A Christ-Centered Christmas Doesn't Have to Be Hard预览

The Hero’s Journey

Stories in books, plays, movies, and autobiographies resonate most when writers follow a well-known story structure called The Hero’s Journey. The hero’s journey algorithm includes the following components. A hero goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.

The Hero’s Journey framework can be found in nearly every sub-story of the Bible. It is also woven into the overarching story of God’s redeeming love. Let me show you what I mean.

When God created this world and everything in it, He designed it to function within the context of certain laws and principles. Some laws are physical (i.e., gravity, motion, cause, and effect). Other laws are spiritual (i.e., faith, hope, and love). What’s really incredible is that our all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present God bound Himself to operate within these same earthly laws and principles. For example, God gave mankind freewill and vowed to never overrule it.

When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them power and authority over His Creation so they would co-rule with Him. However, when Adam and Eve ate from the tree God commanded them not to eat, God’s laws and principles were thrown into a state of chaos. All kinds of negative consequences resulted: separation from God, death, disease, thorns and thistles, hard labor, and pain in childbirth to name a few. But perhaps one of the less known consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin was that they relinquished their God-given power and authority to govern the earth over to Satan.

Because man relinquished his power and authority over to Satan, man had to be the one to take it back. But it couldn’t be just any man. It had to be a perfect man, a man without sin, spot, or blemish.

Enter stage right—Jesus.

“Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:18-19).

When God became man, He clothed Himself with humanity and began working within the very laws and principles He had established to redeem us. Fully God and fully man, Jesus became our rescue plan. Jesus became our hero.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, life-anew is now available for all who put their faith in Jesus. It’s a free gift. That’s the gospel message, and it’s VERY good news.

However, paying our sin-debt was only part of God’s redemption plan. Returning power and authority back to His beloveds was the second part. In this way, God could re-establish His Kingdom on earth, making us, once again, co-rulers and heirs to His Kingdom.

Before Jesus ascended into heaven he said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:18-19).

Essentially, Jesus was saying, I took back the power and authority Satan stole from you, and now I’m giving it back to you.

Our Lord left the comforts of heaven, defeated death, saved us from our sin, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, removed the power and authority from Satan, transferred it back to His people, gave us eternal life in heaven, and made us co-heirs with Christ now and forever more. My Hero!!

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4).

Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth. Amen!

Looking for a way to connect with God in the coming year? Check out these daily devotional books also written by RaeLynn DeAngelis: Living in Truth Day by Day *** Living in Truth Mind, Body, Spirit ***

*This plan was taken from the book Living in Truth A Christmas Devotional by RaeLynn DeAngelis