Happy New Year! Live Life Like You Were Loving Life! Embrace God! Take the Risks! Embrace New Beginnings!

God uses events in our lives to shape us, to teach us, to grow us — and some of the key events are those sparked by sin (our own or someone sinning against us), by our missteps, by our confusion. Memories of the past, therefore, can too easily feel like shackles holding us to failures, regrets, ignorance, foolishness, and sin. However, God never intended for any one of us to be bound to our past.

If your past feels like a wilderness, know that God wants to make a road through it, perhaps to help you navigate the difficult years and salvage the good. If your past feels like a desert, filled up with mirages, a land of lingering hopelessness, know God will make rivers of redemption flow as He brings beauty out of ashes. Embrace the risk of embracing all the fresh beginnings God wants to give you.

Isaiah 43:16-21 The Message

^16-21This is what God says,
    the God who builds a road right through the ocean,
    who carves a path through pounding waves,
The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—
    they lie down and then can’t get up;
    they’re snuffed out like so many candles:
“Forget about what’s happened;
    don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
    It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
    rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’
    —the coyotes and the buzzards—
Because I provided water in the desert,
    rivers through the sunbaked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose,
    the people I made especially for myself,
    a people custom-made to praise me.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

“Live life like you love living!”

“Live life like you were Loving Life”

There are a lot of things that excite people in life. There’s music, sports, money excites a lot of people! What gets your “I love to my life” going?

Why does culture and society become so excited over man made achievements and events in life?

Have you noticed over the long course of these past 12 months, and indeed back into 2020 when pandemic swept over our lives, a lot of the things our society has held dear in the past, because of the pandemic, doesn’t seem to mean so much anymore, to a lot of people? Do we sense somehow, our priorities differ?

Frustration levels seem higher than they have ever been, because one too many limits have been placed in our paths and rigorously enforced of our freedoms!

The attitude of, “well…if it’s not affecting me or my family” is long a thing of the past. Because this forerunner of things to come has 100% affected all of us!

I can remember following and watching a lot of things, like the news, sports, and finding new restaurants to “be getting out of the house” eat out. Things I once found intriguing, interesting, now I find myself not caring so much about!

Our passions along with our sense of personal security, our sense of personal space and freedoms have been subjected to regulations, in an effort to set new boundaries of who we are and what the future supposedly holds for mankind.

But who we are is not something which can be altered or changed so easily, as long as we remember who’s we are! We belong to Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

For just a moment, it seems as though we the church have been caught up, in both following and marching to the same beat of the drum, everyone else has.

Wake up Church, that’s not who we are and not who we were created to be!

For everyone who proclaims the name of Christian we are Christ’s followers, that’s who we are! We have an eternal identity, and we should easily embrace it and embrace being identified by the world, because of our identity in Christ!

We have a heritage to embrace, we have a future to embrace, we also have a destiny to embrace! Have a God to embrace! Have a resurrection to embrace!

I desire each of us to embrace a scripture which should be read over and over, until it becomes an indelible part of the tapestry of yours and mine very being!

Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-14 The Message

The God of Glory

^3-6How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

(WHAT KIND OF PLACES? Places of favor we could never achieve with any amount of labor!) of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind,

(Who was on His mind? Insert your name right here!)

had settled on us as the focus of his love,

to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving

(I have to ask, what kind of gift giving? “IMMEASURABLE! GIFT! GIVING!”) by the hand of his beloved Son.

^11-12It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, for glorious loving, a glorious part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone in this moment.

^13-14It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This down payment from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

The scripture gives such great definition to Jeremiah 29:11! The plans which God has for us, for our well-being, for our welfare! Plans for our future and what glorious plans they are, as we just read! Pland for living and loving life.

Who are you and Who’s Are You? There should be no question, or hesitation. If you’re a Christian, the correct answer is, I am my Lord and Savior Christ’s! I am an adopted son or daughter of the absolute highest God! I intend to embrace it!

I am an heir to an indescribable future,

I have an eternal inheritance in heaven coming to me and

I am somebody, because God has made me Somebody!

I am fearfully and wonderfully made!

I desire nothing more than to jealously embrace the whole Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior! As my only source of salvation in whom I 100% trust.

I desire nothing more than to jealously embrace the whole of God’s Scriptures for my personal instructional guide – let the Scriptures speak God’s life into me.

I desire nothing more than to jealously embrace the whole of Christ’s church for my koinonia, my fellowship with my brothers and sisters and all my neighbors.

I desire nothing more than to jealously embrace every corner of the whole world for my mission field from home which serves as one of my God’s sanctuaries.

Acts 1:6-8 AKJV

⁶When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? ⁷And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. ⁸But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Here is a question for believers to embrace moving into the New Year 2022. What are you expecting God to do for you and those you hold dear in your life?

If your best and greatest answer, is shrugging your shoulders “I don’t know,” then you are probably settling and getting only the crumbs from the masters table, when you could be busy with abundance, feasting at the masters’ table!

Embrace this! God has prepared an extravagant feast big enough to feed the entire world. The time has come for you to claim your chair at God’s table, and start to consistently enjoy the feast that has been bountifully prepared for you

If you and I do not start embracing this now, will you and I ever begin? Tell me, brother, sisters, who gets all dressed up for dinner and does not eat the meal?

The time for wasting time is over! There’s a new norm that is coming, one you had better start jealously embracing. The new norm is God’s standard of living!

Jealously embrace “wonderful” in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Jealously embrace “marvelous” in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Jealously embrace “magnificent” in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Jealously embrace “superb” in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

YES! those are a few descriptive words of what lies ahead for the church and Gods anointed believers, it will be God’s Glory beyond belief without a doubt!

But right now……It’s time to praise and thank God for what has already been supplied and to raise our praise along with our expectation of the blessings in the pipeline “even right now in this orchestrated chaos” awaiting deliverance!

Jealously embrace this beautiful, glorious truth, God does not want any of His Children to have to settle for anything less, than His very best!” (Reread again)

“Live life like you love living!”

“Live God like you love living!”

“Love God like you love living!”

“Embrace God like you embrace life”

“Embrace Loving God like you Embrace Loving Life!”

“Embrace Loving God like you Embrace Loving Living Life!”

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us jealously embrace God in this moment of prayer,

40 ^1-3I waited and waited and waited for God.
    At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
    pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
    to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
    a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
    they enter the mystery,
    abandoning themselves to God.

^4-5Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
    turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
    ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
    of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
    compares to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
    and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
    account for you.

⁶Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
    that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
    that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
    so I can listen.

^7-8So I answered, “I’m coming.
    I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
    you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
    became part of my very being.

^9-10I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
    I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
    a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
    I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
    let the congregation know the whole story.

^11-12Now God, don’t hold out on me,
    don’t hold back your passion.
Your love and truth
    are all that keeps me together.
When troubles ganged up on me,
    a mob of sins past counting,
I was so swamped by guilt
    I couldn’t see my way clear.
More guilt in my heart than hair on my head,
    so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out.

^13-15Soften up, God, and intervene;
    hurry and get me some help,
So those who are trying to kidnap my soul
    will be embarrassed and lose face,
So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable
    will be heckled and disgraced,
So those who pray for my ruin
    will be booed and jeered without mercy.

^16-17But all who are hunting for you—
    oh, let them sing and be happy.
Let those who know what you’re all about
    tell the world you’re great and not quitting.
And me? I’m a mess. I’m nothing and have nothing:
    make something of me.
You can do it; you’ve got what it takes—
    but God, don’t put it off. (Psalm 40 The Message)

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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Psalm 116: I Prayed and God Heard me! The Grace of Answered Prayers!

Understanding the Lord’s love, presence, and nearness should lead us to serve him and to deepen our relationship with him. While we love God for so many reasons, we want to express our love to him today especially for his personal concern for us. At this, the eve of a New Year, in a world where people hesitate to spend meaningful and quality time around or with anyone who might infect them, we ourselves are truly echelons beyond blessed with an incomparable God who draws near to us, listens to our every single cry, recognizes our very own distinct voice, tunes his ear to hear every one of our whispers. Yes! I will call on him, praise him, thank him, and I will speak with him as long as I live!

Psalm 116 Easy-to-Read Version

116 I love the Lord for hearing me,
    for listening to my prayers.
²Yes, he paid attention to me,
    so I will always call to him whenever I need help.
³Death’s ropes were around me.
    The grave was closing in on me.
    I was worried and afraid.
⁴Then I called on the Lord’s name.
    I said, “Lord, save me!”
⁵The Lord is good and merciful;
    our God is so kind.
⁶The Lord takes care of helpless people.
    I was without help, and he saved me.
⁷My soul, relax!
    The Lord is caring for you.
⁸Lord, you saved my soul from death.
    You stopped my tears.
    You kept me from falling.
⁹I will continue to serve the Lord
    in the land of the living.

¹⁰I continued believing even when I said,
“I am completely ruined!”
¹¹Yes, even when I was upset and said,
“There is no one I can trust!”

¹²What can I give the Lord
    for all that he has done for me?
¹³He saved me,
    so I will give him a drink offering,
    and I will call on the Lord’s name.
¹⁴I will give the Lord what I promised.
    I will go in front of all his people now.

¹⁵Very dear to the Lord are the lives of his followers.
    He cares when they face death.
¹⁶Lord, I am your servant!
    Yes, I am your slave, as my mother was.
    You set me free from the chains of death.
¹⁷I will give you a thank offering.
    I will call on the Lord’s name.
¹⁸I will stand before the gathering of his people
    and give the Lord what I promised.
¹⁹I will do this in Jerusalem,
    in the courtyards of the Lord’s Temple.

Praise the Lord!

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

This psalm is a wonderful testimony of praise, giving glory to God for all the things He did to undertake for the psalmist. The Lord delivered him from grievous trouble, and he is not at all ambiguous about the fact that God is the one who did it. But in order to give thanks this way, we have to adjust some of our modernist assumptions about interpreting the events of history.

In his penetrating book about the theological crisis that resulted from the American Civil War, Mark Noll astutely pointed out the fact that the war badly rattled American faith in the intelligibility of God’s governance of the world. Both sides were praying to Him for victory over their enemies, were they not? And everyone retreated into the assumption that God’s ways are always and necessarily inscrutable. But how then can we pray as the psalmist does here?

Let us first try to unpack this amazing Psalm – verse by verse.

The psalm begins with a profession of love for the Lord, because He listens to prayers (v. 1). He inclined His ear to me, and that is why I call upon Him (v. 2).

As long as I live. The psalmist has been in deep trouble before, down to the point of death (v. 3). That is when I called upon His name (v. 4).

God is gracious, righteous, and merciful (v. 5). God preserves the simple, and it is a good thing too (v. 6). He helped when I was brought low. Calm down, soul, because God is bountiful (v. 7). God has delivered me in three ways—my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling (v. 8). I am going to walk around this place alive, and in the presence of the Lord (v. 9). Paul quotes this next verse in 2 Corinthians 4:13 and does so from a similar context. I believed, and therefore I have spoken (v. 10).

I said, too hastily, that all men are liars (v. 11). This appears to have something to do with men who were the instruments of the answered prayer. When I was in trouble I lashed out at men, but then God used such men to later deliver me.

How shall I pay the Lord back for all His benefits (v. 12)? I will take the cup of salvation, and then raise the glass (v. 13). The vows that I promised when I was in trouble are vows that I will pay in the presence of all God’s saints (v. 14).

As we saw earlier, God delivered the Psalmist from death, but here it says that the death of His saints is precious to Him (v. 15).

God loves bringing us home. In other words, it would have been an answer to the Psalmists prayer either way. Enslaved by our God’s answers to his prayers, God’s devoted servants are the ones for whom God has loosed the bonds (v. 16).

The sacrifice of thanksgiving is the only way to pay Him back, and so we call on His name (v. 17). Again, the vows that were promised will be vows paid—in the presence of all His people (v. 18). Thanksgiving for answered prayer will be offered in the courts of the Lord’s house (v. 19). Hallelujah.

You read a lot from me about trust from my blog. My fervent prayer is I want readers to experience trusting God and others with who you really are, creating authentic relationships with God and others where you are truly known, loved.

As we are about to enter into the New Year, or perhaps you are already there by the time you come to read these words. I want to us all to be able to collectively reflect on where each of us are spiritually following the events of the year 2021. Each of us experienced this past year differently and uniquely. Each of us has been both effected and affected by the circumstances and events of Pandemic. Each and every one of us has had their trust, hope, their faith severely tested.

With the greatest measure of his exhilarations, the Psalmist’s words declare his steadfast, immovable trust in God despite all the worst things he experienced. I am wondering right know, where are each and every one of us in those words of Psalm 116? How close are we to identifying with the events of the Psalmists life? How far away are we from identifying with those exhilarating words of praise? Could our hearts, our souls and our pens or computers or I Pads write even one word of them? Write them with any serious meaning, serious depths of truth?

Everyone absolutely matters to God! Everyone absolutely matters to Jesus, and everyone absolutely matters to the Holy Spirit. Everyone absolutely matters in the Kingdom of God – believers and even non-believers. God desires everyone! Everyone, without exception has a significant role to fill and a purpose to fulfill. God is not partial, Jesus excludes no one, the Holy Spirit reaches out to all of us.

Still now, this world is in the throes of pandemic. In the real and devastating throes of social distancing, quarantine and isolation. serious medical issues, serious socio-economic issues, serious socio-cultural issues we have never seriously expected to occur in our lifetimes or needed to be considered before. Business and leisure Travel is seriously impacted! Too much is just too much! We are looking at our families, friends and neighbors and complete strangers and seriously wondering, “Are they contagious?” “Should they breathe on me?”

Our sense of personal security is being tested. Our personal measures, intimate degrees of connection and personal relationships and trust are being seriously challenged. Trust is an essential characteristic and attribute in any relationship. Whether that trust is places in our fallow man or in God the Father, Son, Spirit. As man comes to trust in their fellow man, so goes their trust in their Creator! Trust not in the ways of man, erode that trust even .01%, so it connects to God!

Psalm 118:8-9 Authorized (King James) Version

⁸It is better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in man.
⁹It is better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in princes.

These two verses from Psalm 118 are believed to be the very center verses of the biblical canon. So, trust in the Lord taken together with trust in mankind are the very center of what we need to be extraordinarily mindful of in coming years.

Why?

But what if trust isn’t an easy thing for you?

We could easily argue it isn’t an easy thing for most of us, depending on our current and past experiences and how we come to view both ourselves and our relationships. There are a lot of reasons you and I might be finding it hard to trust people, but here are three of the big ones.

#1. You and I believe WE have to protect ourselves.

This one is a deep—and common—root.

Many of us were taught from our early experiences that we need to protect ourselves from others. While serious issues of abuse and neglect are clearly deeply harmful, even the best-intentioned parents hurt their kids at times. They reply sharply, don’t notice distress, tell their kids how they “should” feel, or misunderstand what their child needs. All parents are humans too after all, with their own preoccupations, hang-ups and patterns.

Unfortunately, when we are young, we don’t have this perspective. Many of us quickly internalize the understanding that we need to look out for ourselves, protect ourselves, and not trust others—after all, they might just let us down or someone else will certainly, inevitably let us down This usually gets ingrained so early we don’t know there’s another way. This is just “how the world works.”

This belief stays with us into adulthood, and often gathers more evidence. We get more sophisticated about learning it—we learn how to have relationships with others that we keep “socially distant” at arm’s length, ensuring we can still protect ourselves. Our core relational template begins and ends with those others cannot be trusted, and we need to everlastingly look out for ourselves.

While understandable considering our current circumstances, this belief that others can’t be trusted doesn’t lead to deep, healthy, vulnerable relationships—and those relationships are what Jesus calls us to as one of the primary ways He weaves His joy, fulfillment, purpose and peace into the tapestries of our lives.

#2. Your hurt and mine is holding both you and me back.

We travel through this broken, beautiful world, we will be hurt. It’s a simple fact of living in a land of imperfect people and systems. We have too many reasons not to trust, based on our own experiences, relationships. If we don’t work through our hurt with Jesus, we let each one become a barricade to our hearts. Each experience with a flawed human becomes another reason not to trust.

Unfortunately, all those barricades leave you alone—and it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18).

We are called to forgive from the heart, clearing those barricades we’ve set up to guard ourselves. This might sound impossible, and depending on the very real pain you’ve experienced, this might sound unfair or unfeeling. But Jesus is the expert at this. He’s walked this road in order to get to us, and he can lead us both together along its winding and blind curves. You and I were not made to carry a hardened, barricaded heart within us. You and I were made to have a soft, compassionate, trusting heart is filled and protected by the Holy Spirit.

#3. You and I both have unspoken realistic and unrealistic expectations.

This one is more common than we realize. Most of us are walking around with unspoken, unclear, and potentially unrealistic expectations of those around us. We might not even be aware of our expectations, until someone breaks them! This is a recipe for hurt and broken relationships. One way this comes out is when we expect others to love or care for us in the same way we care for them. We get hurt when our friends or family don’t express their love for us in the same way we express it, we internalize that as “I can’t/won’t trust them.”

Let’s put an example to this. Say we are going through a hard time with a family conflict. You and I get together, and I never asks you specifically how that conflict is going. You expect that if I genuinely cared, we’d ask about it. I expect that if you genuinely want to share, you’ll bring it up on your own. Now your hurt, so, it feels as though you cannot trust me as much as you originally thought or believed, because I did not meet your (unspoken) expectations.

It’s awkward, and difficult, to have conversations about our expectations. It takes courage, and it takes self-awareness (because if we aren’t aware of our expectations, it’s pretty hard to convey them to someone else!). But if we carry around unspoken expectations, it’s only a matter of time before our trust feels flimsy, unbeknownst to the person on the other side. So, please, please, do pray, prayerfully choose to step out in courage, and communicate your expectations.

How can you and I prayerfully, biblically apply this today, the coming year?

Proverbs 3:5-8 English Standard Version

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
⁷Be not wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
⁸It will be healing to your flesh^[a]
    and refreshment^[b] to your bones.

Proverbs 16:1-3 English Standard Version

16 The plans of the heart belong to man,
    but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
²All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
    but the Lord weighs the spirit.^[a]
³Commit your work to the Lord,
    and your plans will be established.

1. Spend some time getting familiar with your past and your expectations. Some good questions to ask yourself are: What was modeled for me growing up? Where am I holding on to past hurts, and letting them affect my current relationships? What do I expect from those around me to keep my trust?

2. Step out in courage and share some of these answers with those in your life. These past stories and wounds can surely help others understand us better and sharing them can actually build trust itself. Additionally, talking through your expectations can help get both and me on the same page, so both of us come to that place where we can both say; “I understand what trust looks like to you!”

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us now pray,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you know each hair on my head and every thought on my heart. Thank you for hearing my prayers. Thank you for answering so many of them with the answer I sought from you. Give me patience when I cannot see your hand in the other answers that do not come as soon or do not bear the result that I request. I believe and trust that you are there and working for my good even when I can’t see it. I believe you always answer to your glory and my best interest. But please, dear Father, strengthen my faith so that I will never outlive my trust and faith in you. In the name of Jesus, I ask it. Amen.

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I am Praising the Promise! “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”

Lutheran Theologian and Christian Martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in a poem written in a concentration camp, asks the haunting question Who am I? Fellow believers outside those prison walls were celebrating Bonhoeffer’s spiritual endurance. But, sitting behind bars under Gestapo control, he felt like a bird caught in an inescapable cage, weak and powerless. But what was he, really?

The question of identity has always loomed and haunted us humans. Are we great and powerful beings—virtual gods and goddesses who stride the face of the earth? Or are we merely temporary creatures that occupy the highest rung on the ladder of the animal kingdom? “Who Am I? Who Are You? Who Are We?“

“Who am I?”

Bonhoeffer says the answer begins with a realization that he belongs to the God who made him. We cannot understand ourselves apart from God, for we bear God’s image. We are not gods and goddesses who fell from the heavens. Nor did we emerge from some primordial ooze without purpose or meaning. We are all God’s image bearers. Like our Maker, we are able to reason, love, make moral judgments, and enter into relationship with God and with all others around us.

As we enter into the New Year 2022, Equipped in these ways, we can fulfill our call to serve as God’s representatives on this planet, unfolding all the amazing potential of this world for the sake of God’s glory. That we have been given this awesome calling is our glory. Let’s not betray our Lord in this amazing mission!

From within the exhaustive efforts at surviving this pandemic, it becomes our efforts, finding the inner strength (Philippians 4:10-13), Praise God’s Promise!

2 Samuel 7:18-25 English Standard Version

David’s Prayer of Gratitude

¹⁸Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? ¹⁹And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! ²⁰And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God! ²¹Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. ²²Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²³And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them^[a] great and awesome things by driving out before your people, [^[b] whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? ²⁴And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. ²⁵And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

David has a desire to build a house for the Lord. But the Lord turns this around and tells David that he will build a house for David. God’s promise will extend past the life of David. The Lord will establish the kingdom of David’s offspring. The Lord will be a father to David’s offspring. When David’s offspring sins, the promise will not be removed. The promise will not depend on the righteousness of the people but on the righteousness of God. We noted the many ways that this promise would be fulfilled in Solomon and in the future of kings of Judah.

But all of these kings failed at accomplishing God’s purposes. One of David’s offspring perfectly fulfilled God’s will and these promises were fulfilled in an even greater way. In Jesus, the kingdom of the Lord was powerfully established and destroys all the enemies that come against it. In Jesus, we see him building a house for the Lord in that he is the means by which all the world will come to the Father. In Jesus, we see him to be the true Son of God. When we see Jesus, we see the Father. In Jesus, he lives a perfect life and does not sin so that all the promises are shown to be valid and guaranteed through him.

2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1 English Standard Version

¹⁶What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
¹⁷Therefore go out from their midst,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
    then I will welcome you,
¹⁸and I will be a father to you,
    and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”

7 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body^[a] and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

We read in 2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1 these promises also to come to down to us as the offspring of Abraham and the offspring of David through our connection to Jesus. We are children of God and God is our Father. We are the temple of the living God, and we are being built up into a spiritual house for the Lord (1 Peter 2:5). When we sin, our hope is not lost but God remains faithful to his promises. In short, our reading, studying, and claiming and praying the promises of 2 Samuel 7 is inescapably critical to our living forward to the Glory of God in New Covenant times, into all of scriptures. This promise is our hope for the world.

Who Am I? (7:18-21)

2 Samuel 7:18-21 ESV

¹⁸Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? ¹⁹And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it.

David is going to respond in prayer with a number of different praises for the Lord. Notice in verse 18 that the king did after receiving God’s promise of an “everlasting and eternal house,” he went in and sat in the presence of the Lord.

David approaches the Lord and has so much to say. First, David asks, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”

When we consider all that, the Lord has done, we must look at ourselves and just wonder to the Lord about who we are that the Lord would do this for us.

When we look at our Savior Jesus and how our Lord, His Father, sent him for us so that we could be his offspring and belong as his children, who are we that the Lord has done this for us? When we look into and upon God’s offer of eternity to rebellious sinners like us, who am I, who are we that the Lord has done this?

Coming out of our malignant pride, moving into this promise of indescribable magnitude, humility begins by looking at what the Lord has done. This is what David is doing. He is looking at the promises of God and exclaims, “Who am I, O Lord God!” David is praying, “My family does not have power or reputation and I am nothing. Yet God has given me and my house great and precious promises.”

But look carefully and diligently at the rest of the sentence. “Who am I, O Lord God… that you have brought me this far?” You and I have to stop and look at where you and I are and realize that God has brought us both here. Now we may not have expected where we would be right now. But God has brought us both here. We are right here in your lives and God has brought us unto this moment.

David realizes this. David has gone through years and years of both intrigue and suffering. David started simply by tending his father’s sheep and now he is the King over Israel. God brought David into, unto and through, impossible tasks. David’s heart was ignited by God’s acts of grace and salvation – Psalm 8 (ESV)!

How Majestic Is Your Name

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.^[a] A Psalm of David.

8 O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
²    Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.

³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

⁵Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings^[b]
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,
⁷all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
⁸the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

The promise of God for us is this, as God brought David through, God will bring us through fire and flames to get you and me to this moment of humility to see the greatness of God and the lowliness of ourselves. We may not know what God is doing but he knows that he is with us and brought us here. What our God has done for David is a revelation and instruction for all people. The word translated “instruction” in the ESV is the Hebrew word torah. This is God’s teaching that all are to understand. God’s promises are spoken to us are from the beginning.

John 1:1-5 English Standard Version

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. ⁴In him was life, [^[a]a] and the life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

What happened to David is an instruction to us, which Apostle John here uses to reveal God has always done great things for his glory through your life, through my life. He has done them from the very beginning of all things. He spoke all things into existence and by His own spoken declaration, declared them to be all good (Romans 8:28). Who are we God would do such a thing? Sometimes we love to think and believe that we are simply too tiny, too insignificant for God to do anything. “Why bother with us, God? We are way too little. We are nothing. What can we possibly do?” Well, God loves to take nobodies and accomplish great things.

Jesus came from literally everything and stepped directly and decisively into our insignificance to make sure we would come to know and experience that we were all quite literally worth everything to God, the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit. He thought nothing about everything all up! (John 3:16-17, Philippians 2:5-11)

How is it we should then respond to such an indescribable gift when we each are caught up in our eternal quandary “Who Am I?” “Who Are You?” “Who Are We?”

^5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

^9-11Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11 The Message)

How many times do we have to see God use people who are “nothing” and do great things for Himself? We serve an amazing God who can 1000% use you and me to accomplish His purposes for His Kingdom. God doesn’t use the important people of the world. God uses all the people who see themselves as nothing to accomplish great things. God has brought us to this moment. Be humbled now before God who gives us these kinds of precious promises. God uses the humble. God uses all those who do not think much of themselves to accomplish much.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us now Pray,

A Prayer – May I Know Who I Am (by Debbie Ford)

Dear God,

On this day I ask you to grant this request –

May I know who I am and what I am, every moment of every day.

May I be a catalyst for light and love
and bring inspiration to those whose eyes I meet.

May I have the strength to stand tall in the face of conflict
and the courage to speak my voice, even when I’m scared.

May I have the humility to follow my heart.
And the passion to live my Soul’s desires.

May I seek to know the highest truth
and dismiss the gravitational pull of my lower self.

May I embrace and love the totality of myself –
my darkness as well as my light.

And may I be brave enough to hear my heart –
to let it soften so that I may gracefully choose faith over fear.

Today is my day to surrender anything that stands between
the sacredness of my humanity and my divinity.

May I be drenched in my holiness.
And engulfed by God.

May all else melt away.

And so it is, and it is so.

Amen

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Who Am I in God? Who Am I God that you would desire to be in relationship with me? Who Am I to even want or desire to be in relationship with God?

Who Are You? Who Am I? Who Are We? Who is Anyone Apart from God?

Are you and I having trouble discovering who we really are? Have we all been searching for our identity, but can’t seem to find it? The reason you’ve been having trouble is because your true identity can only be found in Jesus Christ. Have we discovered how amazing our life in Christ is truly meant to be? Our ID’s reveal the truth about who God created us all to be and how He wants us to live!

Ephesians 1:1-14 English Standard Version

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful^[a] in Christ Jesus:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵he predestined us^[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight ⁹making known^[c] to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

¹¹In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹²so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ¹³In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is the guarantee^[d] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,^[e] to the praise of his glory.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Too often we get our self-esteem and self-value from other people. We get the picture of “who we are supposed to be” from society and from the media. Then we compare ourselves with others to see if we have “made it”. We’re told that if we don’t do this, wear that, go there, drink this (etc.) then we are a wimp, ugly, weak, unfulfilled (etc.) And for some unknown rationale, we believe this stuff!!

No wonder it’s so hard for people to be Christians these days – they’re bombarded with so much TRASH. It’s tough too, because this ‘trash’ is so appealing. Each one of us are targets. “If you don’t own a brick and tile house in a nice part of town and still have enough time to take out the four wheel drive at the weekend then you haven’t made it”.

In other words, our personal value can only be expressed in the things we have or do. And as Christians, we are not immune to that way of thinking and acting.

And so, our devotional reading today is from Paul’s letters to the Ephesians is a direct and decisive counter to that false way of thinking. It is intended to give us some understanding of the value that we have in our relationship with God. Our new relationship with God arising from the redeeming work and Jesus Christ.

Who Am I? Who Are You? Who are we? We are Adopted

First of all, we see that in our relationship with God we are Adopted. In verse 5 we see that in love, God destined us to be his sons. And, of course, today, in this politically correct age, his daughters as well. In ancient Roman law, the act of adoption had much greater significance than we might imagine or to consider.

This was no legal convenience or formality arranging guardianship.

An adopted child or indeed adult was subjected to a legal process which had far reaching effects.

There were four main consequences of this process of adoption.

First, the adopted person lost all rights in his old family and gained all the rights of the legitimate son in his new family. And so, in the most binding legal way, they got a new father.

Secondly, it followed that they became heirs to their new father’s estate. Sometimes, a young man might be adopted if his adoptive father had no children or heirs. However even if other children were afterwards born, it did not affect the adopted child rights. He was inalienably a co-heir with them.

Thirdly, in law the old life of the adopted person was completely wiped out. For instance, all debts were cancelled. He was regarded as a new person entering into a new life with which the past had nothing to do.

Fourthly in the eyes of the law, the adopted child was considered absolutely the son of his new father. So, for example the adopted child could not marry a daughter of his adopted father except by special legislation.

You will see quite clearly what Paul is trying to say. As Christians we are adopted into God’s family. This is no comforting phrase or mere analogy. But we really do gain a new father, we really do become co-heirs with Christ, we really do have our old life and our old debts cancelled and we really are absolutely the children of God. We are truly adopted as God’s children in a total and real way.

Who Am I? Who Are You? Who Are We? We are blessed!

Secondly, we read and observe that in our new relationship with God we are blessed. In verse 3 we see that God has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”. Just ponder and meditate about that for a while! Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is a blessing for me, you and us.

Now the word blessing can have several strands of meaning.

So, it can mean to make something Blessed, and so that in the course of and as a result of the blessing the person becomes consecrated to God.

It can also mean to cause to prosper. It can also mean to make happy. But this happiness is a special kind of happiness.

The English word happiness is to some extent a creature of chance. The word hap means a chance and so in English the word happiness has an essence of something dependent on the vagaries of life which may come and may go.

It’s a bit like good luck. But the Christian blessing and blessedness is not subject to any of those kinds of vicissitudes. It is that joy unspeakable. It is that joy, which is deep, serene, which is untouchable, which is self-contained, which is completely independent of the changes and chances of life.

The Beatitudes speak of that joy, that blessedness which seeks us and carries us through pain and sorrow and loss. …. And all those circumstances of life are unable to come close to touching or influencing that joy, that blessedness, which is constant which is unchanging.

And so, the Christian has a blessing from God which is not here today and gone tomorrow but it is consistent it is permanent, and it comes from God himself.

Who Am I? Who Are You? Who Are We? We are chosen!

Thirdly we see that in our relationship with God we are chosen by God.

In verse 4 we read that ’God chose us in him (that is in Christ) before the foundation of the world’.

Now you and I may be relieved to know that I do not intend to get involved in a major Theologian discussion about the balance between God’s choosing us and our choosing him. In theological terms, the balance between election and predestination, free will. That is the subject of an entire message on its own.

However, You and I do need to try and get our heads around what it means to be chosen. Our God, if he is to be God, must be all-knowing, all powerful, and must have a divine purpose.

John Calvin, the great theologian of predestination puts it in this following way. ’Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, by which he has determined in himself, what he would have to become of every individual of mankind.’

For us, as we consider what it means to be in God, this speaks of the amazing facts of God’s timeless involvement in our lives. It speaks of the sovereignty of God in our lives and the sovereignty of God in a world that would try to deny it.

If you and I read around this topic, look at other references to Gods choosing, we see for example in Corinthians 1:27-30 that God chose particular kinds of people to be in the church. He did not just choose the church and leave its composition to man. He chose foolish individuals and called them into Christ.

He chose some weak individuals and called them into Christ. He chose some low and truly despised individuals and called them into Christ. So that no one might boast in anyone but the Lord.

Then to make this crystal clear he said in verse 30 NIV: “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus.” In other words, it is just as though Paul knew someone would come along some day and say that God does not choose who is in Christ, but only chooses Christ and any who put themselves in Christ.

So, he writes and teaches, in verses 27-29 that God chose the individuals who would make up the church in Christ. And he says in verse 30 that it is by God’s design and doing and thoroughly ordered plan that they are all put in Christ.

The glorious, unshakable, objective foundation of you and we being a Christian is that God chose you and me to be one. God put you and me in Christ. So, I say with Paul (in verse 26) “Consider your calling!” Consider how you came to be in Christ! Think about it. It will take all boasting off of man and put it all on God.

So, verse 31 ends the section: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” This is the boast of assurance. – seeing that it’s all of God and feeling a tremendous peace and confidence and courage and strength and love well up inside to keep us going in the face any opposition. Because “who can bring any charge against God’s elect!” (Romans. 8:33).

James (2:5) teaches the very same thing from a slightly different angle: God chose the poor to come to faith and be in the church, so be careful that you not discriminate against him.

Here again God has chosen not an undefined mass of people, but particular poor individuals to be deeply rich in their faith and to be treated in a certain way. The personal, individual nature of election has very practical consequences. If God has chosen to bring the poor into Christ, we ought not dishonor any of them!

So, I come back to Ephesians 1:4, “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.” Before the creation of the universe God thought of me. He fixed his gaze on me and you and chose me and you for himself. He did not choose me, and you because we were already in Christ of our own doing, but that you and I might be in Christ.

He did not choose you and me because he saw you and me as a believer, but so that you and I might become a believer. He did not choose you and me because I and you chose him, but so that you and I might choose him. He did not choose you and me because we were holy or good but so we might become holy, good. Everything you and I are and all you and I ever hope to be is rooted in God’s freely choosing me. My faith, our hope, our work is not the ground of electing grace but only its effect. And so, there is no ground for boasting except in God.

Our existence in God is Eternal

Finally, we see that our being, our existence, in God is Eternal. It is not here today and gone tomorrow. For we see in v 4 that God chose us ‘before the foundation of the world’. Before the beginning of time. And we see in v 10 this relationship with God is part of ‘a plan for the fullness of time’.

This phrase, the fullness of time, is talking about the completion of Gods plans. And that completion is made when all things in heaven and on earth are united in Christ. This speaks in shorthand of the blessed time when Savior Jesus Christ returns again in glory and his eternal kingdom is 100% established for all time.

In God, we are blessed beyond our ability to comprehend.

In God, we have been chosen in love.

In God, we have a purpose to our lives.

In God, we are part of his eternal plan.

https://joycemeyer.org/everydayanswers/ea-teachings/knowing-who-i-am-in-christ

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us pray,

Merciful God, we come before You with praise and thanksgiving! Through Jesus Christ our Savior, you have freely lavished on us every spiritual blessing we could possibly imagine! Before the world was created, you already knew us and loved us. You adopted us as your own children and redeemed us through the blood of Christ. Even more, you have made us your heirs, and given us your own Spirit as a sign and guarantee. How we praise you! Open our hearts and minds to your presence among us here. May our humble acts of worship this day bring you honor and glory, for you alone are worthy of our praise. Alleluia! Amen.

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What if I Really allowed God to Love Me? Developing A Great and Intimate Relationship with God, The Father.

Forgetting God’s Love. Ignoring God’s Love. Believing that God only sometimes loves us because we only sometimes love ourselves. Sometimes we will believe because of all that is happening around us, an overwhelming negativity has too much influence and directional control over our existence, and God does not, is not immediately stepping in or we believe we are being unreasonably punished by an inconsiderate, uncaring, totally lacking in empathy God, our anger arises! Our hearts are hurting more than we can know, we want God now, we love God still, but His unknowability, His invisibility, assures us our relationship is done.

I pray to God, my Father, I guess it is alright if you do not love me right now. I suppose you have your reasons and I believe your reasons to be 100% righteous and purposeful and true. I guess I will just have to figure out for myself, how I can get back into Your Book of Life again. but please know, “I Love You, Yet!”

Psalm 13Authorized (King James) Version

Psalm 13

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

¹How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever?
how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
²How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
having sorrow in my heart daily?
how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
³Consider and hear me, O Lord my God:
lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
⁴lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him;
and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
⁵But I have trusted in thy mercy;
my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
⁶I will sing unto the Lord,
because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Yesterday, we had considered the wisdom of God from 1 John 4:7-21 (NASB)

God Is Love

⁷7 Beloved let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 By this the love of God was revealed [a]in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the [b] propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. ¹⁶We have come to know and have believed the love which God has ^[c]for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. ¹⁷By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear ^[d]involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. ¹⁹We love, because He first loved us. ²⁰If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

But that conversation lacks thoroughness without our also considering just the opposite. Because there are those among us who for their given circumstances spend a great deal of their time, energies and lifetimes believing the opposite is true. They possess an image of their God which is quite diametrically opposed to what the Apostle John wrote in our devotional text for today. They have their reasons which have been born of a crucible of time amidst life experiences that leave more room for doubt than room for acceptance. We 100% acknowledge this view of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is real to them and unto God.

Therefore, for the sake of God’s grace, in prayer for their souls, in our efforts at understanding their views, I give unto you these essential Questions to Ponder

1. Do you see man as a “tyrant”? Do you see God as a tyrant? If so, why?

2. Do you feel you cannot come or go to Him for everything? If so, why?

3. Are you fearing Him to the point of not talking to them, Him? If so, why?

4. Are you mad at God and or mankind for your life or current situation? If so, name and claim the situation.

5. Are you unhappy with how He created you? Are you unhappy that God created you (Psalm 138:13-18)? If so what is it you believe you don’t like about yourself?

6. Do you see God as your Earthly father or as your Heavenly Father? If so, how?

7. Who do you believe to be in more control of your life right now? Yourself, Mankind or God? Why do you believe this to be true? How might it be false?

We are in this mess called Pandemic where it seems everything under the sun is being controlled by someone other than ourselves – air travel. mask mandates, social gatherings, being in and among crowds in a shopping mall or in markets. New Year’s Eve is but a few days away and we are human, and we love to PARTY! Do we trust the person sitting next to us or near to us in our favorite restaurant?

Regulation after regulation is coming from well-meaning people to protect life. Perhaps it is the sum total of everything about your and my life which are right now converging into this moment, into this season. Perhaps we are simply tired of it all, quite overwhelmed, spiritually exhausted. Perhaps these feelings which have been represses, suppressed by our belief in Father, Son and Holy Spirit are being rigorously and vigorously challenged as the Patriarch Job found himself. Maybe the Lord of all Creation, this sovereign God who is all about “first love.” is inserting Himself once again directly into the affairs and works of mankind?

His Question becomes even for faithful in Jesus Christ – Okay, where are You? “I see you are getting distracted again like my faithful, faith-filled servant Job was by all of the blessings I gave to him over his many years of devotion. Job needed a “reality check” and I saw zero reason why I should not learn for myself where my servant Job’s life was zeroed in on – his abundance or MY abundance alone.” “I had to have an answer directly and decisively from the soul of Job himself!”

So, as many or as few as may find themselves righteously questioning the very presence and sovereignty of God, the value of His scriptures, His promises from His scriptures, the genuine trueness of His “FIRST LOVE,” ask of yourselves the questions which would otherwise go unasked if pandemic were non-existent. It is a good time and a proper season to question exactly where God is, His Son is, where His Holy Spirit is. Take the other side of the belief question for a while.

From the position of those who question God’s FIRST love, dare to ask yourself this day; What about God’s FIRST LOVE is losing its luster for me, for my family and for my friends and for my neighbors and my community and my church? I am asking you to prayerfully take the time to reconsider “church” in your soul. How is it we can reach unbelievers to be 2022 Acts 2, Acts 3 and Acts 4 church? How is it we can overcome our own doubts to reach into our neighbor’s doubts?

God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit really want to know if we ourselves truly know what the plan is for the continuance of God’s kingdom. To reach the unreachable. To teach the unteachable, Preach to the unreceptive. The year of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 2022 is a critically pivotal season. What confidence do we have to put on full display, to witness, our Testimony? What about a prospect of developing a “pandemic free” intimate relationship?

What if we 100% really, genuinely allowed God to get that close to us and His Children again? What if we genuinely gave God, Jesus, Holy Spirit permission, unconditionally reveal, unconditionally unleash His FIRST LOVE to us again?

How would our pandemic conditioned responses, respond to such a revelation?

HMM …

I SHALL NOW LEAVE YOU IN GOD’S MOST CAPABLE HANDS TO PONDER THIS!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us now pray the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray,

Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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By what standard ought We to Love all others? By Whose standard? We love only because God first loved us!

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

The eternal God loves us in three tenses: past, present and future – for He is the same yesterday today and forever. It is a divine love that cannot be compared with the inadequate love of fallen man, but is a love so penetrating, that He sent the unique, and only begotten Son of His love to be the propitiation for our sins.

That single act of the Father should stagger us to the core of our being… that our God sent Christ as a gift of His grace… to be made the penultimate curse for us – so that, for the sake of love we might be made the righteousness of God, in Him.

But having redeemed us He sent His Holy Spirit to abide in our heart and day by day, He seeks to transform us from ugly, bitter, antagonistic sinners into good, obedient and mature children of God, having the same, godly nature as the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself.

But His love extends into the never-ending, eternal future, for no eye has seen, nor ear has heard – nor has it entered into the imagination of man the glories that God has prepared for those who love Him. Since the eternal God loves us in three, staggering tenses – the standard set, we ought also to love one another.

1 John 4:7-21 English Standard Version

God Is Love

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

¹³By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot^[a] love God whom he has not seen. ²¹And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Today’s passage is all about love. The first couple of things that probably pop into your mind when you hear “love” likely involve romance, dating, marriage, I know because it did for me the very first time, I remember reading the text!

Today, we will be devoting our time to talking about a love that is much greater, very much stronger, and much more powerful than any love we could possibly conjure up or imagine we can bound within our human limits. The answer to “What kind of standard of love is that?” God because God is love, so God’s love.

The New Covenant text for today explores the scope of God’s love and the vast implications of it: how that love was presented to us, how it was displayed in Jesus Christ, and how that standard of love both transforms and changes us.

A short caveat: for the organizational purposes of exploring these three topics, the verses referenced in this devotional offering might be a bit out of order, so just be aware of that. Man’s boundaries all come back to the center who is God!

How the standard of God’s love is presented to us

The first thing I wanted to take a look at today is how this beloved passage from 1 John answers for us the question of “How is/was God’s love presented to us?”

There are two verses in particular which begin to address that question today:

1 John 4:10Authorized (King James) Version

¹⁰Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:19Authorized (King James) Version

¹⁹We love him, because he first loved us.

What is so special about these two verses?

They both show the initiative of God. Who loved first? God loved first. This isn’t meant to be a dive into any meaningful discourse or theological discussion on predestination or whatever, but to really take a well-considered look at the initiative that God takes in setting before us, His children, his standard of love.

And this exercise of personal initiative is significant, because it shows reveals to us God is in no identifiable way shape or form passive. God does not just sit back and twiddle His thumbs and leave us alone to figure this sin problem out, but rather, He takes and is taking an indescribably active role in the redemption of his children. Let’s let our fingers wander back to the first couple of the books of the Bible and bring to remembrance some of the events and characters there.

The Creation Story. Who initiates it? Who speaks creation into being? God!

Noah and the ark. Who initiates there? It was God!

Abraham and his covenant. Who initiates there? Again, it was God!

Moses and the burning bush. Who initiates there? Once again, God!

And once we realize this pattern in the Old Testament of God initiating and taking an unimaginably active role, we can recognize that it doesn’t end there. As we keep thumbing through the pages, God’s undeniably active role continues in the sweep towards the sacrificial work of Jesus on the cross unto Revelation.

How God’s love was displayed through Christ Jesus

And now, with God’s initiative in mind, let us advance our thoughts into and unto the second topic. We are able to allow our souls to genuinely and deeply appreciate how God displays his love through Jesus. Let’s take a look at our text:

1 John 4:9-10 Authorized (King James) Version

⁹In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. ¹⁰Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

How was God’s love displayed and made known to us?

Through the death through which Jesus paid, and in return, the life that was given to us. His atoning death has led to the forgiveness of our sin. But what makes that love so grand and almost baffling? It’s that God is not obligated to send Jesus for the forgiveness of sin, he does not have to do it, but he does so willingly. He takes the divine initiative and unconditionally loves us first, even if it is for a people that do not––and may not–– ever, ever, ever love him back.

God’s standard of unconditional love inevitably transforms and changes us all

The final thought I wanted to take a look at regarding this passage is how God’s love transforms and changes us. At the beginning of this post, I had mentioned how powerful God’s love is, and this entire passage really brings that into focus:

⁸He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8 AKJV)

¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. ¹²No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:11-12 AKJV)

¹⁷Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:17-18 AKJV)

²⁰If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? ²¹And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. (1 John 4:20-21 AKJV)

Again, God’s love is never a passive love. And in that same way, God’s love does not act passively in us. It drives us, it transforms, and it changes us. It drives us to love one another (v.11), to care for our brothers and sisters (vv. 20-21), gives us confidence towards God even in judgement (vv. 17-18), and transforms us to be more like Christ (v. 17).

As God was willing to take and exercise His divine initiative to love and sacrifice His ONLY Son, for these people, surely, I can go out of my way to love them too.

God’s love does not, has never and will never act the least bit passively in us. It constantly and continuously drives us, it transforms, and it 1000% changes us. God’s love is inevitable! It never changes! It can never change because our God never changes. God’s love is limitless! His love is not bound by our standards! His love can never be bound up or be held in bondage by frail human standards! These thoughts ought to just blow our minds outside the bounds of what we will tightly tape, wrap up securely inside gift boxes titled “impossible and possible.”

With what I fervently pray is a much better understanding today of how God exercises initiative in his love, how can we, today, take initiative in our love?

What does it look like to take initiative to love a friend in a mental health crisis? A difficult to talk to neighbor. A family member with different political views?

Maybe it is something “smaller,” like asking and then listening well to how someone’s been doing. Or maybe it’s something a bit bigger, like apologizing to someone, asking for their forgiveness from a mistake which caused them grief.

Regardless, we do not love because it’s something we have to do, or because we are obligated to do, but because God’s love drives us to do it. As much or as little as we follow Jesus, we serve a loving God who decided to take initiative to give His one and only Son as a “paid in full” ransom in exchange for many. And that should charge, change us, and transform us, to take some initiative of our own.

The only questions and answers we need to give a maximum accounting unto God for is: What did that God driven, Jesus loved, Holy Spirit inspired initiative look like? Did we recognize the divine nature of it? Were we obedient unto it or we all too deeply living and loving from deep inside our all too typical passivity?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, let us now collectively gather as the Body of Christ, God’s Ecclesia, in some prayer.

Gracious God, you give us the Word that turns us again and again to you. You give us Jesus who is the greatest manifestation of your word, your love and your purpose. Help us to live fully as baptized people, those grafted into Jesus the branch, the crucified and risen One. God of the risen Jesus, hear our prayer.

God of all dominion and power, God of love; we can love only because you first loved us. Empower us by your Holy Spirit to be and do the same. When we rest in your love, fear—though present—cannot overpower us. Help us to rest there always. God of the risen Jesus, hear our prayer. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen

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Micah 6:6-8, On this first Day after Christmas, what does the Lord now Require of Us and our Abundance? Living in the Rhythm of His Grace!

God’s desires for us are not hard to discern. He wants to bless us with salvation. The incredible gift of his Son is a powerful testimony to this truth. Yet salvation from sin and death is not something he wants to happen in our lives just once.

He wants the whole of our lives to daily reflect his salvation and to share it with others. When we act justly, we pursue mercy in our relationships, and we honor him with our worship from a humble heart then God’s salvation becomes real in our lives and impacts others with his grace. In the language of Jesus, we all now work for God’s kingdom to come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Micah 6:6-8 Authorized (King James) Version

⁶Wherewith shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before the high God?
shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves of a year old?
⁷Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
⁸He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;
and what doth the Lord require of thee,
but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God?

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Certain dates on the calendar need no explanation and demand no commentary. Several of them are anxiously anticipated and are even warmly welcomed. One in particular is December 25. Not much needs to be said about what that date means. Another is January 1. Without saying a word, you thought of gifts given and gifts received, you thought of vast amounts of ham, turkey, pumpkin pie,

None of those dates in December, January, require anything specific of us, but that’s not the case with another date. It needs no elaboration, but it is different because it requires specific action on our part: it is the first day after Christmas and the first day after New Year. Our homes are filled with fresh abundance, our hearts are filled with a fresh anointing of joy, ‘busy hands’ filled with new toys. Our souls are filled to overflowing with happiness for what we have all received.

Sometimes we think that because our lives have been abundantly blessed, our sins have been forgiven, it really doesn’t matter how we live. Wrong! And the prophet Micah, who wrote seven hundred years before Christ, understood that.

God’s Prophet Micah is best known as the one who foretold the coming Messiah would be born in the tiny, seemingly insignificant village of Bethlehem:

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. — Micah 5:2

Micah is also known for his very practical “on the day after” teaching in chapter 6. The lesson comes in a combination question/answer verse: the answer is embedded in the very question it asks! “What does the Lord require of you…”

His three-part answer immediately follows:

Do justly… love mercy… and walk humbly with your God. — Micah 6:8

These three actions are not suggestions.

Nor are they mere options.

These behaviors — related to our actions, our affections, and our attitudes — are “required” of each of us.

OUR ACTIONS

Micah taught in a culture characterized by idolatry, immorality, and outright rebellion against worship of God. In fact, it was a culture much like the one we are experiencing today in our world. Micah has boldly proclaimed that certain things are “required” of those who follow the path of the Lord. First, we are required to “do justly.” And he was referring to much more than a ruling in a court of law — God requires that we are to live differently than those around us. Specifically, we should be both moral and ethical in our dealings with others.

We should always honor what is right and speak up for those who have no voice.

Justice has become a popular byword among young evangelicals today, but in our biblical text for today, God’s Prophet Micah was emphasizing action over mere talk. It is not enough for God’s people to love justice and to be cheering from the grandstands for those people working for justice. each of us is required to “do justly,” to put justice into practice.

Can you or I, on this day after Christmas 2021, contemplate what a difference it would make in our society today if more of us got ‘stirred’, began to “do justly,” and rushed into the defense of those who are suffering in unjust circumstances and situations. Again, doing justly is a requirement of God and not a suggestion.

OUR AFFECTIONS

God also requires us as Christ-followers to “love mercy,” and the emphasis continues to be on action, not thought. We are not simply to show mercy to others but to passionately “love mercy.” Mercy is best defined as “not getting what we deserve,” whereas grace is “getting what we don’t deserve.” Micah’s instruction here means that we are required to give to people what they don’t always deserve; we are to give them some slack and show them some mercy.

When we observe someone in a difficult situation, though, some of us tend to immediately think, before fact and truth finding, “verdict: Guilty… until proven innocent!” We take the seat of the judge when our “love” for mercy should be compelling us to be Christ’s hand extended to someone in need, whether or not that person deserves it. My wife is one who truly “loves mercy,” and she has always reminded me that our communities and our neighbors, even though we do not know names, need our love, encouragement when they least deserve it.

Twenty-five-hundred years after Micah wrote that God requires mercy from His people, the apostle John wrote this:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. — 1 John 4:7-8

For the one who truly loves God, doing justly and loving mercy are as natural an act as the volume of waters cascading over Niagara Falls.

OUR ATTITUDES

Lastly, the Lord requires us not only to do justly and to love mercy but also to “walk humbly with your God,” a requirement which clearly addresses our “day after Christmas” attitude. We are not to allow this perpendicular pronoun to raise its head: Pride! The “Big I,” is one of the greatest hindrances to receiving God’s blessing. This was the beginning of Satan’s downfall (literally) when he said, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). In sharp contrast, Apostle Paul’s future admonition says to,

If we have any compassion left inside of us, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. — Philippians 2:1-3

Again, the overarching emphasis is on the action we take in response to Micah’s instructions. We are to walk humbly before God and others and ‘walk’ refers to how you and I live our “day after Christmas” lives. Enoch “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22), Noah “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9), and Abraham (Genesis 22: 1-19) too, and so has every man and woman who have known God’s favor.

What is required of us? Justice… you must DO it! Mercy… you must LOVE it! Humility… you must WALK it!

And Jesus is our ultimate example. Knowing that divine justice demanded payment for the penalty of mankind’s sin, and even though He Himself never sinned, Jesus went to the Cross to “do justly.” And from the Cross we see how He loved mercy, saying to those who had driven the spikes into His hands,

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. — Luke 23:34

Did Immanuel come to us from God with total arrogance? Did Rabbi Jesus walk among us, and act and minister to the people, doing each humbly alongside His Father? Recall, even on the evening of His betrayal and arrest — the evening of His greatest need — Jesus was upon His knees and washing His disciples’ feet! (John 13:1-17)

On this “day after Christmas” 2021, Micah 6:6-8 is still not a little superficial suggestion, but a requirement. So, keep your hearts, souls, hands and feet busy: do justly. Strive for something new, keep your heart broken for your neighbors: unconditionally love mercy, keep your head bowed: walk humbly with your God.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us acknowledge God’s mercy and forgiveness towards us, and humbly pray.

Loving Merciful Lord, it is my sincerest desire to walk humbly before You all the days of my life. Thank You for sending the Lord Jesus to live a perfect life so that He would die as the perfect sacrifice – so I could be imputed with His perfect righteousness… enabling, inspiring me, in His power, to act on behalf of my neighbors and walk humbly in service before You, in Whose name I pray, AMEN.

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Christmas 2021! The Glory of God’s Incarnation! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

From beginning to end, the whole Bible is about Jesus. This is true of the New Testament, which tells the story of Jesus’ coming to live with us. And it is true of the Hebrew (Old) Testament, written long before Jesus is born in Bethlehem.

The New Testament and the Hebrew (Old) Testament make up the whole Bible, and together they tell the story of God’s unconditional love for the world. That love comes into clearest focus in the coming of Jesus: through his prophesied birth, through his actual birth life and work, through death and resurrection.

Sometimes we think this fulfillment is only about those things in the story of Jesus which were predicted in the Hebrew Testament. But there is much more to it. Fulfillment is especially about words, events in the Old Testament finding a more profound meaning in our story of Jesus. We will go back to the beginning!

John 1:1-5, 12-14 Authorized (King James) Version

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²The same was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ⁵And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

¹²But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: ¹³which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

“In the beginning was…” is Deity’s statement of fact. “In the beginning…” are words pregnant with meaning that subordinate logic, philosophy, psychology, and science. “In the beginning…” is a concept that astounds both the religious thinker and confounds the secular theorist. It impacts both the believer’s mind and the atheist’s imaginings but, “In the beginning, was the WORD, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Before time and before space were created, before angelic voices chorused their harmonic, “holy, holy, holy”, in heavenly places, was ‘The Word’. Do we appreciate the beginning?

The Gospel of John is a portrait of Jesus Christ in the flesh, and his saving work. It focuses on the last three years of Jesus’s life and especially on his death and resurrection. Its purpose is clear in John 20:30-31 “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The book of John is written to try and help people come to know who God is, believe on Christ and have eternal life.

When John says, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name,” he meant that he was writing to awaken faith in unbelievers and sustain faith in believers — and in that way lead both to eternal life. And there may be no better book in the Bible to help you keep on trusting and treasuring Christ above all.

This portrait of Jesus is a written testimony by an eyewitness who was part of these infinitely important events. Five times in this Gospel we find the unusual words “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2, 7; 21:20). John wrote this book as his divinely inspired testimony and witness to the events of Jesus’s life, how John came to be changed and, today, what they mean for us.

John’s First Three Verses

Those words — “word of God”— bring us to the beginning words of John’s Gospel. John 1:1-3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

These are the verses we focus on today.

‘The Word’: Jesus

First, we focus on the term word. “In the beginning was the Word.” The most important thing to know about this Word is found in verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Word refers to Jesus Christ.

John knows what he’s about to write in his Gospels 21 chapters. He is going to tell us the story of what Jesus Christ did and what he taught. This is a divinely inspired book about the life and work of the man Jesus Christ — the man that John knew and saw and heard and touched with his hands (1John 1:1).

He had flesh and blood. He was not a ghost or an apparition appearing and vanishing. He ate and drank and got tired, and John knew him very closely. Jesus’s mother lived with John in the last part of her life (John 19:26).

Therefore, what John is doing in John 1:1-3 is telling us the most penultimate things about Jesus that he can. It took John more than three years to figure out the fullness of who Jesus was. But he does not want any of his readers to take more than three verses to find out what took him so long to know. He wants us today to have in our minds, fixed and clear, from the beginning of his Gospel, of the eternal majesty and deity and Creator rights of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Christmas celebrates the incarnation of God… (the Word becoming human – flesh and blood)

…in the years of our Lord 2020 and 2021, however – on the human level – or the family level These have been “non-incarnation” Christmases (!)

… if incarnation means to take on flesh and blood – to show up in person …. well, not this year!

Instead of an incarnation Christmas we might call it a “virtual Christmas” …

Christmas on the screen – on smart phones, on face time… on Zoom… on Twitter… on Facebook Messenger… indeed it is Christmas on the screen!

The new and emerging reality threatening us is Family cannot come home (easily)… travel is being restricted. “It won’t be the same this Christmas…”

“this year will be different”

Maybe this coming year we can appreciate a little more of what God did to overcome the obstacles of “long, long distance” travel to visit our planet…

To visit the nations… to visit our families… to visit our “neighbors”… our “shut-ins”… visit our prisons… and hospitals… our street people… our refugee camps.

1 John 1:1-3 Authorized (King James) Version

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; ²(for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) ³that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

MERRY INCARNATION 2021 (and beyond)!

How did God do this?

How did he pull it off?

Where did he get the idea?

I mean it’s unprecedented!!! Never been done before… never been done since… never will be done ever again!

Not that the original incarnation was a 33 year experiment… it wasn’t;

I mean the Son of God being eternally pre-existent – he always was. He is not a “creature” – by that I mean …he isn’t created.

But something happened in that stable in Bethlehem that continues even today – God took on human form – and he’s never discarded it!

Even now…Christ our Lord – risen from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, retains his full humanity.

Yes, the incarnation was for real – and it’s still real.

Because we are made in the image of God, we also have a desire to be physically present.

Nowadays, Church is in a similar situation (!) – it’s infinitely more convenient to stay home and watch worship online – but it can never be quite the full church experience – it’s virtual church – not incarnational church!

Think about it… no make-up… don’t shave… no dressing up… get a coffee anytime… no annoying people to tolerate… you can even mute the sermon, and no one will know (sort of …except God himself – God will know!) … now who wouldn’t prefer that!!!

Do not get me wrong here, I believe virtual church is a good thing for those who could not otherwise, for whatever reason not including ‘100% laziness’ get to a physical church building… but it’s more like an on-ramp… it’s not the highway!

It’s a good entry point – but it’s not flesh and blood community!

*** Christmas is about God going “all in” to reach humanity — God knew that we needed Him to “show-up” … to enter the human experience fully!

Watching from the throne room of heaven wasn’t going to reach us… he had already sent prophets aplenty…he had to “come down” … get into the dust and the flies… into a family… into a country… into a culture… into a language… into a tradition… into working with his hands… into fishing…and carpentry…so he did – in fact he came right into an occupied military state… no electricity… not one piece of “smart” technology… no internet! …No cars, RV’s … no refrigeration…

God Before Christmas/Incarnation: V. 1-4

Creation/new creation language

With God/ was God

All things were made by him…

Matthew 1:18-25Authorized (King James) Version

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. ¹⁹Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. ²⁰But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. ²¹And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. ²²Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, ²³Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. ²⁴Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife: ²⁵and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.

God “broke into” the ages long silence of the darkness which overcame that world as that first couple had come to know it, being under Roman oppression.

But Philippians 2:6-8 tells us he emptied himself of the exercise of his divine attributes {“Kenosis”}’

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Quote:

“The incarnation was a historical and unrepeatable event with permanent benefits… Reigning at God’s right hand today is the man Christ Jesus, still human as well as divine, though now his humanity has been glorified. Having assumed our human nature, he has never discarded it, and he never will. …Reverend John Stott

Dear sisters and brothers,

On this Christmas Day, we have a text from the Gospel according to Saint John (John 1:1-14) for our reflection:

“In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came to be through him,

and without him nothing came to be.

What came to be through him was life,

and this life was the light of the human race;

the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it.

A man named John was sent from God.

He came for testimony, to testify to the light,

so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light,

but came to testify to the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world,

and the world came to be through him,

but the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own,

but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him

he gave power to become children of God,

to those who believe in his name,

who were born not by natural generation

nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision

but of God.

And the Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us,

and we saw his glory,

the glory as of the Father’s only Son,

full of grace and truth.

John testified to him and cried out, saying,

“This was he of whom I said,

‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me

because he existed before me.’”

From his fullness we have all received,

grace in place of grace,

because while the law was given through Moses,

grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God.

The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,

has revealed him.”

The search for the true meaning of Christmas is a recurring and ever changing one.

And yet, too often the answers we provide, even from the church pulpit, are more sentimentality, comfortable traditions than they are any deep reflection on the significance of the Incarnation for humanity.

It is not about the ‘spirit of giving’ or the ‘quest for global peace’, or the ‘importance of family’, or the beauty of a snow-decorated ‘silent night.’

Sure, we can immediately say that Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.

But…

Exactly, why is that fact so significant beyond the affirmation of a historical fact or a creedal confession?

How does or how should, the meaning of Christmas impact our lives on a daily basis as the people of God?

Perhaps for an answer, we need to return to the beginning biblical narratives, apart from all the traditions that we have heaped around them to make them more entertaining and more coherent to modern ways of thinking to make meaning of Christmas during the pandemic.

At the heart of the nativity narratives in both Matthew and Luke, is a simple, but too overlooked, uncommunicated fact: amid the struggle of a people who had longed for many years for God to act in the world in new ways, God came to be with them in a way that totally identified himself with us, as human beings.

Amidst the most unlikely of circumstances, to the most unlikely of people, God became human for the truest love, salvation of all people, and the entire world.

I personally also meditate the true meaning of Christmas is about possibility.

It is not the kind of possibility that comes from a confidence in our own skill, knowledge, ability, or a positive mental attitude.

It is a possibility that comes solely from the fact that God is the kind of God who comes into our own human existence to reveal himself and call us to himself.

It is a possibility which is so surprising at its birth we are caught unaware, and so are left with wonder at the simplicity of its expression in this infant child.

It is a possibility that is easily symbolized by a helpless infant that has nothing of its own by which to survive; but an infant that, because He is Immanuel (God with us, God within us), will surely, forever change the world and all humanity.

It is this same God who has promised to be with us, with His people, with the Church and with us individually, as we live, we love, as His people in the world.

It is not just a superficial, temporary hope defined by the bounds of our finite lives, as if it were wishful thinking that things will get better when they cannot.

It is hope incarnated into flesh, a hope that can be held in a mother’s arms, a hope that expresses a reality that will live beyond endings and death itself.

It is the genuine, undeniable hope, the 100% possibility, which springs forth from seemingly impossible, insignificant beginnings, infused with the power of God through the Son and Holy Spirit fully blossoming into a light to the nations.

It is this possibility, this Incarnate Word, this Almighty God that we celebrate at Christmas.

And we do celebrate with a confidence that a child who is the Son of God born not of our own desire for it, but for the purpose it has from the birth of a child over 2,021 years ago.

Once we understand the mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ among us, we celebrate with those who have nothing…rather than otherwise.

It is in the right spirit of the season that we try to discover what is real Christmas in our lives.

God had sent many prophets, priests, messengers and angels but people ignored them and He sent His only Son Jesus Christ.

It is given in every Christmas time.

Do we ever think of ‘why?’

The answer lies in your heart when we hear…whisper of Child Jesus in the manger.

“I come as an ordinary.

My parents are ordinary couple struggling for survival.

I was born in a manger.

I am not a food for animals.

I am the bread of life for all of you.”

Our God is the God of impossible.

He came to us.

He dwelt among us.

He gave us eternal life.

He lives in us as the Spirit as he was in the apostles.

He promised us that He is with us till the end of our age.

In this Christmas, let us not lose our hope.

In this Christmas, let us discern the new possibilities, so that we can make this world a beautiful place to live with love and forgiveness.

In this Christmas, let us realize that the true meaning of Christmas is also to be the presence of Jesus to others, who are in need of us, who are depressed, who are marginalized, who are treated badly and suppressed physically, spiritually and psychologically, who need our presence and our prayers in their sorrow and to continuously communicate and freely give the message of God’s love to ALL!

It is an invitation…for us to help our Incarnate Word to pitch his tent among these people identifying ourselves with them.

God’s Message of salvation was with him at creation. In fact, by nature, the one who was the Message was God himself. John wants us to know that Jesus, God’s Word and ultimate Message, was with God from the very beginning. The one who turns water to wine, feeds the 5000, and raises Lazarus didn’t make his human appearance on earth until he was born in Bethlehem, but he has always been there. He is God with us, as Matthew puts it (Matthew 1:23). He is God come to visit us as Luke tells us (Luke 7:16). He is the Son of God as Mark reminds (Mark 1:1). He is God’s ultimate and final Word (Hebrews 1:1-2)!

Let us make a difference.

Let us add the real meaning of coming of Jesus in our lives and others.

Finally, I firmly believe the Incarnation is a simple fact that amid the struggle of each one of us, who long for many days, weeks, months, and years for God to act in new ways in our struggling lives and in the pandemic darkened world, the Incarnate Word, comes to be with us in a way which totally identified himself with us, as human beings giving, communicating to us new hopes, possibilities.

Wish you a Happy INCARNATIONAL Christmas…

May the Incarnate Word dwell among us and in each one’s, heart radiating his unconditional incarnational love by our words and actions and deeds so that we may be another incarnate for our families, friends, communities and neighbors.

May the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen…

In the name of God. the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, let us pray,

Father in heaven, I worship and praise Your holy name for Your wonderful plan of salvation. Thank You for sending Jesus, the Word, Who was with the Father before the world began. He came to earth willingly, in human flesh, so that a sinner such as I may be redeemed by His precious blood. Praise Your name and praise Jesus, in Whose name I pray, Gloria! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! AMEN.

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It is Christmas Eve 2021, and we are going to be Interrupting the Silence. The Poetry and Carols of Christmas! And the Angels Sing Joy to the World!

The Christmas Silence

Words: Margaret Deland, 1907

Hushed are the pigeons cooing low
On dusty rafters of the loft;
And mild-eyed oxen, breathing soft,
Sleep on the fragrant hay below.

Dim shadows in the corner hide;
The glimmering lantern’s rays are shed
Where one young lamb just lifts his head,
Then huddles ‘gainst his mother’s side.

Strange silence tingles in the air;
Through the half-open door a bar
Of light from one low-hanging star
Touches a baby’s radiant hair.

No sound: the mother, kneeling, lays
Her cheek against the little face.
Oh human love! Oh heavenly grace!
‘Tis yet in silence that she prays!

Ages of silence end to-night;
Then to the long-expectant earth
Glad angels come to greet His birth
In burst of music, love, and light!

Luke 2:8-14 Authorized (King James) Version

⁸And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. ¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

It is Christmas Eve in the year of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2021.

I pray all of God’s blessings and abundance upon your homes and families.

I pray for that place of Shalom, Shalom, to come upon each of your spirits.

I pray that the Good News of our Savior discovers, lifts up, inspires, your soul.

These are indeed days when Shalom, Shalom probably means social distancing, mask on and mask off mandates of some interpretation and variation. It means you have perhaps had to curtail those Christmas plans with family living apart, near and distant, perhaps even across the oceans, seas and mountain ranges. It is not at all a very welcome interruption to any of our family traditions of travel. Somehow, we will have to make do with communicating by social media, ZOOM. It is definitely not nearly the same as traditional family gatherings and meals.

One of the things of which I have become more and more aware of lately is that the Seasons of Advent and Christmas happens amidst the drudgery of ordinary circumstances of life. Meditate about that first ancient Christmas: an emperor issuing decrees and taxing people, a simple everyday couple that is unmarried and pregnant, a no vacancy sign, field hands working the night shift. Those are real life circumstances and real life is always the world of Christmas. It was then and it is today. The jobs are undeniably different and infinitely more diverse.

For some people that means Christmas is a hard time of year. It’s difficult and painful. They have to work Christmas Day. For others it’s the best time of year. It is joyful and exciting. For most of us, I suspect, it varies from year to year.

Just for a change of pace, take just a few moments from wrapping, and think back over the past year. How has your life changed since last Christmas? In what ways is your world today different from then? Has it been a difficult and painful year, or has it been a year of joy and thanksgiving? Was it a memorable year or one you would like to forget? Maybe it was a mixture of all the above.

Regardless of what the last year has or has not represented for us and whether or not we choose to consider the changes it brought to be for better or for worse it is deeply rooted in the Good News of that very first, ancient, Christmas story.

I am not talking about the then and there Christmas story, the one that starts out “In those days” and takes place “in that region.” I am talking about the here and now Christmas story, the one that is taking place in these days and in your very region. After all, that’s really the only Christmas story that matters.

What good is it to us or the church, if Jesus is laid in a manger in Bethlehem if he is not also cradled in the manger of our contemporary 2021/2022 heart?
What good is it to us or the church, if the angels announcing good news of great joy to the shepherds living and working in the fields if none of that good news is not also announced in the night fields of our contemporary 2021/2022 lives?
What good is it to us or the church, if the shepherds go to see this event that has taken place if we do not also see in our contemporary 2021/2022 lives, this truly miraculous once in anybody’s lifetime event that has happened?
What good is it to us or the church, if Mary ponders and treasures how these things can be if we do not also wonder, deep within our own 2021/2022 souls, at the imponderable mystery of God’s life and love with us in our time and place?

Every year we come to this night to hear the Christmas story.

The story never changes. We count on that. Every year it’s the same story with the same characters, the same locations, the same plot, and the same ending.

The everyday couple, Mary and Joseph betrothed. Mary, the teenager pregnant with her first child and in those days, scandalously so, she is very unmarried.

Roman Emperor Augustus issues a decree of taxation. Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem where Joseph’s family is from. There’s no room at the inn. Mary gives birth to Jesus, places him in a manger. The angel announces this good news to the shepherds. They come and see this thing that has happened. Mary treasures, ponders the words of the shepherds, and they return to their fields.

You know that story as well as I do. You’ve probably heard it and told it multiple times. But have you ever considered or pondered in your hearts, the quiet and raucous poetry of Christmas? I’m talking about the images and metaphors that tell the story behind the story. The facts of Christmas remain the same every year, but the poetry of Christmas is what keeps the story alive, has preserved it through the ages, and allows us to relive it again every year for the first time.

I believe that’s the real reason we come to this night each year with celebration. We come for the poetry. Not to be read, but to be sung in the traditional hymns of the season. We want to know despite our changing story and despite what has happened over the past year, Christmas is still true and still happening.

We want to be reminded that light is still shining in the darkness, that good news is still being announced, that the child is still being born anew, and that God is still with us, Angels are still heralding unto our contemporary times.

Yes, it is still true. All of it. Christmas is happening in whatever, wherever the circumstances of our lives might be this Christmas Eve. Christmas is happening tomorrow in whatever changes you’ve experienced over the last year. Christmas is as genuine, is as exactly real and present in the difficult and painful times of life as it is in the joyful and exciting times. The LOGOS is still forever with us!

I do not pretend to know or even try to understand how exactly or even why that happens. I only know, by the grace of God, it does happen. I have experienced it over the past year in my life and I have also very definitely and decisively seen it happen in the lives of many others. I cannot begin to tell you how it all happens, but I can truly tell you. It’s all about the poetry. Let me give you some examples.

Have you ever loved so deeply that your heart ached? And all you wanted to do was pour yourself into the life of another?
Who are the people, the Josephs, that have accompanied, protected, and cared for you through this life?
Have you ever looked in the face of a newborn child and marveled at the miracle of life? Been inspired to be a better person? Wished for that kind of gentleness and innocence in your life and world?
Have you ever had someone show up in your life and say or do exactly what you needed? They came and announced to you good news when you needed it most.
Think of a time that was so perfect, so beautiful, so profound that you were speechless and all you could do was treasure and ponder the moment.
Have you ever woken up to the beauty and possibilities of a new day after living through a night of darkness?
Recall a time when hope, strength, and courage were born anew in you.
Have you ever experienced peace and contentment in circumstances that were neither peaceful nor what you wanted?
When was the last time you danced with joy to the music of laughter and a chorus of smiles?
Have you ever done what seemed to you impossible or gotten through a hard time and not known how you did that? In fact, you didn’t think you could or would.
What are you cradling and cherishing in your heart this Christmas Eve which you know beyond any shadow of any measure of doubt is a gift from God?

Guess What? That’s all poetry. Those and a thousand other verses like them are the poetry of Christmas. And it is O’ so much more than the facts of Christmas.

https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/HTML/Christmas_Poetry_And_Prose1.html

The Gospel facts of Christmas are just the starting point. Every year the verses of Christmas poetry are written anew using the circumstances of our lives. The reality of Christmas, God with us, Emmanuel, is always happening.

That’s never, in anyone’s lifetime, going ever to be even minimally in question.

So, for a change of pace, take a minute or an hour or two and tell yourself the story of Christmas once again but this time, open thy soul, listen for the poetry.

What is the poetry of Christmas for you this year?

Why not take a period of time away from wrapping or meal preparation, and just sit down with a pad of paper, a pencil in your hand, (no computers or any smart phones or virtual reality devices allowed), write your Christmas Poem!

In the name of God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, let us pray,

Heavenly Father,

Thank You that I have peace with God, and as Your born-again child, that I have received Your goodwill and grace, not only in this age but in the ages to come.

Thank You that because I am positioned in Christ and I am swaddled in His righteousness, I am identified with Him, have found favour in Your sight, and the peace of God in my heart. I know that without Jesus there is nothing I could have done to warrant peace with You, for I acknowledge that I am a sinner, deserving of death – but glory to God in the highest, that genuine peace has been granted to men with whom You are pleased.

Praise Your holy name that both peace with God and the peace of God, is available to who place their faith in the only begotten Son of God, in Whose name I pray, Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! AMEN.

“Joy to the World” is an English Christmas Carol. Written in 1719 by the English minister and hymnwriter Sir Isaac Watts, the carol’s lyrics are written and composed based on a Christian interpretation of Psalm 98, Psalm 96 (verses 11 and 12), and Genesis 3:17-18). This beloved carol, “Joy to the World” is usually sung to an 1848 arrangement by the American composer Lowell Mason.

Since the 20th century, this much beloved and cherished Carol, “Joy to the World” has been the most-published Christmas hymn in North America.

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John 3:16! We Believe! We Belong! We A.B.I.D.E.! Now, We Must Bear Fruit! Our Bearing Fruit as a 2021 Christian.

Henri Nouwen gives us these profound words of wisdom from his experiences.

“We belong to a generation that wants to see the results of our work. We want to be productive and see with our own eyes what we have made. But that is not the way of God’s Kingdom. Often our witness for God does not lead to tangible results. Jesus himself died as a failure on a cross. There was no success there to be proud of. Still, the fruitfulness of Jesus’ life is beyond any human measure. As faithful witnesses of Jesus, we have to trust that our lives too will be fruitful, even though we cannot see their fruit. The fruit of our lives may be visible only to those who live after us.

What is important is how well we love. God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not.”

I give you these words to ponder and pray over, give them your due diligence as we turn now to the transcending Word of God for this, today’s devotional effort.

John 15:1-17 NASB

Jesus Is the Vine—Followers Are Branches

15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ²Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He ^[a]prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. ³You are already ^[b]clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in Me, ^[c]and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit ^[d]of itself ^[e]but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. ⁵I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him ^[f]bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so ^[g]prove to be My disciples.

⁹Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; remain in My love. ¹⁰If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. ¹¹These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Disciples’ Relation to Each Other

¹²“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. ¹⁷This I command you, that you love one another.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

John 15 is one of the best-loved of all the gospel readings, and with good reason. We all want to flourish! And here, in His final words to His disciples, Jesus tells his disciples that if they stay “in him” – rooted in him through the Word and Sacraments – they will lead the kind of fruitful lives that marks his disciples. If they’ll live as Jesus has taught them to live: BELIEVING on God, God, the Son, (John 14:6) they will experience BELONGING to God’s family (Romans 1:6-7), They will A.B.I.D.E. in God’s love through Jesus Christ (John 15:4-6 AKJV).

Building up and Growing Inwardly and Outwardly, Maturing upon each of these, they will inevitably, undeniably, BEAR FRUIT for the Kingdom of God. The ministry and mission and work of God the Holy Spirit will see to all this!

John 16:12-16 Authorized (King James) Version

¹²I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. ¹³Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. ¹⁴He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. ¹⁵All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. ¹⁶A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.

There are three truths I am compelled by John 3:16 to bring to your attention.

¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God so LOVED the world that He gave us His Son … The Logos (John 1:1-5)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²The same was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. ⁴In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ⁵And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

In these days of great tribulation, socially distant, socially isolated, masks on, mask off, mask and vaccine mandated, are we vaccinated or not, boosted or not, quarantined, virus tested, virus retested, sanitized, government regulated days, there is One who has, against the most catastrophic odds, has OVERCOME it all!

John 16:32-33Authorized (King James) Version

³²Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. ³³These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Living Father, Son and Holy Spirit, being a believing, belonging, abiding and fruit bearing Christian, under the shadow of these indescribably, undeniably enormous wings, living with absolute maximum confidence in God’s truth, we can all still live impossible Acts 2, Acts 3 and Acts 4 kingdom growth ministry.

1. Remain in the Vine

One of the things which always strikes me about a fruit tree is its innate ability to stand so quiet, without strain or mayhem, while still getting things done. I mean, how does a branch produce fruit without the swirl? Do you know what I mean by the swirl? It’s the striving and chaos and energy I often leave in my wake when I am still trying to make things happen, sometimes even for God. In this passage from John 15, Jesus presents us with an entirely different way.

The word “remains” (abide or dwell) in the Greek means: “not to depart; to continue, to be present; to be held, kept, continually; to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure” (Vines Bible Dictionary)

https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ved.html

https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ved/r/remain.html

The idea is that this is a very restful place to be. If we as the branches remain in Him as the Vine, we draw energy and marrow to produce the fruits of change and transformation He longs to bring about in each of our lives. It’s all about our attachment and connectedness to Him. This doesn’t mean our lives will be void of activity or the high expending of energy, simply that we’re able to draw everything we need to bring forth meaningful fruit that will last. As restfully as a tree beside still waters, because have you ever seen an apple tree freaking out?

2. Embrace The Pruning

Earlier in the chapter Jesus points out that God the Father is the One who prunes our lives so we will be even more fruitful (vs 2). The problem for me, historically, has been quite simple: I don’t always enjoy how God’s pruning process, turns out.

Maybe you and I are in one of those places where God is refining our character by cutting out a massive tumor of greed or vanity or malignant pride. The harsh disease of bitterness is being scraped back. Perhaps that particular false god you were really quite attached to just got lopped off, plummeting to the ground in a most unpleasant way.

As I have learned a bit about gardening over the years, pruning spares the nourishment of the vine for the branches that are most viable. If God is paring back an area that is presently painful, it is only for the bearing of more fruit—A life of greater impact for His glory (vs 8). So let God do His transformational work and have His way in our lives. Don’t resist the “tough love” He is doing.

3. Expect A Harvest

When Jesus says that if we remain in Him, we will bear fruit, this is a promise.

Part of the greatest beauty of a fruit tree is that its prolific bounty is an annual and rather predictable offering. No one looking on any orchard of any fruit tree seems to be all that taken with the fact that these trees will have fruit hanging from its branches – even in the most tribulating of times and nature’s seasons.

In October, for example the Michigan apple is to be expected. In Georgia it is the Peach and In Florida it is the Orange Tree. You can count on them. They have locked within them essential pieces of our existence—like apple cider, apple pie and cider donuts, all kinds of Jams, Jellies, Pies, Desserts uncountable and so on—We have come to depend on the inevitability of these tasty, reliable realities.

How much more can we rely on the spiritual premise that remaining in Jesus means bearing fruit that will last? In other words, as we abide in our Savior Jesus Christ, we can confidently, equally, expect the fruit He will bring about.

In these most troubling of times of this 21st century, yay we abide in Him so our fruit bearing activity is loving, peaceful, not full of strife. When the Gardener sharpens his shears, may we let Him have His loving way with us. And as we all dwell in the Vine, let us expect the certainty of bearing fruit. Fruit that will last.

We Hold God’s John 3:16 Promises and God’s Truths to be Wholly Self Evident …

In the name of God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, let us pray.

Here’s a contemporary Welsh prayer I discovered in my Face Book Feed.

Lord, we would grow with you
New shoots reaching out
Hands stretched upward
Like leaves newly formed
Soaking up your light and warmth
Lord, we would grow with you

Lord, we would grow with you
In sunshine and rain
In darkness and light
In cold days and summer days
From Springtime to Winter
Lord, we would grow with you

Lord, we would grow with you
And bring forth fruit
That is pleasing to you
Fed by your living water
Giving sustenance to others
Lord, we would grow with you.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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Isaiah 43:16-21 The Message

Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-14 The Message

The God of Glory

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Psalm 116 Easy-to-Read Version

Proverbs 3:5-8 English Standard Version

Proverbs 16:1-3 English Standard Version

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2 Samuel 7:18-25 English Standard Version

David’s Prayer of Gratitude

2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1 English Standard Version

How Majestic Is Your Name

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.[a] A Psalm of David.

John 1:1-5 English Standard Version

The Word Became Flesh

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Who Are You? Who Am I? Who Are We? Who is Anyone Apart from God?

Ephesians 1:1-14 English Standard Version

Greeting

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

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Psalm 13Authorized (King James) Version

Psalm 13

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

God Is Love

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1 John 4:7-21 English Standard Version

God Is Love

1 John 4:10Authorized (King James) Version

1 John 4:19Authorized (King James) Version

1 John 4:9-10 Authorized (King James) Version

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Micah 6:6-8 Authorized (King James) Version

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John 1:1-5, 12-14 Authorized (King James) Version

John’s First Three Verses

‘The Word’: Jesus

1 John 1:1-3 Authorized (King James) Version

Matthew 1:18-25Authorized (King James) Version

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Luke 2:8-14 Authorized (King James) Version

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John 15:1-17 NASB

Jesus Is the Vine—Followers Are Branches

Disciples’ Relation to Each Other

John 16:12-16 Authorized (King James) Version

John 16:32-33Authorized (King James) Version

1. Remain in the Vine

2. Embrace The Pruning

3. Expect A Harvest

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To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.^[a] A Psalm of David.