Greg Laurie Daily Devotional – 23rd December 2022, Friday Message. As you study today’s devotional, remember this; “Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 (NLT)
TOPIC: The First Christmas Story
SCRIPTURE: “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:17 NKJV)
Greg Laurie Daily Devotional – 23rd December 2022 MESSAGE
The first Christmas story begins with a tree, but not our kind of Christmas tree. This was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.
God had placed Adam and Eve in a literal paradise. Best of all, the Lord Himself showed up every day to take a walk with His friend Adam. God had given Adam and Eve only one restriction: Stay away from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
But by chapter 3 of Genesis, Adam and Eve are at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We know the rest of the story. Adam and Eve listened to the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit. And they lost their sweet fellowship with God.
Then we come to the first Christmas verse in the Bible, where God said to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15 NKJV).
God was saying, “There is One coming to destroy you, Devil. He’s going to crush you.”
Therefore, the Christmas story doesn’t start in Matthew or Luke. It starts in the Old Testament. Jesus has always been there. The Bible tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1 NKJV).
Before there was a world, before there were planets, before there was light and darkness, before there was matter, before there was anything but the Godhead, there was Jesus, coequal, coeternal, and coexistent with the Father and Holy Spirit.
He was with God. He was God. And then He became an embryo. He did not become identical to us, but He became identified with us. In fact, He could not have identified with us more closely than He did.
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