Sh’khinah is with mankind, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and he himself, God-with-them, will be their God.[Revelation 21:3 Leviticus 26:11–12; Isaiah 7:14; 8:8, 10; Jeremiah 31:33(34); Ezekiel 37:27; 2 Chronicles 6:18] 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away.”
5 Then the One sitting on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new!” Also he said, “Write, ‘These words are true and trustworthy!’” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the ‘A’ and the ‘Z,’ the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty I myself will give water free of charge from the Fountain of Life. 7 He who wins the victory will receive these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the untrustworthy, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those involved with the occult and with drugs, idol-worshippers, and all liars — their destiny is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, the second death.”
9 One of the seven angels having the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues approached me and said, “Come! I will show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb.” 10 He carried me off in the Spirit to the top of a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It had the Sh’khinah of God, so that its brilliance was like that of a priceless jewel, like a crystal-clear diamond. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates; at the gates were twelve angels; and inscribed on the gates were the names of the twelve tribes of Isra’el. 13 There were three gates to the east, three gates to the north, three gates to the south and three gates to the west. 14 The wall of the city was built on twelve foundation-stones, and on these were the twelve names of the twelve emissaries of the Lamb.
15 The angel speaking with me had a gold measuring-rod with which to measure the city, its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out in a square, its length equal to its width. With his rod he measured the city at 1,500 miles, with length, width and height the same. 17 He measured its wall at 216 feet by human standards of measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of diamond and the city of pure gold resembling pure glass. 19 The foundations of the city wall were decorated with all kinds of precious stones — the first foundation stone was diamond, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh turquoise and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate made of a single pearl. The city’s main street was pure gold, transparent as glass.
22 I saw no Temple in the city, for Adonai, God of heaven’s armies, is its Temple, as is the Lamb. 23 The city has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s Sh’khinah gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 Its gates will never close, they stay open all day because night will not exist there, 26 and the honor and splendor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure may enter it, nor anyone who does shameful things or lies; the only ones who may enter are those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
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The Lutheran Hour Ministries
660 Mason Ridge Center
Saint Louis, Missouri 63141, United States
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BE AN AMBASSADOR OR DONATE
The Lutheran Hour Ministries
660 Mason Ridge Center
Saint Louis, Missouri 63141, United States
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