14 Dec Devotional Thought – Bethlehem’s Way
“by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh…” Hebrews 10:20
Why is His way a “new” way? Because it is a “living way.” You see, until the night of His coming, man’s religion was nothing more than a dying way. Until then religion was only something that was helpful when a human soul had to cross the valley of death’s shadow. They never thought of worship as being helpful to human souls in the supporting of the shadows of this life. But on that starry night in the little town of Bethlehem, when Jesus came into the world, He constructed and consecrated a brand new road to God. His coming said that I no longer had to wait until the last hour of my life in order to find eternity. In fact, because of His coming I can find, and enjoy, eternal life now. His birth – and even His name, “Immanuel” – tells me that God’s presence can be enjoyed without dying, that the greatest of all deaths is in reality the life of love, and that the most holy and acceptable service a man can render is in presenting his body as a living sacrifice to God.
Why should I only offer God the last, gasping hours of my life? Why wouldn’t I ask Bethlehem’s Babe to teach me His living way? Shouldn’t I long to learn from the life of Him who continually offered up His soul, from morning til evening, who poured out His childhood, youth and adulthood on life’s altar? Isn’t He the One who so willingly gave to the Father His Bethlehem, Nazareth and Golgotha? That’s why I long for Him to show me how to walk in His living way, and that through His Spirit I might yield my spirit to the Father.
Don’t wait until the last minutes of this life to yield your life to His. Ask of Him to have the power of death in the middle of this life, to surrender your will in the midst of the traffic of men. In the middle of scenes filled with labor, roads littered with toil and tears, days struggling for bread, hours hushed with trouble; in sickness and in health, sorrow and joy, riches and want, learn from Him how to yield your soul and say, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit,” for in that day you will find Bethlehem’s way – the way to heaven.
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