belief

Shadows and Light

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“Suppose a child gets separated from his mom in the grocery store. He panics and runs to the end of an aisle, not knowing where to go. But just before he starts to cry, he sees her shadow at the end of the aisle. He starts to feel hope. But what is better? The happiness of seeing the shadow, or having his mom step around the corner and seeing that it’s really her? That’s what Christmas is. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing” (Mercy Multiplied Facebook page).

I love that. Whenever I see a shadow, it can only mean that there’s light nearby. So much of the Old Testament is filled with the shadows of things to come. The sacrificial system pointed to an ultimate and final sacrifice. The Law pointed to a coming one who would fulfill all its righteous requirements. So many archetypes in the Old Testament are shadows of the Savior yet to come.

That’s what I love about reading through the Bible. All the stories in the Old Testament point forward to Emmanuel who is coming. So much of the New Testament points back to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of this Christ. In between are the Gospels that demonstrate that this is the Christ, the fulfillment of all the prophecies past and guaranteer of the prophecies yet to be fulfilled.

C. S. Lewis called this world the Shadowlands, where so much of the fleeting joy we find are shadows of the more real joy yet to come. That’s why so much of what we love doesn’t seem to last. Because the shadows fade when the true light has come. And one day, the Light of the World will return and the shadows will vanish and the real joy, hope, peace, and love will be revealed and never fade away.

3rd Sunday of Advent 2025

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“O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.”

Today, I’m thankful for faithful ministers and stewards of God’s word who are proclaiming the true gospel of Jesus Christ. In the age where many no longer tolerate the truth but want their itching ears tickled, I’m grateful that my pastor still preaches about sin and hell and the need for forgiveness.

After all, the whole gospel start off with bad news first that we are all sinners who have turned away from God and the wages of those sins we have done is death and hell. But the good part comes next. God so loved the world, including and especially sinners, that He gave us Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him might not be eternally separated from God in hell but might have true eternal life.

My prayer is that everyone who name Jesus as Lord and Savior will be diligent to make their salvation sure and not assume that because they prayed a prayer a long time ago that they don’t need to worry about how much they love and obey God presently. If we’re truly saved and of God, then we should be different from the world. We should speak and act and think and live different from the world so that they can see our good works and glorify God in heaven.

So thanks to Aaron and Jay and Mike and Michael and all the others who continue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ through a variety of media and methods. I know that one day you will hear the very words from Jesus Himself “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The Glorious Impossible

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“He by whom all time was made became Man in time; that He, in His eternity more ancient than the world, became inferior in age to many of His servants in the world; that He who made man became Man; that He was formed in the Mother whom He Himself formed, carried in the hands which He made, nourished at the breasts which He filled; that, in the manger in mute infancy, He the Word without whom all human eloquence is mute wailed?” (St Augustine of Hippo).

Somewhere out there on the interwebs is a much longer version of this homily. It goes into greater detail about how the creator of man became a man and He who formed life was born and died so that we could be made alive.

This begins to touch on what God did for us. He showed us through His incarnation that truly nothing is impossible to the one who believes. Christmas is proof that no darkness is too dark for light to overcome.

Philippians 2 says it best:

“In other words, adopt the mind-set of Jesus the Anointed. Live with His attitude in your hearts. Remember:

Though He was in the form of God,
    He chose not to cling to equality with God;
But He poured Himself out to fill a vessel brand new;
    a servant in form
    and a man indeed.
The very likeness of humanity,
He humbled Himself,
    obedient to death—
    a merciless death on the cross!
So God raised Him up to the highest place
    and gave Him the name above all.
So when His name is called,
    every knee will bow,
    in heaven, on earth, and below.
And every tongue will confess
    ‘Jesus, the Anointed One, is Lord,’
    to the glory of God our Father!” (Philippians 2:5-11, The Voice).

The Lines of Your Likeness

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“Oh Lord Jesus, deepen in us our knowledge of you. You have made the first lines of your likeness upon our character; go on with this work of sacred art until we shall be like you in all respects. We wish that we had greater power in private prayer, that we were more often wrestling with the covenant angel. We long for the Word of God to be more sweet to us, more intensely precious—that we had a deeper hunger and thirst after it. Oh, that our knowledge of the truth was more clear and our grip of it more steadfast.

Teach us, oh Lord, to know the reason of the hope that is in us, and to be able to defend the faith against all objections. Plow deep in us, great Lord; and let the roots of your grace strike into the roots of our being, until it shall be no longer I who live, but ‘Christ who lives in me Amen’” (Charles Spurgeon).

I love that imagery. God is chiseling away at His child. With each hammer blow, a little bit of me falls away and more and more of His own likeness remains. What must seem like chaos to the created is simply creation to the One who made us.

The end result is “no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” That means less and less selfishness and petty anger and more and more love, joy, peace, patience, and all the other fruit of the Spirit. The less of me saying and doing what I don’t really want and not doing and saying what I truly desire, and the more I find the life of Christ within me taking root and taking over.

Lord, help Your children to endure patiently as You chisel away all that does not look like You or reflect Your glory. Remind us of the finished product that we are becoming that is worth whatever painful blows and patient waiting we endure. In the morning, You will see Your likeness in us and be satisfied. Amen.

A Good Advent Prayer

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“Dear God,
Speak gently in my silence.
When the loud outer noises of my surroundings
and the loud inner noises of my fears
keep pulling me away from you,
help me to trust that you are still there
even when I am unable to hear you.
Give me ears to listen to your small, soft voice saying:
“Come to me, you who are overburdened,
and I will give you rest…
for I am gentle and humble of heart.”
Let that loving voice be my guide.
Amen.” (Henri Nouwen)

Those loud outer noises really crank up around this time. Buy this, buy that. max out your credit card to show your family and friend how much you love them. The more you spend, the better the gift.

The loud inner noises have a way of showing up at this time as well. You’ve got to make this season perfect or you’re not really celebrating the season right. You’re probably already screwing it up and it’s not even Christmas yet.

But that still, soft voice still speaks. If you lean close to the manger, you can hear the voice that arrived in the form of an infant saying, “For you, I came. For those just like you, I gave up a throne for a manger, a crown for a cross, royalty for servanthood. I did it all for you.”

Jesus didn’t come to affirm those who are well. He came for the sick to make them well. He came to seek and to save the lost, leaving the 99 to find the one. That’s you. That’s me.

That’s the same voice that says, “Come to me, all who are weary and overburdened, and I will give you rest.”

That’s the voice that says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

That’s the voice of Him who will come again in triumph over all those loud voices that try to lead you astray. One day, those voices will all be silenced forever, but the still, small voice will be the voice that says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17-18, ESV).

Finding the Blessing

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Tonight as usual, I served at Room in the Inn at Brentwood Baptist Church. We hosted 24 homeless men, all of whom were thankful to be out of the cold and the rain on the first Monday night in December.

Later, as we were getting ready to start our Bible study, I overheard one of the men say that he had spent the better part of last week attempting to sleep in a port-a-potty. That broke my heart. It also made me realize how blessed I am to have a bed and a roof, two things that I have been known to take for granted.

The old adage goes that the man with worn out shoes might not feel blessed, but to the man with no shoes, he is. And the man with no shoes is blessed in comparison to the man with no feet.

Obviously, the point is not comparison. I’m no better than anyone else because I sleep in a bed. I suppose that the takeaway is that all of us are blessed. It’s only when we stop the competition and the entitlement mentality that we realize what we have that so many others don’t.

Above all, I recall how the King of heaven gave it all up to be born to two peasants in a backwater Bethlehem village. I remember how this Son of God lowered Himself to being a slave so that we who have been enslaved to sin might be set free. I see Him on the cross willingly giving up His own life that I might live and have that life abundant.

Then who am I to complain? Who am I to think that my life would only be better if I had more possessions or money or power or fame? Is not what I have enough? Didn’t God give to me and all believers eternal life and everything needed for godliness?

That man who slept in the port-a-potty could have been bitter. But he chose to see himself as blessed because of God’s love for him. I think we’d all do well to remember how blessed we are at every moment we draw in a breath because of God’s grace.

1st Sunday in Advent

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“Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

I sometimes forget that Advent is not a season only for looking back to the incarnation but also looking forward to the second coming. The first time, Jesus came meek and lowly as an infant. The second time, He will come as a conquering King. No one will miss His arrival this time.

The older I get and the more I see of this crazy world, the more ready I am for Jesus to come back. Lord, we have lost our minds down here. It’s getting nuttier by the minute. I find myself uttering the phrase “make it make sense” so often these days.

But one day it will all make sense. One day it will all be made right. One day, I will finally be able to ask all the questions I’ve been saving up. Only they won’t matter anymore. All the questions I ever had will die on my lips when I see the King of glory coming with the clouds. I won’t need to ask any more questions because I will be looking at the Answer to all of them.

But in the meantime, we wait. We wait with expectant hope. Not a wishful thinking, pie in the sky kind of hope, but a confident, sure thing kind of hope. It’s so certain that we can speak of it as if it’s already happened. Like the Kingdom of God being now and not yet.

I’m thankful that while I didn’t grow up celebrating Advent, I’ve discovered it and grown to love it later in life. All the waiting and counting down makes Christmas so much more meaningful. Plus, I get those extra 12 days to make it last even longer (although technically, the 12 days aren’t really a part of Advent).

Lord, give us grace to wait well this Advent season, knowing that our waiting is never in vain and our hope in You is never wasted. Amen.

Re-Reading the Psalms

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“God remembered us when we were down,
His love never quits.
Rescued us from the trampling boot,
His love never quits.
Takes care of everyone in time of need.
His love never quits.
Thank God, who did it all!
His love never quits!” (Psalm 136:23-26).

I started a new thing recently. I’m reading through a little book called David’s Crown: Sounding the Psalms by Malcolm Guite, followed immediately by The Book of Psalms by Eugene Peterson. The first one is Malcom Guite, an Anglican priest, songwriter, and poet setting the Psalms into sonnet form. The second is pretty much what it sounds like — the Psalms rendered by Eugene Peterson as part of his The Message translation (or paraphrase if you’re picky).

Both are giving me a greater appreciation for those Psalms and a little different perspective on some familiar texts. I love in Guite’s book the last line in a psalm is always the first line in the next. Peterson’s translations are sometimes a bit loose with the renderings but when he gets it right, he really gets it right.

I think we forget that the Psalms were the original prayer book and hymnal of God’s people. As much as I firmly hold them up as inspired and inerrant, I also believe they record real emotions and real pleadings from a real person at real moments in time. That’s why they speak to so many even today. They’re sometimes raw, sometimes vulnerable, but always real and always Godward.

I imagine both are available from Amazon, but I’d recommend going through rabbitroom.com for the Malcolm Guite book. It’s one way of supporting a fantastic local non-profit organization that’s keeping artistry and integrity alive in the world of Christian music and media. But above all, pick a good translation and just read through the Psalms again.

Be Generous

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“Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!” (1 Peter 4:7-11)

That’s the key: generosity. Not everyone is in a position to be financially generous, but there are other ways. You can be generous with your time. You can be generous with your talents. Best of all, you can be generous in your commitment to pray for someone or something. And in my book, prayer is the most powerful weapon we have in the fight against the adversary known as satan and the systems of this world.

It boils down to loving others like Christ loved us. He loved us not in word only but in deed. His love took up a wooden cross and bore the nails and died for you and me. Our love should be just as tangible toward those in need, especially during this time of the year with Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching.

Lord, help us to be as generous to others as You have been to us. May our love show itself not merely in words but in actions that meet the needs of those around us. May we remember that whatever we do in serving the least of these brothers and sisters, we are really serving You. Amen.

Devoted to Prayer

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“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2, TLV).

The Oxford definition of the word devote means “give all or a large part of one’s time or resources to (a person, activity, or cause).”

Does that describe your prayer life? I can say with all honesty (and some shame) that it does not describe mine. I pray when it’s convenient or when I just so happen to remember to pray. I’ve been known to tell people I will pray for them and then forget moments later and never actually pray for them.

But the life of a true disciple is marked by prayer. I’m no believer in a health and wealth prosperity gospel but I believe that spiritual breakthroughs can come from seasons of devoted prayer. Not five minutes here and five minutes there but intentional time set aside for daily prayer.

I read about those spiritual heroes who had so much to do that they couldn’t not spend two hours in the morning before their day got started. I probably couldn’t stay focused for 15 minutes, much less two whole hours.

But I think that comes with discipline. That comes with when your desire for prayer is greater than your desire for anything else you could be doing at that moment. Sometimes, it comes in times of great desperation. Sometimes, it comes with spiritual euphoria.

I think the lack of prayer shows in the lives of most believers. We’re not prepared for spiritual warfare. We’re not ready to have gospel conversations with the people around us. Many times, our lives don’t look very different from the lives of nonbelievers around us.

But the good news is that it’s never too late to start and best of all, God loves to hear from His children at any time, no matter for how long or for how well or poorly we think we’re praying. He wants to hear from us much more than we want to speak with Him.

Lord, give us hearts devoted to prayer. Make us true prayer warriors whose lives flow out of victories gained by going to the Father in the secret places. Amen.