Category: Advent devotions

Posted in Advent devotions

You can run, but you can’t hide

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

When God gives Jonah the task of calling the city of Nineveh to repentance, he does his best to run away.

It turns out that it’s not that easy to run away from God. God sends a storm that threatens to capsize his ship. God sends a fish to swallow Jonah to keep him from drowning when he’s tossed into the sea. And when Jonah prays from the belly of the fish, God is there to answer him. Like David said in the psalm, no matter where you go, God’s already there (Psalm 139:7-10).

(My friend Gene from Denver believed Jonah said, “I never knew a fish had tonsils!”)

So Jonah taps out. He goes to Nineveh to warn them of God’s judgment. Believe it or not, the entire city repents. What a great reminder of the power of God’s word!

And what a great image of who Jesus will be. When religious leaders demanded that Jesus do a sign to validate his claim to be the Savior, he responds, “The only sign you’ll get is the sign of Jonah.” Just as Jonah returned from the depths after three days and nights in the belly of the fish, so Jesus would come back to life on the third day.

Jesus, God’s word in the flesh, also turned many from their sins back to God. His mercy and kindness moved many to repentance. His words brought those dead in sin back to life.

Jonah gets an ornament on the Jesse Tree because he’s a lot like the one who will save us from our sins: Jesus.

Posted in Advent devotions

Let ‘er rip!

Posted on by William Douthwaite

What’s your reaction when you hear scripture being read? You know, like when you’re in church and the pastor reads a passage before a sermon.

Or what about this: how do you respond when you read the bible? You know, in the early morning when you are doing your devotions?

Do you laugh? Cry? Get angry? Feel guilty?

None of the above?

Do you feel anything?

That’s a penetrating question. It’s a bit convicting. I read scripture a lot. Every day, first thing in the morning. I read through the entire bible once a year. I’ve read the bible cover to cover at least three dozen times. I hear scripture read every Sunday in worship services. I listen to the bible through an app on my phone. I hear verses read aloud on Christian radio.

You know what? Most of the time I don’t feel anything. Most of the time, it’s an intellectual encounter with God.

Okay, so let’s compare that with how King Josiah reacted to a scripture reading. When workmen repaired the temple and found the scrolls of God’s Word, the king’s secretary read it to him.

“When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes” (2 Kings 22:11).

In Old Testament culture, that means he felt convicted. Josiah was distraught. Devastated. He was so upset that he tore his clothes, the ultimate expression of confession and repentance before God.

So maybe I should ask a different question when I encounter God’s Word. Instead of asking, “What does this mean?” or “How should I apply this?” or “What should I do (or stop doing)?” I could ask, “How does this make me feel?” Does these verses or chapter spark joy? Or do they make me want to throw my bible across the room? Should I be dancing? Or should my eyes tear up?

My dog’s tails betray their feelings. Depending on my tone of voice, their tails might be wagging with delight or be tucked under in submission.

Josiah gets a Jesse Tree ornament because he responded to God’s promises of a Savior. He knew he needed grace. I do too.

Posted in Advent devotions

Fire from heaven

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Courtney Cook on Unsplash

The firewood was damp. I didn’t have any newspaper. What little kindling I could find was wet. It was windy. Night was approaching. It was a challenge, but I got a smoky fire going inside the campsite ring of rocks.

Elijah arranged similar conditions when he challenged the prophets of Baal to a sacrifice challenge. He soaks his sacrifice and the wood beneath it with enough water to fill a moat around the altar. But it’s not a problem for God who send fire to consume the sacrifice, wood, stone altar, and all the water (1 Kings 18:20-40). There’s nothing left but a crater after the Lord demonstrates that he is the one true God.

On a recent walk I saw a burned out shell of a car in someone’s driveway. Every Thanksgiving people post videos of turkeys going up in flames when improperly dropped into a pot of hot oil. I vividly remember when wildfires raged within a half-mile of my home. I never underestimate the power of flames.

Every once in while God shows up in fire. Like the burning bush from which he spoke to Moses. Or chariots and horses of fire when he took Elijah to heaven. Or when he spoke to Zechariah who was burning incense in the temple. The Holy Spirit looked like tongues of fire descending on the apostles on Pentecost. Jesus’s eyes looked like they were on fire when John saw him in the first chapter of Revelation.

Sometimes God’s fire consumes. Sometimes it purifies. Elijah gets an ornament on the Jesse Tree as he prayed for God to reveal himself with fire.

Posted in Advent devotions

The house we always wanted

Posted on by William Douthwaite

When we moved to Florida, we had the option of building a new house. I never thought we’d be able to do that. By the grace of God we had enough equity to build when startup costs were affordable. Before we move, we looked at lots of houses, but decided we needed to build new. It was the right decision.

David wanted to build. He wanted to build a house for God. A temple. A place of worship.

As usual, God has a better idea. This wouldn’t be David’s project. It would be his son’s. And God’s.

It was more important for God to build David’s house. It was more important for God to insure that David’s descendants would always rule his people. It was more important that God make a house, or dynasty, for David. Our projects are always so small compared to what God has planned.

In the end, we don’t have to do anything for God. He does everything for us. He creates, saves, and blesses us. We can do nothing in return, except to live as those who have been created, delivered, and blessed.

David is a part of our Jesse Tree because one of his descendants, Jesus, will be the king God’s people always needed.

Posted in Advent devotions

Pick the next leader

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash

Since I grew up in the United States of America, a representative democracy, I struggle to grasp the selection of a monarch. Candidates for elected office campaign for months before I and others vote for one of them.

A king or a queen is not elected. He or she inherits the throne from their father or mother. A person may have an opinion about the reigning monarch, but their voice has no weight.

When it’s time for Samuel to anoint the next king of Israel, neither his opinion nor anyone else’s matters. God chooses. God chose Saul. That didn’t work out. God chooses the next king, someone after his own heart. God chooses David.

God sends Samuel to Jesse the Bethlehemite to anoint one of his sons as the next king. It must be Jesse’s firstborn, Eliab. Nope. God is looking deeper than appearances. How about the next son, Abinadab? Nope. It’s going to be the youngest son, a good-looking, brave, eloquent, sheep-herding, song-writing musician named David (16:18). I know, that’s an impressive resume!

A thousand years later, the angel Gabriel would announce to Mary that God would give her Spirit-conceived child “the throne of his father David.” No one would choose this child to be king. He would be despised, rejected, and killed. But he would rise and ascend to rule and reign. From the very start he is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Thank you, Lord, for David. Thanks for his songs, his victories, his descendants, and for Jesus. I would much rather be king or queen, but I am glad that he is my Lord. Only he can give me life!

David gets an ornament on the Jesse Tree; he is the ancestor of Jesus!

Posted in Advent devotions

A spy, a witness, and salvation

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

I like watching movies and reading books about spies. I’m fascinated by the way they blend into a community or corporation, earn the trust of many, and gain access to information that benefits their country.

When Joshua sends spies into Jericho, they find their way to the house of Rahab, a prostitute. She hides them and helps them escape after receiving the promise that she would survive the Israelite conquest of the city. When the walls come down and Israel wins it’s first contest in the promised land, she and her family are preserved.

According to Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, Rahab is mentioned in the family tree of Jesus the Messiah. Unknown to everyone, including her, she became a part of God’s plan of salvation.

I like to spy on people. What I mean is, I like to sit and eavesdrop on conversations at Starbucks or Panera. I admit to glancing at people’s phones to see who they are texting. I’ve watched a few people tap out their PIN when they checkout. I’m not much of a spy. But I enjoy watching and listening to people.

I believe that if we just watch and listen closely, we’ll see or hear an opportunity to communicate God’s love in some way. We’ll help, we’ll listen, or we’ll be able to share a story about our faith and our God.

I love to think of myself as a spy from God, infiltrating a world in which many don’t know him. It makes everyday an adventure or a mission. I’m sneaking behind enemy lines with mercy, love, or hope that some have never experienced. Isn’t that cool?

Anyway, Rahab is a great example of how anyone can be grafted into God’s people. The scarlet thread hanging from her window was her subtle confession of faith in the God whose power and love was greater than anything she had witnessed before. “The Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11).

Rahab gets an ornament on the Jesse Tree for her willingness to help the spies from Israel and her confession of faith in the one true God.

Posted in Advent devotions

The rules of the game

Posted on by William Douthwaite

“Want to play a game?”

“Sure!”

“Great. I got this new game for Christmas.”

After unboxing a game board and a variety of cards and pieces, it’s time to read the rules. They’ll be printed in a little folder, inside the box lid, or even on the back of the box. Until you know the rules, you can’t play the game.

When God powerfully brought his people out of slavery in Egypt, he declared, “I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:2). God then gives his people a list of “you shalls” and “you shall nots” that we call the Ten Commandments. They are not numbered in the Hebrew text, but later we read, “[The Lord your God] declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone” (Deuteronomy 4:13). That’s how we know they are ten.

These commandments (and many more) were not just rules for a game. They were rules for life. These commandments outline what God means when he says, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).

Think about it. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had emerged from 350 years of slavery. Every day someone told them what to do and how to do it. They never had to make a decision. They never had to make a choice. They never had a day off. And they always knew exactly what was expected of them.

Now, they are on their own. For the first time in their lives. For the first time in generations. Someone better find a way to reign in the natural selfishness, greed, and jealously that brings self-destruction to any group of people, from kids to grown-ups.

God loves his people enough to put up some guard rails for their life together. He loves them enough to show them they can’t do this on their own. They need him to save and preserve their lives. He loves them enough to show them the kind of life he has in mind for them, one that has an amazing future.

God gives his people the law. It is a gift that not only preserves their lives but draws them to him when they don’t get it right. It is a gift that shows them how much he loves them, even when they break the rules. It is a gift to remind them that their God is unlike any other so-called God in the world. He is the one who comes to give them life. It is a gift that holds God’s people together until that day when the Messiah is born.

The Ten Commandments get an ornament on the Jesse Tree, for they are God’s gracious curb, mirror, and guide for our lives.

Posted in Advent devotions

Love, hate, and a really nice coat

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Nafis Al Sadnan on Unsplash

“Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors.But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him” (Genesis 37:3,4).

Joseph’s special robe reminded him of his father’s love and his brothers’ hate. I’ll bet he had mixed feelings every time he put it on.

Many years later soldiers would mock Jesus by putting a purple robe on him. Jesus came into this world as the ultimate expression of God’s love, and yet he was the object of intense hate.

Isaiah rejoiced that the Lord had clothed him in garments of salvation and robes of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). Paul writes, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). That outfit is a reminder of God’s steadfast love, but also a magnet for hate in this world. Jesus told his disciples, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (Mark 13:13).

Joseph is a type, or a shadow, of who Christ will be. Joseph will not only be hated, but beaten, betrayed, and sold into slavery. Through that, though, he was able to save his family. Second only to the Pharaoh in Egypt, he fed his family and kept the Messianic line alive. Jesus was hated, beaten, betrayed, and crucified. But through it all he saved his people.

The cross declares that we are dearly loved. But that truth will also bring hate. Through it all, we will proclaim Christ in our words and lives. And by the grace of God, more will be saved.

By the grace of God, Joseph’s coat gets an ornament on our Jesse tree.

Posted in Advent devotions

Running towards God

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Cesar Cid on Unsplash

What a nightmare! Jacob pretends to be his brother Esau so his father will give him the blessing of the first born son. Esau is steamed, plotting to kill his brother. Mom tells Jacob to run away to his uncle’s house.

What a dream! With nothing but a rock for a pillow, Jacob goes to sleep under the stars. In his dream, he sees a ladder stretching up to heaven, crowded with angels going up and down. At the top of the ladder, he sees the Lord, who connects the covenant promise of a Savior to Jacob and his offspring (Genesis 28:13,14).

When he wakes up, Jacob says, “The Lord is here!” He thought he was running away. But he was actually running towards the plans and promises of God.

There are plenty of things in life we’d like to run away from. Who wants to be around angry people, dangerous places, past mistakes, and hurtful words?

But in stead of running away, let’s think of it as running towards our Lord. After all, God’s always a step ahead of us with protection, provision, and powerful promises. (How’s that for alliteration?)

Jacob gets an ornament on the Jesse Tree, heir of God’s promise of a Savior.