Month: December 2023

Grace Upon Grace

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Merry Christmas to you! Blessings to you and your family as you celebrate this special day together. We’ve been talking all this season about Jesus’ coming and the difference it makes in our lives and in our world. There’s one last wonder to marvel over together today: God sent Jesus to save us when we were still in our sins. We weren’t worthy of it. We didn’t deserve it. We hadn’t earned it. But He did it anyway as an act of pure grace. Let’s bask in the glory of that grace as we reflect together this morning on just how good this greatest of all gifts is. As one last note, this will be the only post this week. We’ll get back on our journey through Exodus starting in the new year. I’ll see you then!

Grace Upon Grace

This is a fun day, isn’t it? I mean, it’s Christmas Eve. Who wouldn’t be happy on a day like this? So, on this happy and joyous occasion, I thought we would take a little mental field trip. Doesn’t that sound exciting? Where are we going on this great and special day? Close your eyes for a moment, climb in the mental church van with me (the fun thing about mental field trips is that we can all fit in the same van together without anyone having to worry about being squished in the back), and let’s take a little drive over to one of yours and my favorite places to visit: the DMV. 

Anybody’s eyes pop back open in shock there? 

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Songs of the Season: Luke 2:7

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”Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.“ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Jesus’ birth changed history. No other birth has been of similar significance as His. It’s not even close. We literally changed how we number our years because He was born. Modern scholars try to cover up that fact by using BCE and CE instead the traditional BC and AD, by the numbers don’t change which means the event of Jesus’ birth is still the lynchpin on which everything hinges. How could a song properly capture such an ordeal in words? It couldn’t. But I heard one recently that comes pretty close. Let’s celebrate today that Jesus is alive with one last song of the season.

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The Gifts of Advent: John 3:16

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“For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (CSB – Read the chapter)‬‬

When the apostle Paul was trying to capture the overwhelming significance of the spiritual gift of love and its foundational importance for the other gifts Jesus gives His church for its proper health and functioning, He penned these famous words: ”Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love — but the greatest of these is love.“ Love is indeed the greatest, and as we celebrate one last gift of Advent together today, love is appropriately where we land.

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The Gifts of Advent: Luke 1:13

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“But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever prayed for something and didn’t get it? That can be a disheartening experience. We pray, and pray, and pray, and…nothing. Eventually we start to wonder why we should even bother. I mean, we’ve been praying for minutes and nothing has happened. Or maybe you’ve been praying a bit longer than that. But then we find all kinds of encouragement in the Scriptures to turn to prayer. The various authors obviously considered prayer to be quite a gift. Let’s talk about this next gift of Advent and if it really is.

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The Gifts of Advent: Philippians 2:5-8

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“Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death – even to death on a cross.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In our increasingly pagan culture, one of the gods we worship most supremely is the god Autonomy. Autonomy seems like a wonderful god at first glance. There is a reason our culture has become so taken in by him. He assures us that we should be able to be and do whatever and whoever we want. Whatever whim we have should be fulfilled. Whatever identity we want to embrace should be recognized and even celebrated. Autonomy insists that he only wants for us to be in charge of ourselves. The only thing Autonomy really opposes is someone else’s telling us what to do. In the face of this new-old god and his demands on our life, one of the gifts the God of the Bible offers us and which we can celebrate at this time of year is the gift of submission to someone else, namely Him. This sounds like a rather strange gift. Let’s talk today about why it is so good.

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