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Glory Seed Devotional’s, 2016: Year of the Blessing…
Zacchaeus and the Christmas message...
Shalom!
“So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” (Matthew 7:11, NLT)
Yesterday I wrote, “Christmas is a time for giving. God set the standard by giving us Jesus.” This morning reflecting on it I found myself saying, “Whoa, wait a minute, that’s true but it doesn’t go far enough.” God is giving us the gift of Jesus every minute of every day. A God that gives gifts only one day a year will not do! If you don’t think you need an everyday gift giving God then here’s something to think about. What if God were to suddenly take a day off from giving? Probably the first thing that would happen the entire solar system would be in total chaos the orbits of moons and planets would no longer keep them from crashing in to each other and it would go down hill from there.
Gravity, is God’s greatest gift to the universe, but that’s only part of the one part. It is the presence of God in the universe that keeps order and short circuits chaos. That does not mean there are no bumps and bruises, bumps and bruises when in the hand of God are for the ultimate betterment of the universe as a whole. The God who sustains order in the universe sustains order in your life as well. God does the same with your bumps and bruises He does with the ones the universe experiences.
By rewriting today’s scripture we can get to the heart of the 24/7/365 Christmas message. “So if your heavenly Father gives good gifts to sinful people, how much more should sinful people give good gifts to others.” One of the best examples of the timeless Christmas message is the story of Zacchaeus.
“Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” (Luke 19:8, NLT)
On the surface it seems as if the good gift Zacchaeus gave was money, money was the second good gift Zacchaeus gave the first was himself.
Be a Zacchaeus this Christmas and everyday thereafter!
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”**
GRACE and PEACE,
Gary
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“Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”
**Romans 15:13, NLT
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