January 11, 2026

The days after coming to Bethlehem…

…journeying as magi back into the world.

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“When the magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and His mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill Him.‘” (Matthew 2.13)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

If not for the intervention of God, the fate of the Jesus would have been at risk. That is a thought to be considered for our own lives. God’s intervention on our behalf is intended to be a lifesaving and life-fulfilling act. Just as God spared the lives of the magi to be the first global missionaries, so God knew that while it was the purpose of Jesus to die for the salvation of the world this was not the time. If Jesus had died as a two year old child in Bethlehem, we would not know the one true God. We would still long for the Messiah, the Savior, the true King of our lives who alone could commute the death sentence put upon us by sin. Think of it. Those who are alive today, just as those who had lived over the past two thousand and thirty years since Jesus was born, would be struggling in worse ways than we are now. We may well have lost all hope. Clinging on to a thread woven into the unraveling fabric of the Old Testament, we would be like the Jews of old celebrating Passover with a wistful glance to “new year in Jerusalem.” More likely, we would be the descendants of people who fell into the categories of myths, legends and mysteries based on the worship of nature, hungering for wealth and power, bound more to death than life. We would be devouring our own lives for the sake of our own lives. As it is said, “One cannot serve two masters. because you will always love the one and hate the other.” Jesus spoke of one “master” as His Heavenly Father whose perfect love was purposing the delivery of those who would choose to be His people. Of course, while the word recorded as the name of the other “master” was Mammon– the pursuit of security by riches, the true identity was anything apart from Yahweh Elohim and thought to be the pathway to a secure future in this world without record to any eternal life. That would mean that “mammon” was philosophy, finance, politics, military prowess, rebellion and personal opinion which usually overstates one’s personal worth.

Sound familiar? Does this define today’s world? Yes, not in total. Yes, in a seemingly growing majority of expressions, pursuits and lifestyles. If not for the saving of Jesus’ life as a two-year old born in Bethlehem, then the death of Jesus at thirty-three years of age as the King of the Jews would not have happened to save offer the world the beautiful gift of salvation that leads to eternal life in Heaven. Just as John the Baptizer, Jesus’ cousin, proclaimed in the wilderness of “sin,” “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make a straight way for Him.’” (Matthew 3.3), God made a way for us all. For many, the gospel may seem to be a dream of fantasy or fiction. For others, the gospel is a dream of faith and future which springs up as a well of living water bubbling over into eternal life. It is by that “dream” that we are directed to “repent,” go a different way, than the path we are on which leads to short-term gains and ultimately eternal death which is “dying forever.” The angel directed the shepherds back into the fields to care for the lambs who would be signs of the “shedding of perfect blood” for the forgiveness of all confessed sins by the One True Lamb of God. The angel directed the shepherds back to their home countries along different courses which would allow them to live to tell the greatest love story they had ever seen with their own eyes, heard with their own ears and experienced with their own lives. The angel directed Joseph to take Mary and Jesus into Egypt and sojourn in a place that was totally opposite from Nazareth so that God’s story would live on as a truth that would change the course of human history. It changes the course of our own history. The gospel is that dream which is coming true that declares true faith, true hope and true love. And those who have eyes to see and choose to see, ears to hear and choose to listen, minds to contemplate and choose to accept the word and a will that is bent not to “my will” but to “God’s will” shall find “God’s will be done on earth in us as it is already in Heaven who waits for us.

Which road shall we choose?

Jesus said, “Wide is the gate and broad is the road which leads to perdition and it is a crowded road filled with people ready to pursue the latest promise of quick fulfillment and easy gain. But… narrow is the gate and so, too, is the way which leads to Heaven and it is travelled by those whose love for God is the true directive of their lives. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and who will truly fill you heart, soul, mind and body shall be provided.”

What will you say?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.