From Our Hearts to Yours

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship  (Gal.  4:4,5).

It has been well said that “timing is everything”. And, make no mistake, there was a set time for the coming of Messiah…as there is for everything. This verse speaks to me of God’s sovereignty. It speaks of His plan of redemption. It speaks of the humility of His Son. It speaks of His humanity. It speaks of our need. And it speaks of His glorious purpose. He did all of this that we might receive by privilege that which is Jesus’ by right.   (Robb Powell)

Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man… (Matt. 1:19)

 Often the focus of Christmas is upon the virgin, Mary, and rightly so. But for God’s plan to work there had to be the right man already committed to this young woman. And that is exactly what we are told about Joseph. He was righteous. He was open to hearing God’s messages to him. He maintained self-control in his relationship with Mary. He was obedient to God’s unusual instructions. And he was a faithful worshipper of God. Not one word of Joseph is recorded in scripture, but his actions speak louder than words. Placed into an incredible circumstance, Joseph was a model of the kind of person God can use when creating miracles.  (Deb Roberts)

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” [which means “God with us”]  (Matt. 1: 23)

God is with us. He is for us; for you and me. Have you ever stopped to think about what it means to have God with us and for us? God does not want to leave us to our own devices and let the world spin out of control into destruction. God sent his one and only Son into the world to begin restoring the world to how it was meant to be. Why? Because he loves us. Christ came to bring calm to where there is chaos. He came so you may find peace in the storm. This Christmas, may you find peace and the calmness that is only found in Christ.  May you take heart in knowing that Christ came to earth for you.  (Cam Farquharson)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1: 18).

Are you a carnivore?  God is, in a strange kind of way:  he became incarnate:  he became meat, flesh.  He doesn’t just talk; he became one of us.  And as He did, he embodied (i.e. incarnated) grace and truth.  Ponder that combination:  grace without truth is feel-good, cheap sentimentality; truth without grace is judgmental legalism.  But the intertwining of the two is stupendously mind and heart-boggling, life transforming, the gift that keeps on giving as we are “transformed into His Image with ever-increasing glory” (II Cor. 3: 18).  May you glimpse a fragment of that glory this Christmas season.  (Syd Hielema)

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness...he humbled himself and became obedient to death...therefore God exalted him” (Phil.  2:5-8).

Ponder this: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” this Christmas.  God sets a pattern: humble yourself, to be exalted - the way up, is the way down.  God demonstrates this pattern by descending to become a man.  We imitate this pattern and are: “transformed into His Image with ever-increasing glory” (II Cor. 3:18)  

Question: "God, how might I courageously emulate you over the holidays?"   (Mark deVos)

Seasonal Thoughts

Well, it is hard to believe that we are already finished classes and gearing up for exams. While all of this goes on, we are also simultaneously preparing our hearts for Advent. Here is a seasonal thought.

Matthew 2:1  After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’^[b]”

This is such a powerful story. Imagine what this season would be if our contemporary neo-Herodians  were actually successful in removing the Christ out of Christmas. What indeed?  

Writing as one who has known Christmas both with Christ and without Christ, trust me when I  tell you it makes all of the difference in the world. And then some….

Remove The Christ and I ask you.. Whence:

·         Mystery?

·         Anticipation?

·         Drama?

·         Compassion?

·         Ritual?

·         Depth?

·         Transcendence?

·         Meaning ?

·         Beauty?

·         Redemption?

Without His story, life, example and Spirit, we have just another empty winter festival….another corpse without a soul.  Indeed, one need not probe deeply to determine that it is because of His Spirit that we connect this season with generosity, compassion, altruism, caring, family and such. It is because of His incorporation into the narrative of the season that we have the very things that are most meaningful and compelling. 

A friend of mine once commented that it seems that at Christmas the world actually reflects on “the way things ought to be”. People should not be lonely at Christmas. There should not be fighting/poverty/hunger/hatred at Christmas. There should be goodwill at Christmas. People should care at Christmas. Families should love each other at Christmas… etc. 

Where does this seasonal imperative, the sense of “oughtness”,  come from?  Where, indeed?

Be assured it did not come from the Roman feast of Saturn that once occurred on the same date. It did not come from the pagan rituals of northern Europe. And it does not arise from the culture of the office party. It is ground into the biblical narrative of the Giving God who has given this undeserving world the ultimate GIFT, at an unimaginable cost to Himself.

My prayer for all of us is that we can re-discover the “Gift that keeps on giving”. 

Leaning into Advent

 

You have made man a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet (Ps. 8: 5).

 

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10: 10b).

 

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! (II Cor. 5: 17)

 

The prof at the big university down the mountain stood behind the lectern facing 400 students and didn’t beat around the bush:

 

You’ve got to be an I-Pad. You’ve got to be extra-ordinary: flat, sleek, fast, smart, better than anything else out there. You cannot be a Blackberry. Ordinary doesn’t cut it. Yesterday can’t make it today. Don’t forget my words: BE AN I-PAD.

 

What would that do to you – to have words like that pronounced over you?

 

This is what it does to me:

 

Such words leave me feeling less human, less alive, more anxious. Those words compel me to lean into Advent, because they reveal how twisted and distorted life can be on Planet Earth in 2013. They drive me to listen to Paul’s warning in Romans 12:

 

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Rom. 12: 2 in “The Message”)

 

These words also drive me to invite the Scriptures written at the top of this page to permeate my entire being.

 

Advent is a longing for the home where we can wear our God-given identities. Advent is forward-looking nostalgia to fully become the new creation God has already transformed us to be. Advent is straining our ears towards what Bruce Cockburn calls “rumours of glory.”

 

The second-century pastor Irenaeus declared, “The glory of God is seen in man fully alive.” Ah…those are Advent words. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1: 14).

 

His glory planted in us, in our jars of clay: His life to give us “life to the full;” His promise to fill us with hope.

 

Not flat, sleek and fast. No: instead, deep and rich and full.

 

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples.

But the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.

Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn (Isaiah 60: 1-3).