Be Near Me, Lord Jesus eBook: Devotions for the Advent and Christmas Seasons

By Richard E Lauersdorf

When was Jesus born?Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas time over two thousand years ago in a small town called Bethlehem.Although Jesus' actual birthday seems rather far away from you and me in history, this book of comforting devotions for the Advent and Christmas seasons demonstrates that you can be as close to Jesus as the shepherds were on that first Christmas day.How? Through Jesus Christ, the Savior, God has bridged the gap between sinful human beings and himself.Be Near Me, Lord Jesus contains a devotion for each day from December 1 through January 6 to help you reflect on Jesus' birth and celebrate throughout the Advent and Christmas season.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Northwestern Publishing House
• Release date: Jul 1, 2002
• ISBN: 9780810024809

Book preview

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Some things stick in our minds! Like the stanza from Away in a Manger many of us learned as children, teach to our children, and sing with our grandchildren.

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask you to stay

Close by me forever and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in your tender care,

And take us to heaven to live with you there.

Christian Worship [CW] 68:3)

Simple words. But they summarize well the deep meaning of Advent and Christmas. God himself drew near us to bridge the impossible gap between sinful human beings and himself. On Christmas Day he sent his Son into the manger. And so began his journey to the cross. Day after day God’s Spirit enters our hearts to make them manger beds for the Christ Child. On the Last Day, God’s Son will come again to take us to heaven to live with him there. Only God can show such great love and do such great things.

During the Advent and Christmas seasons, God’s children of all ages take time to marvel at his love and to renew their prayer, Be near me, Lord Jesus. May God use this little book of devotions to aid them.

Richard E. Lauersdorf

1

DEC

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24)

LOCKED OUT NO LONGER

Ever been locked out? After a hurried trip to the grocery store, my wife and I drove into our garage only to discover that neither of us had a house key. I had to preach that Saturday evening. The service was set to begin in an hour, and my robe and my sermon were still in the house. Do you know how hard a basement window is to break when you’re actually trying to? And how difficult it is to squeeze through such a narrow opening? What a feeling!

Adam and Eve were locked out—locked out of the Garden of Eden. And they had no one to blame but themselves. For no good reason, they doubted God’s word, disobeyed his command, and ditched him for his archenemy, the prince of hell. With their sin they slammed shut the door of a wondrous, heavenlike existence with their Maker. Who could have blamed God if he had turned his back on them and in righteous anger declared, If that’s the way you want it, so be it? Or who could have shouted Unfair! if, with fiery wrath, he had reached down to make a smoking spot of carbon out of them, right there in the garden.

There was no basement window for Adam and Eve to crawl through. Ahead of them lay only a locked-out existence—filled with fearful hiding from a righteous God, fixing the blame on each other, facing ashes to ashes on earth and a fiery end in a forever hell. Locked out—they knew the feeling!

Our first parents didn’t want to leave their nice home; God had to drive them out. He even put a guard with a flashing, flaming sword in front of the door. He did this in his love—though Adam and Eve perhaps didn’t recognize it as such—for he didn’t want them to eat of the tree of life and live on forever in their sin-stained condition. In a love that only God could display, he had other plans for them. And he announced those plans in the first promise of the Savior—the seed of the woman, who would crush Satan’s head. Through that Savior, Adam and Eve would once again enjoy perfect fellowship with him in heaven. There they would eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Revelation 2:7).

How eagerly Adam and Eve must have waited and watched for the Savior to come! Some have even translated Eve’s words at the birth of their first child as I have gotten a man, the Lord (Genesis 4:1)—though that son turned out to be the first murderer instead of the promised Savior.

One wonders: Did they ever pass near the Garden of Eden again without sadly remembering how their sin had slammed the door on so much more than their earthly home? Or as each day passed, did they raise expectant eyes to heaven, looking for the One who would open the door back to their Father—both here on earth and in heaven? For them life must have been one continuous advent of waiting and watching for the promised Savior’s coming.

What about us? Are we too watching and waiting for his coming. Or has Advent lost its punch for us? Do we approach it with a sort of ho-hum, we’ve been here before feeling? Is all the watching and waiting of Advent anticlimactic because we’ve had Jesus as the key to heaven’s door for as long as we can remember? Then perhaps we ought to stand outside of our locked house door some midnight and pound and pound with no way to get in.

Even better, each day of the Advent season, let’s reconsider the bitter legacy our first parents left us—and which we’ve earned for ourselves. Sin has more than double locked and dead bolted heaven’s door. It’s made it impossible for us to break our way in, or even want to. Only God’s Son is the way. Only the promised and then sent Savior can say, I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved (John 10:9).

For his coming Adam and Eve waited and watched. Because of his coming, we rejoice and celebrate.

For us he opens wide the door of paradise today. The angel guards the gate no more; to God our thanks we pay. Amen. (CW 41:6)

2

DEC

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [NIV footnote: seed] and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

THE RIGHT KIND OF SEED

It was the first time I had helped my father plant the garden. My job was to hand him the seed packets from the wooden box in which he had stored them. The packets were all the same color and had no illustrations on them. Hand me the carrot seed, he said, straightening up from the row he had opened. And I gave him the first packet my little fingers found. No, he said, looking at the packet, dill seed won’t do. You need the right kind of seed.

What a day that must have been for our first parents in the Garden of Eden. The odor of disobedience, despair, and death hung heavy in the air. No longer could they walk with God. Now they scurried away in fright and hid from him. No longer were they friends of God. Now they were his enemies. No longer would they live forever with him. Now they would spend eternity with the devil, who had deceived them. What were they to do? Where could they turn?

That’s when the Lord in his love and grace came to them. First, he confronted Adam and Eve with their sin. Then he comforted them with the first promise of the Savior. In that promise he spoke of seed—not just any kind of seed but the seed of the woman. Through Eve, Satan had brought sin and death into the world. Through her offspring, God would conquer sin, death, and Satan.

Note the completeness already in this first gospel promise. The conqueror would come from the woman; nothing is said about the man. The Savior would be virgin born, and he would win the victory. The battle would be fierce. The cross would be splintery against his skin. The fires of hell would sear his soul. But in the end, this heavenly seed of the woman would grind Satan’s head into the dust of defeat. With this loving promise, God whisked away the pall of despair and death that hung over the garden that day. Because of this loving promise, Adam and Eve could look forward to the eternal day.

Want Advent to be meaningful? Want it to be filled with awe and wonder? Then think about seed again—not just any kind of seed but the right kind. Where would we be without that seed of the woman? Right back where Adam and Eve were before a loving Lord came looking for them in the garden. Like them, we’d be trying to ignore him—at least as far as our consciences would allow us to. Or perhaps we’d sit there shivering at the thought of God’s judgment. Or perhaps we’d be pointing