envelop spinner search close plus arrow-right arrow-left facebook twitter

Detecting Christmas December 28 Devotional

by David Joynt on December 28, 2023


1 john 1:5 | 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

 

Christmas happened to dispel the speculation about the heart of God. As John says, “He is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” Roman and Greek deities were capricious and cruel. The God of the Philosophers was remote and indifferent. Some people have believed God to be malevolent, like the novelist Thomas Hardy. Others insist God is harsh or arbitrary or judgmental, delighting in punishing his creatures. Tragedy and suffering create questions about God’s power or his compassion. The coming of God at Christmas, and the life of Jesus, definitively demonstrates God’s sacrificial love, unwavering care, and tender passion for his children.

 

Do you know anyone with a distorted idea of God?

 

 

Gracious God,

You are the greatest and most misunderstood being in the universe. Help us help others find out the truth about your will and ways. 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.

More from Pastor Joynts Devotionals

return to Pastor Joynts Devotionals