Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with images from Josh Groban singing … O Holy Night … poignantly singing of that night divine when Christ was born. … O what a hope filled night it must’ve been; … and what a hope-filled life we have awaiting with the Son of God, our Messiah, Who will come and take us home to be with Him forever.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 2:11 [NLT] … 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!
… Incredible news - GOOD NEWS - for these lowly shepherds, keeping watch over the flocks of lambs being prepared for Temple sacrifice, … to be invited by God’s Angels to be present at the birth of the Lamb of God.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 2:8-20 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Luke, announces the Hope of the World born in Bethlehem … the coming of King Jesus, The Messiah, … The Christ.
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Reference Passage : … John 3:16-17 [NLT] … 16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
… What a gift to mankind … the thrill of hope … the Son of God … come in flesh as the Lamb of God to save the world!!
Reference Passage : … Philippians 2:6-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… And our Lord came, humbly in a manger, to shed His blood ad the Lamb of God, to save us all with the hope of eternal life.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Peterson, uses the illustration of the first radio broadcast to compare with the incredible Angelic broadcast of the birth of Messiah, the Lamb of God, to the Shepherds on that incredible morning in Bethlehem. The ODB author wrote: Reginald Fessenden had been working for years to achieve wireless radio communication. Other scientists found his ideas radical and unorthodox, and doubted he would succeed. But he claims that on December 24, 1906, he became the first person to ever play music over the radio. …
He reportedly played a record of an operatic aria, and then he pulled out his violin, playing “O Holy Night” and singing the words to the last verse as he played. Finally, he offered Christmas greetings and read from Luke 2 the story of angels announcing the birth of a Savior to shepherds in Bethlehem.
And those shepherds, the lowest cast in that culture, … the ones who were watching over the lambs to be used for Temple sacrifice, … were invited by God’s angels to come see the Lamb of God, … the Son of hope, … their Messiah, … the One Who had been born there in Bethlehem. What a THRILL OF HOPE they must’ve felt as Reginald Fessenden sang in that first radio broadcast and as Josh Groban sings in the linked song. … “O Holy Night” of hope!!
And this Christmas eve, I pray we all feel that kind of hopeful thrill, in the face of this degraded world; because we should realize that God’s Lamb has come to save you and me, as well as those shepherds; and we can revel in the reality that He’s coming again for us … just like He came to save Mary and Joseph and all who were there to see that Babe in the manger.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … We await Your second coming with hope, Lord Jesus!! … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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