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Detecting Christmas December 13 Devotional

by David Joynt on December 13, 2023


MATTHEW 1:20-21 | 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and  you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

 

God sends an angel to encourage Joseph to go a large step beyond mercy. He tells Joseph to embrace Mary in her trouble, to go back to his original plan to marry her, and to raise the child she is carrying. He is asked to believe a strange truth — the baby was conceived in a holy and not an unholy way. Mary has been wrongly accused and has actually been selected for a key role in God’s saving plan — she is to be mother to the Messiah! Joseph is told to move beyond justice, beyond mercy to grace, embracing a new role and a huge challenge in the process.

 

What is the most challenging thing God has asked you to do?

 

 

Gracious God,

Move me beyond mere mercy to grace in my relationships. Help me to hear and respond to you as Joseph did. Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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