Devotional Guide
For the week of December 3, 2006
THE CHRIST OF CHRISTMAS
How terrible is sin?
To read the Bible in one year, today read: 2 Chronicles 13-15
To Know:
³In him was life, and the life was the light of men² (Jn. 1:4)
Twenty-seven years after it happened, I met the man who put my mother to
flight. It was early on a Sunday morning when my mother ran from out of her
house and over to her mothers pushing me all the way in a carriage. That
happened sixty-five years ago today. That long ago day Mitsuo Fuchida led
his bomber squadron into the airspace over Pearl Harbor. To signal his
success in being undetected, Fuchida radioed a coded message to admirals
Nugamo and Yamamoto. Tora, Tora, Tora (tiger, tiger, tiger) alerted the
admirals to the fact that Japan about to sink the American Pacific Fleet at
anchor in the harbor.
Jacob DeShazer, an American soldier, was a member of Doolittleıs raid on
Tokyo. He was shot down over China and taken captive by the Japanese. Christ
came to DeShazer in the prison camp. Afterward he wrote: I was a Prisoner of
the Japanese. At a Tokyo train station in 1949, DeShazerıs story was handed
to Fuchida. The lead pilot in the Japanese sneak attack read the tract,
bought a Bible, and became a Christian. Nineteen years after his conversion,
I met Fuchida on his visit to the United States.
Fuchida will not need to sneak into the presence of the heavenly Father.
Glory, glory, glory will replace Tora, Tora, Tora. Nevertheless, just as at
Pearl Harbor, Fuchida will enter the Fatherıs presence with death on his
mind. It will be thankfulness for the death of Jesus that will fill Fuchida
with joy. The Japanese commander will praise the Father because Jesus ³ was
put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.² (Rm.
4:25)
To Do:
The cross of Christ is light from above. In the cross we see both the
gravity of sin and the grace of God. Sin is so terrible an offense to
holiness that the Son of God suffers excruciating pain of body and soul. The
pain in his limbs could not compare with the pain in his heart when the
Father turned away. Christ did this for those who are free to put their
faith in his name.
12076$-12076
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