Christmas is when God chose to make Himself known to us through a human being. That is what I hope you can reflect and meditate upon this year and during every subsequent year around this time; that Jesus is the supreme revelation.
There really never were smiling cows at the scene. You’ve seen a wide range of depictions. We know, though, that the circumstances were direr. Joseph, the father of Jesus, did not have the money or the clout to get his wife, Mary, a decent room at the Inn. Jesus was born in a feed trough where dirt and the smell of urine permeated.
How are you impacted by this? What does this do to your mind? What does this do to your heart? God, the God to which scripture tells us cannot be directly looked upon for the intensity of His glory would kill us. So, His Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
He did not come to us born into a grand palace; there was no majesty to His life here. God stripped His brilliance. That is Christmas. During His ministry, He was broken, rejected and betrayed. The circumstances around the birth of Christ point us toward humbleness.
We live in a post Genesis 3 world and that means our lives are filled with struggles. When you feel as if the ice under your feet is cracking, turn toward this historical account; the detailed retelling of the birth of Jesus and study His life and his teaching. Your head could explode from the gift of all of this. He came so you could have permanent citizenship, interwoven in the glory you can not now withstand, eternally.
Of course, we celebrate Christmas in ways that are far off from the message of meekness from which it began. We are in this world so please don’t complain and moan about how off track we have gotten. Take the opportunity of the time to really love people. And take time for you, to express gratitude to God for becoming the Word on our behalf.
In the midst of the activity of Christmastime, keep your eyes on things above. Honor the pace of God in the lives of others and in your own life and join others in their merriment with your grounded heart; one filled with humility and love.
I pray for you both to churn your spiritual knowledge into wisdom and to remain grateful for the incarnation of God on earth. Merry Christmas to my beautiful daughters.
The grand artist, God, created us in His plan with free will. People often question that formation of us and protest the results, as well. I suppose in some peculiar sense, life here would be more manageable if we could be programmed but God didn’t envision robotic creatures in His design.
The difficult consequence of the gift of free will is that people can choose to misalign themselves from the light. However, without choice, how could we love? No question, we can easily look around and see heart wrenching evil and wonder, “How can God allow this?” Children and adults in private households are being abused. Cold and calculated acts of hate and murder make up the daily news. Genocide of religious and ethnic groups is taking place around the globe, not just in history but right now. With intention, there are charlatan characters ready to pounce on unsuspecting victims with no remorse. We steal, lie, cheat and destroy. Why would a good God permit the mayhem?
When you were both growing, I would instruct you. My aim did not always match the outcome. I may have asked you to clean your room and you may have chosen to not do the task. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t want you to clean your room. It means that you chose to not follow my instruction. God, likewise, instructs us. It is his desire that we will follow the teaching of Christ. If we choose not to do so, it doesn’t mean that God is not good. It means, with our free will, we chose to not oblige Him.
Of all the precious gifts given to us by God, I do find I am most grateful for my free will, albeit it is also the weightiest gem of all. It was this very element that twisted an angel into a fallen angel. I struggle, like most of us do, with this prize. Yet, I can’t ponder the possibility of any creativeness, joy, fellowship, desire or empathy that could even exist without it in any of our lives.
Daughters, as you go on, we know one thing for sure. You will have days of happiness and days of despair. Look around in your closest circle and you will find varied spirit circumstances. Life is that way for you, too, day to day and year to year. We know that days of laughter can be as unpredictable as days of despair. And, there will be times when the world at large seems to have just gone mad. These things will not change as long as free will is given. There will be disasters you can’t even process, not just done by man but by nature that we can’t explain, at this time anyway. God directly tells us in Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” Perhaps not until we are with Him will we have full discovery about all matters. Thus, my prayer is that your heart has been changed now at its root.
Let the Word dwell in you so richly that your feet are firmly planted amidst the myriad of chaos. Read Colossians 2:7 – “Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
There is so much about me that is not like Christ. Grace. We all go up and down spiritually and encounter competing loyalties. Remind yourself, every part of you belongs to Jesus. Rely on that power to maintain your peace through it all. If you really believe that Jesus is who He says He is, know of Him. It’s not all just some cognitive concept but it is a reality that affects lives. Read the Word. Pray on the Word. Confess and adore the Word until it starts to catch fire and relaxes your beautiful hearts.
Dearest Samantha and Adrianna,
I look forward to living for at least another couple of decades. I just have no prophetic gift to know that I will. If I do go home unexpectedly, I don’t want you to depend upon your best guesses about what I would have wanted to say to both of you.
Possibly surprisingly, I’m not going to concentrate on my full-scale love for my daughters. You already know about that part. If I were to describe its span, the words would only diminish its scope. So, I hope, at the very least, you have always been assured of the love of your mother. Central to my purpose in writing you, then, is to give you some of my insights for life, mainly reflective. And I begin my first writing to you. If it is God’s will, there will be more.
The Word unfolds the reality of our perpetuity. So, first, let’s rejoice. We were chosen by Christ and have accepted his gracious promise for eternal life. We know we have a permanent citizenship in heaven and that your brief separation from me will pale in comparison to the glory together and forever.
Until we do meet again, my expectation for you both is that you examine the Word daily. It is my strongest desire for you. The Bible broadens your intellect and purifies your heart. Manifest the wisdom of the peerless instruction. Never take for granted this gift. In my death, my confidence for my daughters comes from your faith. Isaac Newton said, “We account the scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatever.” And with that God breathed account, comes light and a clear path to Christ, our bridge to God.
Please don’t stumble over the simplicity of the gospel. It’s the resurrection of Jesus on which history turns. Read the Book of Acts again and understand that the apostles preached the resurrection, not signs and miracles. Those miracles, signs and wonders were necessary for validation. Please don’t pray to activate God in order to get the desires of your heart. And that kind of challenge was going on even when Jesus was alive. Remember when the crowds were looking for Jesus after they had eaten the bread and fish that fed five thousand. They asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Even after they had witnessed the event, they grasped for more physical and temporal benefit. Don’t forget, ever, how Jesus responded. “You have seen me and you still do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.” He did not oblige the request for further signs and wonders. The miracle is that we will be raised and have eternal life. We don’t need to test God. He gave us the Word.
Although God does tell us that He is not going to tell us everything (there are secret things that belong to the Lord…Deuteronomy 29:29), what has been revealed to us, belongs to us. Jesus gave up his life to have a relationship with us. He directs us to love Him and one another. That’s not highly complicated. That is the new covenant.
So, be relational. Love people in your walk. Deepen your relationships to the point of accountability. As you grow in wisdom (and the prayer for wisdom is good), you will be able to discern motives. You can still give love under thorny circumstances but friendships should not be all of this self consciousness, drama and intrigue. The problem lies in the human heart. I pray for you both to have the clarity to gauge the difference between authentic fellowship and cultural, superficial friendship. I never want you to become the type of person that believes everyone has a double meaning to what they say. You know, there is no hidden cryptic meaning in much of life. I was actually asked by a friend just the other day, “Now, what did you really mean when you asked me what my day was like?” But, indeed, there are dishonest questions. A genuine question comes from a desire to know the answer. And then, there are questions designed to create pain or argument. Paul instructs Timothy on this if you can sit down and read that one evening.
It’s better to have a few genuine, weighty friendships than many empty connections where you do not know each other. Study the rightly famous friendship of Jonathon and David. Read the passages about friendship in the Book of Proverbs. We can’t develop closeness with God without knowing Him. Thus, He gave us the Word. Likewise, we can’t create meaningful relationships with our brothers and sisters if we know nothing about them or vice versa.
You were both born with gifts; abilities enhanced by the Holy Spirit to build up the common good. For His glory, use those gifts. Develop and grow stronger in your walk and the ways in which you can best contribute will become clearer and clearer. We’re all flawed instruments and we need not offer ourselves only when we believe we have become perfect in our purpose. Our involvement in contributing to the kingdom will always be a humble mess to some degree. God knows our secret hearts and if your intent is righteous, you can more easily admit that we are all striving more than living the truth. Our failures, though, don’t extinguish the love of God.
Regarding spiritual gifts, I want to just caution you in this way. If the joy is in your gifts and not in your salvation, you’ll end up falling into a pagan mindset. People can exhibit gifts and become very busy serving without changed hearts. Look back at how Paul rebuked the Corinthian Church in concerning their spiritual gifts. He speaks about the inadequacy of gifts without love. And, in fact, the people in Corinth had strong gifts but there was enormous jealously, division, pride, disputes and proneness to sin. Think also about Mary and Martha. Dr. Luke describes how Martha essentially believed Mary should be looked upon unfavorably because she wasn’t busy serving. “Lord, Martha asked, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?” Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to what He said. Jesus replied, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” That is, of course service is good. Mary and Martha both loved Jesus. Please just don’t become so busy serving that it becomes self serving or ever a source of pride. Make certain you are spending time with Jesus and loving others.
Daughters, it’s not your job to tweak the message of the Word to make it more palatable. Throughout the Bible there is an unremitting counsel to not accommodate false teaching. There is a unique confidence you will have if you continue to examine the Word for yourself. Please know that there are people out there counting on you being biblically illiterate. Bid them speedy riddance. In a quest to bamboozle people, their preaching may sound as if they are in the orb of sound doctrine. But, it’s about the cash. It is Christian merchandising and I pray you never find yourself at the feet of their teachings.
The false teachers will come as angels of light. They are not going to deny God. In fact, they may claim to have a direct link to Him. You don’t need to stick to a false humility when you spot the wolves in sheep’s clothing. The Word does warn us to not judge hypocritically but it does instruct us over and over to show discernment for false teachers. We are absolutely called to judge false doctrine. It is not an option. It’s a duty. It’s a mandate.
We have seen the miracle of conversion in our lives. The mountain has been moved. We have been transformed and our hearts have been restructured. I hope that never stops profoundly amazing you. God loves you because he loves you. Grace. When you truly figure out the impact of that, you will have no motive to not find delight in the Lord in gratitude.
Expect that you are going to run into disapproval in your life. Know that you will suffer. Your goal in this life shouldn’t be to be pain free and happy all the time. If those are your desires, you’ll be miserable. The key is to learn to suffer well. We’re in a fallen world. There will come a time when there will be only light and no darkness. That is your future. God is Light. So, as Paul instructed, be transformed now by the renewing of your mind. Don’t take the forks in the road that take you away from the light. Your mission now is to love, through joy and sorrow. The thing is, a by-product of the restructured heart is joy and peace, even in the face of your greatest struggles.
My spiritual eyes are so proud of both of you. You have equally developed poise and courage to subdue emotional reactions in others and to not allow difficult circumstances to make you bitter or to make excuses. You love people and want to serve. You have empathy and beautiful hearts. With my soul on my knees, I thank God for you both. Samantha, I remain grateful that you had the great wisdom to marry Natalino and Adrianna, I pray you also may one day enter into a marriage with a man of the same caliber. Know, dear daughter, your worth and walk in the glory you deserve. I love you both with all of my heart and all of my soul.
It’s not that Christians don’t talk about it. We do, from time to time. For sure, though, I never knew about the true outward appearance of Jesus when I was a non-Christian. As disciples of Christ, we just don’t actually engage the thought enough to go deeper in our understanding and wisdom. Jesus wasn’t attractive. The only verse in the bible about His physical form, before His death and resurrection, is found in Isaiah 53:2. It says, “He had no majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”
When I was an atheist, I never read that representation in the Bible and no one ever mentioned it to me. But then, with the exception of some out of context verses every now and then, I was not an ardent student of doctrine. And too, during most any time that I did spend reading the Word, I was intent on finding ways to destroy Christians in arguments.
Instead of serious study, I depended upon other non-believers to tell me about the writings and I mainly listened to those who spoke of the absurdity of scripture. Shortly after my conversion, roughly three years ago, I read Isaiah and I was incredibly jolted. Western art and movies had always depicted Jesus as some version of a blue-eyed, sandy brown haired guy with striking good looks. Coming of age, as I did, in the 1970’s, Jesus was, in point of fact, a dreamboat.
It should be intellectually credible, then, for Christians to relax their own pursuit for outward beauty or the judgment of others based on their external presence. That fact alone, that Jesus was rather ordinary looking at best, should reasonably be able to catapult us into not obsessing about our own loveliness. And you may have reached that understanding. But maybe not.
When you look at a group photo and you are in that group photo, who is the first person you seek? I asked a group of honest friends that question and the answer was…they looked at themselves first. When they glance at a photo, they admitted, if they look good then the photo is deemed good or the opposite for a bad shot of themselves.
Women especially are somewhat trapped in a culture of high beauty expectations. I probably don’t need to convince most of this ongoing struggle. We all see the obvious signs in our media and stamped all over billboards and advertisements. For me, I know this to be true. At 55, my eyes are baggier, my body is looser and my deep facial lines are deeper. And, even though I have the working knowledge of how out of spiritual sync it is to focus on the external, I am not oblivious to these changes occurring in my appearance, though I am growing more in wisdom daily as I meditate on the Word. In fact, believe me; I don’t know that I could survive the aging process without tail spinning into melancholy if I were a non-believer.
My fig leaves; my make-up, my blown hair and by well kempt nails haven’t disappeared just because I now realize that these smokescreens are indeed aiding me in my ongoing desire to hide behind them. Since the fall of man, we all cover-up with appearances, in varying degrees. We fear that without the house, the career, the car, the great kids, whatever it is, we would be exposed and we’d rather not be bare, just like Adam and just like Eve did not want exposure. Thus, my eyeliner eases my anxiety a bit.
While my desire to enhance my spiritual beauty grows, I haven’t entirely lost my need to embellish certain manifestations I’ve created, albeit the necessity of that requirement upon myself is dissipating. The relief that comes with this journey is like removing tiny stones from my eyes, slowly but assuredly.
Jesus did not stand out from the crowd in beauty
I didn’t necessarily see it when I was in the vortex of the culture which somehow defines our beauty but when I look back on it, oh my, it was insane. I didn’t realize how wired I was to respond to the standard. And honestly, no one really knows why we view beauty the way we view beauty. Sociologists have their explanations, as do the evolutionists, the psychologists and even the beauty queens and ugly ducklings alike. I don’t claim to know why certain symmetrical features appeal to us and others don’t.
I do know this. It’s nothing new. Simply revisit the Book of Esther in the Bible if you hesitate to believe that this has been a thing for a very long time. Queen Vashti was deposed because she didn’t obey her husband, King Xerxes. Her unwillingness to come out and parade her beauty to her husband’s group of drunken male guests was her downfall. The King found worth for himself in the extreme beauty of his wife and hence, for his pride’s sake, ordered her to present herself to the crowd. When she was dethroned, something of an international beauty pageant was held to find a new queen.
And yet, Jesus, in all of His glory, was not good-looking. We know that the visible form was not a factor of any consideration to God. When He chose David to be king He said, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” On the other hand, He was indeed cognizant of beauty. As it turns out, Satan was a beauty. In Ezekial 28:17, God speaks to Satan, “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth. I made a spectacle of you before kings.” In 2 Corinthians 11: 14 – 15, we read, “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”
As agents of the Lord we are simply in the world—physically present—but not of it. (John 17:14-15). As believers, we should be set apart from the world. This can be a demanding mission when we have become so accustomed to evaluating the worth of others and inflicting ourselves with doubts about our value based on only superficially determined factors. We strive to understand that being in the world, but not of it, is necessary if we are to be a light to those who are in spiritual obscurity. We are to live in such a way that non-believers view our approach as something transcended. The truth is, we are so inclined to think like the world, we fail often. With intention, though, we can change incrementally and eventually, gain the great freedom that comes with looking for the beauty of our hearts.
Lastly, I don’t want to suggest that Christians become militant about all of this. Read the Book of Acts and you’ll discover that for the exemplar teacher, the Apostle Paul, when it came to matters he considered non-essential, he didn’t make a loud bang about the situation. That’s why having Timothy circumcised or he himself going through the purification rituals was not problematic. Though he did not believe either was any matter for salvation, he complied out of respect for the custom of others. If I attend a formal wedding, I’m not going to skip the mascara and I won’t show up in torn jeans. I’m not constantly attempting to make a statement about God’s view on the unimportance of physical beauty. If I did show up like that, my friend would need to endure a certain amount of embarrassment on my behalf. For me, it’s a non-essential issue. Therefore, I will come in proper attire, recognizing fully that my beauty and the beauty of others comes from within.
In American English, the “h” is not silent in the word “historical.” Therefore, the usage of “an historical,” instead of “a historical” is less suitable for usage. Most newscasters say “an historical.”
I’ve been reading and studying the Book of Acts independently and then further studying and dialoging with a small group regarding these detailed, historical accounts, as written by Dr. Luke. I have chosen to take a few moments to write as I close chapter 19. The last two chapters in the city of Corinth have made me eager to engage but the meeting with my friends remains two weeks away.
There’s something about the way God designed us that makes it incredibly consoling when we can talk to others who have been though the same thing we have been through. For that reason, learning that Paul, the exemplar preacher, could become discouraged in his ministry provided me with great comfort. All believers have a gospel ministry. When Jesus is a central part of your walk and not just an accessory, there is a natural overflow of that jeweled alignment into your everyday life.
Making disciples, the first command Jesus gave before his ascension, can be a provoking mission. It can weigh on our hearts when we encounter people with closed minds and even more deeply closed hearts. We have a hard time conceiving that Paul could have any weariness, fear or temptation to keep his mouth quiet about Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah but it seems he indeed did.
Lest we forget that Paul was human, we should reread his experience in Corinth, where he stayed for 18 months. He had just left Athens where no church was built. His missionary journey thus far brought him ridicule, stoning and left for dead, imprisonment and overwhelming despair in the midst of raging idolatrous worship.
So, by the time he arrives in Corinth, we realize that Paul has a bit of his wind taken out of him. He may have been physically weak. He may have felt despair. He may have developed fear from his ongoing encounters with persecution in all forms. It could have been a combination of the all of these elements but we do know that he was simply preaching on the Sabbath (Act 18:4). That wasn’t Paul’s typical modus operandi. In his travels, a new city was met with constant reasoning and teaching.
The Lord also tells us that Paul was fearful by speaking to Paul in a vision (Acts 18:9): “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”
Jesus doesn’t tell us, as He did Paul in Corinth specifically, that we need not fear situations because they will turn out just fine or fruitful. He does, however, promise us, if we love Him, He is with us. As Jesus stated in John 14:20, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” For that reason, we can remind ourselves, when we are feeling down in our ministries, that fear is less reasonable when we know God is with us always.
Now, Paul, like us, was ardent about teaching what he knew to be true about Jesus. He found himself engaged in the highs and lows of bringing people to faith. His teachings brought many to believe. Yet, he also walked through barren fields of faith. We know that the good report from Timothy regarding the Thessalonians and how well their church community was getting along was a spirit lifter. Don’t we, too, react with like joy when we know we have brought someone to faith in Christ? Luke’s writing about Paul can relax all of us who get anxious about our mission. There are changes in seasons, ups and downs, encouragements and discouragements. We know this. It even happened to Paul. And ultimately, remember that we are not responsible for anyone’s conversion. Always be prepared to give a reason for your hope (1 Peter 3:15) but there will be some who will not see or hear. Jesus said that.
Pam...No Asterisks 