Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Crowder and Lauren Wells singing … All My Hope … poignantly singing of we have God’s eternal promise of eternal life when we put all our hope in King Jesus.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 2:29-30 [ESV] ... 29 “Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen Your salvation. ... "
… Simeon had waited a long lifetime, from God’s promise to live to see the Messiah before he died, to finally hold the Baby Jesus and declare his thanks to God for the promise fulfilled.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 2:25-33 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… One devout Christian, waiting on the presence of the Lord, finally was able to rest in peace having seen the Baby Jesus in the Temple.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [ESV] … 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.
… Giving the Lord ALL our hearts in faith, will allow Him to lead us to His glory.
Reference Passage : … John 3:16 [ESV] … 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
… Yes all our eternal hope is in God’s greatest gift, … His Son and our Savior, Jesus.
Reference Passage : … Revelation 3:20 [ESV] … 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
… All we have to do everyday - really every moment - is open the door of our hearts to trust and follow Him, and He will lead us thru everything in this life onward to His glory in heaven.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Boucher Pye, uses a historical story of desperate prisoners in WW2 holding out all their hope in Christ at Christmas time. … The ODB author wrote: On Christmas Eve 1944, a man known as “Old Brinker” lay dying in a prison hospital, waiting for the makeshift Christmas service led by fellow prisoners. [See Photo] “When does the music start?” he asked William McDougall, who was imprisoned with him in Muntok Prison in Sumatra. “Soon,” replied McDougall. “Good,” replied the dying man. “Then I’ll be able to compare them with the angels.”
Although decades earlier Brinker had moved away from his faith in God, in his dying days he confessed his sins and found peace with Him. Instead of greeting others with a sour look, he would smile, which “was quite a transformation,” said McDougall.
Brinker died peacefully after the choir of eleven emaciated prisoners sang his request, “Silent Night.” Knowing that Brinker once again followed Jesus and would be united with God in heaven, McDougall observed, “Perhaps Death had been a welcome Christmas visitor to old Brinker.”
I identify with Brinker in this ODB entry. For 39 years of my life I was in emotional chains in my own prison of unbelief and selfish sin. But in 1983, Jesus strangely came into my life (too long a story for now), like He did with old Simeon in the highlight passage in Luke 2, and freed me to realize, that all thru those first 39 years of my life, all I had to do was place my faith in God’s promise to give me His saving grace and lead me thru life … and finally to glory … to live with my King Jesus, … my Messiah, … FOREVER.
Oh how I pray, on this day before our celebration of His birth … and prayerfully the remembrance of His death and resurrection, … we can, like Brinker in today’s ODB story, find peace in putting ALL OUR HOPE in our King Jesus as Crowder and Wells sing in the linked song. So, join me on this Christmas eve to celebrate where Christ’s birth will lead us when we put all our faith in our Lord.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, ... coming to us, living with us, and dying for us … to give us Your eternal glory.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to worship the Babe Who came to live and die for us and Who gave us the greatest gift of all. … 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.</ span>
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