Daily Hope Devotional

“There is only one God, and Christ Jesus is the only one   who can bring us to God. Jesus was truly human, and He gave Himself   to rescue all of us.”   (1 Timothy 2:5 CEV) Christmas is all about good news. But it’s not the good news of special gifts. It’s not the good news of a big meal. It’s not even the good news of spending time with friends and family. Christmas is about the Good News of God’s love. The Bible says all of us are lost without God. We’re directionless. We’re without protection. Our potential eternal impact upon the world is unrealized. We’re without real joy. Our eternity in Heaven isn’t secure. The Good News about Christmas is that God sent Jesus to seek and save the lost. The Bible says,  “There is only one God, and Christ Jesus is the only one who can bring us to God. Jesus was truly human, and He gave Himself to rescue all of us”   (1 T...

“The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”   (Luke   19:10 NCV) If you don’t understand the purpose of Christmas, you might as well skip the Christmas lights and decorations this year. You might as well forget about buying Christmas presents. You might as well forget Christmas dinner. If you don’t know why we celebrate Christmas, all the festivities are pointless. To find the purpose of Christmas, you have to fast forward beyond the manger, the Wise Men, and the shepherds. Jesus told us the reason he came to Earth on the first Christmas:  “The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them”   (Luke  19:10  NCV). Quite simply, Jesus came because people are lost without God. To be spiritually lost means to be separated from God, disconnected, and out of whack. Without Jesus, everybody in the world is lost — no matter how much power, wealth, or fame they have. And our...

“Listen! I am standing and knocking at your door. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will eat together.”  (Revelation 3:20 CEV) You might think you have a good life right now, but if you could have an even better life, wouldn’t you want to know about it? Unfortunately, what keeps us from grabbing hold of that better life is an irrational sense of self-sufficiency. We think we’re doing fine on our own. Psalm 10:4 says it like this:  “The wicked people are too proud. They do not look for God; there is no room for God in their thoughts”  (NCV). Just like the innkeeper in the first Christmas story (Luke 2), we don’t believe we need more guests. We think we have everything we need. There’s only one problem with that arrogance: You miss the very reason God created you. God made you so that you might have a relationship with ...

“Dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”  (Luke 10:41b-42 NLT) You and I love to overcrowd our lives. We overbook, overspend, overestimate, and we often walk around tired all the time. As a result, God’s truth often doesn’t get the chance to blossom in our lives. Too often God teaches you a kernel of truth — maybe through your morning Bible study or a Sunday sermon — and you think you need to do something about it, but almost immediately it’s crowded out of your life and forgotten. The truth isn’t crowded out of your life because of evil. Often, good things in our lives crowd out the truth that God wants to plant in us. To fulfill God’s destiny for your life, you likely don’t have to do more; you have to do less. Take Jesus’ friends Mary and Martha for example. One day they invi...

“If you only knew the gift God has for you and Who you are speaking to, you would ask Me, and I would give you living water.”  (John  4:10  NLT) Right now there are TV and radio waves all around you. If you had a tuner, you could see what’s on those waves. But just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t real. You’re just not tuned in. That’s what it was like in Bethlehem on the night of the first Christmas. Despite the fact that Bethlehem had an inn with the sole purpose of taking care of travelers, there was no room in that inn for undoubtedly the most significant family of travelers in Bethlehem that night. This Christmas, don’t miss an important parallel of this story to our own hearts. Your heart was made to hold God. You were made by God and for God. Until you understand that, life will never make sense. Unfortunately, we fill our lives with other things. We invite ot...

“She gave birth to her first child, a Son. She wrapped Him snugly in strips of cloth and laid Him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.” (Luke 2:7 NLT) The coming of the eternal God and promised Messiah had been anticipated for thousands of years. Prophecies foretold the truth that the Savior of the world would be coming. His birth would be so important that it would split history into B.C. and A.D. Your birthday is dated in relationship to the birthday of Jesus. Yet when the Son of God came into the world, there was no room for Him. The innkeeper missed a prime opportunity. If Jesus had been born in one of his rooms, the innkeeper could have built one of those big Las Vegas signs that points down and reads, “Son of God Born Here!” He could have charged a fortune for rooms! Instead he missed the biggest blessing of his life because he didn’t have room for Jesus. We can’t be too harsh on the innkeeper for not having room for J...

“They bowed down and worshiped Him. They opened their gifts and gave Him treasures of  gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”  (Matthew 2:11NCV) Often, Jesus gets shut out during Christmas. Imagine I planned a party for you and invited many people. Everyone brings lots of gifts, and the invitees trade presents with one another — and you get nothing. That’s Christmas. We give gifts to everyone but Jesus. But let’s be honest — what do you give the God who has everything? Actually, Jesus doesn’t have everything. There are four things He doesn’t have unless you give them to Him this Christmas: Give Him your trust.  Faith is a voluntary matter. Jesus doesn’t have your trust unless you give it to Him. He will never force it. Make Jesus first place in your life.  If anything or anyone other than Jesus holds first place in your life, it’s an idol. This Christmas, choose to make Jesus first in your finances, interests, relationships, schedule — and ev...

“When Jesus was born, some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem.”   (Matthew 2:1b NCV) Searching for truth isn’t a part-time job. It takes everything you have. The Wise Men teach us this in the Christmas story. The Wise Men were willing to go to any length to find truth. Matthew 2:1 says,“ When Jesus was born, some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem”  (NCV). We can assume that the Wise Men traveled many miles from the Far East to the Middle East at great expense to find Jesus. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which is just six miles from Jerusalem. At the time of Jesus’ birth, Jerusalem was the spiritual center of the world. All kinds of spiritual activity was taking place in Jerusalem. All of the major religious leaders of the world were in Jerusalem, but none of them were seeking Jesus. Only people on the outside — the Wise Men from a completely different culture — were looking for Jesus. King Herod missed baby Jesus. So di...

“Where is the baby who was born to be the king of the Jews?”  (Matthew 2:2a NCV) Look at any nativity scene, and you’ll likely see one set of characters that doesn’t seem to fit in the barn: the Wise Men. We’ve become used to them, but if you look at the scene closely, they appear out of place with their fancy clothes and special gifts. But to me, they’re the most fascinating people in the Christmas story. We don’t know much about them. We don’t know who they are or where they are from. The Bible calls them “magi.” Magi were a combination of philosophers, scientists, and astronomers. They were quite wealthy and well educated. But that’s really all we know about them. But we know they were wise. In fact, we can learn a lot from the wisdom they display in the Christmas story. Among other lessons from the Wise Men, we learn to be seekers of the truth. Wise people aren’t happy with guesses or speculation. They want to know the truth about ...