Bible League: Living His Word "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."— Isaiah 7:14 NIV There are things that happen in our world that just seem downright impossible. A mammal that lays eggs? Sounds impossible! A cloud holds 551 tons of water and yet floats above the earth? That's Impossible! The Chicago Cubs win a World Series? IMPOSSIBLE! Approximately 740 years before the Messiah was born, the prophet Isaiah foretold His coming. Sounds impossible, right? That's not even the most difficult thing to believe about the Christmas story. Isaiah said that the Messiah would be born of a virgin! How is that even remotely possible? As the angel told Jesus' mother, Mary in Luke 1:37 (ERV), "God can do anything!" It's true, you know. God can do ANYTHING! There is nothing that is impossible for God. Maybe you're struggling with fear this Christmas season. You may wonder, "Will God really provide for my needs?" Perhaps you're dealing with doubts about God's love for you. "Does God really love me?" It could be that your past fills you with guilt and shame. "Can God really forgive me after what I've done?" Friend, God can do anything. If you seek Him first, He has promised to provide everything you need. He loves you with an unlimited, unending, and unconditional love. He has forgiven you completely and wiped the slate clean. You are justified freely by His grace through faith in His Son Jesus. Whatever fears, doubts, anxiety, worry, shame, or guilt you're facing this Christmas, know that God can do anything. There's nothing that is impossible for God. The name "Immanuel" literally means "God with us." If God is with us, then nothing that comes against us can prevail. The story of the prophet Isaiah and Mary, the mother of Jesus, intersected in a manger in Bethlehem. Something that seemed so impossible became reality. Your impossible can become reality, too. All you must do is believe in the One who can do anything. By Shawn Cornett, Bible League International staff, Illinois U.S. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingHosea 1-4 Hosea 1 -- Hosea Takes Gomer as Wife to Show Israel's Unfaithfulness NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Hosea 2 -- Israel's Unfaithfulness Condemned; Reconciliation Promised NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Hosea 3 -- Hosea Redeems His Wife to Show the Lord's Reconciliation to Israel NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Hosea 4 -- God Pronounces Judgments for Israel's Sins NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Jude Jude 1 -- Warnings to the Ungodly; Call to Persevere and Grow in Grace NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.Insight If you have ever seen the constant rolling of huge waves at sea, you know how restless they are—subject to the forces of wind, gravity, and tide. Doubt leaves a person as unsettled as the restless waves. Challenge If you want to stop being tossed about, rely on God to show you what is best for you. Ask him for wisdom, and trust that he will give it to you. Then your decisions will be sure and solid. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Isaiah 32:18 My people shall dwell in quiet resting places.Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate, they are the peculiar possession of the Lord's people, and of them only. The God of Peace gives perfect peace to those whose hearts are stayed upon him. When man was unfallen, his God gave him the flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet resting places; alas! how soon sin blighted the fair abode of innocence. In the day of universal wrath when the flood swept away a guilty race, the chosen family were quietly secured in the resting-place of the ark, which floated them from the old condemned world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant, herein typifying Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel smote the first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of cloud, and the flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose. At this hour we rest in the promises of our faithful God, knowing that his words are full of truth and power; we rest in the doctrines of his word, which are consolation itself; we rest in the covenant of his grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly favored are we than David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none can invade or destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet resting-place of his people, and when we draw near to him in the breaking of the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures, prayer, or praise, we find any form of approach to him to be the return of peace to our spirits. "I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood, I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God. 'Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name, 'Tis stable as his steadfast throne, for evermore the same: The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky, This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever nigh." Daily Light on the Daily Path Ecclesiastes 12:7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Job 32:8 "But it is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding. 1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Ecclesiastes 3:21 Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth? 2 Corinthians 5:6,8 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord-- • we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Philippians 1:23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 1 Thessalonians 4:13,14 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. • For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. John 14:2,3 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. • "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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