LifeLink Devotional

Friday, December 13, 2019

Years ago this devotional blog was called Connecting Points. I had chosen that name because the Mission Statement of our church is Connecting People to God, and I wanted my blog to enhance that mission. My desire was, and still is, to provide connecting points to deep relationships with Jesus Christ.

My connecting points are only possible because God established a connecting point with us. Since the Garden of Eden there had not been one. Oh, there were numerous events where God allowed sinful mankind to approach Him, hear Him, and obey Him, but He had not yet established a point in time where people could be reconciled to Him and connected to Him permanently. Man was separated from God by his sin, and could do nothing about it. All human history prior to this one event was preparation time for our connection problem to be fixed. It had been proclaimed prophetically for thousands of years. Now it was here.

Seven hundred years before it happened, the Prophet Isaiah declared that it was close at hand and ready to be revealed. Salvation was near. God would soon be with us, making it possible for Him to be in us. God established a connecting point.

Isaiah 56:1 “This is what the LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.”

It was a two-part plan. First, God would connect with us. God would become one of us. The angel announced it to shepherds on the hillsides of Bethlehem.

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” God connected with us.

The second part of the plan was to establish a place where we could connect with God. That place is called Calvary. Not a church, but the place where Jesus died on the cross as one of us. He was undeserving of death because He was sinless God. He became our sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus paid the price of death so that we, through repentance from our sin and belief in Jesus as our Savior, could be saved from our sin and given the gift of eternal life. To confirm the gift and its payment, God resurrected Jesus from the dead. God established a place where you and I can make a permanent connection to Him.

That’s what Christmas is all about. ALL about! Everything we do at this season – the gifts, the family, the friends, the food, the football – is ALL about God establishing a connecting point with us.

Take all the fluff away, and I will still joyously proclaim “He’s Here!”

I need nothing else to be able to say it is the best Christmas ever!

Thanks for the Connecting Point, God!

Pastor John