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Glory Seed Devotional’s, 2016: Year of the Blessing…
Love: the Gift of Christmas...
Shalom!
“Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”” (John 20:29, NLT)
Yesterday while driving to an appointment the Holy Spirit taught me a valuable lesson. I was stopped at a red light and when it turned green the car in front of me immediately drove straight ahead with me following. We’d gone several blocks when I looked down at my speedometer and realized I was speeding, 45 in a 35 mph zone. I immediately slowed down to the speed limit. “Gary, how many times do you do that in life, follow blindly without thinking about the deeper meaning of life?”
It wasn’t an in-your-ear-voice I heard instead it was an in-your-heart-voice and it started me thinking. Throughout my Christmas shopping for that one perfect gift had I followed my head thinking or had I followed my heart thinking? We all know the greatest gift of Christmas was God coming into our lives through the birth of Jesus. We all know the greatest gift we can give another is the gift of self, you are not only God’s greatest miracle, you are your greatest to another person.
The lesson the Holy Spirit taught me while driving yesterday isn’t something new, it was something that somehow got lost in head-hype of the Christmas season. Head-hype tells us giving gifts at Christmas (or any other time) is about ME, our giving needs is not about ME but THEM. During the 4 or 5 years Patti took care of her aging mother her gift to her mom wasn’t the things she did for her it was the gift of self. The caring (and other gifts) Patti gave her mom was a by-product (for a lock of other words) of Patti’s love for her mom.
Love comes in many forms perhaps the two most important forms are head-love (artificial) and heart-love (pure/true). Because you cannot give true love without giving yourself the greatest gift we can give another is love.
The author of Hebrews sums up the Christmas Story, the Jesus Story, and God’s Love Story like this. “Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17, NLT)
Merry Christmas from the Piper’s!
“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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