Christ Church Daily Devotion Dec 2 2023

God is concerned about the suffering of his people in Egypt and plans to rescue them. This passage reminds us that God's desire to be with us did not start with Jesus. He calls Moses to confront Pharaoh and free the Israelites. God still seeks to be with us, guide us, and comfort us. We should be open to being a gift to others. The personal worship option is a prayer hymn by Dan Shute. Welcome to Christ Church's Daily Devotion for December 2nd, 2023. Today we will be reading from Exodus, chapter 3, verses 7 through 10. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up and out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, Armarites, Perizzites, Hittites, and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. As we prepare for Christmas this month, our focus is going to be on Bethlehem. This week we are looking at various gifts God gave down through biblical history prior to the birth of Jesus. The passage from Exodus is one I have often used around Christmas to remind us that God's willingness to come and be with us did not begin with Jesus. God has had that desire from the time we humans were first created. Here, God is in the midst of calling Moses to go to Egypt and confront the Pharaoh about letting God's people go. As part of that conversation, God says that he has seen what is happening to his people and heard their cries for deliverance. So I have come down to rescue them. That is incarnational language. Emmanuel, God is with us language. God still seeks to be with us, to rescue us, to challenge us, to comfort us, to guide us, to be our God. Hear and know that message for yourself today. Know that God is with you in spirit, but God is also with you through many people around you. Oh, and by the way, keep your spiritual ears open because God calls you at any time to go with someone else on God's behalf. Receive the gift of God's presence and be ready to help be that gift to someone else. Today's personal worship option. In 1981, Dan Shute wrote a prayer hymn that was included in our United Methodist Hymnal. Here is the first verse and chorus. May it be your prayer today. I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry. All who dwell in dark and sin, my hand will save. I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkest bright. Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall I send? Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord. If you lead me, I will hold your people in my heart.