MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR SUBSCRIBERS!

 

One week from tonight will be Christmas Eve. Some of your plans are already set. They may include travel, family gatherings, Christmas Eve services at your church, opening Christmas presents around the Christmas tree, singing, hugging, last-minute shopping, celebrating! However you do it, do it to honor the birth of Jesus.

 

This week's Friday Evening devotional is attached below. The theme is not strictly Advent, but it does speak of another kind of miracle that took place during Jesus' public ministry, found in Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 12. The devotional exceeded my normal word count for these weekly devotionals, so I decided to attach it. It's all there, in color. You might decide to make hard copies and share them with friends and family.

 

Please accept our thanks for allowing us to send you these weekly messages. Our prayer is that God will use these devotionals to draw your heart closer to His. May the Christ of Christmas dwell in your hearts all year long in 2011.

 

Tom and Madelyn Barnard

Your Senior Encouragers

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 “Rise to Obey”

Tom Barnard

 

“(Jesus) went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand

was there…Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand,’ so he

stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.”

(Matthew 12:9-13 NIV)

 

“Christ’s commandments are always accompanied by adequate supplies

of grace. His commandments are really inverted promises; every one

is a true bond that the Lord will provide the needful power for its fulfillment.”

 John Henry Jowett

 

The scene in Matthew’s Gospel was a local synagogue. It was Sabbath. Jesus wasn’t asking for trouble, but it found him. The Pharisees had challenged him about his disciples satisfying their hunger by picking some heads of grain and eating them—a practice considered unlawful for any Jew to do on the Sabbath. His debate with the Pharisees on the subject of Sabbath law carried over inside the synagogue.

 

A man was there who was physically challenged—one of his hands was withered and would not respond to his command to grip or hold anything. The Pharisees, seeing an opportunity to discredit Jesus, asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (If eating grain on the Sabbath were unlawful, healing on the Sabbath would be doubly damning.) Jesus answered by declaring that is was lawful to do good on the Sabbath. What happened next was incredible.

 

Jesus turned to the crippled man and said, “Stretch out your hand!” Done. What had been an impossible task moments earlier, was now reality. Commenting on this story, Dr. Jowett said, “His love is exceeding deep. He will not mock our souls. He will not make us thirsty, and then hold the water beyond our reach. He is faithful who called thee. Rise to obey, in all thy lameness, and thou shalt find that thy feet and ankle bones receive strength.”

 

Are you hoping for another miracle during this Advent Season—I mean, a miracle other than the birth of the Son of God in a humble animal stall in Bethlehem? Are you ready to let Jesus help you do the impossible? Obey! Stretch out your hand! Believe that God is willing to do for you what he has done for untold thousands before you. A songwriter wrote,

 

If by faith, you’ll reach out to Him

He will meet your every need.

He will respond to the cry in your heart

He will touch you and set you free

 

Rise and be healed in the name of Jesus

Let faith arise in your soul

Rise and be healed in the name of Jesus

He will cleanse and make you whole.

 

Heavenly Father, I long for wholeness. Remove those barriers that make my life spiritually weak. If you will tell me what I need to do to achieve healing, I will do that. Cut through the depressing thoughts and fears that haunt my thinking. Command my spirit! Call for the impossible to become reality. In the very strong Name that is above all names I pray. Amen.