Unto Whom is Born This Day?

 Luke 2:11 (KJV) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

 Moonless night.  Sheep sleeping.  Shepherds watching.  Wolves lurking. Just like every other night.

 But tonight, no pack of wolves appeared. Instead, a lone angel of God appeared with a message the world had forgotten it was waiting to hear: Messiah is born unto you!

 Unto whom is born this day? Read it again. Slowly.

 “The little word ‘you’ should make us joyful. For unto whom does He speak? Unto wood or stones? …Has he come to save geese and ducks and cows? Nay, verily, He speaks to all people.” Martin Luther

 I might quibble with Martin over one of his famous mugs of beer, discussing his sermon.  All creation rejoices. The heavens sing. But I see his point.  What makes the Christmas story more than a curiosity for you is that it happened for you. God sent the Son to be born of Mary for you.

 Meditate a moment on that inscrutable truth. Unto you is born this day a Savior.

 Is this not reason enough to be merry today? Merry Christmas to you.

The Sound of God Cooing

 Zephaniah 3:17 (The Message) 

Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love

    and delight you with his songs.

 Christmas week. Time for ‘going home.’  For some this is a week of joy; for others, a week they dread. We all long for a home in which we feel welcome.

 This is a week we all need to decide whether to return to our spiritual home: Bethlehem. All are invited. Not all make the journey. Everyone has their reasons for not going home to Bethlehem. “I don’t believe it exists (anymore).” “I have more pressing priorities.” “God just wants my (money) (time).”  “I worship God in my own place.”

 But God is not deterred. You are never taken off the invitation list to the Christmas reunion. Your God (whether you claim God as ‘yours’) invites you to be among those gathered. God promises to bring you home. (Zephaniah 3:20)

 And when you eventually make that journey, what will the homecoming be like?  A mother holding her infant baby, calming you, ‘cooing wordless songs of tender love.’ (Bridger) The sound of God cooing sings, “You child, are mine forever.”

 Are you going home for Christmas this year?

"The Sleeve of One Jew"

 Zechariah 8:23 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: In those days ten men from different nations and languages of the world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say, ‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” NLT

 They have come from the far country and the near lands. They come because they have heard, in the famous paraphrase of Eugene Peterson, that ‘God is in the neighborhood.’

 Is Zechariah painting a beautiful picture in which the number 10 represents ‘all’ peoples gathered around, tugging on the sleeve of One Jew, the Messiah? A prophetic prequel to John’s vision of the great multitude in Revelation 7:9? (Another picture you can meditate to fall asleep on a restless night.)

 Or is this a picture of whom all God’s children are to be? Magnets for their neighbors who desperately hold on to your sleeve because they see from the way you live your life that God has found you, and they want to walk with you and your God.

 If you are searching for God this Advent season, clutch the sleeve of one Jew and walk along to Bethlehem.

 

Playing With Words

 Luke 3:4 (Isaiah 40:3)  “Prepare the way for the Lord,

                                               make straight paths for him.”

 Two prophets of God, separated by about 600 years, offer this same encouragement to a people who wait for the Lord: prepare by making a straight path for his arrival.

 Two thousand or so years later we still read these same words, but what do they mean to us today? Here’s a little word game for this Advent season of waiting and preparing. Look at the list of December’s duties and place them in your current order of priority (1-10); then play again, placing them in the order of priority you believe would best prepare your life for Jesus to enter, bringing you a renewed sense of hope, love, joy, and peace.

 If the two lists differ in order, ask yourself why that is.  Do you want to know the comfort of Christ’s presence? Are you willing to prepare the way by making a straight pathway to your heart?

 Cooking. Church. Decorations. Devotions. Santa. Savior. Serving. Shopping. Work. Worship.

 Each of these words represent the reality of life during Advent. We choose the priorities.

 Play with the words.  Prepare the way for the Lord.

 

A Heart for Thanksgiving

 Joel 2:23 Be glad, people of Zion,

 rejoice in the Lord your God,

for he has given you the autumn rains
    because he is faithful.
He sends you abundant showers,
    both autumn and spring rains, as before.

 We received a thank you note in the shape of a heart which contained tiny seeds. If we plant the heart seeds in good soil, with full sunlight and plenty of water they will grow into a bouquet of flowers.

 I wonder if this is perhaps how we could offer our own thanksgiving to God for the gift of our lives.

 ‘God, create in me a heart for thanksgiving, filled with seeds of love for you and my neighbors.  Help me to place my heart in good soil, carefully arranging it to receive the full light of your love. Thank you for the early rains you send to help the seeds to take deep root, and for the latter rains, the showers of blessings which bring the seeds to full blossom.  Help me to live my life so that the seeds of faith and love you plant and nurture will spring forth from my heart into a bouquet of praise for your blessings.’

"He Knows Your Name"

 Exodus 33:17 “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

 Moses asked that God’s Presence would go with God’s people on their journey to the Promised Land. More, Moses asked that if God would not journey with them, then please, God, do not let us even begin this journey.

 Whatever journey you are beginning or about to resume after a pause or detour, make this big ask of God: ‘Let Your Presence be my constant companion.’ The Presence guides, comforts, protects, delivers. Even in our journey through death, the Presence ushers us home.

 Why would God agree to your request? Because God is pleased with you, perhaps for your obedient response to God’s will,  but certainly because of what Jesus did for you on the Cross.

 God knows you by name. Think on that for a moment. You are no stranger to God. There are billions of people God knows, and one of them is you.

 Pause. Listen. Hear. The Presence is calling you by name, inviting you to join the journey through darkness and into light.

 Fear not, friends. He knows your name.

Life's Most Important Question

Exodus 20:2-3 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”

Are you in Egypt, a slave to some addiction, habit, attitude which is destroying you and your relationship with people you love? How will you ever be set free?

 Turn to the One True God, the God who sets people free.  God’s plan for your life is not to live as a captive to the ‘other gods’ that bind you. God’s plan is always that the captors would  ‘let my people go’ on a pilgrimage to the land of freedom.

 Or are you in the desert, wandering, searching for the pathway to a fulfilling life?  Why would God set you free only to dwell in a desert place? To help you focus on knowing God and God’s perfect plan for your life.

 God’s perfect plan for your life begins with that simple command: serve the LORD God first and only in every aspect of your living and you will find freedom and the pathway to joyful living.

 Are you ready to answer life’s most important question?

Who is your God?