December 26, 2023 … Christmas Day Plus One </b>
<b><u>Devotional Song</u>: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... </b> … http://tinyurl.com/2kytjbpz … Please take the time to take in this song with lyrics from Mark Lawry singing his song … <b><i>Mary, Did You Know</b></i> … Poignantly, yet powerfully, singing of how Mary must’ve pondered what she was called to do bringing the Lord of all creation into this world.
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<b><u>Highlight Passage </u>: … Luke 2:18-19 [ESV] … </b>
<i> 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. </i>
… Luke relates the amazement of all who heard of Jesus’ birth from the shepherds and of Mary’s wonder in giving birth to the King of kings and Lord of lords.
<b><u>Highlight Passage (in context) </u> … Luke 2:15-20 … USE THIS LINK … </b>.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A15-20&version=NLT
… After Jesus’ birth, Luke writes that the Shepherds, having seen the Christ child, reflected with amazement what the Angels had led them to see and Mary pondered having given birth to The Messiah.
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<b><u>Reference Passage </u>: … Isaiah 7:14 (NLT] … </b>
<i> 14 All right then, the Lord Himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). </i>
… God’s promise and prophesy, thru Isaiah, of The Messiah’s birth to a virgin Who would be “God with us.”
<b><u>Reference Passage </u>: … Jeremiah 23:5 (NLT] … </b>
<i> 5 “For the time is coming,” says the Lord,“when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will be a King who rules with wisdom. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. </i>
… God’s promise of a coming Messiah from the line of David to rule with justice throughout all the lands.
<b><u>Reference Passage </u>: … Matthew 1:19-25 (NLT] … USE THIS LINK … </b>
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+1%3A19-25&version=NLT
… God’s Angel shares with Joseph, in a dream, of the coming birth of the Messiah to Mary.
<b><u>Reference Passage </u>: … Galatians 4:4-5 (NLT] … USE THIS LINK … </b>
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+4%3A4-5&version=NLT
… Paul teaches fellow Christians that God sent His Son, born of a woman, to free us from our chains of sin.
<b><u>Reference Passage </u>: … Colossians 1:15-17 (NLT] … USE THIS LINK … </b>
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1%3A15-17&version=NLT
… Paul shows fellow Christians that Christ is God in flesh, but One Who existed before time began … a truth all Christians will ponder in amazement.
<b><u>My Devotional Journal</u>:</b> Today’s <b><i> Our Daily Bread</b></i> Author , Sheridan Voysey - AT THIS LINK - https://odb.org/2023/12/26/the-day-after - shares about what it’s often like the day after all the build-up and excitement of the gift-giving and family sharing on Christmas morning. Now it’s the day after and we face gifts that mush be exchanged or discarded and the worldly let-down that the special day, which was promoted for weeks before Christmas, has now past.
And today’s ODB entry asks us - on this day after Christmas - to ponder - not our worldly or personal concerns, but what Mary <b>(see photo)</b> must’ve been feeling as she held Jesus - the Son of God - in her arms there in that manger the morning after the Lord had been born. And as Mark Lawry sings, in his linked song; … we ask, … could Mary - and can we - take in the wonder and glory of what Jesus became as He came thru Mary as that babe in the manger to save us from our sins?
Let’s ponder it deeply; and join me with gratitude to praise our Lord, on this day after Christmas, for His coming to save us.
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<b><u>My THANKFULNESS</u>:</b> ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for coming thru Mary, as the Ark of the New Covenant, to save you and me.
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<b><u>My Prayer Today</u>:</b> Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray. again today, that all reading here will join me, … to praise You, Lord, for coming thru Mary to save us from ourselves. … Amen
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">[b]<u>Blogger Note</u>:[/b] 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 [b]GO TO THIS LINK[/b] - http://www.odb.org/ - 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>
1 comment:
Amen!
Kjetil
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