Day of Praise

Mo, 01/06/14, The Epiphany of Our Lord, "Day of Praise"

Matthew 2:10-11 - "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. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh."

I sincerely love y'all enough to get a little preachy today.

Today is January 6, which is Epiphany, which celebrates the Magi booking a camel in Babylon for unlimited miles, which they'd need as they traveled as long as two years to see and worship Jesus.

The Magi went a long way to see and worship Jesus because they knew he'd come a long way for us. In the words of an ancient Creed, "for us and our salvation, he came down from heaven." That's a long way for the Magi and a longer way for Jesus.

How far would you go to see the one who's gone farther to see you? One family in our church drives 160 miles round-trip to worship.

Hey, y'all, there's a lot of us reading this devotion today, we're all flesh and blood. Mornings are hard for almost everyone. But Jesus's cross was harder. Much harder. He went all the way for us. It's worth it for us to go a ways for him. Ya know, to say, "Thank you."

So how about in 2014, starting today, we all find a church and get there, no matter how far away it might be, and worship God and God's Savior Son, Jesus.

(P.S. - A quick, sincere apology; I accidentally erased a request from one of your friends who asked to be added to the email list. I have no idea who it was. Sorry! Please tell them to email me again.)

Thank you all for almost 2 1/2 years together. By God's grace, we've journeyed a long way together in Christ. And by God's grace 2014's going to be a great year too!

Praise God!


Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson