Tag: christmas

The Reason for Every Regular Day Jesus Lived

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– The God who designed a woman’s womb was birthed from one with much travail.

– The One whose joy is everlasting had to burst into tears as He took His first breath.

– Jesus who spins the planets around the sun now stands beneath the moon and stars.

– Christ who powers that bright orb now grows weary under its heat at the peak of day.

– The God of perfect, triune love feels the sting of hatred and desertion.

– The One who supplies all creatures with daily food experiences hunger pangs.

– Jesus who created the universe in six days without exertion now grows tired at each day’s end.

– Christ who is eternal now knows the gloom of impending death all His earthly days.

– The God who formed each person’s body with intricacy and wonder now walks about in flesh that feels pain.

– The One who is Lord of the universe becomes just one Person among many, unknown and unpopular.

– Jesus who owns the whole world now faces the sting of poverty.

– Christ who never sinned becomes the sacrifice for all sin.

– God who sustains the life of all creation must raise Himself from the reality of death.

– The Christ of Heaven must ascend back to Heaven.

– The God of all glory who willingly chose to do all this will come again to restore us to the glory He originally intended.

We celebrate at Christmastime the day of the birth of Jesus Christ. While this is important, we cannot forget the days after His birth and the totality of the life He lived preceding His death and resurrection. For these days, we are most thankful. These days enabled Him to be made “perfect through suffering” on our behalf. (Hebrews 2:10, ESV).

Jesus suffered long before His crucifixion. The highest of all beings descended to the lowest of human experiences. Isaiah 53:2-3 (ESV) assures us that Jesus was not a glamorous or popular person and that, in fact, He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

When we hear in Hebrews 2:10 that Jesus was made “perfect through suffering,” God does not mean to say that Jesus had ever been imperfect or sinful. The word rendered “perfect” here means “to be brought to completion” or “to have the end goal accomplished.” How amazing that God chose to complete the job of participating in our suffering by enduring the regular, human struggle – including Monday mornings! – from the day of His birth to the day of His death.

Hebrews 2:10 heartens us, because we realize that the founder of our salvation knows exactly how we feel in the human experience. Jesus began the journey of identifying with us from the moment He descended to the womb of Mary. And every minute after that added to the process of Christ fully identifying with our frustration, pain, loneliness, and heartache.

The culmination of all His days was the moment He cried out on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30, ESV). The work was then complete. All our sin had been paid for, as Jesus had walked all His days as we walk in order to be the perfect substitute for us.

Thank you, Jesus, for your humble birth in to the world – and for EVERY DAY thereafter.

“Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17, NLT)

The Very First Thing God Ever Told Us To Do

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When the average person (or even an average Christian) thinks about the commands of God, he thinks mainly of all God says we can’t do. Our minds first go to the Ten Commandments, where we are instructed in many “no’s.” Do not take God’s name in vain, do not murder, do not steal, etc. Sadly and mistakenly, we often think of Christianity in terms of what is forbidden, rather than the glorious promise of all that is given!

Do you know what is the first command of God directly to humans? It’s certainly not a “don’t do this” instruction. It’s actually a “do everything” kind of command! Check out God’s first mandate in Genesis 1:28 (ESV). Keep in mind that at this point He has just created Adam and Eve and has not yet put the close on the sixth day of creation. No sin has yet entered the picture. The Bible boldly proclaims, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on earth.'”

So there stand the first two human beings, having been blessed by their Creator and commanded to fill up the earth and take charge of it! They are to subdue under their feet all God has given to them. They are to bring glory to their Creator by ruling for Him at His direction while walking in unhindered relationship with Him.

Imagine the scene back then. Adam and Eve are standing on that section of earth in what is now the Middle East. How would they proceed to fill the earth? At the very least, this meant to bear children. But to fill the earth – to get from where they were to all over the earth – they would need transportation. For transportation they would need to observe and study and learn about all the natural resources God had given. They would need to educate the children and families. They would need to build societal structure as the population increased. Housing would be necessary. As society grew, cities would be built. Government would be established. Systems of trade and buying would be developed. Education must continue. Harnessing resources for medicinal purposes would become necessary. People would learn to specialize in their areas of passion and ability.

Fast forward to today. Eventually even the silicon God put in the earth’s crust would be used to build computers. Those computers would access the internet that humans developed. That technology combined with more advanced transportation methods would enable the Gospel to be spread throughout the world in order that Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19 (ESV) might be fulfilled, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, …”

You see, the first command of God is critical and eternal. Knowing that we would fall into sin, God still gave this original mandate to people. We are to be his vice-regents, harnessing the stuff of the world in order to take dominion for God’s purposes. The instruction God gave in Genesis 1:28 is often referred to as the “Cultural Commission” or the “Cultural Mandate.” It is a beautiful gift to each of us. We can get up each morning and take our part in filling and subduing the earth. We can use the passions God has given to us and enjoy being who He made us to be. In order for us to take dominion, some will have to enjoy academics, some car repair, some construction, some teaching, some musical arts, some medicine, some government, some space exploration, some farming, some manufacturing, some engineering, some journalism, some cleaning, some ocean exploration, some nutritional science, some economics, etc. We are commanded by God to enjoy and take pride in our calling, knowing that all work is sacred when done in obedience to Genesis 1:28. The person delivering packages to our doorstep does sacred work just as the Sunday school teacher – if both are responding to the call of God to fill and subdue this creation for His glory.

One of the greatest gifts for which we can be thankful is the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28. This gift never ends. God is not going to throw away His creation. He will redeem it and remake it. And I will miraculously dwell one day in this New Heavens and New Earth, passionately studying and teaching as I do now, and exploring a universe restored by my Jesus! We will learn, travel, explore, engage, eat, connect, laugh, run, rule, and reign under the King of Kings!

The critical change will be that the curse of sin will have been removed. We will at last be free to pursue God’s will unhindered by the burdens and stresses we now carry. Our sinfulness has caused our work to contain an element of pain and disappointment (Genesis 3:16-19). In the new creation, all that misery will be removed (Revelation 22:3). We will pursue the desires God put in our heart without resistance – the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 37:4. What a day that will be!

Do you remember hearing that familiar Christmas passage from Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV)? “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”

That child, Jesus, was born so that the command and promise of Genesis 1:28 could continue in my life. He came to die and pay for the sin that otherwise would damn me and banish me from a relationship with Him now and the New Heavens and New Earth to come. Were it not for the sacrifice of the Son of God, my part in the glorious Kingdom of God would come to nothing. But, because of Jesus, I will be a part of the plan. “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,” and I will be there … doing what He made me to do …. reigning with Him!

If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him …” 2 Timothy 2:11b-12 (ESV)

Your Christmas Is Too Small

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Your Christmas is too small. And by that, I do not mean your tree is too short, you don’t have enough lights outside, or your gifts are not expensive. Your Christmas is too small if it leaves Jesus in the manger, or on the Cross, – or even rising from the tomb and ascending to Heaven.

If your “Silent Night” does not give way to “Resounding Day,” then your Christmas is too small. No amount of presents, perfectly placed wreaths, wonderfully decorated cookies, delightful parties, or time-tested traditions can erase the ultimate letdown you will feel when your Christmas is too small and your “Silent Night” does not point you to the greater “Resounding Day.”

See Christmas through to its infinitely, far-reaching end. Let the star of Bethlehem over the tiny manger remind you of how stars, moon, and sun will be eclipsed one day by the light of Christ’s all-consuming glory. He who lay under a star in the prickly hay of a feeding trough will soon outshine every heavenly body He has made! (Revelation 21:23)

Let the fact that He could find no place in the inn at birth (Luke 2:7), and that He had no place to lay his head in life (Luke 9:38), remind you that He is returning to this universe to take over all places. . . . And prepare them perfectly for you! (Romans 8:21, Revelation 21:1-4, John 14:2-3)

Precisely because Jesus walked this broken earth, we can walk the restored earth soon. He came to the real world in order to bring real hope for a new, real world. Though the best of Christmas seasons come and go in this life, we will enter an eternal season of unending joy and activity – never to be bothered again by the stinging pain of sin as it currently invades every facet of living.

Your Christmas is too small unless you connect the message of the angel Gabriel two millennia ago to the future message of the nameless, seventh angel and many loud voices:

    FIRST CHRISTMAS: “And [Gabriel] said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus'” (Luke 1:30-31, ESV).
    FINAL, ETERNAL ADVENT: “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever'” (Revelation 11:15, ESV).

When Christmas seems too small, remember a line from the third stanza of “Silent Night”: “Radiant beams from thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace . . .” Christmas is only the beginning – the dawn of the new Day.

Silent night of long ago will give way to the resounding day of yet-to-come when the humble Jesus of the manger re-enters the world as the mighty Christ of the universe. The story goes from obscure birth without fanfare to angelic trumpets and loud voices proclaiming the inversion of a godless world into the glorious kingdom of God. He who served us with His birth and death will finally rule us with His life!

Cure for the Common Christmas Verse

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Oh, the careless treatment we often give the common “Christmas verse,” Matthew 1:21. Regularly presented to us in the month of December, the powerful words are frequently taken for granted, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Since these are the words of the angel of the Lord to Joseph concerning the Son of God and His amazing placement by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, we rightly consider these words momentous. Here stands the announcement that our infinite God has chosen to put on human flesh! And why? The angel proclaims plainly the motivation right at the inauguration of this unbelievable, sacrificial season of God’s plan. The reason is so that we can be saved from our sins.

Notice God did not say, “He will save His people from their low self-esteem” or “from their lack of purpose” or “from their depressive hopelessness” or “from their illness” or “from their loneliness” or “from their economic hardship.” No, God sounds forth the real answer for the human dilemma – salvation from sin.

All other difficulties are secondary to the root cause, which is sinfulness. Please cease looking primarily for Jesus to build your self-esteem or give you purpose or make you hopeful or heal your body or grant relationships or make you wealthy.

Please, please, please . . . run to Jesus for the very reason He entered the bloody womb of a woman and grew to shed His own blood and sacrifice His life – to deliver you from sin.

At its putrid core, sin is selfishness. When I trust Jesus to deliver me from my self-centered plans and desires, I realize I now want what He wants. All other circumstances aside, I can now truly live, because my sin had been killing me.

Here is the clincher. He did not come to save us despite our sins, but from our sins. The Greek root is clear; Jesus came to separate us from our sin nature. He destroys that wicked union. The moment I run to Him, He obliterates the damning attachment of sin to my soul. His ultimate aim in the new world He prepares is to place an infinite distance of space and time between us and all sin’s destructive and debilitating effects.

Are we currently living to be free from sin? Are we as hard-nosed about the mission as Jesus is? I think we suffer so much discontent not because of dismal situations, but because separation from sin – the goal of God – is not our goal.

The most humane thing in the entire world is for a person created by God to have his or her union with sinfulness obliterated. Fear not other maladies, save this: a clinging to sin.

Live for that for which our Savior lives: detachment from sin and attachment to God. All other solutions naturally follow – whether today, tomorrow, or in the place Jesus is preparing.

What determination Jesus had to exit glory and enter this broken world to save us from our sins!

What determination will we have to refuse to gossip, to sacrifice that hour of time, to give that hard-earned money, to smile at that one who hurt us, to choose not to retaliate, to enter a sweet hour of prayer, to turn off the iPod and open up the Bible, to purposefully make Jesus the topic of dinner conversation, to put ourselves on the backburner tomorrow afternoon, to confess wrongdoing and ask forgiveness of a friend, or to distance ourselves from sin in any number of ways?

“Jesus came to save us from our sins,” said the angel of the Lord.