After Christmas

After the cards and gifts are opened and oohs and ahhs are heard,
What remains but to listen to the Word?
Wrappings torn and bows discarded, strewn about the tissue,
What remains the issue?
The point of all the trees and trimming,
Of all the songs and hymning
Is Immanuel: God with us.
God
With
Us;
Incarnate
Eternally,
To be adored and
To be obeyed,
Not only that baby in the manger laid,
But the man on the cross and in the tomb and raised,
Ascended and
Someday
Returning.
"O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord!"

Cause Me to Know the Way I Should Walk

That part of Psalm 143:8 caught my eye;
Why?
So often it is not the walk I anticipate but
The speed with which I ought to go,
Whatever the direction.
The walk?
This is more deliberate, not a slow pace but
One foot in front of the other in a measured way.
The walk?
Cause me to know both the direction and the speed,
That I might take heed.
As another Psalm put it, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path>"
Most lamps cast a limited amount of light and
I need to stay withi8n the area which that light has cast,
Or I will stumble in the darkness.
Your way,
Your Word,
Your will.

Born a Child and Yet a King

Born under the most humble of circumstance:
Firstborn of Joseph and Mary,
Carpenter and homemaker--
Not even born in His hometown.
Born to live in a backwater:
"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"
What kind of reputation He took with Him:
Just a carpenter's son from that kind of locale.
Just thought that but truly--
The Creator of all that exists,
The Sustainer of all the exists,
The Judge of all that exists--
Descended from glory to dwell
Not only with man but as man,
Incarnate Immanuel--God and man--fully both.
Sinless life for sinners to be given
That we can be reconciled to the holy God and
Eternally forgiven.
In His first coming, meek and mild, born that Child,
In His second coming, in full kingly might and glory.
Maranatha!

Thinking about Hope

Romans 15:13 reads:
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
"Hope" is a slippery concept.
We hope for a certain outcome, yet anxiety often colors that hope. Even from the time God promised a Savior in Genesis 3, generations hoped yet did not see that hope fulfilled. And when God chose to be silent for 400 years, perhaps anxiety overcame that hope in the hearts of many. But hope remained in those who believed, hope against hope perhaps. Then God did more than break the silence.
God became Incarnate, Immanuel, God with us.
Never a sinner like us, but in all other ways like us, experiencing the joys and the sorrows and the hopes.
But because of not being like us, He could be what no one else could be, fulfill a hope no one else could.
Because He was fully God and fully man and fully without sin, He could be the Lamb slain from before the foundation, the One in whom and through whom God and man could be reconciled.
And so, having lived a sinless life, Christ died a sinner's death for all who would from all time have been chosen to be reconciled to the Father through Him.
Hope fulfilled.
Let us adore Him!

I am learning

I am learning that trials are trails
Designed by a gracious Father to lead me
On the way He has for me to take,
On paths of righteousness for His name's sake,
To the green pastures and streams of clear water
Where I will be refreshed and strengthened;
That pain is meant to bring me closer to Him
And farther from the wiles of the world, the flesh, the devil;
That the phrase, "My grace is sufficient," becomes
A more precious truth each day;
That Romans 8:28 is more meaningful too:
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose";
That Romans 15:4 takes us places we might otherwise not go:
"For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope";
And this from 2 Peter 1:2-4:
"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."
"Everything" is rather comprehensive, isn't it?

Whenever Christ was Born

Whenever Christ was born,
How anxious Mary and Joseph must have been,
Having been chosen to raise the Messiah for whom they had yearned,
And many generations had anticipated.
Government stepped in to require a census.
So they had this to think about:
First a place in Bethlehem,,
Then the birth.
And after that, as prophecy would have it,
Those who came---both the most humble and the most learned--
Then the trip to Egypt to save the Savior from those who wanted to kill Him,
Then years in Egypt, fulfilling the prophecy,
"Out of Egypt have I called My Son."
Then silence as He grew and as siblings were added to the family.
Then His conversation in the temple when He was 12.
Then silence again as He grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.
Then His baptism and revelation as "The Lamb of God who had come to save His people from their sins."
While people came and went during the next three years, crowds gathered and gaped and gasped--Christ fulfilled His Father's will.
And it was that will for Christ to live a holy life, keeping every one of the commandments, and then to die as if He had broken every one of them.
But death was not the end for Christ or of Christ, for it was also the Father's will for Him to conquer death and Satan and sin, so He raised Christ from the dead, the firstborn.
And after He was seen by hundreds, Christ ascended into heaven, taking His place at the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for His own, until the time set for His return.

Additional Thoughts on the Incarnation

In the Incarnation we find
God and man, fully each, which is more than
Mere minds can comprehend.
God in flesh?
Man while Deity?
Christ would later say,
"He who has seen Me has seen the Father."
John would write of Christ as the Word,
And as the Light that came into the world.
The world would have none of Him,
Then or since,
Run from the Light,
Attempt to extinguish the Light,
Thinking that those three hours of darkness during
The Crucifixion were proof that
The darkness had prevailed.
Wrong then, wrong since;
The Light continues to shine in the darkness,
Illuminating the darkness of the heart,
The wickedness within each once-born person.
The Light shines!

What is in a Name?

We have books to tell us what a name means, and one Book provides
The most light on that One:
"His name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6b).
And then when He was to become Incarnate, to Mary:
"And you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:21b-22a).
And to Joseph:
"You will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" *Matthew 1:21b).
What's in a name? Character and calling.
Wonderful Counselor--providing all the answers to all our questions
Mighty God--able to accomplish His will;
Eternal Father--without beginning, without end, with compassion for His adopted children;
Prince of Peace--and His rule is a rule of peace, first with God through His sacrifice, then with each other;
Son of the Most High--deity as well as humanity;
Jesus--for He will save His people from their sins.

The Dawn of Redeeming Grace Contemplated

The dawn of redeeming grace took place
Not with the gospels but Genesis 3 when
God told the serpent this:
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
and you shall bruise Him on the heel."
From that time on, man anticipate
The coming Redeemer;
It may be that Eve thought her first born to be that,
Looking at her response to his birth in Genesis 4.
Instead, he proved to be of the seed of the serpent.
For millennia man look for the Redeemer.
Then after centuries of silence,
Angels proclaimed both the coming of His forerunner and of the Redeemer Himself.
Redeeming Grace to Adam's race came through
The Second Adam who took the place of sinners, tho9ugh sinless.
So we too come and adore Him, Christ, the Lord, and
Anticipate His second coming even now.
Adoni!
Maranatha!

Seeking the Better

Once we settled for what we saw,
Giving that glory, exclaiming with awe
The wonder of creation--
Stars in the firmament, earth, and seas--
All did amaze, astound, and please.
Until the Spirit of God began to do a work in the heart of man,
Bringing life within by the Divine plan.
Now the Creator behind the creation was observed,
As were light and life in the Bible, His Word.
Repentance in response to His initiative
Brought and brings hunger for better things,
Things of the Lord who lived a holy life to die
For sinners such as I.
Now my goal is His pleasure,
The One who gave and gives grace without measure.

Thinking about Temptation

How critical it is to know God and His given Word
So when the question comes, "Has God said?"
We know and can respond as the Lord did
When He was tempted--
Not with our opinion,
Not with our understanding,
Not with our wisdom,
But with the given Word:
The Bible with its 66 books.
We must--yes, imperative--
Know His Word so we don't question
His character, question
His unchangingness, question
His holiness, question
His justice, question
His righteousness, question
What He has revealed both of His character and of ours.

What Does It Mean to Wait on the Lord?

What does it mean to wait on the Lord?
To trust His timing in whatever situation you are in, or someone you love is in, or someone you don't love is in (remembering Christ loved us when we were unlovely).
To take the Lord at His word when He says:
"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care for itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own" (Matthew 6:34).
To trust these words from James:
"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (1:2-4).
And this also from James:
"Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom" (3:13).
And this further from James:
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that'" (4:11-13).
We need to pray as Moses did in Psalm 90:
"You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. For all our days have declined in Your fury; we have finished our years like a sigh. As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, but their pride is but labor and sorrow. For soon it is gone and we fly away. Who understands the power of Your anger and Your fury, according to the fear that is due You? So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom" (90:8-12).
Waiting on the Lord means trusting in His timing and making our plans according to His will as we know it to b, not anxious regarding what we don't know, obedient to what we do know.

Some More Thoughts After a Bible Study

Words often jump out at me from reading Scripture.
Maybe that is what Hebrews 4:12 means when it tells us Scripture is living an active.
So the word this week is "personally,"
As in, God personally brought His people
Out of Egypt, into and through the wilderness,
Would personally go with them into the land of promise.
Now, being God He can delegate, and we know He has, using angels for example.
But here He is personally, i.e.,
In Person,
Delivering His people,
Delivering His promise,
Delivering them then.
Will He not also deliver us now?
Who cannot worship such a
Persoanl God,
This One Incarnate, now Savior and Lords, this One who was born to die?
Deliverer! Hallelujah!

The Throne of Grace

The throne of grace is that place
Christ has made available at the price
Of His blood.
The throne of grace is accessible, then,
Only to those who come by that one Way,
The curtain Christ opened.
The throne of grace is the most holy place,
To be approached in reverence and humility,
And where we find grace in time of need.
God knows our need;
Avail yourself of that throne this day,
The throne of grace.
Seek His face and His wisdom;
He will grant them without limit.
Praise Him for His infinite, eternal generosity in this.

Rachel and her idols

Thinking about Rachel and her idols,
How she hid them from her father,
But God saw them.
How small they must have been
To fit under where she sat, yet
How large they were in her heart.
An idol doesn't have to be  physically huge
To count as an idol,
Just enough to take God's rightful place
In any heart.
O Lord, purge my heart this day, this minute, this breath,
From idols in my heart and You take their place,
I pray.

Worship

Everyone worships someone or something;
We are made to be worshipers.
Worship preferences abound.
Idols abound.
Well, by the grace of God,
I worship the God self-revealed in the Bible,
From Genesis to Revelation,
Immutable,
Eternal,
King of kings and
Lord of lords--
Not a perfect worshiper by any stretch, but
One being perfected by the grace of that same
God.
O worship the King all glorious above,
And gratefully sing His wonderful love!

That Marvelous Mystery Contemplated

That marvelous mystery--
The Incarnation:
God became man yet
Remaining God;
God living fully man
Tempted yet without sin;
Accusations without merit, yet
He went to the cross
On behalf of those whose sins
Would otherwise justly condemn them;
Died, really died; shed
His blood on that cursed ground;
Buried, really buried; then,
Against all attempts
Was raised from the dead
And seen by hundreds over
A period of at least 40 days.
Alive, really alive;
Ascended to the Father,
Still and eternally Incarnate,
The only one in heaven to bear any scars.
O come, let us adore Him:
Christ the Lord!