Happy New You

When you hear the words “New Year,” what thoughts come to mind? Are you excited at the thought of turning one page of your life and getting on to the next? Do thoughts of anxiety and remorse come as you contemplate the missed opportunities or unfinished projects that you’ll leave behind as a reminder to your failings in the previous year? Or like myself, do you moan and groan as you think about having to come up with new “resolutions” or commitments that will better yourself and the world around you in the coming 365 days? After all, what’s so important about a calendar flip, anyway? What’s really changed in your heart and your attitude when we recognize a different year? Sunday will still come after Saturday, and the electricity in your house will still flow the same way as it did on December 31^st. If that much is true, how then can one truly experience a new year?

If we are true to ourselves, a New Year’s promise is only as good as the Old Year’s promiser! That is to say, the person who had no control over their eating in the old year is likely not to flip a magical switch at the stroke of midnight and eat twigs and berries for 52 weeks. Likewise, the person who has never given any thought to the way they manage money or credit card usage will probably not do an about face, tear up the credit cards and live modestly. The rub comes not in the resolution but the resolution maker! Weight-loss, saving money, and beginning other disciplines are noble tasks – yet even the noblest of efforts will fall to the wayside if not buoyed with a change of the heart and attitude.

Let me make a suggestion for the worshipper in 2006: “take hold to Christ who has already taken hold to you.” The pounds may or may not fall off. The money may or may not appear in your bank account. These things are difficult if not impossible to predict or guarantee. But if there’s one thing that we can count on with full certainty, it’s this: if we don’t make Christ the very center of our being and motivation in 2006, we’ll be standing in the mirror in 2007 and asking all the same questions once again.

Resonate Themes
Place of Christ in Our Lives
God’s Control in the World
Changed Hearts and Minds
Renewal and Revival

Waiting In Eager Expectation

Waiting is perhaps the hardest thing to do.

I consider myself a largely patient person – though I must qualify that statement. Maybe I should say, “when I personally don’t feel in a hurry, I am a largely patient person.” If I am at the grocery store by myself and not with the kids, I am content to get into any line, no matter the length, and look condescendingly at those who are frustrated by the long lines and inconsiderate shoppers who get their checkbook out after the total is announced. Likewise, when my drive home is not rushed by the need to get dinner cooked or to relieve my wife from a hard day with two maniac children, I am content to waive as passersby, allowing people to merge when they should have waited and pass when there wasn’t enough room. Yes, my life is a peaceful, patient coexistence when I am not in a hurry for something. However, flip the tables, and I am an out of control machine! Suddenly, that leisurely trip to the store becomes more of a stampede and shootout at the OK Coral than an exhibition of my grace and candor. And that drive home – well, suffice it to say that many laws get broken and even more motorists offended when I am rushed. For me, patience is not a virtue as much as it is a convenience.

Last week, my daughter had an MRI. This was no ordinary MRI (as few are), as it was to reveal whether or not she was going to have perilous brain surgery. Needless to say, I was anxious about the outcome and would not be patient about waiting for the news. The MRI was on Wednesday, and we were promised the results the next day. Thursday came and went without a call. When Friday afternoon had also passed, my patience had worn thin. I was a wreck! Saturday and Sunday went by silently, and the reality that I was waiting on important news began to dissipate. By Monday morning, there was a renewed sense of urgency, but as my morning workday progressed, I once again began to forget about what I was waiting on. Then, with no warning, the phone rang at 1:00pm. I answered it nonchalantly, only to hear my wife ecstatic on the other end of the line. “No surgery,” she cried, and at once, I remembered what I had been waiting on for so many days. Emotions flooded me, and I was overwhelmed with the answer we’d been given!

The Scriptures tell us that world had been waiting in eager expectation for the Son of Man to be revealed. And, at just the right time, Jesus came into the world to rescue the souls of men from the law and certain spiritual death. His coming was a matter of patience. He had been foretold by numerous prophets century after century – but he never came. It might be fair to say that many had forgotten that a Messiah was even coming at all. Then, just as an unannounced phone call, the Light of the World stepped down into darkness, and opened the eyes of the world to his marvelous light.

As we celebrate the birth of the Christ-child in our worship, let us be reminded of the promise that came not only through him to us, but to the whole world – and that God has an excellent record of keeping his promises. It is up to us remain patient and maintain an eager expectation of what God will do.

Resonate Themes
Birth of Jesus
Praise to Emmanuel
Adoration
Expectation

Be It Unto Me, According to Your Word, O Lord

Have you ever been asked to carry something extremely costly?

In college, we had a group of six friends that did everything together. To say we were close does not do justice to the depth of our relationship. Keep in mind that when we got together, the whole world took a back seat to our antics and practical jokes. We could speak “insider” language for hours on end, and know for sure that we were the only ones that knew what we were saying! One of our group traditions was to be in each other’s weddings. When the first of our group got married, the best man thought it would be cute to hide the ring he had been given by the groom, pretend he’d forgotten or lost it, and just in the nick of time (when the bride was about to strangle him) he would produce it – much to the joy of the audience. Needless to day, the first attempt was funny; however, every successive attempt got better and more elaborate. In fact the final guy to get married in our group had his ring lowered to him from the end of a fishing pole by a snorkeler in an elevated baptistery!! We have video to prove it - but I digress. At my own wedding, I had fully expected something audacious to happen at the ring ceremony, and I was not disappointed. I had entrusted my wife’s ring to the best man. To that point in my life, I had never purchased anything of greater value than that ring. It was handmade and custom designed. I spent months researching its formation, selection of just the right stone, and crafting the perfect ring. It was of immense worth (at least to me and my wife to be). Knowing that, I still handed it off to the best man for safekeeping. When the time in the ceremony came for him to produce the ring he the turned out the pockets of his tux. Nothing. He looked down the line of groomsmen. Still nothing. Finally, a cell phone rang in the audience. It was handed to the last groomsman in line who took it an had a lengthy, albeit fake, conversation about where the ring might be. This happened several times until the phone finally reached the best man who was pretending to be frantic. With the audience in stitches and the bride about ready to burst, the ring magically appeared from one of the bouquets on the stage, and the service finished as most weddings do. Even though he had somewhat taken advantage of my trust, I chose my best man to hold something that was very precious to me.

Sometimes, people are chosen to carry something of immeasurable worth. So it was with Mary, a young Jewess who had her entire, planned life ahead of her; promised to be married, barely adolescent, looking forward to a life of birthing children and raising a good, Jewish family – that is, until God stepped in on her plans. When the angel came to her with the amazing news, a great conflict arose in her spirit. How could this happen to me right now? How would it look? One can only imagine the scandal and gossip that would accompany this holy burden. However, when Mary had come to grips with what God had chosen her to do, she simply replied, “Be it unto me, according to your word, oh Lord.” And the rest is history.

God is in the business of choosing people to bear holy burdens: Noah and the saving of creation, Abraham and the birthing of a great nation, Moses and the deliverance of a great nation, and a simple young girl who would bring the Messiah into the world. He also chooses us today to bear a great gift, the spirit of Christ Jesus. When God steps in our plans and asks us to take his son into the world, we too might be flooded with questions. Yet, the only answer we can return for such a great gift is, “Be it unto me, according to your word, oh Lord.”

Resonate Themes
Being chosen by God
The Great Gift of Christ
Mary’s Song
Obeying God’s Will

Jesus, the King of Opposites

Isn’t life full of funny opposites?

In a cute email, you might see a baby kitten curled up on the tummy of a 150-pound German Shepherd. You can go to any good seafood restaurant and buy “jumbo shrimp.” Or how about those diets that claim you can weigh less by eating more. The fact is our lives are filled with all kinds of opposites. My grandmother was an opposite. Even when I was a small boy, she was frail and aged. Florence Merriweather Higgins had lived quite a tough life as a poor dirt farmer. Years of raising and children and working the land had left her hobbled and shriveled. She had debilitating rheumatoid arthritis – ever since her fifties. Just walking down the hallway was an all-day affair. Her hands, wracked with arthritis, were curled and mangled beyond usefulness – it was as though she had fingerless mittens rather than usable hands. There wasn’t a lot she could do in her later years. She couldn’t cook, couldn’t clean, and couldn’t bathe. By all standards, she was failure as a physical human being, unassuming and unnoticeable. Even though that dear woman could never hoist me into her lap, she had power – not the kind of power you and I think of, but power that was born out of faith and adherence to the written Word. She loved to read the Bible. Bible reading, for her, was an escape to a place where physical limitation was rendered impotent in the presence of the Almighty. My grandmother instilled that discipline in me from a very early age. She taught me the Psalms and the Beatitudes. When she read, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” you’d better believe she understood exactly what it meant! Yes, my grandmother was the perfect embodiment of opposites.

Jesus, too, exhibited some of these traits. Infinitely-finite. Though, in very nature God, he was born humbly as a man. He had the power of the Almighty at his fingertips, yet he used those fingers to carve and fashion and build and to touch. The prophets had also envisioned such an opposite Deliverer, though many misinterpreted it. Certainly as Isaiah spoke to the nation of Israel, he envisioned a great Messiah of opposites - one who would come to make the no bodies, some bodies. Those who were blind would be sighted in Jesus’ reign as the king of opposites. The poor would mount the ladder of spiritual fortune. The brokenhearted would find a new reason for living. The spiritually imprisoned would be liberated. Those that mourn with ashen faces would rise, cleanse, and worship once again. Yes, the King of opposites had indeed come into the world – and his first ministry stop would be to those who needed him most.

Our assembly this week will focus on Emmanuel coming into the world, as foretold by Isaiah and fulfilled by Jesus. The Messiah brings healing in his wings and rescue from the Fall for those who would have eyes to see and ears to hear. Also, we will worship a God who trades opposites – sorrow for joy, mourning for dancing.

Resounding Themes:
Emmanuel/Messiah
Freedom from bondage, mourning to dancing
Fulfillment of Prophecy in Christ
Jesus as the Rescue for man from sin

Catching A Glimpse of the Obvious

Have you ever been accused of being someone who misses the obvious?

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone to look for something I know is there, and I come up empty-handed. Take sunglasses, for example. I have a hard time keeping up with sunglasses. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason, sunglasses have a way of eluding me. Several weeks, ago, I was in hurry to get to the store and back in time to cook dinner. It was late afternoon, the sun was setting, and I knew I’d have to have my sunglasses to navigate. I looked frantically for several minutes, taking trips back and forth from the car to the countertop back to the car to my chair and even to my wife’s car! The glasses were nowhere to be found. Finally, on one of my trips through the living room, I caught a glimpse of myself in the hallway mirror – the glasses were planted firmly on top of my head where I had left them earlier that day. How could I have overlooked such an obvious thing?

The entire world missed something obvious – something as plain as the sunglasses on my head. All of history had been pointing to the Messiah, coming to save the nation of Israel. Year after year, as the Passover was observed, the people looked and looked for a Messiah to come and deliver them once again. Isaiah, arguably one of the best chronicled prophets of God, said as much time and time again in his ministry to Israel. Yet, when Emmanuel did show himself on earth – just as Elijah had foretold – the people sat dumbfounded and aloof to his presence. Jesus came in the creativity of a baby boy in the bustling town of Bethlehem and no one saw. Even at a very young age, Jesus astounded the scholars and befuddled the would-be-wise, but no one paid him any attention. Still later, when a man from Galilee came with gifts of healing, exorcism, and even power over death, the crowds overlooked him.

As the Christmas season is upon us, it is important that we not miss the obvious right in front of us. The problem comes when we block the obvious with presents, debt-accruement, over-done parties, etc. These things are all well and good and bring us great delight; but no greater joy can come than from seeing Christ in Christmas. And what of Jesus’ work in and around us all year long in the church? It’s one thing to look for Jesus’ special in-breaking around Christmas and Easter; it’s another thing altogether to see the effect of the Messiah in our local churches and ministries.

Yes, this holiday season, let’s not miss the obvious promise fulfilled among us and our church: Emmanuel, God With Us.

Resounding Themes:
Emmanuel
Foretelling of the Messiah
Jesus as the Light of the World
God’s Work Amongst Us