Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

YOU'VE SEEN IT. SO HAVE I. The phrase is on bumper stickers, it appears on coffee mugs, it often finds its way onto greeting cards, billboards, and church signs. It has become almost synonymous with Christ.

THE WONDER OF AMAZON just continues to spread. Tens of thousands of employees and hundreds of thousands of square feet of operations all work with amazing precision to coordinate the receiving, packaging, and shipping of millions of products all around the world.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD can I give to ______ this Christmas?" Sound familiar? Sure, it's probably the most frequently asked question every Yuletide season.

CHRISTMAS DAY NEVER arrived so slowly, but finally it dawned. While no one was looking, I had shaken the box enough to know that it had to contain what I had been wanting so badly—right size, right weight, everything.

THE CHRISTMAS STORY HAS been so sanitized and romanticized over the centuries that even Hollywood—as jaded a culture as can be found anywhere—fails to capture the gritty pathos that surrounded Jesus' arrival.

A FEW DECEMBERS AGO, I saw something that I won't soon forget. The bumper sticker on the back of the car in front of me caught my eye. It made me think. And it even aroused some guilt.

IN THIS SEASON OF EXTREME BUSYNESS, we Christians need to stay alert to any potential dangers. I'll mention only four of them . . . along with some strategies that will allow us to combat each risk.

IT HAPPENED TO ME LAST WEEK. Isaac Watts did it again. One of his best hymns (he wrote over six hundred!) lingered in my head for more than an hour before I formed the words with my mouth.

MANY YEARS AGO, my brother, Orville, introduced a hymn to me I'd not heard before. Its moving strains often accompany me as I drive or walk in solitude or return late from a day of demands.

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE THE SONGS OF the faith to help us live beyond the grind. Why else would God have inspired those age-old compositions?

I'VE LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO know that sometimes Christmas hurts. And when words fail, tears flow.

SOMEBODY COPIED THIS piece from a well-worn carbon in the billfold of a thirty-year veteran missionary. She and her husband were on their way to another tour of duty in Sudan.

THOUGH I HAVE WALKED WITH God for several decades, I must confess I still find much about Him incomprehensible and mysterious. But this much I know: He delights in surprising us.

SAMUEL WAS NOT IMPRESSED. Having discovered that the self-reliant king had once again disobeyed God's command, the exasperated prophet rebuked the stubborn king as few men in Scripture were rebuked:

THE PSALMIST WAS CORRECT: the heavens do indeed proclaim the glory of God. The skies do indeed display his craftsmanship (see Psalm 19:1).

GOLIATH REMINDS ME OF the cross-eyed discus thrower. He didn't set many records . . . but he sure kept the crowd awake!

THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE. That isn't funny; it's tragic. Fakery draws its fuel from the pit. That's what God tells us.

EVERY YEAR, as Christmas draws nearer, I remember a story Paul Harvey told on one of his radio broadcasts. It's a tale that never grows old.

ALTHOUGH IT MAY BE a little ahead of schedule, it's not too early to give some things away this Christmas. Not just on Christmas Day, but during the days leading up to December 25.

The whole world was on fire with the flames of Rome's rampaging expansion. What could possibly have been more important than Caesar's decrees or Rome's massive building programs?