Tidings of Comfort and Joy

M Yarbrough Mark.

Description

Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day.The Christmas season easily overwhelms, and meaning can be lost in the busyness. In Tidings of Comfort and Joy, Mark M. Yarbrough reminds us why we celebrate. These twenty--five short devotions focus December on Jesus through a combination of Scripture reflections, winsome stories, advent applications, and guided prayers. This is a book that you and your family will turn to annually, as you prepare your heart for the wonder and meaning of Christmas.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian worship
• Religious festival
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lexham Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781683595663
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

MARK M. YARBROUGH
TIDINGS OF COMFORT AND JOY
25 DEVOTIONS LEADING TO CHRISTMAS
FOREWORD BY CHIP INGRAM
Tidings of Comfort and Joy: 25 Devotions Leading to Christmas
Copyright 2021 Mark M. Yarbrough
Kirkdale Press, an imprint of Lexham Press
1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225
KirkdalePress.com
You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Kirkdale Press for permission. Email us at [e-mail] .
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ® . Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
French flap print edition ISBN 9781683595656
Regular paperback print edition ISBN 9781683595977
Digital ISBN 9781683595663
Library of Congress Control Number 2021937688
Lexham Editorial: Deborah Keiser, Abby Salinger, Allisyn Ma, Abigail Stocker
Cover Design: Joshua Hunt, Brittany Schrock
CONTENTS
Foreword by Chip Ingram
Introduction
Serpent Stomper
December 1
A Worldwide Blessing
December 2
Judah’s Scepter
December 3
Bloody Hope
December 4
King of the Hill
December 5
The Christmas Way of Wisdom
December 6
Sheep and Their Shepherd
December 7
Say What?
December 8
It’s All in His Name
December 9
Five “I Wills” That Will Rock the World
December 10
Small Fry
December 11
The Christmas Exam
December 12
Jesus: The Lord Saves
December 13
My Dad’s Tractor
December 14
Fish for Christmas!
December 15
Christmas Graduation
December 16
“When they had seen him …”
December 17
Our Story
December 18
“The Baruch Buzz” Part 1
December 19
“The Baruch Buzz” Part 2
December 20
The Beginning of the End
December 21
“Look, the Lamb of God!”
December 22
Love Flows Downward
December 23
Grace
December 24
“The Case of the Missing Manger”
December 25
FOREWORD
F ew things capture our attention like a daring, successful rescue.
Think about stories of firefighters, trapped by wildfire, getting picked up by a helicopter in smoke so thick the pilot had to fly blind. I remember the hope I felt when volunteers, who wouldn’t give up, found a toddler alive under rubble three days after an earthquake. Or what about the special operations team surprising militants holding missionaries hostage.
My heart soars as much as anyone’s when tragedy is averted by commitment and courage. I’ve noticed such exploits seem to have five things in common: 1) a great plan, 2) the right people to execute the plan, 3) innovative methods, 4) perfect timing, and 5) flawless execution.
When we hear about how people are dramatically rescued, something soars in our spirit. It’s more than just relief. And it’s more than a tragedy averted. It’s hope. In the most amazing, most powerful, and most stunning rescue story of all—the Christmas story—we find the elements of a great rescue. This Christmas season, I invite you to allow Tidings of Comfort and Joy to cause you to reflect on this incredible rescue. This bold rescue story is our story—with Jesus as our hero.
Tidings of Comfort and Joy , written by my good friend and Dallas Theological Seminary President Mark Yarbrough, contains twenty-five Christmas devotions that capture God’s divine rescue plan. Join Mark daily as he unpacks this amazing rescue. After sending prophets, revelation, and judgments, God extends kindness and love by coming to earth as a baby, dying on the cross in our place, and rescuing a whole planet held hostage to evil, sin, and death.
It’s been an honor to know Mark and witness his passion for teaching Scripture as one continuous story. This devotional captures that passion. I invite you to read and follow along as he pairs personal stories with the scriptural journey from Genesis’s garden, through the Prophets’ foreshadowing and the Gospels’ revelation, to the Epistles’ instructions to teach a perfectly planned rescue. Mark couples each devotional with application and prayer, offering practical insights and encouragement for each day—in anticipation of the Lord’s return.
You will be encouraged and reminded that Christmas offers us a time to reflect on the fact that Jesus rescued us to be children of God—dearly loved, blameless, and holy. I’m confident that Tidings of Comfort and Joy will remind you of the unshakable hope we possess to face life’s greatest challenges.
—Chip Ingram
CEO and Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
INTRODUCTION
M erry Christmas!
I pray that as you approach this Christmas devotional, you are excited about the upcoming Advent season. I just love Christmas! I’m a fan of decorations, candy canes, mistletoe, hot chocolate, presents, music, and family celebrations. I’ve found during the month of December that more people have smiles on their faces, compassion in their hearts, and generosity in their actions. By grace, it is the most wonderful time of the year.
However, it’s possible to get caught up in cultural Christmas and actually miss the Messiah.
No, we don’t miss him intentionally, but we forget to ponder why he came to this planet in the first place. Sometimes in our busyness we fail to set up intentional ways to marvel at the plan of the ages—the greatest story ever told.
That is why this Advent devotional was written. The goal is uncomplicated. It’s written to draw us to the real purpose of Christmas seen throughout Scripture. As the old saying goes, Jesus is the reason for the season.
The format of this book is simple:
1. It is a daily devotional. There are twenty-five devotions—one for every day from December 1st to Christmas Day. Each day a thought will encourage us to pause and focus on our Savior. It is intended for daily preparation.
2. It is a through-the-Bible devotional. Simply put, various thoughts will start in the Old Testament and end in the New Testament. One of the goals of this book is to walk us through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. The birth of Jesus was promised long before his arrival.
3. It is a real devotional. Some of the devotional thoughts are comical—out of the pages of my life. Some are painful. A couple of thoughts paint a hypothetical picture and ask us to reflect upon what God has done for us.
4. It is an action-oriented devotional. After the thought for each day, an “Advent Application” is provided. The intent is to prompt us to do something with the presented thought/text. Some ideas are straightforward; others, more complex. All are given to encourage us to expand our Christmas horizons by worshiping our great God and serving others accordingly.
5. It is a prayer devotional. Each chapter ends in a prayer of praise or commitment. May we respond in wonder and awe, thanking God for the gracious gift of eternal life provided through his Messiah and our Savior.
I hope you enjoy this book. More importantly, I pray the Lord uses the Advent season to renew your heart of faith. Don’t forget: God took on flesh because of his great love for you. So, I say to you again, Merry Christmas!
To God be the glory, great things he has done.
—Mark M. Yarbrough
SERPENT STOMPER
DECEMBER 1
So the L ORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
—Genesis 3:14–15
F or a five-year span during my teenage years I worked on and off at the Double “N” Ranch in Menard County, Texas. It was fabulous. I learned the joys of hard work and simple pleasures. But I also learned about the ranch enemy—diamondback rattlesnakes. Unfortunately, we had plenty of them, and they disrupted the thought of every step.
On one occasion, I was riding in the back of a pickup truck. As it slowed down near a pasture entrance, I foolishly jumped off into an unassuming patch of tall Johnsongrass, ready to open the gate. Upon landing, I heard an all-too-familiar sound: Tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic. Pause. Tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic. I froze. I could hear the snake but could not see it. Then I felt it move underneath my boots. I had inadvertently pinned the snake as I landed in the grass.
I had two choices: (A) I could try to jump out of the waist-high grass and risk falling or sliding back over the snake, or (B) I could start stomping the snake to death. I chose B. That snake paid the price! After one solid minute of the serpent death-dance, I had detached the snake’s head, pulverizing him into ground meat.
Pause that story for a moment.
Long before my encounter on the ranch, another more crafty serpent engaged our ancestors in the garden of Eden with the intent to deceive and kill. Prior to that moment all was right with the world. Man and woman had been placed as stewards in the garden and charged to rule over God’s creation. But there was a serpent. He was cunning and deceptive, with an agenda to destroy. This moment (Gen 3:1–5) is shocking because the serpent spoke and he challenged the caretakers, Adam and Eve, to trust his words as opposed to the words of God.
The text is clear that after assessing the tempter’s words (they will be like God, knowing good and evil), man and woman broke the command previously given (2:16–17) forbidding them to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Both Adam and Eve ate (3:6–7), subsequently choosing to follow up that moment with their own brand of deception and lies.
After speaking to the man and woman about this atrocity (3:8–13), the creator God spoke to the serpent with forceful certainty. In that garden moment the serpent was banished to crawl on the ground—like snakes do today. Was that particular serpent previously upright? We don’t know. But in that moment the Creator displayed his power over the deceiver