The Terror of God's Mercy

Have you ever longed for God's Mercy? Maybe you have felt overwhelmed and sense potential disaster just beyond your vision. Jeremiah knew how you felt. He lived with ongoing destruction and conflict. His spirit was undone by the coldness of God's people, his own relatives and friends. In the midst of these difficult times he writes,  "By the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. New every morning. Great is Your faithfulness!" (Lamentations 3:22-23). It has been an encouragement to many and the source of Thomas O. Chisholm's well known hymn, "Great is Thy Faithfulness", composed back in 1923. The words can be a source of strength and assurance when we find ourselves in times of distress. God's mercies are new every morning, not jut scraps left over from the day before. However, have you ever considered what God's mercies look like? Have you put Jeremiah's encouraging words into the context from which he writes? Do you know of the history of the times? If not you may not see the power behind the Lord's mercies or how they were realized for Jeremiah and God's people. An honest look at the passage will show that there can be great terror in God's mercy.

I encourage you to take a minute and read Lamentations 2 and Lamentations 3. Let us consider a bit of history and a few excerpts to help you gain the context of Jeremiah's confident claim to God's unending mercy. In the days of Jeremiah Judah was in religious rebellion against the Lord. Idolatry,  Baal, and Ashtaroth worship permeated the land. The Northern tribes had already fallen to Assyria do to their unfaithfulness and now Judah was taking the same path. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was chipping away at what little was left of the kingdom of Judah. Judah's destruction was imminent. Jeremiah's message was one of impending doom and coming exile and the grieve he carries in almost unbearable. Lamentations 2 and 3 record his words of anguish. A few excerpts from the chapters reveal his heart and the emotions he endures.

Lamentations 2:1, "covered the daughter of Zion with the cloud of His anger," 2:2 "swallowed up and not pitied, thrown down in His wrath," 2:4 "Poured out His fury like fire," 2:7 "Lord has spurned His alter, abandoned His sanctuary," 2:8 "The Lord purposed to destroy," 2:17 "Lord has done what He purposed; thrown down and not pitied, caused an enemy to rejoice over you," 2:21 "Young and old lie in the streets. You have slaughtered and not pitied," In chapter 3 Jeremiah turns from God's hand against the nation to his personal pain. Jeremiah 3:1 "I am a man who has seen the affliction by the rod of His wrath," 3:4-9 "broken my bones, bitterness and woe, set me in dark places like the dead,made my chain heavy, shuts out my prayer, made my paths crocked." Jeremiah goes on; 3:11-16 "torn me to pieces,set me as an arrows target, arrows pierce my loins, ridiculed by my people, filled me with bitterness, broken my teeth, removed my soul from peace." After pouring out his desperation for the nation of Judah, for God's chosen people, Jeremiah cries out his personal pain in a flood of emotional distress. These chapters may picture the greatest rendition of God's wrath and judgement upon His people you will find in Scripture. It is hard to find a silver lining here when you read the text as it is  recorded.

After chapters of woe and destruction Jeremiah gives us 3:22-23, "By the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. New every morning. Great is Your faithfulness!" How can this be? The Hebrew word translated mercy is Hesed, which speaks of the depth of the covenant love shared by Yahweh and His people. It is often translated "lovingkindness" and is simply hard to capture in English. There is an intimacy and richness of commitment that offers security and grace. The word for compassion is the Hebrew racham, meaning bowels or womb. The picture her is a passionate and tender love that comes from the inner depths of our being. The power of God's magnificent covenant love keeps God's people from being consumed, finished, brought to an end. God's compassionate love, that flows from the very core of His being, never fails.

If Jeremiah is right, how can we reconcile such vivid and, in all honesty, terrifying pictures of God's wrath and judgement being poured out upon His own people? How can His fulfill servant, Jeremiah, know such suffering and torment? When you read chapters two and three do you come to the same conclusion as Jeremiah? Pain, bitterness, slaughter, fury, wrath, destruction all reveal the Lords unending mercy and compassion? Perhaps verses 22 and 23 belong somewhere else or maybe Jeremiah is trying to make us feel better in the midst of apparent annihilation. Or perhaps Jeremiah is right on target. Perhaps we are the ones who have packaged God's mercy and compassion in our own little box and misunderstand the depth of His covenant love for His people.

Solomon was the wisest man to have lived and gives this bit of advice in Proverbs 3:2, "For whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights." Solomon also tells us, "He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly" (Proverbs 13:24). The writer to the Hebrews borrows this verse in Hebrews 12:6. In Johns Revelation he records the Lords words,  “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent" (Revelation 3:19). Out of love the Lord must discipline. The longer and further His people go astray the stronger the discipline must be. Generations of warnings and disciplines had come and gone and yet God's people still worshiped other gods. From simple sacrifices on the high places to the burning of their children alive to appease some other god the Lord's people had forsaken Him and placed themselves in greater danger than they could have realized. Now the time had come to bring a severe judgement or correction to deliver them from themselves. Now God's temple would be razed. The people of God would be deported to Babylon. No temple to offer sacrifices, no alter to sprinkle the blood on when the Day of Atonement came. No Jerusalem to celebrate the required feasts and festivals. Just Babylon, the center of pagan worship. A serious time of judgement that would last for a generation. Even then it would be even more years before God's Temple would be rebuilt and the offerings restored. God's people got what they had long practiced. Pagan gods, pagan worship, no temple, no Jerusalem, no way to be obedient to the Lord's commands for worship.

Consider the consequences both of the discipline of the Lord and the dangers if the discipline had not come. The result of the deportation to Babylon, the temple's destruction, the razing of Jerusalem and the removal of the opportunity to worship in accordance with the lord's commands was deliverance. God's people would never again chase after foreign gods. No more Baal or any other god or goddess would be acceptable to God's people. Now consider the results of no discipline. Worship of Yahweh lost. The covenants fully forsaken and replaced with the religious traditions of the nations. Torah lost, the prophets replaced or executed. Yahweh becomes just another of the plethora of gods and goddesses demanding attention from Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Egypt and all the little local deities in regions of the Middle East. What would have happened to the promise of Messiah? What would have happened to the Covenant to David, or Abraham or Moses? All we believe in and hold to be true could have been lost. However, in the depth of His compassion and love God intervenes.From the depths of His mercy He brings the needed discipline to deliver His people from themselves. In the process Jeremiah reveals the terror of God's mercy.

Just a final note, the terror that was God's mercy touched the righteous as well as those who strayed. Jeremiah had to hold onto the memories and knowledge of who the LORD was in order to endure the discipline that fell upon the nation as a whole. And it was enough, Lamentations 3:20-21, " My soul still remembers and sinks within me.This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope." Can we be like Job? "Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty" (Job 5:17). I appreciate the truth shared in Hebrews 12:11, "Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." The discipline of Lamentations chapters 2-3 did not seem joyful. They were times of terror and apparent disaster. Yet, the result was deliverance and the protection of God's promises and covenants. Our loving Heavenly Father demonstrates His love, His mercy, His deliverance, in His discipline. Sometimes the terror of God's mercy is precisely what we need. 
     

 

God's Painful Pearls

Do you ever get frustrated with your brain? It is s remarkable tool God has provided. However, it seems to have a mind of its own, wandering into thought patterns that cause discomfort. I would like to have a disciplined brain. One that reflects the Apostle Paul's claim, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). My brain is more of the "free range" sort of brain, meandering about and finding bits of garbage to feed on. I am grateful for the indwelling Spirit to poke my brain to flee the garbage and get back into the protection of God's hen house I just wish it did not wander to begin with. Time on this planet is limited and wasted with absurd notions, which encourages me to gently tap my head against the nearest wall. Things like, "If I won the $387,000,000 lottery I would ..." knowing this will never happen as I never buy lottery tickets. Yet, there goes my inner being listing the charities, ministries, and people I would be able to bless. The trips to Israel and then follow the Apostle Paul's route through the Middle East, Greece and onto Rome. Books I could purchase, like the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, and works of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. Then I snap back to where my mind was suppose to be and I focus on the necessary task at hand.

Perhaps more frustrating are the darker thoughts. Hurts that come back with vivid clarity. Temptations that just do not seem to take a permanent departure but poke out through the recessed folds of my mind. They remind me of that thorn Paul spoke of to the Corinthians, "And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure" (2 Corinthians 12:7). I do not experience the exaltation or abundant revelation, but I can relate to the thorn and Satan's buffeting. It would just be so wonderful to be completely free from such needless thoughts and the wasted time dealing with them. They are like covert pieces of sand in the soles of my cerebral cortex; they slip in and distract me with their irritating fragments of things I dealt with long ago. I have studied, taught the Scriptures, acquired a few degrees, meditated and prayed and the old seeds of doubt and failure still sprout from my memories and send me down mental trails of discouragement. I do not live there, but, the unwanted weeds still return to my mind and need to be extricated before they take root.

Going back to Paul's personal illustration of the thorn I have some hope. There was a purpose for the pain. It kept the Apostle dependent upon the Lord. Without it Paul could have succumbed to the pride that would have damaged his ministry. Perhaps I need to view these irritations as that grain of sand lodged in the tender parts of my mind. I coat them with prayer and tears and lean on the Lord for victory. Yet, it seems the irritating grain remains. So I coat it with another layer of prayer, reminded again of just how vulnerable I am. Over time the prayer coatings have smoothed off the rough edges of the memory, even if it has not been removed. As the years go by, the prayer coatings continue as this memory, though faded, lets me know it will not go away. In the process I have become more dependent upon the Lord. More aware of my own weaknesses. The realization of needed prayer and dependence comes more easily. The barbed irritation has become a pearl of great value. No longer tearing at my mind with painful memories, it is a gentle pressure that reminds me that my life is in God's hands. Whatever the pain or failure the Lord can use the sand to make a pearl of dependence in my life. It can help me see the pain of others and offer comfort from the pearl still lodged in my own mind.

My mind still wanders into stupid things. Moments lost with mindless day dreams and a few vain imaginations. Maybe my brain just needs a momentary vacation from the challenging realities of life. However, the truly painful moments, the darkest barbs delivered by Satan are becoming valued pearls. Pearls made of the ongoing salve provided by God's Spirit as I pray and trust in Him.

Perhaps, I am not alone. It may well be that some great pain, or loss, or failure invaded your life. The painful barbs in your mind have become a source nearing despair. Whatever the cause, like the Apostle Paul's thorn, it can become a pearl of dependence and even victory. The Lord can remove the anguish and smooth off the edges of those thoughts and memories. Coated with prayerful tears the Lord can heal and help you see that He can work through even this to enrich your walk with Him. Even more, He can then use you to help others build pearls out of pain. As was true with the Apostle, God's strength can work in our weakness. Our pain and failures can become God's pearl of great price. The difficult question is, "will we let Him?"

Do You Live In a Castle of Fear?

Have you ever felt a bit intimidated, concerned, even afraid due to events or people that you encounter in life? Have you considered what this does to your existence or to your goals and desires? Does it interfere with what you feel you were called to do? As believers we are told that we have nothing to fear. We should live anxious free lives overshadowed by the Lord's grace. However, I have found that life does not always feel that way. The Apostle John gives us a means of dealing with these feelings of inadequacy and apprehension. He also warns us of the consequences if we try to ignore the fear issue. We find this instruction in 1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." According to John all we need is perfect love to conquer fear, and if we don't, there is torment and we stand imperfect before God. So it looks like the fear thing is a pretty big deal, from God's point of view. Love should have freed me from such feelings. Great, now I have added guilt to my sense of apprehension.

Now before we all join in the guilt train ride to torment it would be well to take a closer look at what John is saying. There are a few things to remember. John is a Jewish Rabbi. Though the letter is general, John writes from a Jewish context and often deals with Jewish issues including the challenges of accepting Gentiles into the believing community. John's use of the terms fear, love and torment will come from an Hebraic mindset, even if they are Greek words. In the context of 1 John 4:18, the Apostle is dealing with the problem of unity or the lack thereof. John has written, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7). Love is the binding force that draws us to God and to one another. It is the very evidence that we know God. That is why John follows with verse 8, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." If there is no communion in love then God is not known and no one will easily find Him. For, "No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us" (1 John 4:12). This is a very Jewish thought. Greeks and Romans encountered their gods often. Legend held that the gods even cohabited with humans producing demigods, like Hercules. However, for Yahweh to be known His followers must reflect His love. What is this love of God?

John uses the Greek word, agape, the highest Greek word for love. It is a sacrificial love that seeks the best for another. John is likely thinking of the Hebrew word hesed or chesed. Often translated "lovingkindness" in the Old Testament. It is a difficult word to translate as it involves both God's unconditional covenant love and the response of His people to that love. It is deeply intimate and speaks of the profound connection between the Lord and His chosen ones. It is an active relationship of passionate obedience and tender mercy shared by those who know God, both personally and as a community. The love John speaks of demands community connection. Which is why John sums things up in 1 John 4:20, " If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" The love that binds one to the Lord must also bind us to one another or we do not know God or the Love of God.

John tells us that this kind of love between God and us results in love perfected. Remember 1 John 4:12 told us that, " If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us." Perfect in Greek may mean that something cannot be improved or advanced. You have arrived and can get no better. It can also carry the idea of completion or a finished result. The Hebrew idea also includes the concept of always making the right choice. God is perfect, however it does not mean He does not interact with His creation. His response is not always the same and is not always predictable. However, it is always the correct and best response. It is in our love for one another that God's love is completed. Not meaning that it cannot grow, but that it places an accurate visualization of Who He is, the unseen God, on display for the world to see. John's conclusion is this. "And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God love his brother also" (1 John 4:21). There is no option but to have the same deep and passionate love for one another that we are to have for God. If that is not true then we are not His disciples.

Nestled in this powerful message of unity and devoted love is verse 18, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." The Greek word phobos, from where we get phobia, is used here. It is a broad term that covers everything from concern to terror. Those who have this fear issue have not been perfected, completed, do not make the right choices that would reflect the person and nature of the unseen God. In the context, why and what kind of fear could be such a concern for John as he writes to these believers? When we consider the culture of the time the issue is easier to understand. The community of believers John writes to is diverse. There are Jews, Messianic Jews, God fearing Gentiles, proselyte Gentiles (Gentiles who have become fully Jewish), believing or Messianic Gentiles, and a diversity of cultures. They are most likely meeting together at the synagogues to hear the Word of God, as it is the only place where the Word is available and taught. Now the command is for all those who believe in and love Messiah to be one unified community.

However, a Gentile establishing a deep connection with a Jew while forsaking everything that made him a Gentile could add a great deal of pressure to their life. They would be forsaking their pagan practices and life styles. They would appear to be becoming more Jewish. There would be great social pressure to keep the Jewish brothers at a distance. For the Jews it could be worse. Time with a Gentile could make them culturally and ceremonially unclean. Eating with, and caring for a Gentile, might cost you friendships and business within the greater Jewish community. Some may question your access to the temple and the Jewish feasts and celebrations. In reality there was a lot to be concerned about, to fear, in trying to be obedient to this command. To be devoted to those who have been suspect if not outright enemies for generations was no easy task. However, when we reflect upon the love of God Who gave His Son so that death would be defeated and we could have life eternal, loving one another is not so much to ask. In fact, there is no fear in love. Love that focuses on others and has its goal to make the right choices has a way of crushing fear and apprehension. If we choose not to love  there are consequences. This kind of love offers a complete picture of the love of God, it reveals the unseen God.

John says, "Fear has torment." Meaning, a sort of self inflicted punishment. It is the result of a continuing action that we submit to. We allow the fear and apprehension to control us rather than the Spirit of God. If fear controls you, you invite anxiety, loneliness, isolation, and paranoia to be your constant companions. You welcome the physical side effects of sleep deprivation, ulcers, head aches, and a compromised immune system. You have not been made complete in God's love. You are also not portraying the image of God that the world desperately needs to see. We have a choice in this matter. We can be made complete in God's love.

Most of us do not struggle with the thought of being ceremonial unclean by hanging out with a Gentile, unless you happen to be a Hasidic Jew. Still most of us have people or groups we feel a bit apprehensive being around. In truth we just do not have time for agape or hesed love. It is too demanding and takes too much of a commitment. We are afraid of vulnerability and saturated with a lack of trust after years of being taken advantage of or betrayed. We have been lied to and lied about and deserted when we needed a friend to defend us. So we live in fear. We are content to just taste the edges of what it is to be a part of a committed community. We do the church thing, the Bible study thing, the Christian thing, however the cost of agape is just too much. Fear protects us. It lets us hide behind the walls of our insecurities and and feel okay in our torment. And the world around us misses the opportunity to see the unseen God revealed in the love shared among His people. We can choose to take steps to be connected to others and to the community of believers we fellowship with. We can start with one person we trust and build from there. A cup of coffee, a shared prayer request, a note of encouragement, a text or phone call that tells them you care. Love is an action and it can deliver us from choosing to be victims, tormented by our own fears. 

Has the love of God completed you in such a way that your devotion to other believers allows you to be truly tenderhearted and vulnerable? God gave, and it was the cost of His Son. What price are we willing to pay to honestly love one another? Or is it just easier, safer, to live inside our castles of fear.     

God Is Not Enough

Have you ever been told that God is all you need? If you have God then you can be complete and lack nothing. It is a common Christian thought. "God is all I want, God is all I need", goes the chorus of the Hillsong United song "Street Called Mercy"

To an extent this is certainly true. There are times when we find ourselves in a situation where this is a reality. God is all I need. However, there is an opinion out there that finds this statement to be false when it comes to the normal function of life. God is not all I need. God is not enough. I know this to be true for Yahweh, the LORD Himself, proclaims this. In spite of all He is and all He can do, God is not enough. If you doubt me you have not thought about the reality of God's statement in Genesis 2:18, "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone."

Let the power of that statement soak in for a moment. God has created the heavens and the earth. He has dressed them with the wonder of His creative power. Stars, planets, the sun and moon. There are plants, birds, sea creatures and all that creeps upon the earth. Everything from mastodons to mollusks, from anacondas to amebas and plant life blooming and reproducing after its kind. He creates man, Adam. They share life together in perfection. No sin barrier. Fellowship unbroken and free. God creates all the animals and brings them to Adam to name. Adam can cuddle with a cougar and tickle a "T" Rex without any apprehension or fear of mauling. It is a time of pure joy and communion between God and man and all of creation. Then God says, "It is not good." How can this be? If God is all I need then the Lord is mistaken as He looks at creation. The vary God of all creation declare that He is not enough to fulfill Adam. Yahweh looks at the man and says, "I am not enough for him." In His love and grace God is sensitive enough to see that man is not complete when Adam has only the Lord as his companion. God is sensitive enough to see that He is not enough for Adam.

In our western and American culture it is ingrained into the very fabric of our being that we are autonomous beings. We are individuals and are to be self reliant, self motivated and self absorbed. We have personal rights, inalienable rights, to have these rights or the things we want. Our mantra can easily become, "I am all I want, I am all I need". If my needs are not met it is the responsibility of society to make sure I have them. I am the center of my universe. Even for those who are believers, followers of Yahweh and His Son, the centrality of self can be hard to overcome. After all we have a personal Savior, personal faith, a personal relationship with God. If I was the only person on the planet Christ would still die for me alone. I have even heard preachers tell their congregation to alter John 3:16 to "For God so love me that HE gave His only Son for me, so if I believe in Him I will have eternal life." Forget about the world, its all about ME.

God disagrees. It may be true on that personal level, however, God never intended for you to be alone. Not in life, not in faith, not in salvation. Jesus delivered us to be united with others. You and God are not enough. He designed you for a community. He did not design you to be alone, not even with Him. There are times when some are left alone through persecution or imprisonment by an oppressive regime. They survive with God's presence with them. However, that is not God's design. Any of those who have so suffered would never refuse the company of another believer. After years of solitary confinement no one says, "I do not want company, I just want to be alone." Even Tom Hanks needed Wilson to survive the years of solitude. 

Yet, we often live in the allusion that we do not really need others. Christ alone may sound spiritual but remember He may be the head of the body but there are to be many parts working together. Serving together. Dependent upon one another. The fear of being vulnerable, of being wounded or rejected keeps us in our holy isolation. This simply should not be. We place ourselves at great risk without the protection of others. We must have others to grow and serve as God intends. Single sheep do not fare well in a hostile world.

As the New Year is underway perhaps building some deeper relationships needs to be on our list of things to accomplish in the days ahead. Not those Sunday morning "How are you?" passing phrases but some close friends to be open with. To be accountable to. We may well need to know a deeper level of spiritual intimacy and vulnerability with a few others on life's journey. This is not my idea. God is the One who said "It is not good to be alone." That is why you are a part of a body. It is time to get connected. We actually need each other, not just God alone.       

"Thank God the Christmas Songs are Gone"

The Christmas celebration has come to an end and if you live in the north you are looking forward to several weeks of abbreviated frosty days and seemingly endless cold, dark nights. There is one bright spot as we look to the dreary days of January, the obnoxious "Christmas" songs ore gone for a another year. I am not speaking of the traditional hymns or even some of the new celebration songs surrounding the Christ child. There is always room for another composition of adoration for the new born King and Messiah of Israel. I am speaking primarily of those songs that have invaded the season and are broadcast from so many radio stations and plague your sensibilities in every retail outlet and shopping mall. Songs with horrible messages that wound the spirit and suck life out of one's soul. It is done so covertly we barely take notice. It appears the years of exposure have left us immune or insensitive to the attack. We simply absorb the lyrics without considering the messages of the pseudo Christmas songs. I am beginning to think "Santa Baby" is a conspiratorial plot to penetrate our cerebral cortex leaving us with the odd desire to add "get a lobotomy" to our Christmas wish list.

These holiday songs carry a quiet message of destruction. Take the Rudolf song. A song to teach our children that you must fit the norm to be accepted. Any abnormality means no one will play with you. Your only hope of acceptance is if your "handicap" is now of benefit to the collective. And then it is what you can do for them that they love, not for you or for who you are. Welcome years of therapy or a life time of trying to earn acceptance. Frosty the Snowman teaches our kids the valuable lesson that you better be quick to play with a friend for in a few short weeks they will be dead. All you have left is a puddle, an old silk hat and a corn cob pipe you should not be smoking. Yes, my child, death awaits when the sun comes out. What a happy Christmas thought. Speaking of therapy, What of the child who sees his mother having and affair with Santa Claus? There she is making out with Santa under the mistletoe while dad is away. Wink, wink, nod, nod, we are to assume that Santa really is dad but how do we know? The child certainly does not. What a traumatic thing for a child to deal with, thinking his mom is unfaithful, and at Christmas time.

Having brought up Santa, does it bother you that at any other time of year a jolly fat guy with a white beard would be charged with breaking and entering but now we leave him cookies? Like he needs the calories. Then there is the warning that Santa is coming to town and  he doesn't like people who cry, so come on kids, suppress those emotions. Santa also seeing you when you are sleeping, so what about the shower? That is down right creepy. He also has conditional love so if you fall into the naughty list, no presents for you. And what makes you naughty? This determination comes from a guy who sneaks a peek at you while you are sleeping. Is it any wonder the kid just gives up and boldly declares, "I'm gettin nothin for Christmas, caus I ain't been nottin but bad." Why try when you might end up on the arbitrary naughty list and get nothing anyway? Inspiring messages to our children indeed. Oh, and don't forget Santa's snow dependence. If it doesn't snow on Christmas, how will Santa ever get to us. No wounder Bing was dreaming of a white Christmas. No snow, no Santa. It appears Santa only comes to the northern hemisphere. Wish all you want, there is no snow coming to Kenya, Sao Paulo, or Sydney. So, apparently no Santa either.

Just a couple of more thoughts as we learn that Elvis will have a Blue Christmas and another lonely soul will be home for Christmas, but "only in my dreams". How is that for depressing? Christmas is a time to highlight being abandoned, alone, and isolated. Add to this the "Christmas Shoes" song. One of those songs that would make Mr. Scrooge and the Grinch share a hanky. The song of a dying mom and a devoted son who leaves her bedside to go buy her shoes. Why? So she will look pretty for Jesus. Add in the heartless retail villain who won't cut the kid a break as the boy pours out every bit of change he owns to get the shoes. Love that Christmas spirit. Should someone tell the kid shoes nether get you to glory nor can they go with you? Still a stranger comes to the rescue and mom gets the shoes. And I get as teary eyed as I do when Linus recites Luke Chapter 2. Not a bad story, just a bit weepy, with a heartless guy, and some odd theology that troubles me a bit.     

I conclude my Christmas song rant with a song that simply confuses me."Do you hear what I hear" has more questions than one would ever want to deal with at Christmas time. We simply sing it with our brains in neutral. We begin with the "Night Wind" talking to the little lamb. If you accept that the word for wind in both Greek and Hebrew can mean "spirit" we have a message from the Spirit concerning the birth of the Child. This is a reasonable thought, however, why is He talking to a lamb? Is there no one else who will listen? From there we go to the lamb talking to the shepherd boy. I guess this is like that Baalm and the donkey story where the donkey speaks. Here the shepherd boy has a conversation with a sheep and that is normal? How long has this been going on? The shepherd boy believes the little sheep and bounds off to the mighty king living in a palace warm. We are to believe that a shepherd boy with a message from a sheep has immediate access to the mighty king. How likely is that, really? The message from the shepherd boy is that the child "shivers in the cold". What does that say about Joseph and Mary? Give the kid some covers, throw a log on the fire, pick Him up and cuddle Him to your chest. What kind of parents are these? The shepherd's solution to avoid hypothermia? A wool blanket, a fleece? No, tuck some silver and gold around the shivering baby. A bunch of mettle will raise his body temperature I am sure. Hearing the news that the Child shivers in the cold, the mighty king, in his palace warm, says, "Pray for peace people everywhere!" How helpful is that? It is a reflection of James 2:16, "Be warmed and filled" as you walk away and do nothing to help. This wonderful Christmas song tells us Joseph, Mary, a shepherd boy, who knows what it is like to be out in the night watching sheep, have no clue as how to keep a child warm and the mighty king sits in his warm palace and does nothing to help. What a message. Kind of makes you feel warm all over, doesn't it?

Perhaps, I would be better off to just mindlessly sing the songs and suppress the teacher that lies within. I would write a little more but with warm weather on its way. Frosty will soon be puddling on his death bed so I'd best go play while I can.

Have a Happy New Year!  

Forgotten Heroes or God's Mercy on Mary.

I honestly love this time of year. I am aware of the commercialism and the fact that this is the celebration of the first advent, the birth of our Lord and not His precise birth date. However, I enjoy the lights and the trees and the crisp air. For at least twenty-five years I have done an Advent series leading up to Christmas Day. As an aside, I also do a resurrection series leading up to the Resurrection so there is balance in my preaching. I have had a few of these seventy-five to eighty lessons share a common theme, but I have never reused a message. There is always something new to consider. This year I spoke on the forgotten Heroes, the background folks from the Christmas story. People like Zacharias,Elizabeth, Simeon, and the messengers God sent to alert a few chosen people of the birth of His Son. In the process I spent some time looking at the visit of the angel, Gabriel, to the young maiden, Mary. It was in this exchange that I was given a fresh appreciation for the grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father. Tucked into Gabriel's message is a profound message for us as well. Just a reminder of the tenderness of the God who loved us an sent His Son, Emmanuel, God with us, on that first Christmas Day.

In order to appreciate the power of the angel's message you must do two things. First, you must remove Mary's halo and allow her to be just a young Jewish girl who is looking forward to becoming the wife of Joseph, the town carpenter. Second, you must drop out of your American Culture and become a Jew form 2000 years ago. and for good measure, pretend you never read this account before. You are now Mary. A teen-aged young woman.Your marriage was arranged, as all marriages were, by your parents some time ago. A binding covenant had been publicly signed and a dowry paid. All that remained was for you to become of marriageable age and for Joseph to have a home and business to support you and the family you would build together. That time was drawing near. Today begins like any other day until you have an angelic visitation. The account is recorded as follows:

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!" But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her (Luke 1:26-38).

Mary is a Godly young woman. She is remarkably well versed in Scripture. Just consider how many verses and books she quotes from when she shares her praise with Elizabeth. She has just been told that she will give birth to the long awaited Messiah. Her son will reign on David's throne forever and ever. Quite a bit to take in as a teenage girl. She asked her obvious question. "How can this be as I have never known (had sexual relations with) a man?" Gabriel explains that this will be a supernatural God thing. And the child she bears will be called the Son of God. Mary accepts the assignment and the angel Gabriel departs. An amazing story of an amazing young woman.

As you read the story were you touched by the tender thing that God does for this young virgin? Did you see the depth of God's compassion and concern for a unwed girl who is to be found with child before her wedding night? She is a human woman. She is not "Super Girl" or some special genetically enhanced being. She is a young woman about to go through her first pregnancy as an unwed mother with a story that no one in town has been made aware of. And then there is Joseph. How could he ever accept her story? With all that in mind God does the most tender and compassionate thing He can do. Were your emotions stirred as you read verse 36? Let me highlight it for you as it may have been lost in the text and with the familiarity you may have with the story, "Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren." If you did not catch what God did, Mary did. See Luke 1:39-40, "Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth."

God tells Mary there is a place to go. There are only two people on the whole planet who know who the Angel Gabriel is. There are only two people on the planet who know of the soon arrival, of the birth of Messiah. And one of the two cannot talk. Gabriel's message from God the Father is, Mary, you are not alone. You have a close relative who knows of the power of God, especially in matters of conception. She is a short distance away. Mary obviously knows of the couple, The Godly priest and his wife living close by in the hill country of Judah. Mary understands and heads to the house of Zacharias and Elizabeth. She is greeted with exuberance and confirmation that the child she now bears is Emmanuel. She spends three months there with no questions to answer and time to get through those first months of pregnancy. Now, I do not know if Mary had morning sickness, odd cravings, or got nausea from the smell of  gefilte fish. However, Our Lord did enter this would as a baby and He grew inside Mary's womb like any other child. So, just maybe Mary shared in some of the joys and challenges of those first months. The point is, God in His tender compassion did not have her go through this alone. She and Elizabeth shared a sacred bond that no one else could. Each carrying a son announced by God's Angel Gabriel, before they even conceived. Each aware of the hurtful things people can say. Each aware that the truth about their pregnancy would not be believed by those around them.

Mary returns home, after three months of comfort, encouragement, understanding, and the blessings of being with the older Elizabeth to face the town that would not understand. To face the man who was under a covenant to take her as his wife. To know an answer that could not be explained. God's mercy stretches to Joseph with a dream of an Angelic messenger telling him why Mary is with child. He does not hesitate to believe the angel and quickly takes Mary as his wife, knowing the questions would not go away.

We could play the "what if" game here. What if God had not directed Mary to Elizabeth? How challenging would those three months have been? Instead, in His great compassion and mercy the Lord gives Mary and Elizabeth each other. Mary had the comfort of an older woman who absolutely believed her, without question. And Elizabeth had a friend who understood the importance of her little one coming in the power and spirit of Elijah. It also gave her someone to talk to, Remember, Zacharias wasn't saying much.

The Story of our Lord's birth has a number of forgotten or overlooked heroes if we read the familiar passages too quickly. Take some time this Christmas Day, or even in the days to come, and reread the stories, Read them a bit more slowly. Think about the people and the times they lived in. Perhaps you will see the wonder of God's tenderness and grace in  a new or surprising way. Merry Christmas and may the peace of God keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.      

"Tom and the Trust Factor"

Even though I have done a few posts on my friendship and remembrance of Tom Earl I feel a bit compelled to write one more. To be honest, it stems from the odd question of "why" that has haunted me a bit. I think fondly of Tom and really do miss him. I miss what we shared together as two guys trying to walk along with Jesus and finding ourselves, all to often, a bit off of the straight and narrow only to be drawn back by the grace of God. What haunted me was the truth that I was not sure why I felt such a bond with this man. Sure we were Elders together. Served together. We loved our wives and children and shared some of the frustrations and challenges that go with being human. Yet, I knew that there was something more than that. I  just could not settle what it was in my mind or spirit. I believe the Lord knew of this unsettled feeling and the disquiet that touched my soul. He found an unusual way to help resolve this odd heart issue.

Strangely enough, the answer came from the last episode of the television series, "Enterprise". I am a bit of a Star Trek addict. I own all the movies. I have viewed the original series numerous times. I moved on to the "Next Generation", "Voyager", and "Deep Space Nine". There was Captain Kirk,  Captain Picard, Captain Janeway, and Captain Sisko. I have viewed the bulk of all these episodes. However, Captain Archer never caught my attention. Then we dumped TV and subscribed to Netflix. There before me was the complete series "Enterprise". My Star Trek addiction returned. How does any of this have to do with my friend Tom? Well, it brought into focus the difference between a trusted friend verses a friend I can trust. Let me explain.

I have shared with a number of people that I shared a trust with Tom that let both of us be real. It was not that we met weekly to share in that trust but simply knew, without a doubt, it was there. In the last episode of "Enterprise" the writers combined the cast of "Next Generation" with the "Enterprise" crew. Forgive me if you are unfamiliar with the Star Trek series, however, that will not be necessary when I get to the odd point of God's revelation to me through this episode. In the story Commander Riker is faced with a difficult decision to make. Counselor Troy suggests he visit the crew of the first Starship Enterprise to gain some perspective. He does so via the holodeck where he can interact with the original crew. In one of the last scenes Riker poses as the ship's cook and has a conversation with Chief Engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker, who is also best friends with the Enterprise Captain, Jonathan Archer. Trip is sharing his admiration for his captain when he tells Commander Riker just why he feels this way. This quote captures and answers the question that has hidden in the shadows of the "why" for Tom Earl. Trip says, "I can count on one hand the number of people I trust. [not like] I only trust you like you aren't lying to me or I trust you won't steal my money. But, I'm talking about the kind of trust where you know someone's not going to hurt you no matter what. Where you know they will always be there for you no matter how bad things get, You ever know anybody like that?"

Yes, Trip, I knew a man like that. There have been and are a number of people I trust. People that I know would never lie or take something from me. People that would support me and even come to my defense. But very few that would never leave no matter how bad things got. I have been in church ministry for over forty years and most of that time it has been pretty positive and rewarding. However, there have been a few times when the leadership of the church was assaulted and I among them. In many of these instances, men I trusted, walked away. They didn't desert me in particular, they had just had enough of the battle and left the conflict behind. Leaving me, and the flock they were called to care for, behind as well. Tom didn't do that. There were times when those who disagreed came after me with a vengeance that few knew.  On the surface they played nice, but in private and covertly, they came after me and even my children with little thought to the damage they accomplished. In the midst of these times it would have been easy to walk away, but my trusted friend never did. He actually made the suggestion, on an occasion, that I find a new ministry and leave the conflict behind. But, I could never leave and break that trust with him either.

Trusted friends are not easy to find. Actually, it seems you just find each other. You never intend to, God just extends grace to let you know there is someone who, like Him, will never leave or forsake you. They do not ignore your faults. They help you become better than you were. Like Trip, I can count these on one hand and the hand got smaller with Tom's passing.

So thanks to Star Trek, I understand a little better what I have lost. Perhaps, it is better and more honest to say, it helped me know what I had found. A trusted friend who helped me move upward on the path to glory. He just got a bit of a head start on me. I'll catch up in God's timing. Until them I just have one more thing to be thankful for. A trusted friend, no matter how long it lasts, is a gift from God. Merry Christmas Tom. See you soon.