Peace on Earth - Part Three

”That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's always been about. Gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts. You wanna know what happens to your gifts? They all come to me. In your garbage. You see what I'm saying? In your garbage. I could hang myself with all the bad Christmas neckties I found at the dump. And the avarice... The avarice never ends! ’I want golf clubs. I want diamonds. I want a pony so I can ride it twice, get bored and sell it to make glue.’ Look, I don't wanna make waves, but this whole Christmas season is stupid, stupid, stupid!” … The Grinch “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”

The presents have all been opened and the boxes and pretty papers have all been thrown away. The last of the leftovers from a family feast are now tucked away in the refrigerator for late night snacks. Friends and family that we haven’t seen since last year are now on their way back to their respective homes with memories of the fond times that have been spent together and planning for next year’s trip. The holiday is over…

Now that Christmas ’08 is officially in the books do your thoughts echo that of our green friend? What was your Christmas about? Have the dinner conversations been about how this person gave more than that person? Are we spending time comparing what Uncle Fred gave us this year to what he gave in years past? If that is the case then I would have to agree with our green friend. Christmas isn’t worth the headache if it is all about out-doing the relatives and complaining about what we received.

Christmas is about a gift, a gift so extravagant and wonderful that there is nothing to compare it to. A gift that the entire world is searching for but most have not found. This gift is Jesus Christ our Savior. We celebrate Christmas to bring to remembrance this most beautiful gift. And like most of the other good things in the world, this celebration has been corrupted and twisted by the Adversary into something that distracts us from the truth of the Father.

Look at what Isaiah says:

”For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

”Unto us a Child is born”… To us!?!?!? Unbelievable! We are liars, murderers, thieves, and adulterers. All of us have black hearts and there is none righteous, not even one! Unto us? Did you buy a present for someone who hates you this year? Would you give that person your child?

That is the message of the angels on the night that Christ was born, the amazing message of “Peace on Earth, goodwill to men”. It is because of God’s willingness to be at peace with man that Christ came to us. It is because God has goodwill toward man that we are given the Son. Never forget that we are God's enemy because of our sin, that is what makes our salvation so amazing!

The gift that Christ brings us is peace with God! Hallelujah! We are not lost and dead in our sins! We can be reborn again! Christmas is not about simply loving your fellow man, it is about coming to the Father to accept the wonderful gift of the Son.

Coming to Him is both the easiest and the hardest thing that you’ll ever do. It is hard because you first have to admit that you need Him:

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is hard because you must repent of your sin:

Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

It is hard because you have to believe that Jesus is who He said He was and did everything He said He did:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

It is hard because you must confess Him as Lord:

Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

It is easy because God gives you the faith to do these things if you’d only believe Him:

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Don’t let another Christmas season go by without accepting the gift of Jesus Christ. Let us all enter 2009 with a new zeal to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Grace and peace to you all…

Peace on Earth - Part Two

This post was originally published back on October 5th while we were discussing Psalm 90. It bears repeating because it says everything I wanted to say today about the cry of the angels from Luke. We are at enmity with God because of our fallen state and we need a Savior. The angels are announcing God's peace on earth and His goodwill toward men on the night that Jesus stepped into our world...

More on the gift of Christmas tomorrow...
Praise God for His forgiveness today.

Jeff

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Psalm 90:7 7 For we have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified.

Can you imagine a world without sickness and death? I have to admit that I cannot. I would argue that every aspect of our lives is tainted by our desire for self preservation. We work so that we can have food/clothing/shelter and we take medicines/vitamins so that our bodies can fight off the effects of disease. How much energy (both mental and physical) could we devote to other causes if we didn’t have to devote so much to these causes?

That world existed once and we can get a glimpse of what it must have been like. Go to the front of your Bible and look at this world described in Genesis 2:

8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It must have been a wonderful place! God could have put Adam anywhere but He chose to put him in a place where every tree was “pleasant to the sight”. Drab trees would have been fine for Adam, he wouldn’t have known any better after all, but God chose to put him in a place of beauty. We can glean from Genesis 3 that God regularly walked in the garden in the cool of the day, what a wondrous thing!

Can you imagine it? Man and woman in the most beautiful place in the world having direct contact with God every day. No worry about food because every tree has some. No worry about clothing or shelter because the weather is always perfect. No worry about disease – what’s that? And the icing on the cake – God is there with you every day!

But…

We all know what happens in Genesis 3. Sin enters the world through Adam and everything is changed. Look at the curse from God to Adam in Genesis 3:

17Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Everything changed because of sin. Death enters the world. Everything in creation begins to die. Everything. Even as I type this I am dying. Don’t feel too bad for me because as you read this you are dying as well. Our bodies are winding down and like a wind up toy with broken works these bodies will cease to function.

Why would I say that? Look at our verse from today ,”For we have been consumed by your anger”. Moses could apply that verse to himself in a very special way. Because of Israel’s disobedience the entire generation that came out of Egypt was going to die in the wilderness. The only two to be spared were Joshua and Caleb (See Numbers 14). What must that have been like for Moses? He had to watch an entire generation die because of their disobedience. He himself would also be denied entrance into the promise land because of his own sin (See Numbers 20). No wonder he uses a word like consumed!

The verse contains application for us as well. None of us escape the effects of sin because all of us are sinners. Look at a couple of verses here:

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Who has sinned? All of us.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…” A wage is something you earn for a job.

What is the job that we accomplished? Sin…
Who has done this work? All…
What is the payment for this work? Death…

When we come to this realization we too should echo Moses’ next words, “and by Your wrath we are terrified.” There’s an understatement if I ever heard one. Think of how God dealt with His people in the Old Testament. God’s judgment showed up in mighty ways; an entire generation dying in the wilderness, fiery serpents, the ground opening up and swallowing dissenters, etc. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living, holy God when we come to understand the depths of our sin. We should be thankful that we live in an age where God is showering His people with abundant grace and mercy.

I don’t want to leave us at this place of judgment though. Let’s look at the back half of Romans 6:23 “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”. It is true that we deserve death and separation from God because of our sin but it is also true that we can have eternal life through God’s great mercy.

Accept that gift of eternal life given through Christ Jesus. If we have learned anything from this Psalm so far it is that we can come face to face with the Father before we are ready. Let us not waste our energy worshipping those things that will return to dust. Let us instead worship the Father and work to bring as many into the Kingdom as we can.

Mercy and grace to you all…

Peace On Earth - Part One

Luke 2:7-14 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Do you recognize the scripture from above? It’s the shout of the angels on the night of Jesus’ birth. “Peace, goodwill toward men!”- a glorious promise. With Christmas right around the corner I thought we’d spend a little time talking about the peace of Christmas.

Ever hear the song “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day”? Me too… Did you know there was a story behind it? Me neither… Gather round children and let me tell you a tale…

The song that we are all familiar with is based on a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. As the story goes he wrote it on Christmas Day in 1863 after hearing the church bells ring out. Does that date buzz in your head at all? That puts the penning of this poem right smack dab in the middle of the Civil War, one of the bloodiest times in our nation’s history. As if the war wasn’t enough, Mr. Longfellow also had recent personal tragedies to cope with. His wife had died in a fire in 1861 and he was left with scars on his hands and face from trying to put the fire out. He also had the stress of two sons in the war – one of which had been injured.

Put yourself in his shoes as you read the words he has penned. Look for a moment at the sixth stanza “And in despair I bowed my head”. He was going through a time of darkness in his own life and the joyous sound of the bells on Christmas day seemed to be mocked by the world that he was living in. He was living through a time of personal and national turmoil. From his vantage point he saw only hate.

But take a look at the last stanza of the poem - you can almost see the poet lifting his eyes to Heaven as the bells rang. No matter how bad the circumstances of his life were he had the hope of Christmas to cut through the blackness of the day with the cry of “PEACE!” “PEACE!” “PEACE!”.

Would that we would catch that same message today… No matter how bleak things are God has not forgotten us! Our hope is not in Presidents, the banks, the auto makers, or our military strength. Our hope is in Christ! Let us remember that the things that we endure in this life are only for a short time. Let us listen for His cry of “PEACE!” in our lives and hold onto that during the darkness…

We’ll close for today with Mr. Longfellow’s poem. Let the cry of the angels and the thought behind the poem digest overnight and we’ll come back tomorrow to continue our discussion about the peace of Christmas.

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Christmas Bells
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said:
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!"


Check out www.hwlongfellow.org for more information on the poet.

Worth the Trip

This is worth a read. I'll wait for you to get back...

When you hear the words "biblical definition of marriage" what do you think it means?

On a completely different subject I also want to apologize for my recent lack of posts - no excuse but sloth.

Check back next week - I've got some stuff I want to share with you about the gift of Christmas and then back to Psalm 92...

Jeff

Psalm 91:14-16

Psalm 91:14-16 14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”

We turn a bend here in the Psalm. In the previous verses the psalmist talks of what it means to trust God completely. He tells us of his protection and provision and reminds us that when we stand in God’s will we are invincible. Now the speaker changes to God Himself. Look at where He starts - Because he has set his love upon Me. What does it mean to set our love upon God? Let’s look at what Jesus says about loving God in Matthew 22:

36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38“This is the first and great commandment.

We are to love Him with all of our heart, soul and mind. The Hebrews looked at the heart as the core of one’s personal being, the soul as emotion, and the mind as our mental endeavor and strength. Jesus is telling us that we are to love God with everything that we are. That’s a pretty consuming proposition, isn’t it?

But look at the reward of setting our love upon God. Look at all the “I wills” that God promises in the verses that follow:

I will deliver him
I will set him on high
I will answer him
I will be with him
I will honor him
I will satisfy him
I will save him

That’s pretty wonderful, isn’t it? We become the focus of God’s attention simply for loving Him with everything that we are. Remember the theme of the Psalm up to this point however. God is not in the business of making us comfortable. The honor and deliverance that He promises is ultimately answered in the next life and not this one.

I think it’s beautiful that the last verse says "With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation". Are you satisfied with God? Is He perfect in your eyes? Does He provide for your every need? Does He answer you when you call upon Him? Are you satisfied with Him?

Notice I didn’t say “Is your life satisfying?”. As I write this post several things about my life come to mind that I am not satisfied with but I can honestly say that I am satisfied with Him. He continues to love me in spite of all my failures. He is patient with me as I struggle with my inability to love Him with everything that I am (there’s a topic for another post). But I am completely satisfied with God. I also long for the day when I see His salvation.

Love God… Be satisfied with Him.

Grace and peace to you all…