7 DECEMBER TWO BETHLEHEMS
Heavenly Father, as I live in this world that is often too busy to consider You, renew my love for You and for the people I know who desperately need Your salvation. Thank You for being with me now. Amen
LUKE 2:1-7
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
JESUS
REPLIED, “VERY
TRULY I TELL YOU, NO
ONE CAN SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD
UNLESS THEY ARE BORN AGAIN.”
JOHN 3:3
The birth of Jesus Christ was unlike any other. Mary’s was an ‘other world’ concepton. The angel told her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (LUKE 1:35). The child conceived in her was from outside our world� And it had to be so, because the boy born to Mary was Immanuel, “God with us” (ISAIAH 7:14; MATTHEW 1:23)�
The baby born in Bethlehem was of heavenly origin� God had entered the earth in the form and nature of Mary’s litle son. He came into the world from above, and His incarnaton made possible our redempton.
Now think about it. Our own new birth—our regeneraton—comes from outside the world� Jesus said that we are born again “of the Spirit” (JOHN 3:3,7-8)� Our salvaton is not from an earthly source, but from God Himself through Jesus by means of His Spirit� In a sense, then, our heart becomes a “Bethlehem stable,” a place where Jesus comes into the world. We open the door to Him by faith—just as Mary believed the angel’s message over 2,000 years ago— and He is born in us by the blessed Holy Spirit�
We make Him known to others by His power in us. He afects every aspect of our lives. We are a ‘Bethlehem’, His place of entrance into today’s world. o
DAVID C EGNER
Read today’s passage again. Where do you experience “no room” for Jesus amongst your loved ones and your community?
How can you be His place of entrance to their worlds?
Thank You, Father, for the blessed assurance that Jesus is mine and I am His. May I be a ‘Bethlehem’ to someone today.