Week Six:The Arrival

T H E L U C A D OL I F E L E S S O N S

C H R I S T M A S D E V O T I O N A L

Inspirational Applications for Living Your Faith

Let one of America’s most-loved pastors guide you on a memorable journey to the manger. Sit beside

the babe. Know what it was like. Be inspired to live out your faith for Him.

E x p e r i e n c e t h i s C h r i s t m a s s e a s o n l i k e n e v e r b e f o r e w i t h t h i s s i x - w e e k d e v o t i o n a l f r o m

M a x L u c a d o

Week Six: The Arrival

Day 1: He Came as One of Us

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood,

He Himself likewise shared in the same.

Hebrews 2:14

Situation in Hebrews 2:1—3:19

As God’s Son, Jesus’ authority surpassed any prophet or angel. He is God, yet He

became man.

Observation

Because Jesus became man, we know He understands our human frustrations.

Inspiration

Most families keep their family secrets a secret. Most don’t talk about the

swindling uncle or the streetwalking great-aunt. Such stories remain unmentioned at the

family reunion and unrecorded in the family Bible.

That is, unless you are the God-man. Jesus displays the bad apples of his family

tree in the very first chapter of the New Testament. You’ve barely dipped a toe into

Matthew’s Gospel when you realize Jesus hails from the Tilted-Halo Society. Rahab was

a Jericho harlot. Grandpa Jacob was slippery enough to warrant an electric ankle bracelet.

David had a personality as irregular as a Picasso painting—one day writing psalms,

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another day seducing his captain’s wife. But did Jesus erase his name from the list? Not

at all.

You’d think he would have. Entertainment Tonight could quarry a season of

gossip out of these stories. Why did Jesus hang His family’s dirty laundry on the

neighborhood clothesline?

Because your family has some, too. An uncle with a prison record. The dad who

never came home. The grandparent who ran away with the coworker. If your family tree

has bruised fruit, then Jesus wants you to know, “I’ve been there.”

The phrase “I’ve been there” is in the chorus of Christ’s theme song. To the

lonely, Jesus whispers, “I’ve been there.” To the discouraged, Christ nods his head and

sighs, “I’ve been there.”

Questionable pedigree. Raised in an overlooked nation among oppressed people

in an obscure village. Simple home. Single mom. An ordinary laborer with ordinary

looks. Can you spot Him? See the adobe house with the thatched roof? Yes, the one with

the chickens in the yard and the gangly teenager repairing chairs in the shed. Word has it

He can fix your plumbing as well.

He’s been there.

“He had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God

as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all

himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed”

(Hebrews 2:17–18 MSG).

Where do you most need His help as the big day of His birthday celebration

approaches? What "detail of human life" especially troubles you? Come to Him. Tell

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Him about it. Ask for His assistance. He longs to help you, one member of a

dysfunctional family to another.

(Adapted from Next Door Savior by Max Lucado)

Application

Jesus knows all about your life on earth. He knows both what troubles you and

what entices you. He is your Lord, but He's also your brother (Hebrews 2:11). So come to

Him today. Bring to Him the gift of your need.

Exploration

Christ’s Victory over Sin and Death—Romans 6:5–11.

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Day 2: In Fine Company

Then Jesus, moved with compassion,

stretched out His hand and touched [the leper],

and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."

Mark 1:41

Situation in Mark 1:1–45

Persecution and martyrdom in Rome created a dangerous environment for

Christians. Mark wrote this Gospel to the Christians in Rome to encourage and strengthen

their faith. He recorded Christ’s baptism, temptation, and the beginning of His ministry

with His disciples.

Observation

Jesus came to be a human being in the every-dayness of human life. He showed

compassion to the people around Him. He displayed tenderness when He healed the leper

by touching him.

Inspiration

You awoke today to a common day. No butler drew your bath. No maid laid out

your clothes. Your eggs weren’t Benedict, and your orange juice wasn’t fresh squeezed.

But that’s OK; there’s nothing special about the day. It’s not your birthday or Christmas

(not quite yet, anyway); it’s like every other day. A common day.

So you went to the garage and climbed into your common car. You once read that

children of the queen never need to drive. You’ve been told of executives and sheiks who

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are helicoptered to their offices. As for you, a stretch limo took you to your wedding

reception, but since then it’s been sedans and minivans. Common cars.

Common cars that take you to your common job. You take it seriously, but you

would never call it extraordinary. You’re not clearing your calendar for Jay Leno or

making time to appear before Congress. You’re just making sure you get your work done

before the six o’clock rush turns the Loop into a parking lot.

Get caught in the evening traffic, and be ready to wait in line. The line at the

freeway on-ramp. The line at the grocery or the line at the gas station. If you were the

governor or had an Oscar on your mantel, you might bypass the crowds. But you aren’t.

You are common.

You lead a common life. Punctuated by occasional weddings, job transfers,

bowling trophies, and graduations—a few highlights—but mainly the day-to-day rhythm

that you share with the majority of humanity.

And, as a result, you could use a few tips. You need to know how to succeed at

being common. Commonhood has its perils, you know. A face in the crowd can feel lost

in the crowd. You tend to think you are unproductive, wondering if you’ll leave any

lasting contribution. And you can feel insignificant. Do commoners rate in heaven? Does

God love common people?

God answers these questions in a most uncommon fashion. If the word common

describes you, take heart—you’re in fine company. It also describes Christ, the Lord.

That's why Isaiah could peer ahead through the centuries and say of Him, "He has no

form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire

Him" (Isaiah 53:2).

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And yet, we do desire Him. The Christ. The Messiah. Immanuel. Common like

us, so that He could make us uncommon like Himself.

(Adapted from Next Door Savior by Max Lucado)

Application

Who do you have trouble “touching” at this time of year because they do not

seem attractive in any way? The compassion of Christ requires more than words; true

compassion requires action. Look for ways to express compassion to those who are

starving for a tender touch during this holy season of love.

Exploration

Jesus’ Compassion—Matthew 8:3, 15; 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 17:7; 20:34; 23:37;

Mark 10:13–16; Luke 7:13; 22:51; John 11:35.

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Day 3: In Hot Pursuit

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

Ephesians 2:4, 5

Situation in Ephesians 2:1–22

The Ephesians forgot what God did to save them and to make them a part of His

body.

Observation

God’s mercy plucks us from the destruction of our countless sins and places us in

Jesus Christ’s righteousness.

Inspiration

Alan and Penny McIlroy have two adopted children—commendable, but not

particularly uncommon. The fact that they have adopted special needs children is

significant, but not unique. It’s the severity of the health problems that sets their story

apart.

Saleena is a cocaine baby. Her birth mother’s overdose left Saleena unable to

hear, see, speak, or move. Penny and Alan adopted her at seven weeks. The doctor gave

her a year. She’s lived for six.

As Penny introduced me to Saleena, she ruffled her hair and squeezed her cheeks,

but Saleena didn’t respond. She never does. Barring a miracle, she never will. Neither

will her sister. “This is Destiny,” Penny told me. In the adjacent bed one-year-old Destiny

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lay, motionless and vegetative. Penny will never hear Destiny’s voice. Alan will never

know Saleena’s kiss. They’ll never hear their daughters sing in a choir, never see them

walk across the stage. They’ll bathe them, change them, adjust their feeding tubes, and

rub their limp limbs, but barring God’s intervention, this mom and dad will never hear

more than we heard that afternoon—gurgled breathing. “I need to suction Saleena’s

nose,” Penny said to me. “You might want to leave.”

I did, and as I did, I wondered, what kind of love is this? What kind of love adopts

disaster? What kind of love looks into the face of children, knowing full well the weight

of their calamity, and says, “I’ll take them”? (Destiny has since gone to heaven.)

When you come up with a word for such a love, give it to Christ. For the day He

left heaven is the day He declared His devotion for you and me.

We were just as helpless, in a spiritually vegetative state from sin. According to

Peter, our lives were “dead-end, empty-headed” (1 Peter 1:18 MSG). But God, “who is

rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were

dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)”

(Ephesians 2:4, 5).

Jesus left the glories of heaven in pursuit of the spiritual Saleenas and Destinys of

the world . . . and brought us to life.

(Adapted from Next Door Savior by Max Lucado)

Application

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Who around you seems to slip through the cracks unnoticed? A lonely widow?

An insecure junior-high student? A struggling single mother? Pay this person a special

holiday visit—bring flowers, Christmas cookies, or a gift of another sort. Invest some

time in his or her life.

Exploration

Mercy—Matthew 5:7; Luke 6:36; 2 Peter 3:9.

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Day 4: Who Could Have Imagined?

Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God,

did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation,

taking the form of a bondservant, and [came] in the likeness of men.

Philippians 2:5-7

Situation in Philippians 1:1—2:30

Paul pointed to Jesus as the ultimate example of servanthood and selflessness.

Observation

Imitate Jesus Christ, the humble servant of God. Jesus gave up His rights so that

we could be saved.

Inspiration

We love to be with the ones we love.

The family around the Christmas tree, watching wide-eyed little ones tearing open

their glittering presents.

The four-year-old running up the sidewalk into the arms of Grandpa.

The cup of coffee with Mom before the rest of the house awakes.

That moment when, for a moment, everyone is quiet as we hold hands around the

table and thank God for family and friends and pumpkin pie.

We love to be with the ones we love.

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May I remind you? So does God. He loves to be with the ones He loves. How else

do you explain what He did? Between Him and us there was a distance—a great span.

And He couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t stand it. So He did something about it.

Before coming to the earth, Christ “being in the form of God, did not consider it

robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a

bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6, 7). Why? Why did

Jesus travel so far?

I was asking myself that question when I spotted the squirrels outside my

window. A family of black-tailed squirrels has made its home amid the roots of the tree

north of my office. We’ve been neighbors for three years now. They watch me peck the

keyboard. I watch them store their nuts and climb the trunk. We’re mutually amused. I

could watch them all day. Sometimes I do.

But I’ve never considered becoming one of them. The squirrel world holds no

appeal to me. Who wants to sleep next to a hairy rodent with beady eyes? (No comments

from you wives who feel you already do.) Give up the Rocky Mountains, bass fishing,

weddings, and laughter for a hole in the ground and a diet of dirty nuts? Count me out.

But count Jesus in. What a world He left! Our classiest mansion would be a tree

trunk to Him. Earth’s finest cuisine would be walnuts on heaven’s table. And the idea of

becoming a squirrel with claws and tiny teeth and a furry tail? It’s nothing compared to

God becoming a one-celled embryo and entering the womb of Mary.

But He did. The God of the universe kicked against the wall of a womb, was born

into the poverty of a peasant, and spent His first night in the feed trough of a cow. “The

Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The God of the universe left the

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glory of heaven and moved into the neighborhood. Our neighborhood. Who could have

imagined He would do such a thing? And why?

He loves to be with the ones He loves.

(Adapted from Next Door Savior by Max Lucado)

Application

To be with us, Jesus had to take a big step down. To be with the ones you love

this Christmas season, how might you have to take some steps down? What can you do to

show greater humility?

Exploration

Humility of Jesus—Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 11:29; John 13:5; 2 Corinthians 8:9.

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Day 5: Jesus, God With Us

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall

conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

Situation

God commissioned Isaiah to carry a message of both hope and judgment. He

described and predicted the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Observation

The Lord commissions us to tell others about Jesus and God's plan for salvation.

Inspiration

He could have given up. No one would have known otherwise. Jesus could have

given up.

One look at the womb could have discouraged Him. God is as unbridled as the air

and limitless as the sky—would He reduce His world to the belly of a girl for nine

months?

There was another reason to quit. Heaven has no months. Heaven has no time. Or,

perhaps better said, heaven has all the time. It’s we who are running out. Ours passes so

quickly that we measure it by the second. Wouldn’t Christ rather stay on the other side of

the ridge of time?

And the stable—was that not yet another reason for Christ to back out? Stables

are smelly, dirty. Stables have no linoleum floors or oxygen tanks. How would they cut

the umbilical cord? And who would cut it? Joseph? A small-time carpenter from a one-

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camel town? Was there not a better father for God? Someone with an education, a

pedigree. Someone with a bit of clout? This fellow couldn’t even swing a room at the

hotel. You think he had what it takes to be the father to the Maker of the universe?

Jesus could have given up. Imagine the change He had to make, the distance He

had to travel. What would it be like to become flesh?

But love goes the distance . . . and Christ traveled from limitless eternity to be

confined by time in order to become one of us. He didn’t have to. He could have given

up. At any step along the way He could have called it quits.

He didn’t, because He is love.

(Adapted from A Love Worth Giving by Max Lucado)

Application

While Jesus is Immanuel, "God with us," He asks us to represent God to others

(see 2 Cor. 5:18-20). Have you known someone for some time, but have never shared

Christ with that person? Use this holy holiday to create an opportunity to share about the

most important aspect of your life.

Exploration

The Road to Salvation—Romans 3:23; 5:8; 6:23; 10:10–13.

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Day 6: A Most Remarkable Moment

And in those days He ate nothing,

and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.

Luke 4:2

Situation in Luke 4:1–44

The Jewish people had been expecting the Messiah for a long time. They believed

that He would free Israel from foreign rule and restore the nation to its prominence and

greatness. As Jesus served, performed miracles, and spoke words of wisdom, the people

were amazed and confused. Jesus was not the type of Messiah they had been expecting.

Observation

Because the Jews assumed they knew what the Messiah would look like, they had

a difficult time recognizing Jesus as God’s Messiah.

Inspiration

It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment like none other. For

through that segment of time, a spectacular thing occurred. God became a man. While the

creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived. Heaven opened herself and placed

her most precious one in a human womb.

God as a fetus. Holiness sleeping in a womb. The creator of life being created.

God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen. He stretched against

the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother.

God had come near.

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The hands that first held him were unmanicured, calloused, and dirty. No silk. No

ivory. No hype. No party. No hoopla.

Were it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception. And were it

not for a group of star-gazers, there would have been no gifts.

For thirty-three years He would feel everything you and I have ever felt. He felt

weak. He grew weary. He was susceptible to wooing women. He got colds, burped, and

had body odor. His feelings got hurt. His feet got tired. And His head ached.

To think of Jesus in such a light is—well, it seems almost irreverent, doesn’t it?

It’s not something we like to do; it makes us uncomfortable. It is much easier to keep the

humanity out of the incarnation. He’s easier to stomach that way.

But don’t do it. For heaven’s sake, don’t. Let Him be as human as He intended to

be. Let Him into the mire and muck of our world. For only if we let Him in can He pull

us out.

(Adapted from God Came Near by Max Lucado)

Application

Who is Jesus? Don’t try to squeeze Him into your own mold of a Savior—and

especially, don't leave Him in the manger. Study the Word of God and discover the real

Jesus: God in the flesh who wants to change lives. Your life included.

Exploration

The Messiah—Matthew 3:17; John 1:1–18; 10:30; Colossians 1:15–20.

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Day 7: Behold!

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,

according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church

by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Situation in Ephesians 3:1–21

Paul told the Ephesians his goals for them. He shared his prayer for their growth

in insight and strength.

Observation

Although God’s love for us cannot be measured by any comprehensible standards,

God wants us to know this ocean of love.

Inspiration

It's Christmas night. The house is quiet. Even the crackle is gone from the

fireplace. Warm coals issue a lighthouse glow in the darkened den. Stockings hang empty

on the mantle. The tree stands naked in the corner. Christmas cards, tinsel, and memories

remind Christmas night of Christmas day.

It's Christmas night. What a day it has been! Spiced tea. Santa Claus. Cranberry

sauce. "Thank you so much." "You shouldn't have!" "Grandma is on the phone." Knee-

deep wrapping paper. "It just fits." Flashing cameras.

It's Christmas night. The last of the carolers appeared on the ten o'clock news. The

last of the apple pie was eaten by my brother-in-law. And the last of the Christmas

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albums have been stored away having dutifully performed their annual rendition of

chestnuts, white Christmases, and red-nosed reindeers.

It's Christmas night.

The midnight hour has chimed and I should be asleep, but I'm awake. I'm kept

awake by one stunning thought. The world was different this week. It was temporarily

transformed.

The magical dust of Christmas glittered on the cheeks of humanity ever so briefly,

reminding us of what is worth having and what we were intended to be. We forgot our

compulsion with winning, wooing, and warring. We put away our ladders and ledgers,

we hung up our stopwatches and weapons. We stepped off our racetracks and roller

coasters and looked outward toward the star of Bethlehem.

'Tis the season to be jolly because, more than at any other time, we think of Him.

More than in any other season, His name is on our lips.

And the result? For a few precious hours our heavenly yearnings intermesh and

we become a chorus. A ragtag chorus of longshoremen, Boston lawyers, illegal

immigrants, housewives, and a thousand other peculiar persons who are banking that

Bethlehem's mystery is in reality, a reality. "Come and behold Him" we sing, stirring

even the sleepiest of shepherds and pointing them toward the Christ-child.

For a few precious hours, He is beheld. Christ the Lord. Those who pass the year

without seeing Him, suddenly see Him. People who have been accustomed to using His

name in vain, pause to use it in praise. Eyes, now free of the blinders of self, marvel at

His majesty.

Emmanuel. He is with us. God came near.

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It's Christmas night. In a few hours the cleanup will begin—lights will come

down, trees will be thrown out. Size 36 will be exchanged for size 40, eggnog will be on

sale for half price. Soon life will be normal again. December's generosity will become

January's payments and the magic will begin to fade.

But for the moment, the magic is still in the air. Maybe that's why I'm still awake.

I want to savor the spirit just a bit more. I want to pray that those who beheld Him today

will look for Him next August. And I can't help but linger on one fanciful thought: If He

can do so much with such timid prayers lamely offered in December, how much more

could He do if we thought of Him every day?

(Adapted from God Came Near)

Application

Thank God for how He has been with you this whole Christmas season. Ponder

all the ways He has been "Immanuel" for you. Linger over the lessons and meditate on

the moments. But most of all, praise Him for His goodness and thank Him for coming.

History—and you—are different because of it.

Exploration

God’s Love—Psalm 6:4; John 3:16; 15:12; Romans 5:8; 8:35–37; 1 John 3:1.

Let one of America’s most-loved pastors guide you on a memorable journey to the manger. Sit beside

the babe. Know what it was like. Be inspired to live out your faith for Him.

E x p e r i e n c e t h i s C h r i s t m a s s e a s o n l i k e n e v e r b e f o r e w i t h t h i s s i x - w e e k d e v o t i o n a l f r o m

M a x L u c a d o