Paul David Tripp - Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional

December 30

God became a child so that through his life, death, and resurrection, we might become the children of God.

I love a good novel. I love to watch a skilled author carefully and creatively develop the personality profile and the backstory of every character. I love how the author paints each scene and location with well - chosen words. I love the twist and turns, the surprises, and the building of the drama of a well - crafted plot. And I love how the novelist can take you away to another place and paint pictures in your mind that, as you read, seem more real than the real things around you. There is nothing like a good story.

I decided to write this Advent devotional because Im persuaded that our lives are defined by story. There is always some big, overarching story that becomes your tool for understanding your personal story. For my dad, World War II was the defining story of his life, and he never let go of that story until the day he died. For my mom, the story of growing up in a very large and sadly abusive home was an influential, identity - shaping story in her life. Maybe for you its the story of an ancestors immigration to America or the story of economic loss. Maybe its the story of an accident, illness, or injury that has had power to define you. Or it could be the story of life in the inner city or in the suburbs that interprets for you who you are. We all carry stories with us, and the stories that we carry become the means by which we make sense of the individual stories that we live every day.

So I decided to write this devotional so you would carry with you the greatest true story ever told. I wrote this devotional so you would embed your little personal story in the larger story of redemption. My hope in writing is that this devotional would stimulate you to live with a birth -of- Jesus mentality. My prayer is that the story of the birth, life, and sacrifice of Jesus would be the story that would shape everything in your life. I hope that whether its your finances, your marriage, your work, your sexual life, your friendships, your education, your leisure, or your future, that you would make sense of every dimension of your life through the lens of what the Christmas story tells you about life.

Because the Christmas story is meant to help you interpret and understand your story, its important to slow down and take time to meditate upon this amazing story of mind - blowing grace. I love the work of the abstract expressionist painters, and one of my favorites is Barnett Newman. So I was excited when I learned that the Museum of Modern Art in New York City was showing an extensive exhibit of Newmans work. The masterpiece of the exhibit was a painting entitled Vir Heroicus Sublimis (Man, heroic and sublime). VHS is 711 tall and 179 wide. It is a stunning field of red, but not just a single layer of red; layer after layer of thinned red paint makes you feel that you could step into the red world that is before you. Newman instructed the viewer not to stand way back from the painting to view it, which is your instinct when you try to view a huge canvas. Newman wanted you to get as close as the museum would allow, so that you would feel that you were being enveloped by a sea of gloriously bright and endlessly deep red. So when I got to the gallery, I did as Newman advised. The red is so redly red that as you stand up close, you forget where you are; youre no longer distracted by whats around you, and you find yourself filled with serene amazement.

I am persuaded that this is why God retained all the details of the Christmas story around us. We are so quickly forgetful. We can be so easily distracted. The further we stand away from the Christmas story the less we are gripped with the life - changing wonder of knowing that God became a child so that we would no longer be separate from God, but would be now and forever the children of God. You and I need to get so close to this story that it envelops and changes us. We need to get so close to this story that it overwhelms any other defining story that we have carried around with us. We need to get up close so we can hear the song of the angels and feel the fearful, excited wonder of the shepherds. We need to get up close so we can sense the amazement of Mary and Joseph as they grasp to understand what it means that their baby boy was born by the Holy Spirit to Mary, who was still a virgin. You and I need to get up close to the Christmas story so we can look into the manger at the baby Jesus and consider the fact that in the manger lies One who is fully God and fully baby boy.

Tomorrow you will reach for a story to make sense out of what is happening in your story. Tomorrow you will use that story as your interpretive tool more times than you will be aware. My prayer is that the story you will reach for will be the story of how God became a man so that we who were alienated and separated from him would become his children. And my prayer is that as you live with the glory of a birth -of- Jesus mentality, it will cause you to carry with you the security of a child -of- God identity.

For further study: 1 John 3:13

For parents and children:

Central theme: Story

Ask your children to tell you what a story is. Ask them to tell you what their favorite story is and why it is their favorite story. Tell them that one of the reasons we like stories is because they help us understand the story of our own lives. Ask one of your children to tell the story of his life as if no one in the room knew him. Then tell him that the Christmas story is the most important story ever, and that because it is, it is meant to be the story that helps us make sense out of the story of our lives. Gods story tells us who we are and who God is, and it tells us of the new identity, the children of God, that he gives everyone who believes in him.

December 5

The incarnation of Jesus Christ pointedly preaches our inescapable need for radical, personal, and moral rescue and forgiveness.

One of the primary purposes of the incarnation of Jesus is to humble each and every one of us. Let me say it this way: only when you accept the very, very bad news of Jesus s birth will you then be excited about its very, very good news. Good news is only ever good news to people who know that they need good news. Ten dollars is extremely good news to a poor man, but would not even get noticed by a rich man. The promise of healing is wonderfully good news to a very sick woman, but would not even get the attention of a woman who was in good health. Jesus s birth is both the worst and the best news ever, and understanding both will change your life forever.

It is humbling to accept that God came, in the person of Jesus , to live the way that we were created to live, but would never live, to die the death that each one of us deserves to die, and to rise out of the tomb, defeating sin and death because there was simply no other way. God knew that our condition was so desperately grave that he was willing to go to this extent to reach and rescue us. Ponder the fact that God was willing to control the events of world history to bring this world to the place where conditions were right for Jesus to come, simply because we had no power whatsoever to help ourselves out of our desperate state. Humanity was so incredibly messed up that there was only one solution for us: God himself!

God knew that something lurks inside all of us that twists every thought, that diverts every desire, that shapes the direction of every choice, and that controls every word and action. And he knew that because this thing was inside us and not outside us, we would never be able to conquer it on our own. For all the beauty of his law, he knew the law could expose us, it could guide us, and it could indict us, but it would never be able to rescue us. So the only hope for messed up and desperate people like us was the sending of the ultimate rescuer, his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.