WFC Daily Devotional Blog

WFC Daily Devotional for Series: “When Love Comes to Town”
Week Four: “Love Celebrates” by Pastor Dan Southerland
Today’s Theme: “Love Helps Reframing Our Minds”

Key Verses:

Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Luke 24:45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

Meditation
My mentor in studying cognitive sciences once stated, “The Bible is a book of reframing.” In other words, the Bible is a book for shaping our minds so that we conform to godly thinking.

The Christmas story certainly reframes perceptions. It is a story of how the humble and lowly can be used by God to accomplish His plan and to have eternal impact.

Mary was a humble and honorable virgin who expected a simple life being married to a carpenter. God called her to be the Messiah’s mother. What a startling change of mindset was needed to understand God’s plan.

Joseph was a humble, compassionate carpenter who expected a life married to the woman of his dreams. God called Joseph to radically reframe his perspective on a woman pregnant out of wedlock. God asked Joseph to understand and accept the unimaginable.

And, of course there was the setting – a stable. It was an out-of-the-way, cramp, smelly, shadowy stable and an unassuming birthplace for the King of Kings, Emmanuel, the Prince of Peace.

Mary pondered all of these things, which meant she was reframing her thinking so that she understood God’s perspective.

And, ultimately, the Christmas story is about a Savior who opens men’s and women’s minds so that they might understand His truth.

Christmas is a time to reframe our thoughts so that we align our beliefs and passions to God’s truth.

Questions to Consider
What reframing does my mind still need to be aligned with God’s mind?

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Today’s devotional author is Ted Davis. He can contacted at tedavis@grace4success.com.

WFC Daily Devotional for Series: “When Love Comes to Town”
Week Three:  “Love Provides” by Pastor Dan Southerland
Today’s Theme: “The Initiator”

Key Verses:
1 John 4:10  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Meditation
This past Sunday, Pastor Dan Southerland stressed that God’s plan is to have a personal relationship with us.  That is part of the Christmas story.  God pursued us by providing Christ as our Redeemer.
Consider the above verse.  The Apostle John made it clear; God initiated this love relationship.  He initiated it as our Creator.  He redeemed it as Savior.  He nurtures it by His Spirit.

Here is how Eugene Peterson paraphrases 1 John 4:7-10: My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

Despite all the commercialism of the Christmas season and ‘checking our lists twice,’ this holiday is not about us; it is about us responding to God’s love.  As Dan Southerland summarized, it is about Christo mas – more of Christ in our life.

Questions to Consider
Am I responding to God’s pursuit and desire of an intimate relationship?

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Today’s devotional author is Ted Davis. He can contacted at tedavis@grace4success.com.