Saturday, December 14, 2013

Advent, A Baby Changes Everything

I've been sick. We both have. Nothing serious, but enough to be miserable, especially with the holidays coming. We went out shopping this week. I have to admit, neither of us had much Christmas spirit. It's been two weeks, so I'm sure we are not contagious, but between hacking and coughing and runny nose, I feel grumpy, and I'm sure people around us wish we'd just go away. Jim says I should carry a box of Kleenex with me. Maybe I could put one on a string and carry it like a purse. We hurried through our list and went back to the motorhome as quickly as possible. Yesterday I wrapped and mailed all of our out-of-town gifts. I feel relieved, but not particularly filled with good will towards man.


About Christmas. I love Christmas. I want to be excited to celebrate the birth of my Savior. The reality of the holiday gets lost so easily in the hustle and bustle and all the things we think we "need" to do, that it's hard to recapture the spirit of the "holy day." And life intrudes. This year our precious son-in-law Gary is battling an invasive cancer. Dear friends are struggling with health issues. It's hard to feel festive in the midst of life. I heard a song the other day that really made me think. What must it have been like for Mary that first Christmas? She was betrothed - engaged to be married. Her people were under the iron-rule of the Romans, who demanded taxes and required a census to be taken. They didn't have census workers who came to the house. They had to travel on foot, with perhaps a donkey to carry their necessities, to their ancestral home, about 80 miles away. Then, to complicate matters, God decided it was time to send the Messiah. A Baby Changes Everything.

Prophets had predicted the coming of Jesus. In Isaiah 11: 1-2, 6 & 10, the Messiah's birth and lineage is foretold. And Mary knew her scripture. We can assume that based on her response to the angel and her words to her cousin Elizabeth in the "Magnificat" quoted in Luke 1: 47-55. Still, I'm sure she'd never considered the possibility that God would choose her to fulfill His plan. In an instant, her life was turned upside down, and the world has never been the same.
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. Luke 1: 26-38






Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace



Isaiah, the prophet of The LORD of Heaven’s Armies (Isaiah 1:9) lived 700 years before Christ was born, and spent his ministry warning Israel and Judah about their sins and God’s judgment, calling them to repent. The powerful Assyrian army was advancing.
From Isaiah 1: 10, 15-20. Sounds like he could be talking to us today.
10 Listen to the Lord, you leaders of “Sodom.” Listen to the law of our God, people of “Gomorrah.”
15 When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look. Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.
16 Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways.
17 Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.
18 “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.
19 If you will only obey me, you will have plenty to eat.
20 But if you turn away and refuse to listen, you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (New Living Testament)

But that’s not the end of it. Later on, Isaiah writes a passage that has become one of the most beautiful songs of all times. Handel’s Messiah. Isaiah 9: 2 & 6-7 foretells the coming of the Christ child. Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen! (New Living Testament)
  
Isaiah began warning the people of Israel and Judah about their destruction because of God's judgment against them, but then he tells of the Assyrian’s destruction and God’s divine plan. God's plan isn't just for Israel and Judah -- not just for His chosen people, but for the entire world. For me. And that is why I celebrate Advent.

Here is a You Tube of part of Handel's Messiah for your listening inspiration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN5BaOGTmGs


A Most Exciting Time

The coming of Christmas means different things to different people. Holidays. Shopping. Giving. Receiving. Decorating. Singing carols. Listening to Run, Run, Rudolph or Santa Baby, ad nauseam. (I'm already tired of them. Seems to be all XM radio offers.) To some it means loneliness and pain, and yet it is the hope for all nations that someday the pain and loneliness will end and Joy will reign.

One of my favorite years, out at the ranch, we had the whole family together. We all got red PJs, or house pants, as Gary would say. We posed for a picture in front of the fireplace. The girls have grown a bit since then, and I have a few more gray hairs, but those years at the ranch were magical times of big house parties and food and games and presents, but also of sharing the Christmas story and worshiping our Redeemer.


To me, the weeks leading up to Christmas are fun, hectic, sometimes stressful, but behind all the hype, it means celebrating that my Savior came to the world as a tiny baby, in the most humble circumstance, to save the world. We've celebrated Advent at church, lighting a candle each week and reading passages from the account of Christ's birth, and we had an advent calendar almost every year when our kids were small. This year, I want to take time to contemplate and celebrate the advent, the coming of the Lord Jesus.

What is Advent? Advent comes from the Latin word Adventus, meaning 'coming.' I've seen it defined as the fourth Sunday before Christmas and the first Sunday in December. This year, that would be December 1st by either definition.

The Bible is filled with prophesies about the coming of Jesus Christ. The stage was set from the beginning. When man and woman decided they knew better than God (Ouch - like I've never done that!) The woman - Eve - blamed the serpent for her disobedience. (Ouch again. I would never blame someone else for my bad decisions or actions. Right.)

Genesis 3: 14-15 Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring [prophesy about Christ]. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” 

I've been amazed, reading through the Bible, how many times the old testament refers to the Messiah. Googling old testament references to the coming of Messiah, I find lots of differing thoughts. One sight claims there are 400 references to Christ's coming. Another claims over 60 prophesies and 300 references. However many there are, there are many.

This past winter we visited friends in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Museum of History. What an amazing exhibit. We saw the actual jars, or clay vats that held the scrolls. We saw many artifacts from that time, and many pieces and sections of the scrolls that have been reassembled. Among them was one of the Isaiah scrolls. They found several of these, all copies from the original. This one was the oldest and most complete scroll found. It is believed to have been made 125 years before Christ, and hidden in the caves at Qumran about 70 AD, when the Romans laid siege to the Jews. http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah

It gave me chills to be in the presence of the scrolls and the artifacts that, to me, confirm my faith. I am going through the Christmas story this Advent season, and invite you to come along with me.