Friday, Day 26: The with-God life
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.”
Thought: In the last 24 hours… we threw a Christmas party for our staff, counseled a grieving family, prayed healing scriptures with a family who received the news of a rare and aggressive cancer, officiated a funeral of a 47 year old husband of 29 years-father of 3 children and 3 grandchildren and finally… just now finished praying with a woman after her radical mastectomy. Life is full of celebrations, questions, grief’s, fear and HOPE. Merry Christmas, Solemn Christmas… whatever is happening for you this year, Christmas is hope in the birth of Christ… the with-God life. He is the thrill of hope, the promise of God’s presence in this world and in eternity. Without God there is no hope! We celebrate the hope of Christmas because the One who came as a baby has given us the opportunity to be born again. Don’t miss it… humans can only produce human life but the Holy Spirit gives us every thing else we need in this life and the next.
Practice: Offer God all of your life… your gratitude, your pain, your questions, your hope. Allow yourself to be born into the hope that is born of the Spirit of Jesus. Live the with-God life this Christmas… invite Him into all you see, hear and experience. Let Christ be born in you anew.
Prayer: Jesus, I see the holy night you were born as the hope for my new birth. I receive the birth and ultimately the death of Christ as the hope for the forgiveness of my sins, the healing of my body and the hope for all of my tomorrows.
O! Holy night! The stars, are brightly shining,
This is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error, pining
Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees! O hears the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was Born;
O night divine!
Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy, in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name!
Fall on your knees! O hears the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was Born;
O night divine!
Blue book (Lectionary) Reading: John 3:1-8
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