Jesus, Light of the World (12-21-12)

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Advent Devotional, "Jesus, Light of the World," for preparing to light the fourth Advent Candle, the Wise Men candle.)

Luke 23:44-46
"Jesus' archenemy did not quit trying to destroy His light.  Satan waged war on our Savior throughout His entire life.  Time and time again while Christ walked this earth, he would come to Him with one purpose in mind.  The enemy would never stop until he had destroyed the Light, once and for all.

From Satan's part in an evil alliance between another King Herod and  Pilate; to the lies he whispered to the Pharisees;  to the temptation for money and power that he dangled in front of Judas; to the mocking and vicious whippings that the Roman guards administered; to the spineless accusations and acts of the priests; to the crazed mob who yelled out, 'Crucify Him'; to the awful end, Christ's crucifixion on the cross, Satan surely had set his focus firmly on the end of Jesus.  And in Christ's last days on earth as a human, Satan stepped up the torment to a horrifying level.

The Magi had come to a King Herod from a different era, asking him where the King of the Jews could be found.  The questioned had enraged the Herod who governed Judah at the time of Jesus' birth.  And again we see Jesus referred to as the King of the Jews in our verses today, but this time they are spoken as an insult to Jesus but the very Roman guards who nailed Him to the cross.  They mocked His  authority and power by saying, 'If you are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!'  Could it have been the whisper of Satan that then caused them to insult Jesus even further by placing an inscription above His head on the cross that read, 'This is the King of the Jews'?

Surely Satan moved in and about the crowd that day, watching and listening.  A wry smile curled on his lips as he wrung his evil hands together.  'Surely the time is near,' he thought.  'Soon, yes very soon, this Jesus will no longer be a threat to me.'  The darkness of the fallen angel was not contained within him, for at that very moment, at the sixth hour (12 noon), a deep darkness 'fell over the whole land' and remained until three hours later.  It was so dark that the sun could not be seen.  Darkness seemed to be overpowering the Light.

'Yes!  YES!  The Light of the world is ebbing.  It won't be long now until I am in charge!' Satan muttered to himself.  The the words he had longed to hear for so long were filling the vast emptiness of the darkness that surrounded them.  'Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit.'  And Jesus died.  The evil grin on the face of Satan turned into a low chuckle and then into riotous laughter.  'I've won!' he shouted with delight.  This indeed was the darkest day in all history.  The Light had been extinguished, or so everyone thought.

Dark days will surely come to us all, days when it seems like we are miles and miles from the Light of Jesus.  But we know the rest of the story, don't we?  In the end, Jesus wins!  No matter how the 'darkness' tries to creep into our lives and blow out the Light of Jesus in us, Satan will never be successful if we but keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Light the world, Jesus our Savior.  He is the Light of all of your days.  Spend time with Hm, and He will bring even more light into your life."

Jesus, Light of the World (12-17-12)

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Advent Devotional, "Jesus, Light of the World," for preparing to light the fourth Advent Candle, the Wise Men candle.)

Matthew 2: 1-2
"As we begin our last week of preparation, anticipating the lighting of the fourth Advent Candle, our focus will be on another critical part of the Christmas Story.  This week we will be led to the manger by the wise men.  Their story can be found in the book of Matthew.

In the days when Jesus was born Herod declared himself King of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel where Jerusalem is located.  One day while Jesus was still an infant, a band of men from Persia arrived in Jerusalem.  They were called 'magi' (pronounced 'may-ji') which meant that they were from a certain sect of people who were specialists in the areas of astrology, medicine, and natural sciences.  They had so deep a wisdom and knowledge of these things that it separated them from other men.  And as you can probably guess, the word 'magi' is the root word of our word 'magic.'

These magi were well-studied in the Scriptures, as well, which were full of prophecies foretelling the birth of the Savior, to One who would be declared to be the King of the Jews (Zechariah 9:9).  Possibly, word had reach them concerning His birth because the shepherds had repeated to others what the angels from heaven had told them.  But either way, in their inquiries to King Herod, they called the child by name, saying 'Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?'  Not only had their studies of the Scriptures caused them to make this trip, but also their thorough study and mapping of every movement and change in the star patterns in the night sky.  They had seen the light that would reveal the Light they had read about.  On the night that the scriptures and the star lined up with each other, a conviction so deep came upon these men causing them to know in their hearts that the long awaited Savior had surely arrived.

Out of their great excitement and expectancy, the magi hurried to go and find the One who had been born King of the Jews.  Their wisdom and knowledge on this subject was profound and given by God Himself, but this wasn't what caused them to be considered wise.  At least not by God.  They were wise in the eyes of the One who created the stars because they had arrived at the correct conclusion after their study of both the stars and the Scriptures.  They saw how the two were in agreement, and therefore, they could rightly and wisely discern that the Messiah of Israel was surely the King of the Jews that the prophets of old had prophesied.  They knew that if they sought Him now,  they would surely find this newborn King!  Their long quest to ascertain when and where He would be born had paid of, for He had been born in their lifetime.  Now there were only two things for them to do.  They had to find this infant King, and then they would sure bow their knees in worship to the long awaited King.

We live in a day where a Bible is readily available to study.  It might not even be a book that we read from, but a computer or cell phone.  We have grown up in America where the name of Jesus is completely familiar.  But we so often do not have a heart that will bow down to Him and worship Him when we clearly know who He is.  Find a quiet spot today and come to Him.  Bow before Him and worship Him.  He is worthy of our worship and adoration.  At this Christmastime, you might use your nativity scene as your focus and prompts of specific prayers, using Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and yes, the wise men to call you into account and to lead you to fervent praise and worship.  You might even contemplate these questions:  'Does God consider me wise?'  'Today, how do I  actively seek Him?'  'Do I know and follow what the Bible says?'"