Mini Series on Ephesians - The Holiness of God and Who We Are In Christ. Chapter 1: Awareness

May the LORD bless you and keep you, may the LORD make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May the LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

Awareness of Who We Are 
One of my favorite passages in the Bible (there are actually quite a few favorites!!), is the one we were blessed with in the Bible reading from Paul's epistle to the church at Ephesus. According to Bible scholars, the ancient Greek manuscripts show that the passage in Paul's letter we identify as verses 1 through 14 was a single sentence (no grammar police back then!). To me it is as if the message contained in those few verses was a singular reassurance to the church, some members of which were new to the faith and/or persons who were experiencing trials and uncertainties. The letter would have been read to the church by an elder, and no doubt exegeted or expounded upon by a leader or leaders based on Paul's two-year visit with them and the evangelism/Gospel teaching he shared. I wonder how I would have responded if I were with the believers at Ephesus hearing this letter: would I have hung on every word, or at least try to commit to memory as much as I could? How would you have responded?

Even now, reading and re-reading this passage is so encouraging - especially in the midst of a dark valley or path that does not seem to have an exit ramp. On this 'visit', let us read out loud the opening words at least a couple of times, slowly. Listen to them, and let them soak in: "To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus." (Ephesians 1:1, NRSV) 

Contrary to what some of us may have been told or taught, a Biblical saint, that is, what the Bible calls a saint is not defined as a heroic Bible character or highly pious person who has practiced good-deed-doing, or some other extraordinary act. A Biblical saint is a person made a saint (or regenerated) by God's will to become a saint - a person who He has set apart from the world culture to be holy and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, not because he or she has done something extraordinary, or has earned special merit by some other act. All who are saved and sanctified by God are saints. To be a person He has "called out" to "come in".

Yet, as early church history has shown - and even unto this day, the Roman Catholic Church has overwritten Bible theology, and in and of itself, has appointed a Roman Catholic-based group - the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (originally called the Congregation of Rites) tasked by the Roman church with the responsibility of determining if a person is worthy of canonization – i.e., the formal process to declare such person a "saint." Because of this human intervention, the church has adopted such a nonbiblical premise for awarding humans it has deemed worthy the title of "Saint."  The Bible, never uses the word saint as a title, but rather as a "position", a salvific identity, given true worshipers as those God has indwelt with His Spirit and who God has redeemed by the blood of Christ. All Christians who are saved by the blood and imputed with the righteousness of Christ are sacred vessels - saints - made by God for God. Admittedly, this truth will take some time to inculcate as we have been conditioned in the opposite direction.

Further on this point: Read the following excerpt from Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3-4. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love." God the Holy Spirit, Author of the Word of God, says that God has chosen us, placed a calling on us, has set us apart from the world to become a person made new by the Holy Spirit (more of that in verses 13-14) The word "saint", which is also translated in some versions as "holy ones," appears several times in both the Old Testament and New Testament scriptures. It is derived from the Latin version of the word holy as applied to such a person (agnus), translated from the Greek word hagios, which means to be set aside or separated apart from ordinary use to be made sacred or created for a sacred purpose. A calling from God to become a Christ follower, a person who is "in Christ", is a holy calling. It is an invitation into the family of God. You and I who have been called by God to such a holy purpose, are saints made by God.

And there is more to be made aware of in the opening verses of chapter one:

The passage reveals something even more amazing: "He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world." Before the foundation of the world. That is, before the "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth", God had already determined who would be called. This is referred to as the "doctrine of election" and if you were a regular Bible study attendee you would have heard Mr. James refer to this doctrine a number of times. It is definitely one of those hard sayings in the Bible, but the essence is that God is the One Who Saves, God is the One Who Calls us to be in Christ. This is a recurring theme in chapters 1 and 2 of Ephesians, and in my messages, will likewise be repeated.
     Some of you who continue to read this message may be unsettled by what you read, as you have been raised and taught either by those who raised you, or by a minister, or by a religious rite or ritual the very opposite.

We do not, we cannot become a Christian any other way, no matter what anyone says or professes - only God alone can do this. He doesn't need help from us to make that decision. We can't inherit it from mommy and daddy, or from grandma or grandpa, or any other "ancestor". Nor does sainthood - the call to be in Christ - "rub off" on us when we are around a Christ follower; yes, we can be influenced by their example, by their sharing of the Gospel message, but it is ultimately God who chooses to stir the heart of the hearer. We cannot earn it by being "good" which is beyond impossible because we have an inherited sin nature from Adam that is anti-God. We cannot earn it through good-deed-doing; no church or religious person or religious ritual can make us Christian or saved; such activities may be able to point us to God, but they cannot usurp the power of God to save an individual. It is God alone who makes that choice - and it is God alone who has set the time and circumstance of the manifestation of that choice.

Thus, when you really sit and meditate on that tenet, that truth, can you feel the ramifications of what God has done for you and in you, if indeed you are saved, that He pierced all of eternity to choose us out of love? 

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I'll be honest with you: I often well up with tears and a heart so full of gratitude that it overflows whenever I am hit with that reality!! He chose me - me, a nobody, a "blip on the screen of eternity". I don't deserve even a passing thought by Him. Why can I honestly say that? Because: He is a God so Holy that there are no adjectives created by man to adequately describe Him. And I (along with everyone else) am a sinner that has no inherent right to even step into a space of holiness, or even on the edge of God's shadow. (Kind of like Moses and the burning bush1/: God told Moses to remove his sandals, the identity of his walk or character, because what he was entering was holy space. If Moses had instead arrogantly stepped into that holy space with the uncleansed sinful character he had, we wouldn't even know about him, for he would have been consumed by the fire he was investigating, never to be used in the holy work of liberating the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from slavery in Egypt. He would have been a "blip" that immediately disappeared, never to return. But, praise God that He had already ordained Moses for this calling, so that we are here today because he obeyed by the grace of God. Just as God called Moses and planted a faith in him that obeyed the call to approach the bush, God calls us out of the bondage and penalty of sin by endowing us with the faith to respond in obedience so that we can respond by acknowledging His holiness and "take off our sandals" to be used by God.)  

As the hymn says, "we are not worthy of all His blessings." yet God in His amazing grace and mercy chose us to be in Christ since before the foundation of the world. This knowledge and awareness of what God has done has to be the most awesome, most serious, solemn and at the same time, the most amazing and joyous thing that ever happened to us. The All-Knowing, All-Seeing, All-Powerful God who lives in the Eternal Present - a time frame we cannot even begin to wrap our brains around - has chosen us to become an heir with Christ - the same Christ Jesus who left heaven, came to earth, lived a life of righteousness, then died as a sacrifice for sin. *More about that later.*

Friends, please do not take this truth lightly. If you know that you are called by God, that you were chosen from before the foundation of the world -- as opposed to mere attraction or feel good vibes of a service, as a social interaction with family or friends, or as a duty to a lifestyle so that you are perceived as a good person by crossing a church threshold -- then please, please grab hold of this awareness, even the miracle of who you and I are and how we became to be in Christ, let it seep deeply, let it be digested into our souls and fill us with all wonderment and awe, fill us with overflowing gratitude, fill us with indescribable joy and peace, and anchor our trust in Him in all things. Mark this page in your Bibles so that you can return to it often, repeat it often, pray it often. May it shape our faith, nurture our love for and in Him, knowing that through Him we have not only eternal life in us in the person of the Holy Spirit, but that we have been gifted the promise of eternal life in the realm where we will see our Savior face to face. Knowing that by His choice of us and the imputed holiness - a holiness that cannot be naturally derived or developed by us, but rather be transferred to us by God - through the Spirit of Christ, we are being sanctified (another word derived from the Greek word hagios), transformed into the image of Christ until we reach the full measure and be "translated" to live in the heavenly places already designated for us. 

Friends, let us believe so strongly and feel the promise in our hearts and souls so deeply so that we will be able to see our lives and humanity through a mind set on God. May we consider all our sufferings (for they can be many), all our woes, our troubles, our grief, our pains - while very and sometimes brutally real and sometimes scarring - as a "slight, momentary affliction [that] is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure," i.e., they are "slight" when compared to the eternal life with Christ in the holy realm and kingdom of God that we will enjoy beyond our earthly journey. What a day of rejoicing that will be! When we all see Jesus as He is! As the Gospel song says echoing scripture, "Don't wait 'til the battle is over: shout now!" Hallelujah!

Next time, what it means to be "holy and blameless", a "faithful saint", and what it means to be "blessed".

1/ See Exodus 3:1-22 for full text of Moses' calling.

Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, Questions 8 & 10

“Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health,” Donald S. Whitney. 2001. NavPress*
Questions 8 & 10:  Do You Still Grieve Over Sin? & Do You Yearn for Heaven and to Be with Jesus? (excerpts and highlights from Chapters 8 & 10, with references to “Respectable Sins – Confronting the Sins We Tolerate,” Jerry Bridges, NavPress. 2007.) 

In this paper I have reflected on both Questions 8 and 10, as they complement each other. 

Do You Still Grieve Over Sin?

God Hates Sin. Put that on a street sign, and I guarantee you that each reader will come up with their own definition of sin. We readily do so because we have a warped view of sin; we often compare our righteousness as favorable over another’s. We find it hard to see ourselves as sinners. We are good people who do good things. We characterize sinners as persons who commit wicked and evil acts against people – especially children. We take offense at being called a sinner; a person, when a Bible teacher quoted to the group Psalm 51:5, “we are all born in sin” -- she defensively responded, “I wasn’t! my mother and father were married!” The apostle Paul, the one hand-picked by Christ to be sent to the Gentiles with the good news and to whom was given much power and grace, who was also given a glimpse of heaven, even he admits to his own sin estate, which makes his Spirit-led writings on sin more compelling.

What does God call sin? Lawbreaking. Any just law, but especially God's law. When Adam and Eve broke the law in the Garden of Eden, going against God’s command not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, acting on pride and desire to be equal to God, sin was imprinted on and inside humankind. We all inherited Adam’s “sin DNA” so that every human born carries that “DNA”. We all are sinners, born to die, since Adam’s sin carried a death penalty. Therefore, everyone born, regardless of their character and conduct, are reckoned by God as sinners even in the womb. 

God grieves over sin. He hates it. He sees the damage and destruction it causes in those who were created in His image. It separates us from Him. Inherited sin causes spiritual darkness and results in spiritual death. Sin mars God’s image in us; the character of God, the mind of Christ – all parts of that image were once in Adam and Eve. Their descendants’ God-image reflects something like a mirror into our souls that has been smeared over with a liquid haze in which a very faint and distorted reflection of God is seen. Sadly, there are some mirrors into souls that have shadowed and dark imperceptible reflections – more akin to the impact of the prince of darkness on such souls. 

We often think of the impact of the sin DNA as affecting our conduct and behaviors. However, the impact of man’s sin on humankind has been devastating to the human body. Over the thousands of years, the human body has broken down from total perfection to a flesh and blood frame in which diseases and conditions of many kinds inhabit - some curable and many uncurable. This is a universal consequence of the inherited sin condition from Adam. Sin’s effects have caused every generation since Adam and Eve to suffer with divers degenerations: e.g., the number of births of children with deformed body parts, missing chromosomes or other gene-related issues, born intersex, blind, deaf, unable to speak, with predispositions to cancers, juvenile diabetes, and the list goes on. These traits of inherited sin continue to increase despite medical and scientific breakthroughs. 

In addition to its impact on humankind physically, mentally, and spiritually, all of creation has suffered from the influence of humankind’s fall due to intentional sin - going against the law of God. When Adam was placed in the Garden, to be joined by Eve, they were given dominion over creation as God’s appointed stewards; they were co-regents of the earthly kingdom; they were the 'earthly management' placed by God to steward His earthly creation - everything with life on the earth, even the earth itself. Both humans and animals – “everything that has the breath of life” – were created to be plant and vegetation eaters. That was God’s original plan for a world of peaceful coexistence between man and beast. But when sin came, this peace was damaged, and within time humans and animals became carnivores.

 Dr. Whitney shares an experience where he once “heard seminary professor John Hannah say, ‘The closer one comes to Christ, in one sense the more miserable he becomes.’ Those who have a Holy Spirit implanted love for holy truth, holy things, and [for] the Holy One, can’t help but feel miserable when they are reminded of that which is unholy within them.” The closer we grow to Christ through the work of the Spirit in us, the more sensitive we become, seeing the “red flags” of potential sin more quickly.

 How should we grieve our sin? A young child – maybe 2 or 3 years old –has learned what to say to their parent to avoid chastisement. “Jimmy, did you hit your sister?” Jimmy weighs the question, then spurts, “She hit me first!” Mother: “Jimmy and Jenny, say I’m sorry.” Jenny, still playing with her doll, says a quick “I’m sorry.” Jimmy mimics her apology “I’m sorry.” And ten minutes later they are back at it! Well, older youth and adults do the same thing. To avoid whatever embarrassment or punishment that could result, we are quick to blame someone else, and/or offer our apologies which are so hollow the words come out like words shaped with outlines only. Like Adam and Eve did when God called them out of hiding. The Genesis account does not record an apology from either. We grieve because we get caught, we grieve at the consequences of being found out. But are we truly sorry? Do we see our error as a sin against God? Dr. Whitney notes that the Bible passage at 2 Corinthians 7:8-11 juxtaposes godly grief or sorrow with worldly grief focused on the punishment. True godly grief or sorrow is more than admitting our transgressions. Considering against whom we have committed the sin, should a child of God feel more than a perfunctory “I’m sorry” that is momentary to get him/herself off the hook? Does our “sorry” lead to sorrow? 

Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, delivered a set of beatitudes to the listening crowd. One of them is: “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.”  We more often than not feel this beatitude at a time of loss, during a funeral service, or when mourning over the death of a loved one. The Lord My Shepherd who comforts Jesus' listeners knew, but Jesus wanted His hearers to understand the deeper meaning of the mourning He spoke about. He wanted them to know that the legal standards of the Mosaic Law were more than just laws; they were a bridge to relationship with God, an opportunity to reflect His character and holiness and grow in intimacy with Him. The people felt righteous because they obeyed the laws, and saw that as a bridge to blessings from God. The righteous teachers took pride in exacting strict adherence to law. Jesus notes in His Sermon, however, that it is a merciful heart that yearns for God – that is what God desires. Jesus, on the mount, would further clarify the foundation of the Law, that even in our so-called righteousness from obeying the law, we are still sinners in our thoughts, desires, in our DNA. We are still lawbreakers. Thus, His message exhorts us to mourn over such sins – feeling deepest sorrow that we have grieved our Heavenly Father. Genesis 6, linked to above, plainly states that our sin grieves God. Knowing that, we ought to feel a sorrow that leads to a change of heart, a repentance – a sorrow that seeks and gives forgiveness. To return to a right standing before God. Do we really mourn our sinful thoughts and actions? 

In his book, “Respectable Sins – Confronting the Sins We Tolerate,” Dr. Jerry Bridges asks that while we mourn or are grieved about the “big sins” – sexual sins and idol worship within the Church, “why do we not also mourn over our selfishness, our critical spirit, our impatience, and our anger? It is easy to let ourselves off the hook by saying that these sins are not as bad as the flagrant ones of society. But God has not given us authority to establish values for different sins. Instead, He says through James, ‘Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for [is guilty of] all of it.’…When a person commits murder, he breaks God’s law. When a Christian lets corrupting speech (that is, speech which tends to tear down another person) come out of his/her mouth (Ephesians 4:29), he/she breaks God’s law.” All sin is lawlessness.  He further notes that “In our human values of civil laws, we draw a huge distinction between an otherwise ‘law-abiding citizen’ who gets an occasional traffic ticket and a person who lives a ‘lawless’ life in contempt and utter disregard for all laws. But the Bible does not seem to make that distinction. It simply says sin – that is, all sin without distinction – is lawlessness.” “Sin is sin.” Dr. Bridges continues, “even those sins I call ‘the acceptable sins of the saints,’ those sins we tolerate in our lives – are serious in God’s eyes. Our religious pride, our critical attitudes, our unkind speech about others, our impatience and anger, even our anxiety; all of these are serious in the sight of God.” In his book, Dr. Bridges exposits on other so-called ‘respectable’ sins: ungodliness, anxiety and frustration, discontentment, unthankfulness, pride, selfishness, lack of self-control, impatience and irritability, anger, judgmentalism, envy, jealousy, and related sins, sins of the tongue, and worldliness.  

As we enter our journey of transformation and sanctification through the Holy Spirit, Dr. Bridges reminds us that in collaboration with God’s Spirit, we are to put to death the various expressions of sin in our lives. (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5) In chapter six, he offers seven general directions for dealing with sins. Not enough space to fully explain here, but I will list them.

 

First – we should always address our sin in the context of the gospel; our sins are forgiven and we are accepted as righteous by God because of both the sinless life and sin-bearing death of our Lord Jesus Christ – both together are the greatest motivations.

 

Second – we must learn to rely on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. We can never get beyond our need for the Spirit, and should cultivate an attitude of continual dependence.

 

Third – while depending on the Holy Spirit, we must also recognize our responsibility to diligently pursue all practical steps for dealing with our sins. This is the meaning of Philippians 2:12-13.

 

Fourth – identify specific areas of ‘acceptable’ sins. (covered in the book’s chapters on specific sins) As we read each chapter, humbly ask the Holy Spirit to help us see if there is a pattern of that sin in our life, which will enable us to better put it to death.

 

Fifth – find specific applicable Scriptures to each of our subtle sins, (use concordance) memorizing them, reflecting on them, applying and praying over them as we ask God to use those God-breathed words to help us deal with those sins.

 

Sixth – cultivate the practice of prayer over the sins we tolerate. Prayer is one of our major directions for dealing with sin; through prayer we consciously acknowledge our need of the Holy Spirit for dealing with our sin and stay aware of the presence of them.

 

Seventh – we should involve one or two other believers with us in our struggles against our subtle sins in a mutual relationship as we seek to exhort, encourage, and pray for one another.

 

…The biggest motivator in our spiritual battles against sin is in Chapter 10 of Mr. Whitney’s book: Do You Yearn For Heaven And To Be With Jesus?

Mr. Whitney states that “those who have been on a long pilgrimage increasingly desire to reach their destination, especially one as glorious and excellent as Heaven. Those who have spent decades loving and living for Jesus naturally long to see Him.” That is the message of Romans 8:22-23. Paul makes a similar statement in 2 Corinthians 5:2. “These longings for the coming great change in body and place are simply part of a normal, healthy, growing Christian life.” Does our yearning for heaven in and of itself confirm that we know the very one with whom we wish to be, or is our yearning focused on getting relief from this hard life? 

Mr. Whitney offers that “the question is not merely, ‘Do you yearn for Heaven and to be with Jesus?’ but also, ‘For which Heaven and Jesus do you yearn?’” Do we yearn for a place of holiness? If being holy as God is holy is off-putting for us in our earthly existence, then we will hate heaven. Are we longing for and looking forward to a heart without sin? To have a pure heart to see the Lord? To being clothed in righteousness? That is what growing Christians increasingly long for – not just a “rest” from troubles and difficulties, but a holy heaven, holy relationships in heaven, a Holy Jesus, a holy joy, where we will be able to gaze and gaze upon the Lamb of God, on Jesus our Savior. Is that the thing we want above everything else? Is our groaning for that kind of heaven? 

I confess that at one time my “heaven” was a place of green valleys, of beautiful sunsets, of peace all around me, of a Garden of Eden. The more I grow in Christ, the more I know Him personally, I find my desire for Him is growing more than a desire for a heavenly geography. 

We have the Spirit of the Living God moving in us, motivating us, energizing us, developing joy into a once burdened heart. We are riddled by sin’s woes, and we work with that same Spirit to put off those things displeasing to God. But, let us not forget that this struggle is not forever:

·  “You are from God, little children, and have overcome [the spirit of the evil one]; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

·  ⁴For whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. ⁵ Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:4-5

·  The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.’ Revelation 2:7

·  The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’  Revelation 2:11

·  The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it.’  Revelation 2:17

·  The one who overcomes, and the one who keeps My deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations;   Revelation 2:26

·  The one who overcomes will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.   Revelation 3:5

·  The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.   Revelation 3:12

·  The one who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne.   Revelation 3:21

 

For these things we fight the good fight of faith; we do spiritual battle against sin and the evil one everyday. We know that we have the power to be faithful to the end, because Jesus has given us that kind of power that raises us up to life with Him. We are victors who will see the one for whom we yearn, Jesus Christ, in all of His glory and splendor, and we shall be clothed with His righteousness.

 

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. -  Ephesians 3:20-21

Our Jealous God

"Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."
(Exodus 34:14)

As humans, we often experience a jealousy that is tainted with an unreasonable and suffocating expression of emotion by another over our self/person. Or, we may be the one who obsesses to a level of madness that grips us like a spell that cannot be broken. We have read about so-called 'love' relationships where a partner says he or she loves the other but it is a selfish, obsessive driving emotion that seeks to control and dominate in such a way that it edges onto or crosses the border of sanity. While we would like to think that this is 'love' at its most passionate expression, it is not. The One who created love says this about what true love is: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)

Too often, this jealous madness that is obsessed with controlling and dominating the other person results in harm to the other and/or to those perceived to be encroaching on the jealous one's turf - a harm that potentially becomes deadly. The song of the jealous is, "if I can't have you no one will." 

I have been in such a relationship. 

My then husband more than once threatened my life at gunpoint and took our children hundreds of miles away as leverage. When a person is victimized to such an extent, you experience your own type of madness; your reasoning becomes warped. You walk in fear and shame - especially when the outbursts and threats become public and/or on your job. I was asked to leave my employment because of the risk to other employees. I felt like less than nothing at that point. While he claimed to be religious, and put on a religious face when attending services or around members of the church, his obsessive jealousy and need for control over me was exhibited behind closed doors. He had no fear of God in his heart. His kidnapping of the children, and unrelenting search to find me after I escaped his terror shattered every aspect of my life, estranged me from my family as I did not want to put them in jeopardy. Yet, ironically, they would distance themselves from me because of the shame I had brought on them, as I became known in all our circles as the one being chased from place to place by a crazed husband.  One day he found a way to contact me because he had won the lottery but, due to state law, had to share it with me as we were still legally married. I bargained with him for the children, telling him to keep the money and let me have the children. He signed them over to me for money. We fled immediately hundreds of miles in the other direction. Jealousy clothed with the label of  "Love" was spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically damaging so much so that only a merciful God could repair what was broken, distorted, and restore my scarred my relationship with Him. He had to teach me to forgive. He had to teach me perfect love.

Jealousy that leads to strong desire to control and manipulate others is a product of our sinful nature that we inherited from Adam. God created humankind in His image; our sin mars that image, damages our personhoods, minds, souls, bodies. Sin destroys relationship with God. Our inherited sin - aided and abetted by the evil one and the moral and spiritual darkness of his evil world system - impairs our ability to perfectly express anger or jealousy. We have no pure starting point within our natural selves to provide the perfect expression of such powerful emotion. Our human anger and jealousy has no righteousness attached to it because it emanates from a place of damage and brokeness. Within our human power, we cannot even love as we ought. Within our natural selves, this lack is a critical and chronic disability that is also self-deceiving - it permeates all we do. Because our natural selves suffer in that way, when we come across a scripture like the Exodus passage quoted above, or Deuteronomy 4:24, or 1 Corinthians 10:22, we are challenged in our sin-shaped hearts and minds to understand this jealousy of God - which is a perfect expression and sovereign right.

To be honest, from a spiritual standpoint, I know for a certainty that God's jealousy is beyond my comprehension. There was a time when that lack of 'sight' was a struggle because I lived by logic. Logic can sometimes get in the way of faith, as I had to learn. Awareness of God those aspects and attributes of God's character that I cannot fully comprehend is a reason to rejoice because why would I want a God I can control and manipulate? No, instead of dampening my faith, I more and more desire for it to be stronger so that even though I cannot comprehend every iota of knowledge about our Almighty God, my growing faith becomes growing trust in Him, gratitude for His perfect jealousy over what belongs to Him. That includes me.

How must we look at this part of God's character from a Biblical viewpoint - how He has revealed Himself in scripture?

• God's perfect jealousy is based in His holiness. He is Adonai ha'Elohim Hakkadosh - the Lord the Holy One. As sinful humans, we are unable to fully grasp the Holiness of God. It is like asking a person blind from birth to describe the sunrise or sunset, or the colors of the rainbow. -Joshua 24:19; 1 Samuel 2:2
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His justice - no jurist in the flesh can render up decisions in their repertoire of law and principle that can compare to the depths of God's justice. He is Yahweh Tsidkenu - LORD our Righteousness and Elohei Misphat (God of Just/Righteous Law). His law is perfect, His judgments are always right. -Deuteronomy 10:17-19; Isaiah 5:16
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His being El Olam - the Everlasting God. the Ever-Present God Who Dwells in the Eternal Present. He owns time. As owner and Creator of time, God has the sole right to use it as He sees fit. -Psalm 90; Colossians 1:15-17
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His being a Creator God, Elohim, The Hashem - the Great I AM WHO I AM. God owns all that He created, He has invested in us beyond our comprehension. He is our El Shaddai - our All-Sufficient Sustainer God. He has always been the Potter to our being the clay - what say do we have in what He does? -Exodus 3:14; Romans 9:20-22; Psalm 104
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His Almighty Power and Wisdom. There is no God of Power like our God. His Wisdom exceeds all the brightest 'geniuses' ever born all together. In His perfect expression of jealousy for His people, God will execute His wrath against those who desire to harm them.  -Daniel 2:20; Jeremiah 10:6; Revelation 1:7-8; Jeremiah 51:15
• God's perfect jealousy is based in His perfect love - a covenant love (Hesed) that is also sacrificial (Ahavah, Agape).  -Psalm 103:17; John 3:16-17; 1 John 4:9-10  This is not a love that we can grasp because that was destroyed by Adam's sin in us: we cannot grasp it nor express it in our human capacity. We must let the Holy Spirit create within us the love reflective of God.
• Finally (at least on this list instant), God's perfect jealousy is based in His Sovereignty. He owns all things. He controls the heavens and the earth, yet He has given His created beings the freedom to choose between His Sovereignty or theirs. (And we so deceive ourselves into thinking our choice of self-lordship is going to have a different result than it had for a perfect man and woman.) He is the author of all things, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. We cannot live for a moment if God removed all oxygen from us, and yet we presume to know better than He. As Sovereign, God has the right to act, choose, give or take away, create or destroy. This perfect rightness can often ring unfair in a nonbeliever's ear, for he or she has never known a righteous, perfect Creator and Owner; his or her experience and knowledge, or lack thereof, cannot bring him or her to comprehend that kind of Sovereignty that emanates from the love described above. He has the right to set destinies, to save whom He chooses, and allow the hearts of others to harden against Him. This question of Sovereignty has been raised against God for eons, and this challenge is eloquently described in Isaiah 40-44 and elsewhere in God's testimony as recorded in Isaiah. The book opens with a declaration of Sovereignty in chapter 1 of Isaiah where the LORD God describes the wickedness and rebellion of the people against His Lordship, in verses 23-24 He says: "Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them. Therefore says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will pour out my wrath on my enemies, and avenge myself on my foes!" God our Sovereign reserves the exclusive, absolute right to be worshiped - on this point there is no gray area. -Psalm 8:1, 9; Daniel 4:2-3; 1 Timothy 6:15; Psalm 24:1-2; Isaiah 66:1; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 10:20; Romans 1:18-25  

The foregoing is but a glimpse into the perfect holiness and righteousness of the Only True God, a perfection that is expressed through a jealousy that we cannot understand, but which acts in agape love - a sacrificial love - for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. He desires the best for His people, and places a guardrail and hedge of jealousy around them. He has vowed to never leave nor forsake them, to not let them be snatched from His hand by the enemy. God's people are His possession because He created them to become His people through the poured-out sacrificial blood of Jesus. (Ephesians 1:6-7; Ephesians 2:12-14)

Our God of love, of Might, our Wise and All Knowing God wants our complete devotion - He deserves it! He is jealous for it! When our God Incarnate - the Son of God - walked on this earth, He constantly spoke to and taught such allegiance to God. "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." That we can serve only One master; that our God supplies all our needs when we put Him first in our lives. His beloved Sermon on the Mount overflows with admonition of relationship with God and how He would have us live. (Matthew 5-7) The parable of the prodigal recorded in Luke 15:11-32 illustrates God's love for us - that He does not force us into relationship with Him, that He is forgiving beyond our capacity to understand, that He desires our heart worship - our whole lives to be lived in Him and with Him; that to do so brings an inner joy unimaginable. His final earthly hours were filled with prayer and pleadings for all who would believe and obey, whose hearts were to be tied to His and to the Father, who would be one with Him and with the Father. (John 14 to 17) In Matthew 10, we hear Christ's strong implication of God's sovereign right of worship and devotion - His jealousy over His human creation - without using the word jealous. He spoke to the desire of the Father for our worship to be exclusive - not divided among other interests or gods. Christ's very presence as God in human form was to begin the gathering of those whom the Father, in His sovereign will, would set aside for salvation: His coming would set a sword, a plumb line, a line in the sand to separate those who would receive Christ and thus receive the Father and those who would choose to be their own lord or to worship the devil (as noted in scripture above - there are only 2 masters: God and the devil). He would anoint and appoint those that the Father would choose to serve Him and to carry out the work He began. In His last week on earth He foretold that there would come a time when He would, in God's righteous jealousy, His perfect love demonstrated, return for those whom He had chosen, who love Him with all their whole heart, mind, and soul, whose lives are committed to Him and are awaiting His return. That He would make known to all in an astounding set of events and acts His fierce love for those who love Him. (Matthew 24-25) O what a God! Isn't He wonderful! -Isaiah 25:19; Psalm 9:1.

Hallelujah! Praise our Jealous God who loves us with a fierce love of protection, of blessing, of provision of all things good and enduring. Who loves us forever and will never abandon those He loves. Who walks with us and lives in us. May we all cling to Him in this life and rejoice in His glorious and righteous jealousy in the life to come. Amen.

Shaped by God

(This was a message given to Bible students recently. It was shared in part to impart encouragement to the students, and to honor the memory of Dr. R. C. Sproul and his faithful ministry. Hope you find this as meaningful as I have.)

Dear students,

A while back, we were treated to a study published by R.C. Sproul on the spiritual disciplines every Christian should adopt – the little green 5 Things book. It packs a wallop of theology for Christians to help us submit to the shaping and molding that the Holy Spirit must do in our lives. A key focus of Pastor Sproul’s, and all grounded-in-Christ ministers is theology. Simply put, theology is a study of God and His ways, thinking, actions, Word. It is the grounding that all followers of Christ must have. You cannot be a Christian without knowing the Triune God and believing in the authority of His Word – His transformative Gospel – in which He reveals Himself to us.

One of the chapters in the Bible which we are told that Pastor Sproul found exceptionally valuable because of the total of theology it expresses is Romans 8. Here is what he and others of us who are Bible students know - as excerpted from Derek Thomas’ new teaching series on Romans 8:

      "Romans 8 has almost everything. It begins with our justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (vv. 1–4), continues with sanctification and the work of the Holy Spirit (vv. 5–13), and then speaks about our adopted sonship with the Father (vv. 14–17), the significance of suffering (vv. 17–18), the prospect of glory (vv. 17–18), the final redemption of our bodies (vv. 17–25), and the restoration of all creation (vv. 19–21). It reassures us that as we wait for our resurrection and final transformation (vv. 23–24), the Spirit helps us in our weakness (v. 26) and intercedes for us (vv. 26–27).

      It teaches us about the good and sovereign providence of God in our lives (v. 28), and that His goal is to transform us into the likeness of Christ (v. 29). Indeed, Paul says, nothing can stop God from bringing that to pass (v. 30). No one can successfully oppose us, bring any charge against us, condemn us, or finally separate us from God’s love for us in Christ (vv. 31–39).

      This is breathtaking theology!

      That is the point, isn’t it? Romans 8 is not merely breathtaking eloquence. It is the theology of these verses that puts backbone into Paul’s life—and it can put backbone into our lives too."

Doesn't the above reaffirmation make you want to grab your Bible and read Romans 8? And grab your Bible journals and write your reactions as you read!

In our next Bible Study, we will have an opportunity to learn and be reminded of all God the Holy Spirit is and what He does in our lives to accomplish all God’s purpose in us. We will use the publication by Dr. Charles Stanley, Relying on the Holy Spirit. . . .

... Be blessed with the joy of the Lord today!

A Nation's Destiny

Not rewriting history or seeing a sanitized version of it - the United States has always had problems since its founding. The European settlers and Englanders seeking a freedom for worship, expression, and land ownership brought their ideals with them - good and bad. In many cases their desires displaced native inhabitants and wreaked havoc with the natural resources. The penchant for increasing power, prestige, and wealth among some of the early 'landed' families became a conduit for the evil terror of slavery that tore the moral fiber of the country - for it was an attitude and practice that permeated throughout all the colonies - not just the southern part. Many leaders of that time - political and religious - could not assertively speak out on the demoralizing effect on the country that the slave institution had, since many of the more prominent leaders were themselves slave holders, including some Quakers. The gaping wound would not be healed quickly, and its festering condition was rampantly infectious. When a people can justify wrongdoing as beneficial for society and such justification becomes accepted and acceptable, permanent damage happens. Yet even with a number of persons taking sides against slavery and mistreatment of the native inhabitants of the land, there were still large numbers claiming rights to properties for which they had no right. We've had many trials and many errors in this country, which involved much sacrifice on the part of many, in order to determine it to be one nation under God. Its premise has always been shaky, still at the peak of America's existence, the majority of persons in the country considered themselves Christian or averred belief in God. Yet, it is my country with all of its wounds and I am blessed to live here and to find and enjoy some freedoms that are still intact..

What has concerned me in particular is that our nation has been incrementally moving itself away from God over the last one hundred fifty years - a progression that has been reflected once again in the moral decline of our society. (with all of the challenges we have faced one would think those would drive us to God) The founding fathers, despite their many imperfections and some outright sins, nevertheless honed out a society that purported a faith in the Almighty God of the Bible: The Father Jehovah, the Son Jesus Christ, and a Holy Ghost Triune God. They pointed to God's Word as a book of authority and the benchmark or touchstone for morality that God has divined for His human creation. Interestingly, at a point where it seemed that the country's independence was well established and declarations of the country being of God and founded on God (see origins of the anthem "My Country Tis of Thee" by Samuel Francis Smith which he wrote in 1831. The song served as one of the de facto national anthems of the United States (along with songs like "Hail, Columbia") before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the official anthem in 1931), the terror of slavery and its byproducts had expanded and demoralized the thinking of federal leaders and key political figures of the time. That wayward thinking would soon fan the flames for the great conflagration the nation would see - the War Between the States.

Prior to the War, Abraham Lincoln is noted, along with many voices of his day, as pointing to the enslavement of individuals as a pariah to a society that believed in God and called itself Christian. Other moral inconsistencies in a country that was called Christian were pointed to often enough from platforms in newspapers, in state houses, and from pulpits. Again - all confirm what God has said about our sin nature - that it is inherent in all of us, and that we can deceive ourselves to our own detriment about our perceived 'goodness', which can be as elusive as each breath we expel. As discourse on the societal ills heightened, Christian revivalism took place - a great "awakening" of Christian values, of what was God's will for the nation and citizens therein, which led to some of the social reforms notable in the 19th century. When you look at hymnal writing during those years, you discover the richness of faith being expressed in them about God, who He is, what He has done, and how we should respond. Yet even then, the invasive weeds of the Enlightenment movement, of the Transcendentalism movement, the Utopian movement and other isms had begun to thicken and take root. (Louisa May Alcott's bent was towards transcendentalism, and the Utopian concepts; she interjects some of the isms into her famous works as those works were highly biographical.) The disciples of the movements explained away God as a distant, self-absorbed cosmic being whose interest in mankind was merely speculative, and that through the innate goodness of humanity a society could thrive and be built up through its own good works and determination. There are still religious persons and persons of high intellect today that advocate such beliefs as true - especially the part about humans having innate goodness and being able to serve as masters of their own souls. Influential citizens began espousing such beliefs, in many cases, turning their noses up at the God of the Bible in preference of a god of their own devices.

As the 20th century commenced, the moral pulse of the country was strong - at least on the surface and in public behaviors for large parts of the national society. However, the carnal freedoms and presumed rights that were intrinsic to the new isms began to wear away at those moral foundations and even at the pretense of them. The world wars blew up much of what we determined to be moral, or at least altered that sense for a lot of society. If nothing else, they certainly confirmed for Christ followers the Bible's teaching that the god of this system was influencing the minds of persons towards physical and spiritual destruction as prophesied. Further, the fallout from those wars was a steady erosion of the sensibilities of moral good, serving to deeply shadow much of Biblical Christianity, and suffocate much of the established traditional Christianity with which the country had originally identified itself. America thereafter slowing began creeping towards becoming a pluralistic society.

Following the world wars - especially World War II, during the late 1950s and the 1960s, a new mindset was descending, and the concept of a nation under an Almighty Holy God, especially among the younger generation, was being seen as the equivalent of a hoax, or at the minimum - part of the framework of society that needed to be changed. The pluralism - the multiple gods and belief systems, subtle at first, had begun to influence how society generally perceived itself, its environs, relationships, and future. The ubiquity of that influence was even more deceptive, produced an amoralistic culture that set its on floating right and wrong standards, and which is carnal and narcissistic. The backlash of this free thinking, free acting cultural changes hit the Church. Churches began to cease being the center of activity for many communities, and one of the more influential and wealthy established churches in America - the Protestant Episcopal Church - began to lose its long-held influence over society and politics, membership, and subsequently, its wealthy stalwarts.

Society has so moved away from the tenets of Biblical Christianity that it is politically improper to refer to our country as one nation under God in the 21st century. Legal movements have already discarded the Bible from public schools, along with public prayer. It is hard to believe now that there was a time even in the 20th century when many public school classrooms began each day with the pledge of allegiance and the reading of a passage from the Bible book of Psalms. The liberal free-thinking promoted by the well-entrenched isms has emboldened many 'good citizens' to demonstrate and call for elimination of any mention of Christ, corporate or public prayer, or to point to Christianity as a dominant faith or belief system except to include it in a laundry list of societal dependencies or other traditional belief systems within the polyglot of religious identities now teeming in the nation. The modern high school student can read all about it in social studies, right after a session in the science classroom on how life evolved from simple celled creatures. Some so-called Christian churches, including traditional Protestant and evangelical churches, in order to keep up with the new wave of belief-isms, and to refill pews, are teaching that when Jesus said that He alone was The Way, The Truth, and The Life that he was talking only to Christians or persons who wanted to identify with Jesus, and that there is another way and opportunities for obtaining salvation and finding the truth within other religious systems and programs. They advocate interfaith worship activity to help foster unity through 'diversity,' (breaking the greatest commandment) and openly support as righteous behaviors that Holy God has long ago declared sinful and requiring repentance - not reward (breaking the second great commandment)(Matthew 22:35-41).

Thus, the national agenda has succeeded in redefining life apart from God and His Word, which Word says that God forms life in the womb (Psalm 139), so that now it is legal to kill that life in the womb by calling it a nonviable fetus and inconvenience. There is movement afoot to expand on the ability to abort life from the womb at later stages of pregnancy when the 'fetus' becomes viable. The agenda has provided the schools the leeway to teach solidly that the Bible's teaching of creation is impractical, nonsensical, and unproven, so that schools can point to other theoretical beginnings stemming from various evolutionary beliefs. It took more than 100 years following the Emancipation Proclamation to legally make aspects of civil and political society open to persons of non-Caucasian skin color - to legalize persons of color, and this despite the 'higher thinking' of the culture's isms. Unfortunately, the law can only regulate certain behaviors but not the degenerative thoughts and internal beliefs of individuals, which the higher thinkers will consider an infringement. The evil nature of sin that permeates the society and has rampaged shockingly in the last fifty-plus years has exalted greed, self-pleasure and fulfillment in every aspect of human existence to a god-level which dominates and influences the movement of today's national agenda.

Most recently, the deception that the immoral acts of a person should be legitimized and protected legally as a civil right has been one of the offshoots of the deep-rooted sinful condition of our society in this country and another nail in the coffin of a demoralized nation. These are the same thought processes that legitimized slavery as a civil right of landowners and caucasians. It bears no resemblance to the establishment of legal rights of persons of color; their legal rights were deserved not based on behaviors they chose to act out, but on the fact that they are human. The law had previously declared them not human, but property. The turning over of the slave and accommodations laws that denied people equal rights under law was among the last few acts of a Christian conscience. The culture of the 21st century would have its way to declare homosexuality and the practice of it as a holy act, one protected by the Constitution - which is far distances from where the original writers of the laws of the land fell. The influence is so keen that the delineation between moral and immoral within our society has become illegible in parts and transient in other parts. It makes one wonder, doesn't it, why folks get in such an uproar when prominent citizens commit adultery and fornication - why aren't those behaviors sanctioned as well? Aren't they just as holy as homosexual coupling if they are done 'in love'? What else will our society in its free thinking and free acting declare as holy, or at the least, acceptable, in the future?

We as a people believe we are right in owning ourselves as masters of our fates, as the supreme judge of our behaviors and beliefs - which always leans towards what makes us feel good or seem to feel right, and that those rights are inalienable and deserved by virtue of being an American. Many churches feeling the pressure to conform have made their congregations places where the new American attitude rules, as long as it is sprayed with a cheap Christian perfume - which scent lasts all of 45 minutes if that long on a Sunday. Some churches/denominations or representatives of those churches and denominations (including Protestant Episcopal, Presbyterian, ECLA, and other evangelical institutions) have led the rally away from a Holy Almighty God of the Bible to a weak, inopportuned, and compromised god of their own creation which bows to the will of the people. The new ruling by the Supreme Court of sanctioning same sex marriage has been blatantly hailed as righteous by both traditional and evangelical religious leaders, who are offering to open their doors to welcome wedding ceremonies to sanction the new 'civil right.'

A nation's destiny: The moral condition and place where we find our own country are the same conditions and status that brought God's wrath on the nations of Israel, Judah, and even their enemies round about them. (The Bible prophets Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Micah, Habakkuk - to name a few were burdened to declare the destruction of the nations - to prophesy of their destiny, because of their choice to live independent of God in their own demoralized cultures.) These same conditions and status will receive the final outpouring of God's wrath as foretold in the letter of Revelation. That is not an ism, it is not some church fairy tale to make people behave. It is historical truth and solid prophecy.

The above statements lead to the questions, Is the God of the Bible as detached as many would like to believe? Does the depiction of the 'god of love' that is mouthed by those self-satisfied religious leaders really describe the Bible's God and Creator of heaven and earth? Isn't belief in a moralistic god and an ancient book called the Bible an old-fashioned perspective, so that a person believing in such things is out of step with the times and a fool to accept those things? Surely, no one with any sense, or a college degree, can bow down to such nonsense? If, then, modern society is right, then the God of the Bible in whom many still believe is foolish, and we are fools to worship and serve Him. That was the apostle Paul's conclusion as he discussed God's salvation plan. His premise - outlined in 1 Corinthians 15 - was that if any of what God's Word says is true, is somehow not so, then we are to be most pitied. In that chapter he deliberates on the Gospel of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ - the foundational doctrine of Christianity. This is a basic tenet of Christianity: that because we are helpless and hopeless because of our sinful condition, that there is no innate goodness by which we can save or elevate ourselves, that God the Righteous Judge must intervene in order for us to become restored to life and to God. Therefore, it was God's plan to sacrifice His Son on our behalf to have our sins atoned for so as to satisfy His righteous standard, and to make The Way possible or available for all. The holiness of God - something incomprehensible to nonbelievers - is such that He cannot abide or have community with a sinful people - by their unregenerated nature they are spiritually dead to Him. His holiness demands a righteousness that we ourselves cannot impart to ourselves. His holiness demands that we deserve death - in fact it is the wrath of God that we deserve because our sins separate us from God. Hence, the need for a savior, even though it was humankind who revolted against God. He still loves His creation, and determined a redemption plan to restore the original design for living under His kingdom.

Modern churchgoers bathed in the new postmodern Christianity inundating the Church find this basic Bible truth highly offensive. It goes against every fiber of their self-idolatry. If it is not true, if the way God describes and reveals Himself to us is not true, if indeed He is not holy or has changed from a holy God to a weak and bullied cosmic Santa Claus or slot machine who means no more than good feelings and being nice then we, too, are fools along with God. If it is not true, then what hope do we have? What then is the purpose of this life? How do you explain so many religions and belief systems? What is truth? What is your answer?

Messiah snippets, part 2

What then is the Gospel? Are they just the readings the priest does on Sunday? Or the 4 books of the Bible at the front of the New Testament/second half of the Bible?

‘Gospel’ is the English translation twice over of the Greek word euangelion, which means good message or good news and pertains to the good news that “Christ is coming, Christ has come, and Christ will come again.” Simply put, the Gospel is Jesus and his propitiary sacrifice – He is the reason we have breath, He is the reason we can love, He is the reason above every other reason for why we are here and for where He has placed us. He died in our place, because as sinful humans, inheriting the sin nature of Adam, we were under the condemnation of death, because the 'wages of sin is death.' God viewed us as spiritually dead, and unable to commune with Him. Not until repentance - a decision to choose Christ to be our Lord and Savior and turn away from the rejection of his sovereignty, so that the blood of Jesus' sacrifice for us restores us to a right standing with God. We have life because Jesus died instead of us and all of our sins we have ever committed and ever will commit can now be forgiven because of his death on the cross. That's why he cried out on the cross, because the sin burden of all mankind became charged against him, resulting in a separation from the Father who cannot look upon sin because He is so Holy. Thus, the Gospel message is at the heart of God’s purposes and relationship with his human creation.

That He would pierce eternity to be in communion with His people is not a simple matter. Many people enjoy the Gospel message sung to them in the beautiful work of Handel, yet I wonder how many find it a call from God?

We continue…

Isaiah 7:14 (prophecy) and Matthew 1:23 (fulfillment) “Behold a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us.”

This is the greatest gift God has given us – Himself in Jesus and His Spirit. Do you know that when God calls you out from all of time to become one of His children, He regenerates you (i.e., you are born again – given a new spiritual life in Christ), and then – miracles of all miracles – He comes to live in us. Emmanuel – God with us. (Romans 8) His habitation creates a new life for us and in us, and enables us to live out lives that submit to His love. So, He came to live on earth, He came to live in Mary, and then He came to live in us. In the future, He will come again (but that’s another part of Messiah!!).

The air continues: Isaiah 40:9; 60:1 “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold thy God! Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

Being a prophet in ancient times was not the easiest job. Being a prophet of God Jehovah whom He used to foretell and forth-tell His Word to people could be downright life-threatening. The good news that God’s prophet was tasked with carrying to the people could be received either way, yet the news was life-giving. So that everyone will hear, a prophet could go to a high elevation to make the pronouncement. The weightiness of this particular message would necessitate the prophet or heralder to get up into the high mountain – the news would be echoed off the mountain walls and carried for miles! God emboldened His messengers to speak His Words. He put the Words into their mouths. The good news to the remnant of Judah signaled restoration and reconciliation was near. The light of the world has come. (John 1:1-18)

Jesus, the Light, came into the world, bringing His healing to a hurting people. He spoke from a mountain glad tidings to people gathered there, and they saw their God walking among them in the flesh. The glory of the Lord, and His grace and high favor had risen up on them. Their faces were alit by the divine presence. Today, we are the heralders. We are tasked to bring glad tidings to a lost and hurting world. We are given the Words of God that will reconcile people to Him. Nothing man can create or make up can accomplish the power that the words of The Word can. We are a privileged people to receive them and share them. Only through the message of this gospel can the glory of the Lord be seen on His people. Anything less is a shallow light.

The mood changes, but the message continues to be sounded, now beyond the remnant of Judah. The male voice says (Isaiah 60:2, 3; 9:2) “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  ³And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. …²The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Beyond the remnant of Judah – to the Gentiles. That is us! This is indeed good news – God’s message of salvation and reconciliation would embrace those who were non-Jews and not proselytized. His promise to Abraham was that his seed or offspring would bless the world; Jesus fulfills that prophecy. God calls a people from beyond time that would include all tribes and peoples of the earth to become His in a new relationship. He has called us forth from darkness – from alienation from Him, from spiritual death,  into the glorious light of Himself. (Ephesians 2:1-10) He has given us His Word – His message of Light, and true enlightenment to sustain us in that life in the Light. The ‘kings’ coming to the brightness of thy rising may refer to the so-called wise men who followed the light to where Jesus was born. How wise are we? Do we follow the light?

And, then, in a series of heralds, the birth of the Messiah is announced, and Handel is first inspired from Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 9:6 to score “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
The virgin named Mary – a teenage girl betrothed to the man Joseph – carried Jesus within her. She was not a popular girl any longer. Her friends deserted her. Her father and mother were ashamed; the family name was dragged in the mud. In those times a young woman who was perceived to have had sexual relations outside of marriage could be stoned to death - both she and any child she was carrying. God's law concerning marriage and sexual purity were still in effect. Everyone shunned her; even her fiance could not believe that she would wrong him like that! He was cut to the heart for he loved her. Yet, Joseph - a man broken by what he thought was deceit, and particularly believed to be a crime, decided with much anguish and pain to settle the matter quietly and not bring her before a tribunal. His sacrifice was rewarded by God's message to him explaining what had befallen Mary and the miracle into which his own life would be enmeshed.  As wondrous as this miracle was, it was clear that carrying Christ within one’s self does not always engender kind responses, not even from those closest to us. Yet, the joy that Mary would see, the faith that God had given her to continue this labor of love, helped her and eventually, her husband Joseph to press on.

Their faith - no doubt tested severely on the trek to Bethlehem - yielded the fruit that changed the world. A son – a progenitor, giver of life – was born. Not just a child, but one who is the Mighty God and Everlasting Father. A ruler whose power would supersede human government. His name – Jesus, which means God is salvation – forth-told what His purpose on earth would be.

We, too, who have accepted God’s invitation to let Him dwell in us, will at times face difficulties because of that relationship. Yet, think of the fruit we are yielding – we are God’s instruments to carry life to persons through this transforming Gospel message. His indwelling Spirit makes it possible for us to achieve what no program no matter how noble, and no self-help set of seven principles can achieve – He empowers us even in the most challenging of times, to bring Jesus to others. What He has done is truly Wonderful!