Emmanuel

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.

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

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What’s really worse? Someone saying “Happy holidays” or someone who doesn’t follow Jesus saying “Merry Christmas” out of obligation and not really because they mean it or understand it? Maybe worst of all is those who claim Jesus as Lord speaking “Merry Christmas” but denying the spirit of it with lives that reflect greed, rudeness, impatience, consumerism, and anger. The best witness for Christ isn’t spoken; it’s lived out as Christ becomes incarnate in our hearts and lives.

That’s something I wrote a long time ago, but it seems to still fit. People still get bent out of shape when retail employees don’t say Merry Christmas. I think at one point I was one of those, but time has a way of softening those rough edges and growing older has given me a different perspective.

Most likely, those retail workers are exhausted. They’re usually overworked and underpaid. They’re wondering about how they’re going to pay all the bills and still provide a Christmas for their kids. The whole “Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays” debate is probably the last thing on their minds.

So what is the most Christlike thing to do? Yell at them when they don’t use the correct terminology? Or maybe be kind to them? Maybe be a little more patient with them when they’re struggling because the place they’re working is understaffed?

If Jesus offered people a light burden and an easy yoke, maybe we would do better to not lay Pharisaical burdens on people. If Jesus said come to me all who are weary, who are we to drive people off because they don’t speak the magic words of Merry Christmas?

Dwight Moody (I think) once said that Christians are the only Bible most people will ever read. If that’s so, let’s make sure the message we’re sending is the message not of God far off and unattainable but God coming near to the lowly and crushed in spirit in the form of a baby in a manger who was born for all people.

My Christmas Miracle

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“Hey Soul? Slow down and breathe. Let the goodness and mercy that follows you every. single. day. of. your. life. — no. matter. what. — why not slow down and see how the goodness catches up to you? Let’s remember this gentle hope today:

“I don’t have to work
for the coming of the Lord –
I don’t have to work for Christmas.
The miracle is always that
God is gracious.
I always get my Christmas miracle.
I get God with me.
That’s really all I have to get for Christmas –
my heart.
So I will just come to Him just as I am.
God gives Himself as the greatest Gift this Christmas,
and He doesn’t keep any truly good thing from me.
Because the greatest things aren’t things!
Jesus is all good, and He is all mine,
and this is always my miracle –
my greatest Gift!”
*God longs to be with you today* —

~ excerpt from #TheGreatestGift -> bit.ly/GreatestGiftforyou
#Day20www.TheGreatestChristmas.com” (Ann Voskamp, The Greatest Gift).

I’m thankful that even while the world is rushing about during this season, I can be still and know that God is God. I can be still and know that when we couldn’t get to God, God in Jesus has come to us in the form of a baby. I can rest in the fact that the shadow of the cross that looms over the manger because the work that started in Bethlehem wouldn’t stop until Golgotha.

I can rest.

What Rocking Chair is This?

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I had a bit of a surreal, random moment earlier today. I was at one of my favorite places in Nashville, the Rabbit Room. I was sitting in a rocking chair on the wraparound porch, basking in the blazing sun on a wintry day.

Suddenly, I heard a sound as if it were coming from a distance. It took me a while to place the melody — Greensleeves, or as it is more commonly known, What Child is This. Whatever it was sounded like either a trumpet playing low or a trombone playing high. I sat there and let the words fill my mind as the music played:

“What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
While the good shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh
Come peasant, king to own Him
The King of kings salvation brings
Let loving hearts enthrone Him

This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary

Raise, oh raise, the song on high
His mother sings her lullaby
Joy, oh joy, for Christ is born
The Babe, the Son of Mary

What Child is this
What Child is this (what Child is this)

This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary” (William Chatterton Dix).

Advent needs to be a time of reflection rather than a time of rushing around. I get that people are busy, but if there’s no margin for marveling at the mystery of the incarnation, then we’re too busy. We’ve let too many unimportant things get in the way of the main thing.

So let us come and adore the Christ child this Advent season in the midst of all the buying and wrapping and decorating and baking. Let us remember He’s why we’re celebrating.

Nothing Else Will Do

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I’m excited. My church is weeks away from moving to a permanent campus where everything will be brand new and shiny. I’m reminded of the metaphor Jesus used about believers being a city on a hill, because this new location is literally sitting on a hill over looking the intersection.

I’m super hyped, but I’m also smart enough to know that the honeymoon won’t last. More accurately, I’ve hopefully learned by now through lots of times where I got excited only to see the enthusiasm fade and normalcy fade in.

I can remember all those Christmas gifts that I was thrilled to get. I remember how I felt, but looking back, I can’t remember the specific gifts any more. They lost their luster and faded from my memory. Some of them even ended up in garage sales a few years later.

That’s how it goes with anything I set my heart on this side of eternity. Anything less than God won’t fill that God-shaped yearning in me. Or as C. S. Lewis put it, anything that isn’t eternal is eternally out of date and obsolete.

I look forward to our move-in date in late May. I hope I will always be grateful for this gracious gift on God’s part. But I know that at some point, it will be just a building. More than likely, it will require maintenance and updating and repairs. And at some point, it will be no more.

But what it represents and what our church is all about (and every true Bible-believing church is all about) won’t ever fade or get stolen or moth-eaten or rust. The hope of God-with-us revealed in Jesus will only get better and more wonderful and more glorious over time, past time, and into eternity.

Hesed

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A very astute Bible teacher recently opened my eyes to the biblical word hesed. Basically, he said that there’s really no English word that truly captures all the essense of this Hebrew word.

It’s often translated as lovingkindness or stedfast love and is used in reference to God’s faithful love to His people in regard to His promises and His covenant toward them.

This teacher defined hesed in a way that made it come alive for me: “When the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything” (Michael Card, Luke: The Gospel of Amazement).

That’s it.

I have no right to expect anything from God. Actually, if anything, I can expect what the wages of my sin have earned– death and hell.

Yet God has given me everything. His everything. Not only did God in Jesus save me from the wages of those sins, He has given me everything for life and godliness.

The best part of the promise is Emmanuel, God with us. That means God with you and God with me. Even in the valley of the deepest darkest shadow of death, God has promised that He will be with us.

“Certainly Your faithful protection and loving provision will pursue me
    where I go, always, everywhere.
I will always be with the Eternal,
    in Your house forever” (Psalm 23:6, The Voice).

This is Still the Time God Chooses

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“For this is still the time God chooses.”

It still amazes me the way God broke into the world, not as a powerful ruler but as a helpless infant born to a peasant couple in backwoods Bethlehem.

It still amazes me how the first evangelists weren’t the highly trained religious scholars who had spent their entire lives searching the Scriptures but some smelly illiterate shepherds guarding their flocks on some remote hill out in the middle of nowhere.

It still amazes me that the place God chose to lay His head that first night wasn’t on some soft downy pillow but among the straw in a feeding trough.

It still amazes me that God chose to come on the darkest night at the bleakest moment in history and become Emmanuel, God with us.

It amazes me even more that God looked into the darkness of my own heart and said, “For this one, I’m willing to be born in order to die on a rugged cross.”

I’m most amazed that I’m not more astonished at this marvelous event. Most of the time, I take it for granted and presume on God’s mercies like I’m entitled to them, when in reality I’m the least deserving of but most overwhelmed by the grace of God.

Christmas reminds me of what a pastor once said about how heaven isn’t a reward for the righteous but a gift for the guilty. Emmanuel didn’t come for those who are confident in their own abilities and righteousness but for those who know how desperately they need a Savior. He came to seek and save those who know they are lost.

“When the time was right, the Anointed One died for all of us who were far from God, powerless, and weak. Now it is rare to find someone willing to die for an upright person, although it’s possible that someone may give up his life for one who is truly good. But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display—the Anointed One died for us” (Romans 5:6-8, The Voice).

The True Meaning of Christmas 

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“O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the
brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known
the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him
perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit he
lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen” (from The Book of Common Prayer).

It seem like the old adage is true. The older you get, the faster time goes. As a kid, I thought Christmas would never arrive. Now, I feel like if I blink, I might miss it.

This year, I’ve barely had time to revel in the season of Advent and Christmas, and tomorrow is Christmas Day. If only I had a remote control for life with a big pause button to slow everything down for a bit just so I could savor all of the sights and sounds and scents.

But the true meaning of Christmas is for more than just December 25. Its still good after all those ornaments have been taken down and the tree put away for another year. It goes beyond December and into the new year and follows all the days of every year.

God has come near. As my pastor says often, Christianity isn’t that we can get to god but that God in Jesus has come to us. He didn’t wait until you and I got our acts cleaned up and made ourselves ready to receive the Incarnate. He came when we were in the middle of our biggest messes. He came when we needed a Savior the most.

Even after the shine wears off of those gifts, the best gift will still be that Emmanuel is still here. He has not left us and He never will. The hope of Christmas is the hope that will sustain us always.

 

 

Only One Thing Matters

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“Jesus continued from there toward Jerusalem and came to another village. Martha, a resident of that village, welcomed Jesus into her home. Her sister, Mary, went and sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him teach. Meanwhile Martha was anxious about all the hospitality arrangements.

Martha (interrupting Jesus): Lord, why don’t You care that my sister is leaving me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to get over here and help me.

Jesus: Oh Martha, Martha, you are so anxious and concerned about a million details, but really, only one thing matters. Mary has chosen that one thing, and I won’t take it away from her” (Luke 10:38-42, The Voice).

This Advent season may find you stretched too thin. You might feel like you’re being pulled in a hundred different directions toward a hundred different destinations, each one seemingly as important as the rest.

I believe the word from God for this season is this: the best place to be is at the feet of Jesus. Only one thing matters as we approach Christmas– creating margins and spaces in your life and heart to be able to hear the voice of your Good Shepherd.

Only one thing matters– seeing the Christ in Christmas an adoring the infant King, wrapped snugly and laying in a manger. As the worship song says, everything else can wait. Some of those to-do list tasks can even be left undone.

If you achieve all your holiday goals and purchase every last present and miss Jesus, you’ve missed Advent.

The best witness you can give this Advent season is to say no to the excess spending and the tyranny of the urgent while being still before the presence of God, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing.

You don’t have to be idle to be still. You can go about your daily life with a sense of urgent expectancy and waiting with hope. You can adore the Christ by your Christlike attitude in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, by your kindness and patience toward others, remembering that the one thing that matters most is not in your wallet or in your shopping bags or in your day planner but rather in the middle of your Nativity scene, laying in that manger.

Advent Eve

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“Awaken! Remember that God comes! Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today, now! The one true God, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, is not a God who is there in Heaven, unconcerned with us and our history, but he is the-God-who-comes.”

That’s what Advent signifies. God is not the otherworldly deity that we can never reach but Immanuel, God with us, wherever we are.

God is not I Was or I Will Be, but I Am. For whatever your present need is, God is your supply and God is present in your tears and your pain.

Advent means that God is not indifferent to your plight or immune to your cries. He has come and He is here in the midst of your suffering.

Advent is a reminder that Christmas is more than maxing your credit cards to buy stuff for people who already have too much stuff. It isn’t about gorging on all those holiday dinner staples. It’s not about how many strands of light you can staple to your house.

It’s about the fact that God in Jesus has come near.

“At first sight, joy seems to be connected with being different. When you receive a compliment or win an award, you experience the joy of not being the same as others. You are faster, smarter, more beautiful, and it is that difference that brings you joy. But such joy is very temporary. True joy is hidden where we are the same as other people: fragile and mortal. It is the joy of belonging to the human race. It is the joy of being with others as a friend, a companion, a fellow traveler. This is the joy of Jesus, who is Emmanuel: God-with-us” (Henri Nouwen).

“Immanuel, Our God is with us
Yes He is with us still
Immanuel, He has not left us
And He never will” (Geoff Moore).