December 24, 2015
______________________
Bible Reference
Matthew 2: 1-16 : “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.”
______________________
Are you living for or against Jesus?
In a recent daily devotional John Piper looks at the account of the birth of Jesus and notices that there are three different groups of people when it comes to attitudes about the birth of the Messiah.
“The first kind is the people who simply do nothing about Jesus. He is a nonentity in their lives. This group is represented by the chief priests and scribes. Verse 4: “Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, [Herod] inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.” Well, they told him, and that was that: back to business as usual…
The second kind of people who do not want to worship Jesus is the kind who is deeply threatened by him. That is Herod in this story. He is really afraid. So much so that he schemes and lies and then commits mass murder just to get rid of Jesus.”
The third kind of people are exemplified by the wise men. Verses 10-11 “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.”
Christ’s coming to this earth is utterly ground shaking, yet too often we find ourselves maybe not in the group with King Herod that outright oppose Jesus but with the group that simply can’t be bothered to let it influence our day. We’re talking about the coming of our King, the greatest event in the history of the world, and we go on with our lives like it’s a non-issue. We are stoked to land a new trick, but the can’t find time in the day to honor the creator of the universe.
Read the whole article here.
______________________
What group are you in?
Honestly, which of these three groups do you find yourself in most often? (In other words, are you more stoked to slide plastic over snow than to worship the God who came to earth to save you forever?)
How did the wise men respond? Was that an appropriate response?
How can we be more like the wise men and less like the Herod or the Chief Priests?