Daily Devotionals for December 25, 2026

The mystery is great, not because it is very mysterious but because it is so astounding. The mystery is the amazing truth that God was manifest in the flesh.

It means, for instance, that the Eternal One was born into a world of time. He, the Timeless One, lived in a sphere of calendars and timepieces.

The One who is omnipresent, existing in all places at one and the same time, confined Himself to a single place - like Bethlehem, or Nazareth, Capernaum or Jerusalem.

It is...

Observe the sweet titles with which the heavenly Solomon with intense affection addresses his bride the church. "My sister, one near to me by ties of nature, partaker of the same sympathies. My spouse, nearest and dearest, united to me by the tenderest bands of love; my sweet companion, part of my own self. My sister, by my Incarnation, which makes me bone of thy bone and flesh of thy flesh; my spouse, by heavenly betrothal, in which I have espoused thee unto myself in righteousness. My...

"This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1:11

Many are celebrating our LORD's first coming this day; let us turn our thoughts to the promise of His second coming. This is as sure as the first advent and derives a great measure of its certainty from it. He who came as a lowly man to serve will assuredly come to take the reward of His service. He...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1

An intelligent plain man, untaught in the truths of Christianity, coming upon this text, would likely conclude that John meant to teach that it is the nature of God to speak, to communicate His thoughts to others. And he would be right. A word is a medium by which thoughts are expressed, and the application of the term to the Eternal Son leads us...

Matthew 14:22-36

It was after the feeding of the five thousand. As we learn from John's account, the people were so excited by this miracle that they wished to take Jesus by force and make him king. To prevent this act, Jesus sent the multitude away and then went up into a mountain for prayer.

Before going into the mountain, however, He sent His disciples out upon the sea in the boat, to go before Him to the other side. The record...

The believer did not always live to Christ. He began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, and when by grace he was brought to see the dying Saviour making a propitiation for his guilt. From the moment of the new and celestial birth the man begins to live to Christ. Jesus is to believers the one pearl of great price, for whom we are willing to part with all that we have. He has so completely won our love, that it beats alone for him; to his glory we would live, and in...

For Reading and Meditation:     Psalm 139:17-24

We said yesterday that the task of honestly facing ourselves in self-examination is often the hardest thing for us to do. We are all very prone to pass quickly over this point. We are quite happy to hear how God has set the ungodly in slippery places but we are not happy to be invited to take a look at ourselves and...

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing … Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. § For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.He … did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for...

I have loved you with an everlasting love.In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons....

What honour? Of being redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, out of every nation, country, people, and tongue. Of being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible; by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.

Of being acknowledged as the sons of God : "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is". Of being closely allied to Jesus : He is not ashamed to...

What a sweet comfort to us that our Lord Jesus Christ was once known in the breaking of the bread. In earlier Christian times, believers called the Communion "the medicine of immortality," and God gave them the desire to pray: Be known to us in breaking bread, But do not then depart; Savior, abide with us and spread Thy table in our heart. Some churches have a teaching that you will find God only at their table-and that you leave God there when you leave. I am so glad that God has given us...

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Prov. 3:5).

Restful trust is developed not so much by what the Lord Jesus does for us, but by who He is to us - and that necessitates fellowship.

"It is a wonderful thing to be so satisfied with...

At the very outset, the mother of mankind was informed that she was also to be the mother of some wondrous being who would snatch the race from the condition incurred by sin. Prophet after prophet arose, spoke of this future personage, sighed for his advent and passed away. How astonished must the Hebrew readers of Isaiah have been at the description given by him of the coming man. A child, a son of man; given to us and of us; yet so wonderful in his nature that you may ascribe to him all...