Devotion: Jesus is our righteousness
“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom
from God.that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption (1Corinthians 1:20).
Last week Christians worldwide celebrated the birth of Jesus according to the
Gregorian calendar. On the 7th of January, the Orthodox Church celebrates
Christmas according to the Julian calendar. On the 19th of January, the Armenian
Church celebrates “epiphany,” to remember the appearance of Jesus in the flesh.
Praise God that Christmas is a time to commemorate the incarnation of God’s Son.
At Christmas, some people exchange gifts. Jesus came to the world bringing
eternal gifts to humanity. One of His gifts to us is the gift of righteousness.
After Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus left from Bethlehem to Egypt, Joseph was
warned in a dream not to go back to Judea because of Herod’s son, Archelaus so
they went to Nazareth. The Lord used the natural circumstances in order to fulfill a
spiritual prophecy that He would be called a Nazarene, Matthew 2:23. There is no
exact quotation in the Old Testament about Jesus that says, “He will be called a
Nazarene”. However, if one understands that one of the meanings of Nazareth
means a “branch,” one could easily spot its location in the Old Testament.
Jeremiah 23: 5 reads, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise
to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute
judgment and righteousness in the earth” (See also Jeremiah 33:15, Isaiah 11:1,
and Zechariah 3:8; 6:12).
According to Bible dictionaries, one of the meanings of the name Nazareth stems
from the Hebrew root word netzer which means a branch. Thus, Jesus is the
branch that brought the gift of righteousness unto us.
This is what one old worship song says, “He is all my righteousness, I stand
complete in Him and worship…worship Him, Jesus Christ my Lord.

Ministry News:
Jesus said, “whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also
will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me (John 12:26). We thank the
Lord for the people that we minister with, inside the church and outside the church
walls. Below are some of the highlights for the last few months:
A five year- old young girl who goes to church shared that when her teacher
asked students who went to church, she said that she was the only one to raise
her hand. Another lady who comes to church expressed that she got a good
grasp of the basics of faith only when she started to come to the fellowship. One
man encouraged all of us when he said that he always memorizes biblical
passages during his free time. A few weeks ago he recited four psalms at church.

Activities:
As a fellowship, we had dinner together on of the Thursday before Christmas.
Diana cooked for about fifty people.
We took the kids to a park where they spent some time playing and they enjoyed
eating sandwiches and snacks together.

Prayer requests:
Thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf and for the spiritual maturity of
those whom we minister to. Please pray for people to come to know the Lord. Also,
since our ministry functions by faith, please continue to pray for provisions to carry
out the work of the ministry.

God bless you all

Figure 1: cook out for young adult ministry


Figure 2: listening to a Bible story