SCRIPTURE
Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.'" (John 18:37)
OBSERVATION
After Jesus was arrested the Jews took him to Pilate. Pilate invited him inside the palace and began to question him. Jesus' answer was in response to Pilate's statement, "You are a king then!"
Having just celebrated Christmas we are mindful of Jesus coming into the world. In this verse he gives us the reason, to testify to the truth. He did not just testify to the truth in his words but he testified by his lifestyle. He was truth incarnate, in the flesh.
Truth has been defined as that "which corresponds to reality." There couldn't be a better definition for Jesus as truth. God is the ultimate reality. Everything begins and ends with him. Jesus came to earth to show us that truth. He spoke what the Father spoke. He did what the Father did. So in reality, Christmas is all about truth breaking into the world as a person.
APPLICATION
I often hear people say God is on our side. But the question really is, "Am I on God's side?" How do I know? Jesus says if I listen to him, then I am on the side of truth. Christmas is about light and darkness and the truth of Jesus lights my way in this world. If I'm lost or in need of direction, not sure where to turn or what to do, I look to Jesus. Really, my entire life is lived after Christmas, on this side of the first Christmas (post-incarnation). Jesus has come, testified to the truth, and returned to the Father. Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" My question becomes, "Who is truth?" It is Jesus.
PRAYER
Lord, help me to live the truth of Jesus, listening to him, and living my life on the side of truth.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
The Christmas Pageant
In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun newspaper. "Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?”
Like Virginia O’Hanlon, wondering about the existence of Santa Claus, people have wondered about the existence of God. Or, if he does exist, how we can know him. C.S. Lewis was so convinced of his agnosticism that he once wrote: “Man cannot know God any more than Hamlet could know Shakespeare.” He conceded the fact that there is perhaps an author to life. However, if we are part of a cosmic story we could not know God with any certainty, just as the characters in a play could not know the playwright.
Lewis, a little time later, became a follower of Jesus. He was approached by a colleague who reminded him of his previous agnostic stance and asked, “Didn’t you once write a paper defending your agnosticism?” Lewis replied, “I was right – Hamlet could not know Shakespeare” but he continued, “Unless Shakespeare wrote himself into the play of Hamlet and introduced himself.” What was it that C.S Lewis discovered? In a word, Christmas. Not the holiday as we celebrate it, but the movement of God in history that precipitated the holiday.
A common perception of God is that he is the “man upstairs.” Life is viewed as living in a high-rise. We live on the lower floors and discovering God is a matter of going to the upper floors. If we go high enough we will find him. The problem is, God is not higher he is other. He doesn’t live in the same building. He is not a part of this created world. Going higher will be of no avail. It may provide a nice view but we won’t run into God.
To know God he must reveal himself to us. He must break through into our world, pull back the curtains, and let us know he is there. That is the meaning of Christmas. God introduced himself to us. Previously, he had spoken through his appointed messengers, the prophets, as conveyers of self-disclosure. Even creation points to his eternal qualities. But nothing shows us who he is like the Christ of Christmas.
Christmas is God becoming flesh and moving into our building. Christmas is God writing himself into human history through his son Jesus. God became flesh so we who are in the flesh could meet him and know him in an extraordinary way. Jesus stepped out of heaven and planted his feet on the earth.
Beginning life as a baby, born in the village of Bethlehem, God showed up on the planet. When Mary changed his diaper, she was changing God’s diaper. When Joseph taught him how to use a hammer, it was God’s hands that gripped the mallet. When the baby cried and kept his parents awake at night, it was God who caused them to lose sleep.
Christmas is a big deal not because of the decorations, food, family gatherings, gifts or goodwill. It’s a big deal because the author of all that exists walked onto the stage of human experience. Jesus who has eternally existed with the Father became a player in the drama of life. It was the Christmas pageant performed 2,000 years ago.
Not such a big deal? Imagine if we had to become a slug, enduring life with other slugs, doing slug stuff. Not a very appealing or comprehensible existence. Consider this, the distance from Jesus to human being is exponentially greater than the distance between us and a slug. That is a big deal.
So why did he do it? The prophets of old could only do so much. They were killed, run out of town, or at the least misunderstood. Creation can be discounted as an act of random change over time. Christmas is God revealing himself to us in the way we could best understand, as another human being. God, as an all-personal, all-relational being, wants us to know him, so our lives can center on him. We were created to enjoy a relationship with him.
Yet, the brokenness, heartache, and misery of this world can be traced back to the self-serving interests of the human heart. God had a radical plan to draw people back to him. He entered our world to communicate with us, in word and deed, by showing us a Life of self-sacrifice and giving. Not ignoring our condition, he entered into our experience of brokenness, heartache and misery. Christmas changes everything.
The saying, “like father like son” applies to Jesus. To know Jesus is to know God. His life showed us what God is like. If a character had been written into Hamlet that talked and acted like William Shakespeare, Hamlet could begin to know his author.
Deep in every human heart is the desire to know that we are more than, as Kierkegaard wrote, a “cosmic bum.” There is a longing to know that our lives matter and that our lives are more than matter.
The meaning of Christmas is that our lives ultimately have meaning. God entered our world to demonstrate his great love for us by revealing himself to us beginning as a tiny, fragile, dependant, vulnerable baby. Aren’t those the places we often find ourselves? Those are the very places God decided to join us in our story.
Christmas doesn’t answer all of our questions with certainty. Does God exist? Or, those deep, heartfelt questions that often begin with “Why?” However, it does explain the relationship of God with the world as we’ve inherited it. It is his story that helps us make sense of our story. Maybe Virginia’s papa was on to something. “If you see it in THE SON it’s so.”
Like Virginia O’Hanlon, wondering about the existence of Santa Claus, people have wondered about the existence of God. Or, if he does exist, how we can know him. C.S. Lewis was so convinced of his agnosticism that he once wrote: “Man cannot know God any more than Hamlet could know Shakespeare.” He conceded the fact that there is perhaps an author to life. However, if we are part of a cosmic story we could not know God with any certainty, just as the characters in a play could not know the playwright.
Lewis, a little time later, became a follower of Jesus. He was approached by a colleague who reminded him of his previous agnostic stance and asked, “Didn’t you once write a paper defending your agnosticism?” Lewis replied, “I was right – Hamlet could not know Shakespeare” but he continued, “Unless Shakespeare wrote himself into the play of Hamlet and introduced himself.” What was it that C.S Lewis discovered? In a word, Christmas. Not the holiday as we celebrate it, but the movement of God in history that precipitated the holiday.
A common perception of God is that he is the “man upstairs.” Life is viewed as living in a high-rise. We live on the lower floors and discovering God is a matter of going to the upper floors. If we go high enough we will find him. The problem is, God is not higher he is other. He doesn’t live in the same building. He is not a part of this created world. Going higher will be of no avail. It may provide a nice view but we won’t run into God.
To know God he must reveal himself to us. He must break through into our world, pull back the curtains, and let us know he is there. That is the meaning of Christmas. God introduced himself to us. Previously, he had spoken through his appointed messengers, the prophets, as conveyers of self-disclosure. Even creation points to his eternal qualities. But nothing shows us who he is like the Christ of Christmas.
Christmas is God becoming flesh and moving into our building. Christmas is God writing himself into human history through his son Jesus. God became flesh so we who are in the flesh could meet him and know him in an extraordinary way. Jesus stepped out of heaven and planted his feet on the earth.
Beginning life as a baby, born in the village of Bethlehem, God showed up on the planet. When Mary changed his diaper, she was changing God’s diaper. When Joseph taught him how to use a hammer, it was God’s hands that gripped the mallet. When the baby cried and kept his parents awake at night, it was God who caused them to lose sleep.
Christmas is a big deal not because of the decorations, food, family gatherings, gifts or goodwill. It’s a big deal because the author of all that exists walked onto the stage of human experience. Jesus who has eternally existed with the Father became a player in the drama of life. It was the Christmas pageant performed 2,000 years ago.
Not such a big deal? Imagine if we had to become a slug, enduring life with other slugs, doing slug stuff. Not a very appealing or comprehensible existence. Consider this, the distance from Jesus to human being is exponentially greater than the distance between us and a slug. That is a big deal.
So why did he do it? The prophets of old could only do so much. They were killed, run out of town, or at the least misunderstood. Creation can be discounted as an act of random change over time. Christmas is God revealing himself to us in the way we could best understand, as another human being. God, as an all-personal, all-relational being, wants us to know him, so our lives can center on him. We were created to enjoy a relationship with him.
Yet, the brokenness, heartache, and misery of this world can be traced back to the self-serving interests of the human heart. God had a radical plan to draw people back to him. He entered our world to communicate with us, in word and deed, by showing us a Life of self-sacrifice and giving. Not ignoring our condition, he entered into our experience of brokenness, heartache and misery. Christmas changes everything.
The saying, “like father like son” applies to Jesus. To know Jesus is to know God. His life showed us what God is like. If a character had been written into Hamlet that talked and acted like William Shakespeare, Hamlet could begin to know his author.
Deep in every human heart is the desire to know that we are more than, as Kierkegaard wrote, a “cosmic bum.” There is a longing to know that our lives matter and that our lives are more than matter.
The meaning of Christmas is that our lives ultimately have meaning. God entered our world to demonstrate his great love for us by revealing himself to us beginning as a tiny, fragile, dependant, vulnerable baby. Aren’t those the places we often find ourselves? Those are the very places God decided to join us in our story.
Christmas doesn’t answer all of our questions with certainty. Does God exist? Or, those deep, heartfelt questions that often begin with “Why?” However, it does explain the relationship of God with the world as we’ve inherited it. It is his story that helps us make sense of our story. Maybe Virginia’s papa was on to something. “If you see it in THE SON it’s so.”
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Hope of His Coming
SCRIPTURE
"Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow...Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.'" (1 Peter 1:10-11, 13)
OBSERVATION
The prophets tried to discern Jesus' first coming into the world. That time when he would be born, suffer, and be received into glory. Peter described the incarnation (the first Christmas) as the "grace that was to come to you." God's coming into the world, in the person of Jesus, was a display of grace. Grace is a gift (receiving what we do not deserve). And the greatest gift was Jesus. Grace = Gift. Gift = Jesus. Therefore, Grace = Jesus. Now, 2,000 years after the birth of Jesus, it is no longer the grace that is to come but the grace that has come.
The prophets anticipated this coming of the Messiah, searching intently with the greatest care. Peter also gives us something to look forward to with the same anticipation. The second coming of Jesus (when he is revealed). This is also describes as "the grace to be given to you." He reminds us that this is where we find our hope. Whenever Jesus physically comes to this world is described in terms of grace. God is gracing us with the presence of his son.
APPLICATION
I find that it's easy to be jealous of the people who were alive at the time of Jesus' birth. I mean, they were anticipating the Messiah, but more than that they were able to witness his arrival. Shepherds even got in on his first visit to the planet. Their hopes were fulfilled. Peter reminds me that I can have the same kind of hope as them. Jesus is coming again and that will be another demonstration of God's grace. It's very easy to get caught up in life down here and forget to live in anticipation of Jesus' coming.
In the meantime, I don't just wait around and stare at the sky. But I am to be living a life of anticipation: self-controlled with a mind prepared for action. It is active waiting. That may sound like an oxymoron but it is the walk of a child of God. Waiting with hope and living the life God's called me to live. God once again will send his indescribable gift...Jesus. And I just may be able to witness it.
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for your gift of grace. Jesus. Who came and is coming again.
"Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow...Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.'" (1 Peter 1:10-11, 13)
OBSERVATION
The prophets tried to discern Jesus' first coming into the world. That time when he would be born, suffer, and be received into glory. Peter described the incarnation (the first Christmas) as the "grace that was to come to you." God's coming into the world, in the person of Jesus, was a display of grace. Grace is a gift (receiving what we do not deserve). And the greatest gift was Jesus. Grace = Gift. Gift = Jesus. Therefore, Grace = Jesus. Now, 2,000 years after the birth of Jesus, it is no longer the grace that is to come but the grace that has come.
The prophets anticipated this coming of the Messiah, searching intently with the greatest care. Peter also gives us something to look forward to with the same anticipation. The second coming of Jesus (when he is revealed). This is also describes as "the grace to be given to you." He reminds us that this is where we find our hope. Whenever Jesus physically comes to this world is described in terms of grace. God is gracing us with the presence of his son.
APPLICATION
I find that it's easy to be jealous of the people who were alive at the time of Jesus' birth. I mean, they were anticipating the Messiah, but more than that they were able to witness his arrival. Shepherds even got in on his first visit to the planet. Their hopes were fulfilled. Peter reminds me that I can have the same kind of hope as them. Jesus is coming again and that will be another demonstration of God's grace. It's very easy to get caught up in life down here and forget to live in anticipation of Jesus' coming.
In the meantime, I don't just wait around and stare at the sky. But I am to be living a life of anticipation: self-controlled with a mind prepared for action. It is active waiting. That may sound like an oxymoron but it is the walk of a child of God. Waiting with hope and living the life God's called me to live. God once again will send his indescribable gift...Jesus. And I just may be able to witness it.
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for your gift of grace. Jesus. Who came and is coming again.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Me, Anxious?
SCRIPTURE
"Do not be anxious about anything.'" (Philippians 4:6)
OBSERVATION
Webster's defines anxious as: "concern or solicitude respecting some thing or event, future or uncertain, which disturbs the mind, and keeps it in a state of painful uneasiness." We can certainly relate to anxiety as a state of painful uneasiness in the mind. How many tension headaches to we experience. Anxiety has a way of putting a vice on our brains.
But Paul reminds us not to be anxious about anything. Which sounds much easier said than done. However, in that same chapter he gives us some clues that may help ease the brain pain.
"Do not be anxious about anything.'" (Philippians 4:6)
OBSERVATION
Webster's defines anxious as: "concern or solicitude respecting some thing or event, future or uncertain, which disturbs the mind, and keeps it in a state of painful uneasiness." We can certainly relate to anxiety as a state of painful uneasiness in the mind. How many tension headaches to we experience. Anxiety has a way of putting a vice on our brains.
But Paul reminds us not to be anxious about anything. Which sounds much easier said than done. However, in that same chapter he gives us some clues that may help ease the brain pain.
- Pray with thanksgiving.
- Think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy.
- Practice following his example.
- Learn the secret of contentment.
- Rely on God's strength to be able to do everything through him.
The result? The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. In a way, peace is the antidote to anxiety. It replaces uncertainty and uneasy minds are calmed.
If anxiety is a state of mind, then the focus of our thoughts can either create or relieve anxiety. In fact, Paul said God's peace will guard our minds. It is the kind of peace that cannot be explained, but is real enough to be understood as it quells our concerns.
APPLICATION
I'm my own worse anxiety enemy. Me, anxious? At times. When I focus on the troubles, future or uncertain, I can be overwhelmed. However, when I focus on the things of God somehow I rise above the trouble to connect with Him. I find when I'm anxious it's because I'm focusing on my circumstances and not praying, or thinking about the things that lead to God's peace. It's so much easier to focus on the negative or unknown instead of being content with what is known, namely God and his power in my life. Because even when I feel that I can't, he will give me the strength to do what needs to be done. That is a worry free philosophy.
PRAYER
Lord, you are the God of peace. Thank you for your gift of non-understandable peace even in the midst of circumstances I do not or cannot understand.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Against All Hope
SCRIPTURE
"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.'" (Romans 4:18)
OBSERVATION
God promised Abraham a son. However, at almost 100 years old, with Sarah just a little younger, it didn't look like it was going to happen. However, in Romans 4, Paul reminds us that Abraham did not look at his condition but at the God who made the promise. "He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." (vv. 20-21).
In spite of his circumstances he still believed God. That is the essence of hope. "Against all hope...in hope." Hope is what gave Abraham the ability to remain strong and not waver. Hope is what enabled him to give glory to God, even though at a ripe old age he still did not have an heir. Hope is the spotlight that sees through the fog of our circumstances to the God of the promise.
APPLICATION
Abraham's story is not just for him but for me too. In spite of whatever is happening I can have hope. Not that I need to like what is happening but I can still give glory to God who will fulfill every promise. Unlike Abraham, I can know Jesus, the ultimate promise of God. Whatever condition I find myself in, physical, financial, friends or family, I have something to hold on to...that is hope. Against all hope (even though it looks bleak) in hope (walking with the living Christ) I can face the world with confidence and joy, giving glory to God.
PRAYER
Lord, you are the only sure thing in this life. Because you fulfill your promises to me I can have hope, no matter what is going on around me.
"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.'" (Romans 4:18)
OBSERVATION
God promised Abraham a son. However, at almost 100 years old, with Sarah just a little younger, it didn't look like it was going to happen. However, in Romans 4, Paul reminds us that Abraham did not look at his condition but at the God who made the promise. "He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." (vv. 20-21).
In spite of his circumstances he still believed God. That is the essence of hope. "Against all hope...in hope." Hope is what gave Abraham the ability to remain strong and not waver. Hope is what enabled him to give glory to God, even though at a ripe old age he still did not have an heir. Hope is the spotlight that sees through the fog of our circumstances to the God of the promise.
APPLICATION
Abraham's story is not just for him but for me too. In spite of whatever is happening I can have hope. Not that I need to like what is happening but I can still give glory to God who will fulfill every promise. Unlike Abraham, I can know Jesus, the ultimate promise of God. Whatever condition I find myself in, physical, financial, friends or family, I have something to hold on to...that is hope. Against all hope (even though it looks bleak) in hope (walking with the living Christ) I can face the world with confidence and joy, giving glory to God.
PRAYER
Lord, you are the only sure thing in this life. Because you fulfill your promises to me I can have hope, no matter what is going on around me.
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