LINCOLN, NE (December 23, 2006) – Editor’s note: In preparation for the Christmas observance, Covenant Communications is sharing devotionals that originally appeared in local Covenant church newsletters or other publications and are being published here by permission. The following was written by Doug Smith, council chair of First Evangelical Covenant Church in Lincoln.
By Doug Smith
It is the season to hear discussion focused on the baby Jesus, his birth and purpose for coming into the world. The manger at the inn, the humble birth, the shepherds, the wise men, and the star in the east all represent bits and pieces of Bible accounts etched into our minds from childhood. That is, when we have time to think about the spiritual aspects of Christmas in the midst of the stress of ‘what should I get so and so for Christmas?”
Matthew 1:18-24: This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us.
These verses from the Matthew account of the birth of Jesus bring the story to us at the personal level. These verses give us a picture of the faith and obedience of Mary and Joseph. The personal level is reached by asking ourselves the question: Do I have the faith of Mary and Joseph? Will I be obedient as Mary and Joseph in response to my faith?
Mary was a pregnant virgin! The Bible doesn’t reveal much to us about her experience in the society in which she lived. Can you imagine what she had to endure? Did her friends and neighbors embrace, encourage and support her? Or, was she rejected and poorly treated because she was pregnant, unmarried, and claiming to be a virgin? In our warm and innocent thoughts of the Christmas story, we tend to just think of Mary as the happy little mother-to-be of Jesus Christ. Perhaps that is the way it was, perhaps the reality was much harsher. In either case, Mary had the faith to believe in what the angel had told her. Mary was obedient to the calling of her faith.
What about Joseph? How would you respond if you discovered the person you were engaged to was pregnant with someone else’s child? Joseph had to deal with hard realities. Joseph, like Mary, believed in what had been revealed to him in a dream. Like Mary, Joseph was obedient to the calling of his faith.
Do we have a call to obedience in response to our faith? What is our calling? How do we respond?
Search your heart. What is God calling you to do to be obedient as a response to your faith?
God has created each of us with time, treasure, and talent. The best gift that you can give this Christmas is to obey your call of faith. Will you demonstrate that call of faith through the obedient use of your time, treasure, and talent for God’s purposes rather than your own?
Editor’s note: To read previously published devotional in this Advent series, please see:
• A Child Shows Us the Light
• For Some, Christmas Comes at Great Risk
• A Christmas Gift Without a Price Tag
• Two Branches That Bore a Tree
• God’s Timing Not Like Ours
• A Child Shows Us the Light
• For Some, Christmas Comes at Great Risk
• A Christmas Gift Without a Price Tag
• Two Branches That Bore a Tree
• God’s Timing Not Like Ours
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
