Let’s Focus More on Jesus This Year  

At our family gathering on Christmas Eve, some of us played a game one person had received as a gift. It involved trying to get others to guess a word or phrase, but you had to use only one-syllable words in the process. It isn’t as easy as it sounds. It takes effort to limit oneself to such simple language when there are bigger words that could better communicate what you are trying to say. And as the name of the game suggests, it really does make some people sound humorously like Neanderthals as they grunt out nothing but monosyllabic sounds.

Such an exercise should make us appreciate the extent to which God has gone to communicate with us. Think about how an infinite God must have to really simplify everything in order for us finite human beings to understand it. Not only are the concepts He is revealing to us so great – His nature, the Trinity, eternity, His vast love for us, His power that is beyond what we can fathom, and so much more – but He is having to translate it all into languages and ideas that we are capable of grasping. It is no wonder that He often resorted to stories, parables, and word pictures to get certain truths across to us.

However, the ultimate manner in which God has revealed Himself to us is through His Son, Jesus Christ. That is what we just celebrated at Christmas. In his Gospel, John puts it this way: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The title “Word” (Logos) has several connotations, but it basically affirms that Jesus was and is the best way for us to learn about God. He is the supreme revelation of God’s nature, character, and will. When we see Jesus, we see the Father. As scripture testifies elsewhere, Jesus is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3).

Therefore if we truly want to grow in our understanding of God, then we have got to look more closely at Jesus. That is what I have felt challenged to do as we go into this new year. For most of my life I have made it my usual practice to read through the entire Bible during the course of a year. I intend to still do that. However, I am also planning on zeroing in more on those Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. I am hoping to focus more on Jesus not only in order to gain a better picture of God, but also to help me get a greater vision of what God has called me to be like. After all, His goal for each of us is that we be transformed more into the image of His Son. So if I can see Jesus more clearly, then I will also see where I measure up in comparison to Him. I will see where I fall short, where I need to change and grow, and where God has helped me to become more like My Savior.

I would encourage you to do the same this year. Don’t neglect the rest of God’s Word. It is all important. However, focus more attention on Jesus – the real Jesus of the Bible, not the twisted images of Him which some in our modern society and churches try to put forth. Study the Gospels for yourself. Be willing to see the whole picture of Jesus. See this One who is full of both grace and truth, and seek to be more like Him this year.   

 

God’s Gift is for All and for You  

When one part of our family gets together on Christmas Eve, we participate in one of those “white elephant” gift exchanges. You are probably familiar with that fun practice, as individuals either choose a wrapped package with its mystery contents or “steals” a gift someone else has already opened. Sometimes I end up with a present that I can enjoy or put to use. Other times I am left with a gift that I am ready to pass along to someone else who might better appreciate it. I have always found it a little challenging to shop for the present I bring to this event because it needs to be appropriate for a variety of possible recipients. You don’t know exactly who might receive it. It needs to be more generic than personal.

As we celebrate God’s gift to us of His Son to be our Savior, there is a sense in which this wonderful gift is both appropriate for everyone and tailored for each of us individually. The familiar truth of John 3:16 reminds us, “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.” Notice that God’s love includes everyone – the whole world. There is not any individual who has ever lived who was beyond the scope of God’s great love. This gift of sending His Son into the world was motivated out of divine love for all of us. God offers this loving gift to all people regardless of their ethnicity or religion, in spite of their morals or lack thereof, and no matter whether they believe in Him or not. This gift is offered to all.

Likewise, “whoever” can choose to receive that gift. Anyone who “believes in Him” can experience salvation and everlasting life. However, we do have to believe in Him, along with all that such a concept implies. We have to believe in who He is, what He says about our sinful condition, our need to turn from our sin, and the possibility of forgiveness and cleansing through trusting in Jesus as the one-and-only sacrifice for our sins. Every person, no matter who they are or what they have done, is eligible to receive this gift if they will only meet the condition of true faith.

So while this gift of God’s Son is available to and appropriate for all, it isn’t impersonal. While God loves the world, it is also important to realize that He specifically loves each of us individually. He sees you. He knows you. He is aware of everything about you. And He still loved you enough that He sent His Son to be your Savior. What He did for the world in general, He would have done for you if you had been the only person involved.

Similarly, the “whoever” in that call to faith also includes you. God doesn’t just invite “whoever may be willing” to put their trust in Jesus as their Savior. He has sent you a personal invitation to do so. He wants you to enter into that personal relationship with Him. He wants to forgive you of your sins. He wants to transform your heart. He wants to use you in His service in this world. He wants to prepare a spot specifically for you in heaven. Maybe you have heard His call in a sermon, in a Bible reading, through the witness of other people, or through the small voice of the Holy Spirit or His gentle tug on your heart. Have you responded?

Let’s rejoice that God’s gift of His Son is for everyone. And let’s be grateful that it is also specifically for you and me.   

 

The Spirit of Herod Lives On  

After watching one of the classic film versions of The Christmas Carol, I was reminded of the fact that many of our Christmas stories not only have their heroes but also their villains. Bedford Falls has its mean Mr. Potter. A Miracle on 34^th Street has the unstable company psychologist who is determined to get Kris Kringle committed to a mental institution. Whoville has its Grinch. And in the movie I had just watched, there was the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. Some of those characters were transformed by the end of the story. However, others so hardened their hearts that they remained villainous even at the story’s conclusion.  

Even the biblical account of Jesus’ birth has it’s “bad guy.” King Herod connived to destroy this newborn king whom he viewed as a threat to his own power and throne. He deceived the wise men, telling them that he also wanted to find this king in order to worship Him. However, when the wise men were warned not to return to Herod, he acted on his true intention, ruthlessly murdering all the male infants in Bethlehem who might have fallen within the age-range of this special child.

We still have to beware of the spirit of Herod that lives on today. Not only are there those who blatantly oppose Christ and all that He represents, but there are others who claim to worship Him who, whether intentionally or unintentionally, are seeking to destroy Him and replace Him with their own re-created version of Jesus. They are deceiving others and, in some cases, maybe deceiving themselves.

They want to do away with the Jesus who proclaimed that He is the way, the truth, and the life – and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). They want to replace Him with their revised version of Jesus who thinks people of all religions are acceptable to God and are on equal footing, even if their teachings contradict the Bible and even if they reject the truth about Jesus being the Son of God.

They want to destroy the Jesus who plainly stated that He had come to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28), and create a Jesus who was simply a good man, great teacher, and role model rather than the sacrifice for our sins.

They want to kill the Jesus who declared that He had not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, and that not one little part of it would pass away (Matthew 5:17-18). They want to replace Him with a Jesus who allows people to pick which parts of God’s Word to believe and which parts they can reinterpret to fit their own beliefs.

They want to make people forget about the Jesus who spoke frequently about judgment and a place of eternal torment (Mark 9:42-48). They want to substitute a Jesus who only focused on love and forgiveness, one who will make sure everyone makes it to heaven.

They want to destroy the Jesus who from the beginning preached a message of repentance of sin (Matthew 4:17). They want to re-create Him into someone who accepts people and forgives them whether or not they are willing to accept what God labels sin and whether or not they are willing to forsake their sin.

God protected His Son from Herod’s schemes, and I believe He can still protect the truth and those who truly seek Jesus today. However, many innocent souls suffered the consequences of Herod’s actions, and there are those today who are victims of these deceivers. Watch out for the villains of our present-day Christmas. Let’s pray that they and their misguided victims will see the light and experience their own Scrooge-like transformation before the end of their story.

 

Look to Jesus for Stability  

Recently my oldest grandson and his friend came over to our house to help assemble our makeshift stable for our outdoor nativity scene. My son-in-law had created this structure for us some years ago primarily using wooden pallets. As we put the shelter for baby Jesus together this time, it was noticeably shakier than in past years. My grandson discovered a cracked board as one of the problems, subsequently adding a few more screws in order to make it sturdier. However, he concluded that the pallets were getting old and it might be time soon to replace them or build a new structure. Hopefully it will survive this season without falling down on top of Joseph, Mary, and the baby. I guess you could say that we currently have an unstable stable.

The birth of Jesus took place in a rather unstable setting too. I am not referring to the barn in which He was born. (Some think it may have actually been within a cave that the animals were housed, making it an even more permanent and safe shelter.) I am referring to the fact that there is always a great deal of uncertainty in this changing and temporal world. However, there are times when things can be even more unsteady. It was an unstable time for the Jewish people as they were forced to exist under the unwelcome authoritarian rule of the Romans. And it had certainly been an unusually chaotic season for Joseph and Mary – the visits from the angel, the astounding news about a divinely-conceived pregnancy, the questions and struggles over being chosen to be the parents of such a special child, and dealing with the societal stigma of those who would misunderstand their situation. On top of that, they ended up having to travel away from home to Bethlehem just as the time of birth was drawing near. Then they were relegated to the smelly, dirty location where animals were kept instead of a nice, comfortable room - nothing stable there.

Our world still isn’t very stable today. Wars and threats of wars. Changes in leadership. Uncertain economies. Crime and violence. Contagious diseases. Maybe our own personal worlds have additional cracks in its boards. Job uncertainties. Shaky relationships. The loss of loved ones. At times our stable isn’t very stable.

Thankfully, we can have a firm support in our lives, no matter how uncertain and shaky our world becomes. It is found in that same little baby born in Bethlehem. At His birth He may have appeared fragile and weak – certainly not strong enough to be a beam that could hold up a shaking world. However, this was more than simply a newborn infant. This was the eternal Son of God taking on flesh and blood. This was Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. This was the Rock of ages who could withstand any storm. This was the Ancient of Days who was, and is, and always will be. This was the ultimate in stability and support coming in to take the weight of a crumbling world on His shoulders.

This same Jesus can be our support and help in uncertain times. He can not only bring stability to our shaky circumstances, but He can give us peace and can steady our hearts even as our world crumbles around us. Sometimes He may hold our situations together with His powerful hand, but other times He may hold us together as the things around us fall apart. If we lean on Him, He will not let us down.

So if your stable is unstable these days, look to Jesus as the one who can hold you up and see you safely through. Put your trust in Him.

 

God’s Mercy Gives You Another Chance  

One recent Sunday morning I had just begun to preach when I spied a tiny black spider on the podium, one of those whose main defense mechanism involves hopping around in order to avoid its enemies. I quickly decided my best course of action was to pause my sermon, give a brief explanation to the congregation, and get rid of that potential distraction. I didn’t kill it – not due to any affection I have for spiders, but mainly because I had nothing to whack it with other than my Bible. Additionally, I knew this species could be rather evasive, so neither did I want to take the time to be chasing it around. So I simply brushed it off the podium and resumed the message.

I thought no more about that incident until the next Sunday morning when I approached the pulpit prior to the worship service. What greeted me there? You guessed it. The spider was back. He had not taken the opportunity of my showing him mercy to scamper off elsewhere. No, he had returned to the same spot, seemingly determined to take up residence there. Therefore I made sure he didn’t survive our second encounter.

That spider did not take advantage of the second chance I had offered to it. How do we respond when God shows us mercy? As others have noted, He is a God not only of second chances but of third, fourth, and countless other chances. In a sense, it can be said that His mercy has no limit. Psalm 136 repeats over and over again at the end of every verse in what was likely meant to be sung as a responsive chorus, “For His mercy endures forever.”  

 One of the best scriptural descriptions of God is found in Exodus 34:6-7 and is repeated in some form several other times in the Bible. “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” God’s mercy is one of His greatest attributes, and one for which we should be so very grateful. If God gave us what we deserve, we would all be in big trouble. Instead, He offers us mercy, providing us with the opportunity to receive forgiveness for our sins. And unlike my attitude toward that spider, God does have affection for us. He shows us mercy out of His great love for us.

However, we must take advantage of the opportunity He graciously gives us. His merciful nature does not mean that He will automatically keep us from suffering the penalty of our sin or its consequences. He gives us the opportunity to avoid it, but He doesn’t force it upon us. If we stubbornly continue in our sin or refuse to receive His grace, He will eventually give us what we want. That description of God we noted earlier had another part to it – “by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 34:7). If we don’t accept God’s mercy, we will have to face His judgment, along with its negative consequences that can affect those around us. We have to remember that while it is true that God is loving and merciful, He is also holy and just.

God has shown mercy to each one of us. He loved us so much that He sent Jesus to take the penalty for our sin. We can be forgiven. No matter what we have done, God gives us another chance. Don’t ignore it. Don’t keep going your own way. Take advantage of the wonderful mercy of God while you can.