“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:11
Scottish Presbyterian minister Horatius Bonar, 1808-1889:
“God took His eternal purpose and dropped it over Bethlehem…. The city is poor rather than rich. It is not without its attractions, but these are of the more homely kind…. It has no palace or temple…. Yet there, … ‘the Word was made flesh.’… Its lowliness makes it more suitable as the birthplace of Him who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor….
“At Bethlehem our world’s history begins. Everything before and after the birth of the young Child takes its color from that event. As the tree rising from a small root spreads its branches, and with them its leaves, blossoms, fruit, and shade—north, south, east, and west—so has this obscure birth influenced all history, … before and behind…. The young Child there is the interpreter of all its mysteries,… the beginning and ending, the center … of human history.
“Christ is all and in all,’ and as such, from the manger to the throne, He is the incarnation of Jehovah’s purposes, … the revelation of the heavenly mysteries.”
“God took His eternal purpose and dropped it over Bethlehem…. The city is poor rather than rich. It is not without its attractions, but these are of the more homely kind…. It has no palace or temple…. Yet there, … ‘the Word was made flesh.’… Its lowliness makes it more suitable as the birthplace of Him who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor….
“At Bethlehem our world’s history begins. Everything before and after the birth of the young Child takes its color from that event. As the tree rising from a small root spreads its branches, and with them its leaves, blossoms, fruit, and shade—north, south, east, and west—so has this obscure birth influenced all history, … before and behind…. The young Child there is the interpreter of all its mysteries,… the beginning and ending, the center … of human history.
“Christ is all and in all,’ and as such, from the manger to the throne, He is the incarnation of Jehovah’s purposes, … the revelation of the heavenly mysteries.”
Scripture Focus
John 7:37-44
Insight
“Yet in thy dark streets shineth/ the everlasting light;/ the hopes and fears of all the years/ are met in thee tonight.” (Phillips Brooks, 1868)
Bible In A Year
- Hosea 12-14
- Proverbs 15
- 1 Peter 4-5