Due to my love for the Bible, I am drawn to dramatized accounts of biblical people. One such search lead me to this fictionalized biography by author James Cannon about the Apostle Paul, published in 2005.
Tracing Paul's life from birth to death, Cannon presents Paul's upbringing and early formation, his rigorous training in Judaism and then his conversion on the road to Damascus and entire ministry to bring Christianity to the non-Jewish world. Cannon skillfully and artfully interweaves most if not all Paul's history and letters found in the Bible.
Although I am an ardent Bible reader, I admit I am not a student of biblical history. Nevertheless, I thought Cannon captured the character, personality and demeanor of this most intriguing man, Paul. I thought the story unfolded accurately along the timelines of Paul's ministry - his journeys, travails, persecutions, churches founded, people encountered, imprisonments, etc. The fiction that author Cannon wrote to "connect the dots" seemed very plausible. Finally, the story moved along well.
Of course, since this is a work of fiction, Cannon needed to offer stories for the many parts of Paul's life where no history exists. As I reader, I found all these story parts intriguing while also syncing well with what is known about Paul in the Bible. These stories were, in my view, what made the book and that filled out the man, such as his upbringing, how he became a Pharisee, his relationship with Peter, and the tension between Jewish and Gentile believers. Overall, Cannon presents Paul as a man of complexity, intelligence, intensity and zealous calling that pulls against inner desires.
For me, Cannon brought the aura of Paul down to earth, to a level an "average believer" could relate to without compromising his character or integrity in any way.
A masterfully written story. Thoroughly enjoyable.
To have and to hold
1979: Our first walk as husband and wife
February 16 marks the 38th anniversary of my marriage to the former Cindy Alfonso. While we considered writing our own vows, I worried that nerves would render me tongue-tied so we went the traditional route, repeating after Fr. Cronin who performed our ceremony at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Farmington Hills, MI.
“I Glenn take thee Cindy…”
I’m pretty sure I used “Cindy” vs. her proper name, “Cynthia.” She has always been “Cindy” to me, or occasionally “Cin,” (pronounced sin). Never thought much about calling her Cin until our pastor questioned me about it when he first met us.
“Do you really call her Sin,” he queried?
“Not S-i-n but C-i-n,” was my amused answer. “Same pronunciation, different spelling.”
I also hold fondly that word “take” due its first use by Cindy’s dad as he blessed our plans to marry.
“Here, you ‘take’ her,” he urged conspiratorially. “I can’t do anything with her.”
To this day I am deeply moved to recall dad’s jesting blessing due in part to my fondness for him and to having indeed been blessed to do life with his beloved second daughter as my wife.
“to be my lawful wife…”
“Lawful” as in Cindy agreeing to take on becoming “Mrs. Trevisan.” Hearing her addressed as such still sends of a shiver through me, marveling that this stunning lady agreed to set aside her own family name for mine. Also “lawful” that she so readily accepted that “wife” role that sources from humanity’s beginnings when God recounted fashioning woman from the man’s rib, thus “completing” a grand design began when he announced,
“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’” … so God created man in His own image…male and female He created them.” (See Genesis 1: 26-27, NASB)
“to have and to hold…”
Layers and nuances of having and holding marks every good marriage, including ours. Perhaps the words were inspired by the man’s excited response when God brought “HER” to first name and then to also have and hold.
The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” (Genesis 2:23, NIV)
Not hard to imagine the man thinking God saved the best for last while also wondering how God timed her arrival to complete man’s odd naming assignment during which he realized that unlike other creatures, he lacked a suitable helpmate. (see Genesis 2:20, NIV.)
Given their nudity, having and holding probably flowed spontaneously at first especially with God managing the introductions and then staying near to delight in how their loving parts fit together just so.
The leading word “to” in this phrase launched our life as a married couple, formalizing the blending that formed during our 16 months of dating and courting as we two become one.
“in sickness and in health, for richer or poor…”
These phrases that sound so romantic during the ceremony are less endearing when encountered in actual life. Nevertheless, weathering life’s highs and the lows together is how our romance formed into a priceless gem.
A game-changing paradigm was discovering that the highs require as much if not more tending as the lows. Success, prosperity and well-being can grow layers of entitlement that lusts for more while gradually replacing humility, gratitude, and serving that undergirds relational maturity.
That I’m hard-working but not particularly endowed toward tapping the money spigot has kept us in a near-constant “make do” mode most of the way. But here we are a team with God timely opening doors that we gratefully stepped through. Along the way, we were credited with distinctions that allowed us to eek out and frugally fashion a modest but comfortable life.
“to love and cherish from this day forward…”
To be drawn into a redemptive relationship with the Lord Jesus was a huge highlight in our first few years of marriage that grounded and grew us individually and as a couple. A minor setback occurred when we turned to the children part of our plan until we were inspired by the nature of God’s relationship with us to also adopt. (see Ephesians 1:5, ESV). Having formed our family that way, we enjoy the uniqueness of being a 100 percent “chosen” family.
“until death do us part.”
Uttering these words, we naively thought of death as distantly future and as the only power that could part us. When we and are marriage were adopted into Christ, we were folded into a reality where death was mercifully settled and behind us. Considerable biblical teaching on this is includes Galatians 2:20:
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (NIV)
This plays out practically as we confess our stumbles to each other and God whose “amazing grace” assures forgiveness so complete as to literally separate our failings from us as far as east is from west. (see Psalm 103:12, NIV).
A dear friend just lost his wife after illness that dulled the last 20 or so years of their marriage. Walking alongside him in the aftermath of her “homegoing,” we marvel at how God has seemingly dissipated the fog of those sickness years to bring to light the sometimes overwhelmed but nevertheless steady pulse of love and joy running through their now completed married life.
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. “(Ephesians 5: 31-32, NIV)
Here Paul cites a profound mystery as the reason why a man leaves home to unite to his wife. Marriage alludes dimly to Christ “taking” the Church as his bride that in turn draws from the covenant Yahweh extended to Israel.
“With this ring I thee wed.”
The significance of our rings were in no way diminished by purchasing them at Murray’s Hardware. Same with Cindy’s first diamond, so small because I waited until after diamond prices skyrocketed. By the time we upgraded both the bands and her diamond, their merit to us was due more to the richness of our love than to any value they have as precious metals or gems.
While I cherish and support Cindy’s individualism that allows me to also grow as a person apart from her, I most appreciate that we share many elements of life, building deeper layers as we mark more years together. One of those is music and song, such as the chorus of Warren Barfield’s “Love is not a fight.”
Love is a shelter in a raging storm
Love is peace in the middle of a war
If we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door
No love is not a fight but it’s something worth fighting for.
Witness against yourself?
Something about my manner caused a new co-worker to suspect I was a believer. After determining that I was, he explained mentioning to his wife after his first day at work, “There’s something about Glenn that makes me think he’s a believer.”
While I’m certainly not guarded with people about my Christian faith, I also don’t feel lead to advertise I follow Christ. Still, when my co-worker asked if I was “saved,” I responded without hesitation.
“Yes indeed, a sinner saved by grace,” I answered, offering my hand.
“Amen brother,” he replied as we warmly shook hands.
To be known as a Christian can be both affirming and sobering – affirming when our manner honors our Lord but when our conduct or attitude falls short of how a Christian is “supposed” to be, our faith claim essentially witnesses against us.
Near the end of the book of Joshua, the people of Israel tried to convince Joshua they will carry on fine after he was gone. During his farewell speech, Joshua recounted how God made good to the people of Israel by bringing them to the land he promised to give them. Then Joshua reminded everyone that God would not tolerate any unfaithfulness. While the people insisted they would remain faithful to God, Joshua answered,
““You are not able to serve the Lord,” he cautioned. “He is a holy God; he is a jealous God….If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will … bring disaster on you…” ”
Joshua had good reason to doubt his fellow Israelites. After all, he was one of only two of those rescued from Egypt allowed to enter the promised land. All the rest of his contemporaries, except Caleb, died in the desert because they doubted the Lord. Joshua’s audience now were the doubters’ children who insisted they would succeed where their parents failed. Unconvinced, Joshua warned,
““You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.’” ”
Did he really say they were ‘witnesses against themselves?’ Doesn’t the Lord want his people to openly proclaim allegiance to him?
If we walk our talk, then yes. But we tend to fall short. O.K. we always fall short.
Of course God knows that Israel will mess up even though he is pulling for them not to. Since we read this story as history, we too know they failed, lost the promised land and were carried into exile by their enemies.
Fortunately, God’s plan wasn’t dependent on his chosen people holding up their end. Back up a few sentences and note that Joshua’s prefaces the warnings part of his message by recounting what the Lord has already done for Israel in spite of their mess-ups!
“Speaking through Moses, God notes, “I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.” ”
Get that Israel received a promised land not of their own making not because they were good, but because God was. Same with us. Just as God gave his committed, though faltering, chosen people cities they didn’t build and food they didn’t grow, he can and does make things happen in our lives that are in no way attributed to our own efforts. Why? Because he has a plan for people who follow him as their Lord that somehow works out for their (our) good AND his glory.
Our pledge of allegiance to the Lord may, on one hand, be a witness against when we falter in our faith despite that we intend to be faithful. But because we are aligned with the only One able to make all our wrongs right, God’s plan works out for us. (See Romans 8:28)
While claiming to belong to the Lord puts us at risk of essentially witnessing against ourselves, in our faltering and dealing with repercussions failure often involves, we often reset with God who restores us and urges us to resume the work he has for us to do.
Seems a little backward, right? Welcome to the Kingdom of God.
Amazing how God has all this figured out down to the most intricate detail. Do we really matter to him THAT MUCH?
May I Never Tire of This
My morning spot at Laura's place
Here I am again. A new morning, pre-dawn, hot cup of coffee, journal, Bible, laptop…
This morning finds me in a guest spot specifically set up by our daughter, Laura at her house for me – because I do this. Because I’ve being doing this for years and years and everyone I know knows I do this, especially anyone who has ever put me up for a night.
May I never tire of it.
This morning I pray for Laura and her husband Michael along the line of these verses I selected for them….
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
planted in the house of the Lord,
they will flourish in the courts of our God. (Psalm 92: 12-13, NIV)
Later we will visit a church they want to check out. I pray they find a “house of the Lord” to root into, belong to, flourish with. Perhaps a family church like Grace Chapel where Cindy and I belong and where Laura particularly synced with the Lord during middle school where dear friends Tony and Heidi Cece lead “Breakaway,” our middle-school ministry then?
Cindy and I are still firmly rooted there, like a palm tree, like the cedars of Lebanon. May we never tire of Grace Chapel. Sundays there are the high point of every week along with other Grace Chapel moments between Sundays.
I flipped back through my journal to revisit what the Lord spoke to me about last week. God always has a lot to say and this week, I captured several thoughts in my journal…..
- Friday – An impression I drew from God’s declaration about Israel in Isaiah 22:14, “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” after which I jotted, “then Jesus came and did it.”
- Thursday – Notes that fed into a message to a Facebook friend about a quote he shared from Bruce Springsteen’s new autobiography, Born to Run. While Springsteen credits family, faith, work and being Italian as under-girding his life and work, he’s a self-avowed agnostic so maybe faith isn’t so much a factor even though God’s grace is essential for him or any of us to endure and triumph. However, when God gets no credit, personal toil and dogged determination takes most of the bows.
- Wednesday – “Everyone Invited” is how I titled notes for 1 Timothy 4:10 “we put our hope in the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe” – more layers for a thought theme developing in me. I agree to the “all” but how does it fit with election? Lately I arrive at God sovereignly knowing how we choose. Return to this later.
- Tuesday – Notes from pastor Doug’s Sunday message from 1 John 2: 3-11 that I titled “Obedience/love litmus test. I underlined “if you know, you show” than jotted James 2: 14-26 in the margin. Well done, Doug. Again.
Another week of listening and drawing near to God. May I never tire of this.
Road Report rose directly from the fertile soil of this field I pray I never tire of – intentional time each morning with the Lord. Expressions I’ve shared out of this hour over the years – poems, prayers, ornaments, articles, essays, and letters prompted some recipients to encourage I try my hand at blogging.
Friends Todd Waller and Dan Rose set me up and I launched in April 2012 with more than a little trepidation about whether I could consistently generate content. Turns out content isn’t a problem but finding time to write and then getting myself out there is.
I’ve continuously written something somewhere since I was 15. Although I have shared some writing and other creative work over the years, Road Report is the first attempt to put ideas out that are accessible to anyone. Even so, faithful readers are few so Road Report is presently more like playing guitar in a room with the door open. Visitors are welcome but most don’t stop by for a listen.
Faithful Road Report followers, thanks for looking in each week. For now, it’s just us few and the Lord, a kind of message practice perhaps?
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning. (Psalm 130:6, NIV)
May I never tire of this.
Dual Citizenship Dilemma?
Image source: Preacher Study Blog
Despite that I devote little attention to news and political matters, I’ve ventured into a few social media exchanges during the just-concluded presidential campaign and since President Trump took office. I’ve also deleted or edited some comments here and there that didn’t feel right later on.
Immigration is one of those issues on everyone’s radar. For all the problems in America, plenty of people desire to live in the freedom that United States citizenship affords.
Freedom of speech may be one of the most valued freedom American citizens enjoy. While America allows expression with minimal risk of repercussion, freedom of speech can easily get us into serious trouble with anyone in the range of our voice especially when our speaking platform is social media.
As someone who writes into this media, I know firsthand that some of the views expressed here have riled up a few people. My intention with Road Report is draw from personal experiences to share what I hear God is saying in and through me.
I am grateful to be able to share my perspective this way thanks to the freedom afforded me as a citizen of the United States of America. However, by drawing God into the center of these messages, my citizenship in his kingdom is also very much in play. Lately I notice more contention between these kingdoms of my dual citizenship.
Perhaps the dilemma is due to that the manner and conduct of the kingdom of God is often not in concert with the manner and conduct of the kingdom of America that is part of the greater kingdom of the world. Read Jesus’ beatitudes to see how people of God’s kingdom are.
Besides the beatitudes, the Bible has much to say about this dual citizenship believers in God and Christ. Here’s how St. Peter frames this dilemma believers face:
“Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. ”
Jesus claimed to be king of a kingdom not of this world. (see John 18:36, NIV). People gain citizenship in the kingdom of God when they are “born again” – adopted into a new family and citizenship that is ruled by God.
It sounds simple enough but unlike towns and neighborhoods where we live out our mortal lives, God’s kingdom is invisible and we Christians have no visual features or language that readily identifies us as “temporary residents and foreigners.” So how should Christians approach this dual citizenship?
Peter continues with some practical guidance: Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. (1 Peter 2: 11b-12, NLT)
- keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very soul (v11b)
- live properly among unbelieving neighbors (v12a)
- behavior honorably (v12b)
- don’t judge (v12c)
The big question regards whether our citizenship in God’s kingdom is as noticeable as (say) an immigrant’s native accent reflects his/her Spanish-ness or Middle Eastern-ness or Asian-ness? What should an accent resonating the kingdom of God sound like?
Notes
- Referring to believers as “temporary residents” is noted elsewhere in Scripture (such as Genesis 23:4, Leviticus 25:23, Philippians 3:20 and Hebrews 11:13). (Biblegateway link in NIV)
- What does ‘Born Again Christian’ mean?
When All the Saying is Said – Cling
(Reviewing Road Reports archives, I came across this post of 8/13/2013. Three-plus years later, it still hits the spot so share it again along with a few tweaks learned since then…)
"Forgiven" by Thomas Blackshear
We were in our 30’s when some of the guys in our family started an annual“Boys” winter weekend in northern Michigan. Now the oldest of us are in our 60’s.
During those weekends when we were younger, we imagined what the years we are now living might look like, something like:
- careers on cruise control
- money for retirement
- children grown and on their way
- plans for our senior years nearly complete
Things didn’t play out like that for me. As I was turning in my mid-50’s toward a last push of accumulating for retirement, my life ship hit an iceberg. I didn’t sink but a lot of our cargo jettisoned into the cold, dark waters called “Detour! Change of plans.” As I tread water to keep my face on the air side, my faith in Christ became a lifesaver. A Bible story that resonated with me was Job.
The premise of the story is disturbing – a debate between Satan and God that turns into a bet, like roulette. After God singles Job out as a righteous man, Satan protests that Job’s faithfulness is all due to the favor God has bestowed on him – prosperity, health, family, and status.
Retorted Satan, ”But (if you) reach out and take away everything he has, he will surely curse you to your face!” (Job 1:11, NLT)
So God permits Satan to stack the deck against Job by devastating his livelihood, family and health. Then God puts all his chips on Job and spins the wheel.
The rest of the story is a series of monologues by Job reacting to his plight and by three of his friends who weighed in with their own views about Job’s situation.
Some friends, right? They lead off well with comfort and empathy but soon get frustrated as Job’s situation drags on. Their monologues bounce between offering hollow answers and blaming Job for bringing this plight upon himself.
In my early readings of Job, I used to camp on Job’s speeches more than of his friends. Knowing how God favored Job at the beginning of the story, I surmised that Job’s discourse would be the most right on. Also, I KNEW the other guys’ reasoning about what caused Job’s plight was off.
Now I realize Job didn’t have the corner on wise speak. In each man’s reasoning is shades of truth, speculation and error. In these discourses I was reminded that we all sin, all fall short and that none of us can make much sense of life sometimes.
Although God attributed righteousness to Job, his friends also followed God even though their judgment about Job’s plight were completely off base. In the end, they each admitted their error by dutifully paying the penance God demanded of them.
I see my own story in Job’s. A detour interrupted my plan and as I dealt with it, I groped for answers that don’t exist. In Job’s story, we see a victim dealing with trial while he and his friends conjecture about what happened..
When all the saying is said, Job clings to God so God wins the wager but Job also recovers to a new normal. Best of all, Job’s relationship with and awe of God moves to a more enlightened and practical place.
Clearly Job’s “rightness” with God is more about God than Job. Because God had Job, Job had God. Don’t you love the end of the story when Job realized he only needed God, not God’s answers?
““I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
I take back everything I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” ”
Trial has a way of helping us to really “see” the God we only heard about before, and to truly get that God is always for us and never against us. When we respond by aligning with God, we win and the next detour is a little easier to navigate.
Job’s story illustrates this principle well. I hope my story does that too.
Here’s a good book offering insights from the experiences of the prophet Elijah: “I didn’t sign up for this” by Aaron Sharp
Messianic Merchandiser
Section 4 of 16 at Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, MI
Even though we generally take Christmas down on New Year’s day, I am often reluctant to leave the Christmas mode. This year, we decided to extend Christmas with an outing to Bronner’s Christmas store in Frankenmuth, Michigan during the week between Christmas and New Years.
Established by Wally Bronner in 1945, Bronner’s is ayear-round Christmas store. An American success story, Bronner started modestly than steadily grew to a mega-successful enterprise touted as the world’s largest Christmas store, drawing over 2 million visitors annually to the Frankenmuth area.
Bronner’s opened its current 320,000 square foot store in 1977
Our primary intent was to enjoy a Christmas outing together but I was also on the lookout for an angel figurine for our outside Christmas decorations. My inspiration is two grapevine angel figures that are part of our church’s Christmas display. My idea is to buy or make a similar angel and wrap it with lights to herald the Savior during both day and night-time.
Angels like this at Grace Chapel Church
Not only does Bronner’s offer an extensive array of Christmas merchandise, it also designs and manufactures Christmas materials, displays and ornaments. As a Christmas ornament-hobbyist, I am particularly drawn to Christmas ornaments in general and gospel-themed ornaments in particular.
Notably Wally Bronner, a devout believer in Christ, pulled off a merchandising miracle to achieve mega commercial success with Bronner’s while also keeping Christ front and center in his prolific advertising and throughout the store itself. Greeting visitors near each store entrance is a prominent wall sign picturing Santa Claus kneeling at Jesus’ manger captioned with the “at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow” Philippians 2:10.
Wall sign near Bronner’s entrance
While Bronner’s commitment to the Lord inspires, his commercial success is most due to keying on customer’s desires for celebrating Christmas. Christmas today is most about what each celebrating family decides to make Christmas most about.
Credit Bronner for zeroing so effectively on the “most abouts” of its vast customer base. Shoppers with no interest whatsoever in the messianic “back story” of Christmas can find everything they need at Bronner’s. Truly, the business of Christmas can flourish apart from the greater mission the holiday’s namesake came to planet earth to share and do.
While for Wally Bronner, Christmas is most about his Savior, he fashioned a Christmas business that also catered to people preferring a Christmas without Christ. Not only did he seem O.K. with doing that but he achieved significant commercial success that way. While Bronner’s both/and approach may seem like a watering down of his faith, I offer him as an exemplary “Messianic Merchandiser.”
I never met the man but its clear to me he viewed Christmas and Christ as inseparable. To promote Christmas in any way is to also promote Christ. Note the company’s signage and motto since 1977, “BRONNER’S CHRISTmas WONDERLAND.”
His company name merely capitalizes on “Christ” comprising the first six letters of the word, “Christmas.” A coincidence or something else?
Bronner’s brand and motto since 1977
After 63 years at his company’s helm during which he became fondly known as “Mr. Christmas,” Wally Bronner handed the business off to his son Wayne in 1998. He remained chairman of the company’s board of directors until his death in 2008 at age 81.
I found a few angel candidates at Bronner’s but the ones I liked most were a bit over my budget. I was only mildly surprised to also not find much merchandise with what I would call a “gospel-theme” regarding Jesus’ underlying mission to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). “Religious-themed” decorations were generally creche scenes, stars, angels, some bulbs with Bible verses, and a sprinkling of crosses and country church figures.
I did however find something very valuable at Bronner’s – inspiration for living out the gospel in any manner that can draw unbelieving people near to me and other believers. While Christians, like Christmas itself, may not always act or seem Christlike, we and our Savior are in fact inseparable (See Romans 8:38-39). By virtue of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, others in our vicinity are susceptible to being exposed to Christ and his life-restoring gospel.
I am no Wally Bronner but his Christlikeness can be an example for me in this new year as I give myself over to the Spirit at work in me in the hope that someone near me may “catch” some of God’s goodness from me.
Reason for the Season — 2016 Ornament
God’s love for me, for us, human beings is a key inspiration in my faith in Jesus Christ. God is love and Jesus is the incarnation of God’s love.
I pray that comes through in this blog and in my life, if you know me personally. That God loves the likes of me not only never ceases to amaze me, it keeps me going in life that I’m not often very good thriving at. In fact, that I thrive at all is entirely due to the Lord – merciful, forgiving, loving..
God’s “love” for me, for us, is a major theme of my writing and in these ornaments. Christmas is sometimes expressed as “Love came down” in the person of Jesus, the season’s reason, right?
Than last December, one of our pastor’s Advent messages suggested that Jesus is NOT the reason for the season after all!
Alarmed? Intrigued? Well read on and (hopefully) enjoy this 17th annual ornament from me, “Reason for the Season.”
Merry Christmas
On December 13, 2015 Grace Chapel pastor Doug Walker opened his third, “Simply Advent” sermon with the story of the Christmas shepherds. He noted they were not waiting or looking for a Messiah at all that night, just going about their work shepherding sheep.
Their night and lives changed when an angel appeared to them to announce a “joyous” birth of a Savior, their Savior. No mention next of them wondering why the angel said this baby was their Messiah, only that they hurried off to Bethlehem and, well, the rest is history. Jesus is the reason for the season, right?
Doug recalled when ‘Jesus is the reason…’ messages surfaced 10 or so years earlier, “perhaps to counter the sense that commercialism stole Christmas and to fight back against secularism. However,” he continued, “what if Jesus ISN’T really the reason for the season? What if WE are?”
The Gospel explains Doug’s rationale. Sin broke humanity’s connection with God so badly that only a perfectly acceptable sacrifice could repair the breach. Jesus was that perfectly acceptable sacrifice, sent by God for us.
Wow! If we are the reason for the season, doesn’t that change the premise of Christmas gift giving? No longer is it about commemorating the gifts given to baby Jesus. Rather, gifting extends the gift of Jesus that God gave to us!.
“However,” cautioned Doug, “An item that is offered as a gift only becomes a gift when received by the intended recipient. Likewise, Jesus’ salvation only applies for those who receive Him as their Savior and Lord.
Like the shepherds were not looking for a Savior that night and were unaware of their need for one until after they “met” Him, most of us are like that too. We go about our lives with hopefully few needs but many wants. How high is Savior/Messiah on our gift list?
Doug’s message brought to mind when I received Jesus as my Savior. Before I gave into belief, I had no sense of needing a Messiah/Savior either. Only afterwards did my need to be saved dawn on me.
Christmastime brings out our gift lists, our wants. However, wants only stoke desires while needs starve well-being. Desires are rarely satisfied but met needs sustain us for today and beyond – perfect description of salvation, a need met for today and beyond.
Consider that God was much more concerned about the breach in His relationship with us than we are or were. He knows we need Him, that He is the key to our lives, so He stepped in to repair the breach caused by our sin by sending His Son, Jesus to become the only sacrifice that would be acceptable to Him, the one and only God.
God made us the reason for the season in the hope that we would receive His gift and would, in turn, make Him the focal points of our lives. Those of us who receive the gift of Jesus may now share Him and His salvation with others.
That’s what I am doing with this little ornament, sharing the good news of Christ’s salvation with people I care about. Once I was a grateful recipient, now I am a Gift giver.
What an amazing reason for a season!
I enjoy watching the featurettes about "how this movie was made" sometimes offered on DVDs. Fascinating how it all comes together, the approaches the director and actors took, etc. In that vein, I offer this pictorial featurette on the making of the "Reason for the Season" ornament. For those of you who like that kind of thing.....
Notes:
- COMMENTS: Are WELCOME and ENCOURAGED here about how the ornament and/or message struck you ESPECIALLY from ornament recipients. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE a 2016 “Reason for the Season” ornament, simply request one. Limited supply of extras so no guarantees but if I can get one to you, I will. If shipping is required, I will ask you to cover those costs.
- Acknowledgements:
- To Doug Walker, Pastor of Grace Chapel Church in Farmington Hills, MI whose message on 12/13/2015 inspired this and several other of my ornaments over the years. Doug, I cherish your faithfulness to the Gospel and friendship and support of me.
- Honorable mention to fellow Grace Chapel member, Rick Neal who read his poem “My Christmas Want” at that 12/13/2015 service, the theme of which also bolsters this ornament’s “Reason for the season” idea.
- Thanks also to Grace Chapel Office Administrator, Karol Gee for help with printing my ornament labels and card.
- Ornament “hardware” components:
- While the idea for this ornament came early, it wasn’t a go until I found the nifty little mirrors at Consumer Crafts. With those in hand, all systems were go.
- Finding the just-right-sized ornament body (“unfinished wood sign cutout”) at Factory Direct Craft was also a huge time saver.
- The “Blooming Pepper Berry Garland” from JoAnn Fabrics was a nice “framing touch” suggested by my wife, Cindy.
- Ornament Scriptures:
The anchor scriptures printed as a label on the back of the ornament are:a) Isaiah 9:6 (NIV): For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, … And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.; b) Luke 2:11 (NIV) Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
We Had No Idea
[I am pleased this Maundy Thursday to have permission from by my dear friend, Robin Schmidt to share this beautiful narrative she wrote that Pastor Doug Walker included in his own message at Grace Chapel on Palm Sunday, March 20, 2016.]
Palm Sunday…a narrative from the perspective of one of Jesus’ closer followers…as I imagine he might have told the story based on narratives from the four gospels…
Often, we think we know what’s happening…we lean on our own understanding, our own perspective…only to find out…
We had no idea…
We knew what every good Hebrew boy knew…we knew God’s law, we knew the questions to ask on the night of Passover…we knew Messiah would come and establish David’s throne forever.
And like every Hebrew had been asking for hundreds of years we wondered…when would Messiah come?
We had no idea.
When the baptizer was in full swing preaching repentance, turn to God, get ready for the kingdom of God, Andrew was among those following him. But one day John, who seemed like a prophet (and we hadn’t seen one of those for a long time) John pointed out another man and sai, He is the one! The one I said was greater than me because he was before me!
o Andrew followed this new teacher/rabbi, wondering Who is this man who John says was here before him? We had never heard of him. Who was he?
We had no idea.
When this new rabbi told Peter to go fishing in the morning, the Morning! Peter got a little sarcastic and was lik, O, Teacher, hatever you say. And then the nets pulled in so many fish it almost sank the boat! It might have if James and John hadn’t pulled alongside. Peter freaked and fell before Jesus the teacher and said, et away from me I am a sinful man.
Well sure Peter, you and everyone else, but why did you say that to the teacher? And how did you get so many fish, in the morning?
We had no idea.
When we were out on the lake and that crazy storm hit. We were sure it was over for us. Yet the rabbi was asleep- in all that weather! Can you imagine? Someone woke him up and he spoke to the storm, the water and the waves, and they calmed. The storm stopped.
Who does that? Could this be Messiah?
We had no idea.
James and John thought it was, in fact they were so convinced they wanted to secure their place in his new kingdom. Their mom asked Jesus to put one of her sons on each side of Jesus. Nice move dudes. Jesus said those weren’t his places to give, but could they drink the cup of suffering?
Suffering? Sure let me suffer on the right or left hand of the king!
What suffering would Messiah experience?
We had no idea.
When Jesus started talking about all kinds of suffering he would have to endure, Peter tried to set him straight. Messiah suffer? May it never be! But he was harshly answered, rebuked as a stumbling block to God’s ways.
Poor Peter. He put his foot in it that time. So maybe Jesus would suffer, but then maybe he wasn’t the Messia?
We had no idea.
And then Passover came and we headed to Jerusalem. To observe the festival and remember when God set his people free from slavery. Wouldn’t now be a good time for Messiah to set us free? But when would he come?
We had no idea.
And then Jesus, he does this crazy thing. He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey! Like a king. People lining the street yelling,
Hosanna, Save us! And he didn’t agree to ride into the city on the back of a donkey, he arranged it! He sent a couple of guys to go get the donkey!
What?! Is this it? Is David’s throne to be established now once and for all? Freedom from our oppressors! Is Jesus the Messiah? Could it be?
We had no idea.
Then the Passover meal itself. It got a little weird at the end. Jesus was talking about his body and blood. And he offered us a cup, like a man offers a cup to the woman he wants to marry. What did he mean?
We had no idea.
Then it got even weirder…he said someone was going to betray him. What? ! Who?
We had no idea.
So there we are, with our teacher, who just rode into Jerusalem like a king, on Passover no less, perfect time to free God’s people. We were on pins and needles, also exhausted. Was this God’s time? Was freedom near?
We had no idea.
Then Judas shows up with Roman soldiers and high priests and it looks like a battle is about to erupt. And Peter, ever the first to react, draws his sword and cuts off a kid’s ear. But Jesus tells him to put his sword away and heals the ear.
And Jesus goes with the soldiers. He just goes. No fight. No battle. No freedom from slavery on Passover. He just goes with them.
Wha…? What happens now?
We had no idea.
Notes:
Also posted on Robin’s blog: Choosing Comedy.We.Had.No.Idea
This reading is also included in Robin’s book, “Choosing Comedy - Scenes from God’s Sitcom” pgs 108-111
Trust in the Lord — 2015 Ornament
“After my dad’s death in December 2014, I received some items of his – shirts, a jacket, shoes, boots, and a walking stick. While these items were welcome replacements for a tired wardrobe sparingly maintained through years of variable employment, wearing them often caused me to muse how I was literally ‘walking in dad’s shoes’ during this year after his departure from us to be at last “face to face” with our Lord. (1 Cor 13:12)
Keeping his walking stick and boots near our back door often reminds me of dad and figuratively of life as a journey in need of sturdy shoes and a stout walking stick. A photo I took of them there adorns my 2015 journal cover and inspired this ornament design and message – offering context for situations that arose this year. It regards shoes, a walking stick and Proverbs 3, about what we “Trust in” and “lean not on…” in our journey along life’s roads.
”
“Trust in (the Lord) … and lean not on (your own understanding)” (Proverbs 3: 5-6)
2015 Trust in the Lord Ornament
Figuratively, we each have a walking stick for our life journey – a belief system or constitution that casually guides us during normal times and that we lean more heavily on when the road gets a little rough or treacherous. God’s message to believers in Proverbs 3:5-8 is essentially, “Make me your walking stick.”
The Hebrew verb “batach,” translated “trust” in verse 5 occurs 118 times in the Old Testament. In the literal, physical sense, it means to lean on something for support. While the verb often depicts people trusting in things that prove to be unreliable, here the object of trust is the LORD. Trust in (lean on) me with all your heart. In all your ways submit to me.
Not only does the LORD insist he is always reliable for trusting in and leaning on, our own understanding is not so reliable. Adding “lean not on your own understanding” renders this as a “both/and” proposition – to both “trust in” the LORD and to “lean not on” our own understanding.
Even though Proverbs 3 is God inviting ancient Israel in the older testament to “Trust in me,” the principle follows all through the Christmas story that launches the newer testament. After Israel vacillated wildly between the blessings of trusting in the Lord and the repercussions of failing to do so, along comes Jesus. The long-awaited Messiah not only modeled how to walk out life trusting in God, he audaciously presented himself as the way to do so. (John 14:6)
That Jesus’ beginnings didn’t follow a Messiah-like script should prepare us for the unusual form of “understanding” that trusting the LORD requires. A sampling from Jesus’ messages: “To be rich, become poor …
to be comforted, mourn…. to be satisfied, hunger for righteousness… to receive mercy, humble yourself…. to save your life, die…the first are last… to be found, become lost… love your enemies….”
To both trust in the Lord AND lean not on your own understanding is to affirm that God has the “why” fully covered because he is also the way. Mind you, dulling followers’ minds is not the LORD’s goal here. The exact opposite in fact, “life to the full” – to flourish in the freedom of grace found only in Christ! (John 10:10)
Also in Proverbs 3, God offers some great benefits to those who accept the both/and proposition: 1) crooked paths made straight (v6); and, deep, “bone-felt” well-being (v8).
How does God deliver such lofty claims? Follow the story that unfolds all through Scripture. “What he desires, that he does,” proclaimed Job (23:13b). “Our God … does all that he pleases,“ said David (Psalm 115:3). “As I have planned, so shall it be,” wrote Isaiah (14:24). Christmas is the unveiling of God’s ultimate stroke – Jesus Christ who said of himself, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:18).
All this year, I repeated this verse over and over to counter unsettling thoughts, situations and developments – “Trust in” and “lean not on…” When what life brings seems vexing, insurmountable or both, be assured that God is trustworthy beyond your understanding. True well-being comes when we take him at his word and live accordingly. (see John 16:33).
“Trust me on this,” says the LORD, “and lean not on your own understanding.”
Notes:
1. COMMENTS WELCOME and ENCOURAGED here about how the ornament and/or message struck you ESPECIALLY from ornament recipients. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE a 2015 “Trust in the Lord” ornament, simply request one by emailing me at FarmingtonGlenn@gmail.com. No guarantees but if I can get one to you, I will. If shipping is required, I may ask you to cover those costs.
2. Acknowledgements:
- Was thrilled to find this great Ken doll “shoe store” at AliExpress.
- These instructions helped me achieve an authentic driftwood look for the walking stick – although the instructions made this look easier than it turned out to be.
3. Ornament Scriptures:
The anchor scripture is Proverbs 3: 5-6 but for context read Proverbs 3: 5-8
Supporting scriptures and resources:
- Occurrences in Old Testament of Hebrew verb “batach” translated “Trust” on Proverbs 3:5:http://biblehub.com/hebrew/strongs_982.htm
- Some of the paradoxes in Jesus’ messages and the Christian life: http://www.3riversgrace.org/3rg-blog/gospel-paradoxes
- Jesus presenting himself as THE only way to God: John 14:6
- Life to the full: John 10:10
- Claims of Sovereignty, what God says he can and will do: Job 23:13; Psalm 115:3; Isaiah 14:24; Matthew 28:18; Also see: “Sovereignty” in openbible.info
- Encouragement from Jesus for when trouble comes – John 16:33
Lying in a Manger — 2014 Ornament
“This year’s 15th annual ornament, “Lying in a Manger” speaks to 2014, a “What’s wrong with this picture?” kind of year – odd, puzzling and periodically disturbing….
Last Christmas, I was six months into a promising new position that abruptly ended in early January. Following another ten months of career-searching, I turned to simply finding a job and landed a part-time position with a major retailer in early November where I presently work.
As the rest of the year teetered through a series of ups and downs and in-betweens, Christ was my anchor along with my wife, church and family.
RBC Ministries ‘Discovery Series’ booklets are among several favorite sources of Biblical teaching and context including “The Real Gift of Christmas” by Dan Schaeffer that gave rise to this year’s “Lying in a Manger” ornament inspiration that speaks into the “What’s wrong with this picture?” dilemma. I pray it and my message offered below (on explanation card for ornament recipients) resonates with any and all oddities in your picture as well.”
2014 "Lying in a Manger" ornament
Lying in a manger...
While the baby Jesus “lying in a manger” is the central point of the tranquil scenes we prominently feature among our Christmas decorations, the actual birth event was probably not so tranquil for first time parents Joseph and Mary. The story told in Luke presents the manger crib as a concession because there was “no room at the inn.”
Luke declared that “the time came for the baby to be born,” suggesting no time to second-guess the unlikely birthing place. Perhaps in the quiet after the birth, Mary and Joseph’s thoughts turned again to reconciling the lofty claims offered by angelic messengers to both of them just nine months earlier with this birthplace fit well for animals of labor but not so well for a redeemer king. Had they somehow missed an important cue between then and now?
Could the cards be any more stacked against their baby to enter into the world to be saved at such a disadvantaged position? Where had they gone wrong?
Meanwhile another angelic disturbance was underway in the night sky above the dark pastures surrounding Bethlehem. This time a group of shepherds is the odd audience for a heavenly host of angels heralding a Savior born in the town of David who is Christ the Lord. He is to be found “lying in a manager.”
This time, “lying in a manger” is a sign given to find the right baby among many babies in Bethlehem that night due to families streaming into town to be counted in the census imposed by Caesar Augustus. No other baby would be “lying in a manger,” only Jesus, the one they sought.
But why shepherds? And why send them off to seek the baby in the manger?
God laced every moment of that evening with message and meaning, suggests Schaeffer. To shepherds, lowest on the Jewish societal strata, were given the honor to be first to see the Savior and then to release news of his arrival to the community. What comfort for them to seek their redeemer in a place that they of all people would know where to look and not feel unfit to visit?
Still, imagine their wonder as they searched. What kind of Savior arrives in a stable birthing room and a manger crib that would be unusual even in their own time? Indeed, what kind of Savior?
Then what of Mary and Joseph? Queried Schaeffer, “When the rugged shepherd worshipers arrived to see their child, did Mary and Joseph sigh in relief? Did the joy of confirmation flood their souls, washing away any doubt that might have accumulated in their hearts?”
“I think it did,” he surmised. “The heavenly-inspired visit by the shepherds was an additional confirmation that their present circumstances were exactly what God had deemed.”
So this Christmas, permit this “Lying in a Manger” ornament to be a sign for you as well, an invitation. Nothing about your situation is the least bit odd to God. Rest assured that he is working for His glory and your good. So bring your stuff and yourself to him whatever your current state. Like the shepherds, you are welcome and fit to visit.
Notes:
- COMMENTS WELCOME and ENCOURAGED here about how the ornament and/or message struck you ESPECIALLY from ornament recipients. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE a 2014 “Lying in a Manger” ornament, simply request one by emailing me at FarmingtonGlenn@gmail.com. No guarantees but if I can get one to you, I will. If shipping is required, I may ask you to cover those costs.
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
- The inspiration for this ornament came from my reading in September 2014 of “The Real Gift of Christmas”, an RBC Ministries ‘Discovery Series’ booklet by Dan Schaeffer. Link: http://web001.rbc.org/pdf/discovery-series/the-real-gift-of-christmas.pdf
- Star charm: Finishing touch, the “Antique Brass Star Outline” charm http://www.artbeads.com/bba-ch002.html
- LYING IN A MANGER SCRIPTURES:
The anchor scripture is Luke 2:12 but for context, read Luke 2: 4-19.
UP SIDE DOWN — 2013 Ornament
2013 "UP SIDE DOWN" Ornament
Life has not unfolded as I envisioned it as a young dreamer many years ago. Similarly Christmas 2013 bears little resemblance to its “year zero” original. However, in the words of author Dallas Willard, we live in a “God-breathed world*.” There is nothing humanity can make or unmake, do or undo with Christmas or anything else that God did not create, permit or control.
God breathed new life into me 30 years ago and as I’ve walked on in faith since then, I seek God’s context in every moment and to “lean not on my own understanding.” Through God’s eyes, UPs emerge in the mundane and amazingly from the deepest of DOWNs.
So, this UP SIDE DOWN ornament is available this year by request AND your pledge to think about and comment how its message strikes you.
Enjoy!
Christmas celebrates the birth of a child said to fulfill ancient Jewish prophecies about a Messiah King like their great King David (1050 BC) who would vanquish their enemies and establish an everlasting reign of peace. (Isaiah 9:6).
While Jewish scholars today discount prophecies Christians claim are messianic, the fanfare of Christmas 2013 would have suited their UP expectations for Messiah more than Christmas “year zero” did. In looking for an UP king like David they were caught looking in the wrong direction. Here are a few points of confusion.
DOWN #1 – How Jesus arrived – born to a mom who insisted she conceived while still an unmarried virgin. Really?
DOWN #2 – Birthplace. Although Bethlehem was the birthplace of King David, in “year zero” it was little more than a backwoods town located literally in the shadow of the local king’s fortress at Herodium that towered 2,487 feet in elevation over Bethlehem (elevation 775) just 3.1 miles down the road. God could pick anywhere. Why Bethlehem?
DOWN # 3 – Convoluted birth story. He wasn’t born at home surrounded by a royal family but in an animal stall in a distant city. His only visitors were shepherds who say they were summoned by an angelic host and the mysterious magi from who knows where who followed a star.
A stall? Shepherds and Magi? Angels and a star? Could the Messiah King’s entrance be any less credible or more confusing?
After the shepherds departed, it was noted that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)
What things did she ponder? . . . (Was anything about Jesus’ birth NOT ponderable?)
DOWN # 4 – Jesus’ compelling manner but counterintuitive message first wowed the crowds but ultimately confounded them.
Scripture offers clues for understanding:
““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.””
AND
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.”
Hint! Hint! Relationship with God requires both heart and brain. Jesus would affirm and reinforce that idea. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21; Luke 12:34)
The verses quoted on the ornament’s pages are just a small sampling of Jesus’ UP SIDE DOWN-ness . Others include: bless your enemies (Rom 12:14), value godliness over wealth (1 Tim 6: 6-9), take joy in hardship (James 1:2), God sets himself against worldly wisdom and strength (1 Cor 1:27), and “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “ (Matt 16: 25).
Christianity today presents the birth of Christ as a holy and magical event – God touching down on planet earth. But as a stand-alone event in history, it wasn’t that at all. It is only so in context to the greater story of God’s efforts to connect with humanity and that story didn’t begin in Bethlehem but in Eden. Christmas is really part of that greater story and Jesus has a significant role in it.
Which is why Christians believe that Christ is the answer to why we are. Arriving as he did, odd as it seems, went EXACTLY as planned. But to truly hear and see and know him “breathing life” into us and the chaos around us, we need to completely INVERT our perspective – UP SIDE DOWN!
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
- To SeaLemonDIY on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/user/SeaLemonDIY) for the lesson on how to make my little book with real pages. She has many other DIY “How Tos” there as well. Check it out.
- To my friend and Pastor, Doug Walker for yet another lesson to build a Christmas ornament around. If you read back through prior ornament messages, you’ll note that I attribute many of my ornament lessons to Doug’s teaching. Doug is pastor of the church we attend, Grace Chapel in Farmington Hills, MI (www.graceepc.org). The “counterintuitive, upside down gospel” is a predominant theme in his messages.
- To my new colleague, Sister Joyce Van de Vyver who encouraged me not to abandon my ornament project this year when I was thinking of doing so. Thanks!
- TEXT of UP SIDE DOWN Ornament
FRONT COVER: UP SIDE DOWN (upside down)
INSIDE FRONT COVER: THE GOOD NEWS?
1st page: lean not on your own understanding… (Proverbs 3: 5-7)
2nd page: The virgin will conceive and give birth (Isaiah 7:14)
3rd page: I came (not) to bring peace… but division (even within families) (Luke 12: 51-53, paraphrase)
4th page: He was despised and rejected…Like one from whom people hide their faces (Isaiah 53:3)
INSIDE BACK COVER: By Glenn Trevisan, Christmas 2013
- IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE a 2013 “UP SIDE DOWN,” simply request one by emailing me at FarmingtonGlenn@gmail.com. If you receive one, I respectfully ask that you offer a comment about the message by email, Facebook (if we’re already “friends”) or here on at RoadReportJournal.com. I’m not fishing for “likes” but how the message struck you.
- Dallas Willard quote from his book, “The Divine Conspiracy”
- BIBLE READING: If you are serious about answering why you are, grab a bible, start with prayer to ask God to reveal himself to you and give you understanding. For a great Bible reading program, check out the Bible Reading System on my blog. I’d be happy to walk you through it.
- About Glenn’s Ornaments: See the pictures and stories of all the ornaments under category Creations.
Blessed Are the … Yeast? — 2012 Ornament
Glenn's 2012 Ornament (13th Annual): Blessed Are the…Yeast?
I was struck one day in my Bible reading with what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God. His audience did not have 2000+ years of Christianity behind them heralding him as God incarnate. But they had an idea about the kind of kingdom God’s would be. If it was truly God’s, it would certainly dominate any earthly rival.
But domination was not among the ideas Jesus shared about the Kingdom of God nor were might, majesty or power. Rather, ordinary and even lowly fit better for this kingdom Jesus claimed was home to him and “at hand” and accessible to all present.
Jesus depicted Kingdom people as poor in spirit and meek, mournful, merciful, peacemakers (Matthew 5: 1-10). And then he drew upon common, every day items to describe how Kingdom “subjects” were, like salty salt (v13), light-giving lamps (v14) and in another lesson, seeds that grow into giant trees, and a small portion of yeast that leavens a large batch of dough (Luke 13: 18-21).
Yeast. That one struck me. You can’t get more ordinary than yeast.
In 2012 after four plus years of career search posturing, I failed to secure any of the positions I sought despite making “the finals” on several occasions. But as I searched, I kept God in clear view and trusted that the doors that opened were either opened by Him or allowable by Him for me to pursue. This I did with every one. And here I stand, where I now am.
While I can’t see how my present fits with the balance of my life, I trust I am where God wants me right now. I am not in a career but I have a job with a good company. I don’t have impact like I would as an organizational manager but I can certainly be Kingdom yeast in my workplace.
The lesson of yeast and all Jesus’ kingdom analogies is that attaining the manner of God’s kingdom does not require any measure of success or status in this kingdom, the kingdom of the world, life now. In fact, success in this world may jeopardize our ability to truly see or at least dim our view of the Kingdom of God. (I need to keep that in mind if I should ever find my way back into whatever it is I think I’m looking for!)
Another realization from further study on this topic: virtually every Biblical character experienced this wandering into seemingly wayward places while being attentive to God, including Jesus himself. Think of his beginning, our Christmas: The scandal of his apparent illegitimacy seemed to cling to him even into adulthood – John 8:41?
When in this life, you feel helpless or impotent or left by the wayside, be alert to God slipping in under the radar to win you back to himself or re-establish your relationship with him. Christmas is about that.
If you should be so fortunate to join or rejoin the Kingdom procession, take heart when (not if!) you wander into some places and situations that are not what you had in mind. Where you find yourself will be where He is accomplishing His purposes in and through you.
“…In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Notes:
- ORNAMENT TEXT:
FRONT: Fleshman’s (Blessed Are the…) YEAST; All Natural
BACK: BLESSED ARE THE … YEAST?; (Jesus) asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to” It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Luke 13: 20-21, NIV84) - PERSONAL NOTE: This year’s ornament title melds words from three of Jesus’ teachings:
1) Borrowing a “Blessed are…” from his “Beatitudes” – how God’s Kingdom is (Matthew 5: 1-16)
2) A missing word, “Least.” How God is “in” our care of the least among us. (Matthew 25: 40)
3) And, “Yeast” – Jesus comparing the Kingdom of God to an ordinary staple of life that everyone could relate to. (Luke 13:21)
All of the above describes the year of 2012 for me – The sense of not hitting the mark (Least) and being merely ordinary (Yeast) in a world attentive to everything but. But, all the while, “Blessed…” by people in my life lifting me up and, every step of the way, God! - DESIGN INSPIRATION: came from the Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast package (http://www.fleischmannsyeast.com/landing.html). I presume their yeast is great but their package had perfect ornament appeal!
Bible Reading System
A modified version of Professor Grant Horner’s System
Here’s a link to Professor Grant Horner’s original “10 Chapter” system: http://www.challies.com/sites/all/files/attachments/professor-grant-horners-bible-reading-system.pdf
I modified all his lists except 1, 2 and 6 to avoid reading Proverbs and Acts over and over again.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 89 | 187 | 85 | 86 | 93 | 150 | 112 | 216 | 171 |
| Matt-28 | Gen-50 | Acts-28 | Philip-4 | Job-42 | Psalm | Ezra-10 | Josh-24 | Isaiah-66 |
| Mark-16 | Ex-40 | Rom-16 | Col-4 | Eccl-12 | Neh-13 | Judg-21 | Jere-52 | |
| Luke-24 | Lev-27 | 1Cor-16 | 1 Thess-5 | Songs-8 | Esther-10 | Ruth-4 | Lament-5 | |
| John-21 | Numb-36 | 2Cor-13 | 2 Thess-3 | Prov-31 | Daniel-12 | 1 Sam-31 | Ezek-48 | |
| Duet-34 | Gal-6 | 1 Tim-6 | Hosea-14 | 2 Sam-24 | ||||
| Eph-6 | 2 Tim-4 | Joel-3 | 1 Kgs-25 | |||||
| Titus-3 | Amos-9 | 2 Kgs-25 | ||||||
| Philem-1 | Obad-1 | 1 Chr-29 | ||||||
| Heb-13 | Jonah-4 | 2 Chr-36 | ||||||
| James-5 | Micah-7 | |||||||
| 1 Peter-5 | Nahum-3 | |||||||
| 2 Peter-3 | Habb-3 | |||||||
| 1 John-5 | Zeph-3 | |||||||
| 2 John-1 | Hag-2 | |||||||
| 3 John-1 | Zech-14 | |||||||
| Jude-1 | Mal-4 | |||||||
| Reve-22 |
How to use this guide:
- Cut out bookmarks above
- Put each bookmark in your Bible @ verse 1 of the first chapter on the bookmark. So, Bookmark 1 is at Matthew 1:1, bookmark 2 is at Genesis 1:1, etc.
- Starting reading the first chapter of each section in the order of the bookmarks. So your first series is: #1-Matthew 1:1; #2-Genesis 1:1; #3-Acts 1:1; #4-Philippians 1:1; #5-Job 1:1; #6-Psalms 1:1; #7-Ezra 1:1; #8-Joshua 1:1 and #9-Isaiah 1:1.
- When you finish each bookmark series once, go back to the beginning of that bookmark series and start over. Done this way, when you finish the longest series (#8-216 chapters) once, you’ll have read the shortest series (#3-85 chapters) more than twice and all the other series more than once.
Good review of different Bible translations and paraphrases: from http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Bible/BibleType.htm (pdf)
The Bibles I most often refer to:
- NIV – New International Version
- The Message – Paraphrase by Eugene Peterson
Other Bibles I reference:
- NLT – New Living Translation
- NKJ – New King James
- ESV – English Standard Version
- NASB – New American Standard Bible
Distress Anecdote — Try This
Malaise, distress, despair – ever have periods like that?
That is where life finds me right now. I have food, a home, health. But after 40 years of employment, 3 ½ years of joblessness has me out of sorts, disconnected. Although I am grateful for the generosity of friends and family and temporary jobs here and there, having a regular livelihood is having a stake in community life. Somehow, I lost my stake…
My distress anecdote is Bible reading. While written thousands of years ago, the Bible reveals life and the world as it is today. In its pages is the human condition as well as a bit of nature, science and history. Mostly, it’s God writing to people who believe it him – you and me. Read to seek Him and you will get what you need for life and what you face.
It’s easy to see why there is so much depression and violence and escapism and preoccupation with death and interest in spirituality (including God). Life is hard. If you are not in a little groove of niceness that works for you, it’s pretty difficult to get life going in the right direction, even if what works isn’t very healthy.
But if God is real and if what He promises can be reasonably counted on, well that would be something worth living for even through the godly life is not an easy path. But it’s a solid and true path in the midst of a very mushy world.
Here are two tips:
- Pick a plan and get to it. There are plenty of them around. Look on the internet. (I use the Bible Reading System.)
- Set reading goals but don’t fret if you miss them, because you will. When you do, just pick back up where you left off.
I’ve been following a daily reading plan for nearly three years. I’ve read the Bible straight through a couple other times but this program holds my interest more. It’s a plan but sequenced in such a way that the chapters read on any given day have no apparent connection to each other. Read in this manner, I get a strong sense of the continuity of God’s voice and message. And I am continually amazed at how I see my very life situation reflected in ancient words.
Although my goal is to read 9 chapters a day, some days I only read 2 or 3 or 7 chapters, or none. I usually take Sundays off from the plan because I devote Sunday to church and what’s going on there. The point is, make it your own. Read each day then pick up where you left off next time.
The road of life is often bumpy and many sections are shrouded in darkness. Keep your Bible nearby and read it often – daily. It will light your path.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
Abide in Me — 2011 Ornament
“WAIT, REST, TRUST, ABIDE:
Three years after I was separated from my position of 30 years, my life remained in “stuck” mode still. So I plowed ahead, one step at a time, clinging to my faith in God. He was faithful. He provided. He spoke.
But His messages were confusing: Be Still – Wait – Rest – Trust. This is not what the career-search gurus are advising. (Apparently, God and them are tuned into different channels.)
I turned to trusted advisers including the pastor of our church, Doug Walker. But Doug and God were in cahoots. (Apparently, he and God are tuned to the same channel!)
So, in honor of God and Doug, the message of my 2011 “Abide in Me” ornament is this: Listen for God and cling to Him. No matter what life brings, don’t let go – Ever.”
2011 "Abide in Me" Ornament
Doug’s message on April 10, 2011 regarded Jesus’ teaching found in John’s gospel. “I am the true Vine,” said Jesus. “Abide in me, and I in you.” (John 15:1,4) This term rested at the center of Jesus’ description of the kind of relationship He and his Father (God) have with each other and that each believer is invited to share.
The setting was significant as Jesus was sharing Passover supper with his closest friends, the last supper they would enjoy together before Jesus execution the next day. Perhaps while lifting a cup of wine, Jesus used a grapevine metaphor to illustrate this “abiding” concept. He is the “true” vine, whereas God the Father is the vinedresser. Believers are branches who “bear fruit.”
“Abide in me,” said Jesus, and you will “bear fruit.” What fruit? The kind that flows from a branch, a person who clings to the Vine, to Jesus. The fruits of the Spirit are listed in Galatians 5: 22-23: “love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.”
I appreciated Doug’s message, but it wasn’t making me feel very fruity. I was struggling. Life wasn’t working for me. Then Doug offered Jesus’ explanation about how fruit production occurs – by simply staying connected to the vine, to Jesus. Through thick and thin, we cling, hold on, never let go and fruit will flow, “much fruit.”
And then he talked about “the catch.” About how “abiders” who bear fruit get PRUNED. Why? So that more and better fruit will grow.
Pruning. Jesus friends would know about pruning. They were Jews, people of the land and sea – shepherds, fishermen, and vintners. The language of the land was in their marrow.
They would know how pruning worked, and why. In the metaphor of likening a vine branch to a person, they would know that a person being pruned would not take to the treatment very kindly. Pruning hurts. It’s not fun. Think about recovering from an incision. The dang area hurts.
In my Twitter profile, I describe my journey as, “Negotiating the perils of earth life using a Bible as a flashlight.” Life is full of peril. Cindy and I are living in that peril right now. When God is the flashlight, the way he shows is often not the same way as what we hear in the culture around us. The Christian life is not easy or for the feeble of heart. Believers live in that tension.
But this is the life God has given us to live and Cindy and I are committed to walking with our God through every moment of it.
Christmas is, first and foremost, about the birth of Jesus Christ who we Christians believe to be God’s own son. Messages like these that are scripted in the lore and language of every day people reflect a very personal God. But Jesus’ arrival on the scene was God’s most dramatic demonstration that people matter.
Of all the “matter” conceived by God, the so-called “Intelligent” creator, people are the matter that matter the most. The God of Jesus is a personal God to each and every person who ever lived and ever will live. For God, everything is personal!
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser…Abide in me, and I in you.”
Daily Bread — 2010 Ornament
“FOOD FOR LIFE
My career challenges continued in 2010 through closure of my home care business, finding some temp work to get by and then landing a new position in early December. I locked in with God via regular prayer and He answered with both insight and practical help. Even so, the “whys and wherefores” remained a mystery. Faith, applied practice to follow God, kept me in the game. “Daily Bread” became to expression of how that happened for me this year – how God not only meets our needs but desires our dependence. ”
Our Daily Bread — 2010 Ornament
The term “Daily Bread” is generally attributed to the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. I drew the 2010 ornament title from this scripture but the ornament’s lesson is from the story of manna and quail recorded by Moses 1500 years before Jesus appeared on the scene. In Exodus 16, we read how God responded to the Israelites hunger by providing a daily portion of bread and meat to them in the forms of manna and quail. This provision would continue for the duration of their 40 years of wandering in the desert. God’s provision is later recalled in Deuteronomy 8 as the people are challenged to remember and remain obedient to God as their memory of his miraculous provision fades with time.
The elements of this story that we related to was how this provision of food was attributed as a trial, a blessing and a discipline.
- The trial occurred when they experienced hunger and cried out to God for relief.
- The blessing arrived in God’s response with food to satisfy their need.
- The discipline regarded following God’s instructions to the letter – to gather only enough for a single day. If more was gathered, the extra amount rotted before the next day as well as other repercussions from being out of favor with God.
The last two years of joblessness and underemployment have brought the realization of daily need into our perspective. God taught that EACH DAY we are to literally depend on him for THAT day only – like the Israelites 3500 years ago. Furthermore, we saw how God uses the very hunger that he wove into our nature to draw us to himself. As God nourishes our bodies, he challenges us to consider that he can meet our spiritual hunger as well.
I contend that a belief system should offer a plausible explanation of life as it really is. Christianity “works” because it speaks to life as it is, both physical and spiritual. Bible lessons connect the two. While God gave us natures brimming with hungers and passions, when we satisfy them at just the physical level, we fall short of our full potential.
When God made us with bodies that need food to survive, he created a world able to more than meet that need. However when the Israelites are later challenged to remember how God responded with manna and quail, another idea is introduced – that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Thousands of years later, Jesus affirmed these lessons by demonstrating the rich connections between the spiritual and physical realms. While Jesus performed feeding miracles on several occasions, his radical pronouncement, “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:48) echoed Moses’ words of Deuteronomy 8:3. In his discourse with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, he distinguished between the properties of the well’s water that only temporarily quenches thirst and the living water he provides that offers eternal life. (John 4:13).
So I offer you my 2010 ornament, “Daily Bread” to share how God showed us this year how we need to turn to him anew each and every day for all the sustenance we need – physical and spiritual. For “his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.” (Lamentations 3: 22b-23a)
(glenn 12/9/2010)
Give us each day our daily bread. (Luke 11:3, NIV-1984)
Notes
Ornament back/bottom:
go out each day and gather enough for that day. (Exodus 16: 4)
man does not live by bread alone (Deut 8:3)
I am the bread of life (John 6:48)
Scripture References: Matthew 6: 11; Exodus 16: 4, 12; Deuteronomy 8: 3, Lamentations 3: 22b-23b; John 6: 47-50
- Daily Bread (Matthew 6:11, NIV-1984):
Give us this day our daily bread.
- Manna and Quail: Sustenance in the desert (Exodus 16: 4-5, NOV-1984):
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
- Hunger that bread alone cannot quench (Deuteronomy 8: 1-5, NIV-1984):
1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
8 I am the bread of life. ( Jesus) (John 6:48, NIV-1984)
- Provision when needed (Exodus 16:12):
“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’”
his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22b-23a) - Life-giving water (John 4:5-13, NIV-2010):
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Life to the Full — 2009 Ornament
“ FULL LIFE: MANY PEAKS & VALLEYS
2009 was a full year with a lot of changes occurring in my life. At the beginning of the year, I was in my fifth month of unemployment with no end in sight. By Christmastime, I was marking my fifth month of getting a new business underway. From one extreme to another… Sure was a “full” year……”
2009 "Life to the Full" Ornament
I drew the term “life to the full” from John 10: 10, the New International Version of the Bible (NIV): “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
As a regular Bible reader, this is a familiar passage to me. However, it’s also a verse that our pastor, Doug Walker often teaches on. On the surface, “life to the full” hints of “the good life” or the attainment of “health, wealth and prosperity” or even that “good things comes to those who wait.” But it is so much more than just that, says Doug.
Dictionary.com defines full as “completely filled; containing all that can be held; filled to utmost capacity; complete.” Along that line, says Doug, “life to the full” not only encompasses all that life brings (and throws) but Jesus-followers have something extra – a sort of real-time radar that God parses out to His followers to guide and empower their steps along the way. To the extent that we live in that perspective, we not only have an assurance about outcome but we have an opportunity to partner with God in a “divine conspiracy” to reclaim the universe from the “bad” influences now seeming to run the show and restore the rule and order and goodness of God’s original creation.
Doug’s “life to the full” idea runs all throughout the Bible. It is part of what Doug calls Jesus’ “upside down” gospel that holds that life is not what it seems. What’s really going on is a whole other story orchestrated by God that is unfolding behind the scenes.
The pages of the Bible offer many examples of this conspiracy. Check out the stories of Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Esther, Job, Joseph, David, Jesus, and Paul to name just a few.
The Christmas story is another perfect illustration of this divine conspiracy. Despite that the very time, place and manner of Jesus’ birth fulfilled multiple prophecies made hundreds of years earlier, all of those anxiously awaiting his arrival expected a different kind of savior and not only failed to recognize Him, they ultimately executed Him!
As I considered a 2009 ornament that would reflect what God was doing in my life this year and how I could make a Christmas connection, Doug’s “life to the full” teaching resonated for me. I’ve been faced with finding a new way to earn a living. At times, my efforts seemed extraordinarily hard and even now I have no sense of when I will emerge to a renewed sense of competence and stability. But, thankfully, this period of life has allowed me to grasp what Doug has been trying to help me to see – that roads marked with more questions than answers are exactly the kinds of roads Jesus invites his followers to venture onto – roads where fullness is found at every turn.
Says Linda Dillow in her book, Calm My Anxious Heart, “If we fix our focus on our faithful Weaver, we will someday know that the most exquisite work of all our lives was done in those days of darkness. Faith is walking in the dark with God, holding His hand. “
So I wish you “life to the full” this Christmas. If your life lacks the fullness that is only possible in Christ, I do not hesitate to desire for you anything that God may allow in order for you to know Him fully – even if a few “days of darkness” are involved. To know Him is not only worth any price that can be paid, it helps you avoid making the really fatal error of executing your savior! (gt – 12/9/09)
In All Things — 2008 Ornament
“FOR THE PUZZLED
As Christmas ornament-making has become a tradition for me, I periodically jot down ideas about what God is doing in my life. But this year, the process was clouded by my feelings about being jobless for the first time in my life after being unexpectedly dismissed from my position as President of CLF just three months short of my 30th anniversary!
Turning to prayer and the Bible for inspiration and guidance, I ran across Romans 8:28 and held onto its promise – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
This Christmas, I dedicate this year’s ornament, “In All Things” to offer hope to everyone puzzled by life about how God’s view is clear even when ours is not.”
2008 "In all things..." Ornament
That life is puzzling to us but not to God really bugs me sometimes. You see, God holds this trump card – He is “sovereign.” This means that he is able to work things out to advance his own purposes. Wouldn’t you just love to be sovereign in that way?
Now God’s sovereignty is not only good news for him but also those of us who follow him. Why? Because God made everything “good” including humans who were made in his image and charged to rule creation in the same manner as he(Genesis 1:26-31). Those are his purposes.
But things didn’t work out that way because humans decided they wanted to rule their own way – contrary to how God prescribed. So humanity and creation is broken and pretty much existing apart from God, in opposition to his purposes.
But God is still sovereign and, because he is so, he WILL achieve his purposes. He has a plan that he revealed immediately when humans decided to go their own way. In Genesis 3:15, as he admonishes Eve for her participation in disobeying him, he also includes a promise – that the power of “sin” would one day be crushed by one of her descendents!
Down through the ages that followed, the plan unfolded as God “sovereignly” caused seemingly unconnected plots and subplots to “somehow” bring his plan to fruition. The promised descendent finally arrived on the scene in the form of Jesus. And then, through Jesus, God “crushed” the power of sin as 1stCorinthians 15: 21 summarizes: “just as death came into the world through a man (Adam), now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man (Jesus).”
So God getting his way is why we have Christmas but what has this to do with my hope in the midst of unemployment and the challenges that you are facing in your life? Well, look back to Romans 8:28 – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Those who love God also desire what God desires – his purposes. So as we believers conduct our lives in pursuit of His will, all things that occur, even the most evil and painful ones, will “work” for our good and to fulfill God’s purposes for our lives. That’s the promise. Now as to HOW God makes that happen, well – only He knows!
Since the passage says that God works in all things, he is surely working in mything as well. My part of the equation is to love him and to align my life with his purposes – even when I don’t fully understand how his purposes will be achieved through me.
To reflect that idea, the ornament is three sections of a puzzle with the “next” piece “missing.” When life is a puzzle, we don’t know what piece is going to fit in that spot, hence the bulb dangling there with a question mark (?) on one side. God working out the answer (in the background) is represented by the exclamation point (!) on the other side of the bulb.
All believers may rejoice this Christmas that God has our backs. At the same time, let us pray for family, friends and colleagues who are not yet believers. Since unbelievers are on their own, apart from God, pray that they soon begin to follow Jesus along with us so that they too can have the assurance that God has their backs as well!
Now God’s sovereignty is not only good news for him but also those of us who follow him. Why? Because God made everything “good” including humans who were made in his image and charged to rule creation in the same manner as he(Genesis 1:26-31). Those are his purposes.
But things didn’t work out that way because humans decided they wanted to rule their own way – contrary to how God prescribed. So humanity and creation is broken and pretty much existing apart from God, in opposition to his purposes.
But God is still sovereign and, because he is so, he WILL achieve his purposes. He has a plan that he revealed immediately when humans decided to go their own way. In Genesis 3:15, as he admonishes Eve for her participation in disobeying him, he also includes a promise – that the power of “sin” would one day be crushed by one of her descendents!
Down through the ages that followed, the plan unfolded as God “sovereignly” caused seemingly unconnected plots and subplots to “somehow” bring his plan to fruition. The promised descendent finally arrived on the scene in the form of Jesus. And then, through Jesus, God “crushed” the power of sin as 1stCorinthians 15: 21 summarizes: “just as death came into the world through a man (Adam), now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man (Jesus).”
So God getting his way is why we have Christmas but what has this to do with my hope in the midst of unemployment and the challenges that you are facing in your life? Well, look back to Romans 8:28 – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Those who love God also desire what God desires – his purposes. So as we believers conduct our lives in pursuit of His will, all things that occur, even the most evil and painful ones, will “work” for our good and to fulfill God’s purposes for our lives. That’s the promise. Now as to HOW God makes that happen, well – only He knows!
Since the passage says that God works in all things, he is surely working in mything as well. My part of the equation is to love him and to align my life with his purposes – even when I don’t fully understand how his purposes will be achieved through me.
To reflect that idea, the ornament is three sections of a puzzle with the “next” piece “missing.” When life is a puzzle, we don’t know what piece is going to fit in that spot, hence the bulb dangling there with a question mark (?) on one side. God working out the answer (in the background) is represented by the exclamation point (!) on the other side of the bulb.
All believers may rejoice this Christmas that God has our backs. At the same time, let us pray for family, friends and colleagues who are not yet believers. Since unbelievers are on their own, apart from God, pray that they soon begin to follow Jesus along with us so that they too can have the assurance that God has their backs as well!
He Humbled Himself — 2007 Ornament
207 "He Humbled Himself" Ornament
DID YOU MEET THE NEW NEIGHBOR?
My 2007 ornament, “He humbled himself” depicts and honors the “star” of the Christmas story who set aside being God to move into the neighborhood. The star depicts the height of glory from which Jesus descended to arrive in the most unlikely form possible – as a helpless human infant, to an unwed couple, whose pre-teen mom claimed to still be a virgin. His crib was an animal’s trough, his mattress mere straw, his kingdom just a backwoods town.
His birth could have gone unnoticed except for the wonder that surrounded it – heralded by a star and a heavenly host and rumors of prophesies recorded hundreds of years earlier providing minute details about a savior to be born, with ties to times of old, to creation itself and to a messiah who would one day be installed as the glorified king of all eternity!
Given all the build up, the birth circumstances didn’t exactly give the messiah a running start. It’s almost like the author of his story stacked all the odds against him by design so that anyone he tried to “save” could not claim to being swayed by any appearance of privilege, status, prosperity or slate of hand.
So when the cards of life seemed stacked against me this year, I was able to turn to a God who knows what that is like, a God who said, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” (Mt. 11:28) – because hedescended to us, to meet us where we live, to demonstrate empathy by personal experience. When we choose to align ourselves with him, his spirit takes up residence in us and, as we permit and yield, we become more like him,transformed into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 12:2).
As we follow where he bids us to go, we ascend with him and discover heaven and its rule right here in the very midst of our lives. Occasionally, we experience a slice of heaven and see life as Jesus did.
The ornament’s theme scripture is Philippians 2:5-11 (from the New Living Translation):
“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”
Jesus experienced life at the bottom and so he comes into our darkest, most despairing experiences in search of us, to pull us out and show us the life he has in mind for us, “life to the full” (see John 10:10).
Merry Christmas. Wishing you “life to the full” – only available in Christ.