December 31, 2022

II Corinthians 5: 17 (NIV)

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!

Jesus doesn’t just make us better, he makes us new.*

It’s New Year’s Eve. Do you have a list of resolutions for the upcoming year? Perhaps you know better than to compile a list containing more than one item. Your chances of success are much better if you keep it simple. Lose weight. Exercise. Overcome a bad habit. Start a good habit. Be nicer to your family. Find a new job. Hopefully all of these aren’t on your list!

We see the beginning of a new year as an opportunity to start fresh. With the turn of the calendar, it seems easier to release the burden of our failures and be optimistic about our chances for success. For those who are in Christ Jesus, every day is the beginning of a clean record. I don’t have to lug around guilt and disappointments from the past because they belong to the old me. I may have messed up yesterday but Jesus’ blood is the eraser that wipes my slate clean – again.

While Jesus forgives and forgets, I don’t have the luxury of amnesia to go with my new identity. And that’s a good thing. I carry with me the memories of my past sins but that means I also remember that Jesus carried those sins. Constant awareness of the price he paid motivates me to keep working on my list of resolutions – daily. Hourly. Minute by minute!

Happy New Year!

Despite our past, God can give us a new identity.*

December 30, 2022

Deuteronomy 30: 11, 14 (NIV)

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. . . . No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Biblical literacy is not about mastering a body of literature. Rather, can we embody these accounts and then live out the scriptural stories?*

In these verses, Moses is addressing the “simplicity and accessibility”* of the Law. The Jews of the Old Testament knew God’s word. It was hammered into them from birth. It was important for it to be in their mouths and in their hearts so they could obey it.

I am by no means bi-lingual but you can’t live where I do and not absorb a few words and phrases in Spanish. But when I hear or read something in Spanish, I don’t know what it means until I translate it into English. Someone who is truly fluent in both languages would not have to stop and rethink the meaning of the words.

Similarly, we should know God’s word so well that we “think from scripture.”* If we were “fluent” in our knowledge of the Bible, we would be able to think in the "language" of the Bible. Facing temptation? With God’s word in your heart, you can readily apply the appropriate scriptural response. Have an important decision to make? God’s word supplies helpful decision-making tools.

Just as I will never learn to speak Spanish if I don’t study it and practice it, I will never be fluent in the language of scripture if I don’t spend time allowing it to permeate my head and my heart so that I can apply it to my life. For a Christian in the USA, the word is readily available. There is no excuse if it is not in your mouth and in your heart.

With the Holy Spirit, studying Scripture becomes more than just reading words; it means storing those words in the reservoir of our hearts so that at the right time he can draw from that well and give us a drink.*

December 29, 2022

Psalm 96: 8, 9 (NIV)

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.

The offering isn’t the least spiritual part of the church service – it’s an act of worship that tangibly expresses our love for the Lord.*

The author of these verses exhorts us to give God the glory due his name – and I have to wonder if we are capable. The best we can do is to do our best. The Lord knows when our praise is our sincerest offering.

And speaking of offering, our psalmist wants us to bring one of those to the Lord as well.

If you read the Old Testament, you will learn something about God’s expectations when it comes to offerings. He didn’t leave it up to each individual to decide how much to give. It wasn’t enough to give a tithe (10%) of everything – you had to give him the best. Defective sacrifices were not allowed. He commanded sacrifice and he expected generosity.

While there are no specific provisions in the New Testament for how much to give, let me remind you that the God of the Old Testament is the same God in the New. If he expected sacrifice, generosity, and the best then, there’s no reason to believe he wants any less from us today. Furthermore, this passage speaks of worshipping the Lord in the splendor of his holiness – and how dare we not give whole-heartedly to the one before whom all the earth trembles?

Does God expect His New Covenant children to give less or more? Jesus raised the spiritual bar; He never lowered it.*

December 28, 2022

Luke 4: 16-21 (NIV)

. . . and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it he found the place where it is written: . . . [Isaiah 61: 1, 2] Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

We see ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word.*

This passage of scripture tells a very dramatic story. The regulars at the neighborhood synagogue were familiar with Jesus because it was his custom to hang out there with them on the Sabbath. I doubt if this was the first time he had been handed a scroll which he proceeded to read. That’s what you did in the synagogue on the Sabbath. But this time, after reading the sacred text, Jesus announced that the prophecy was about him. At first, his listeners were merely amazed (verse 22) and murmured among themselves. But then Jesus said, “I tell you the truth . . .” and he continued to deliver such an inflammatory message that his furious audience dragged him out to the edge of town, intending to throw him over a cliff – but somehow, miraculously, “he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” (verse 30)

The writer of an article about this passage posed the question (and the answer): “What did Jesus find in the ancient text? He found himself there.”* So, I ask you: Have you ever found yourself in the Bible? Unlike Jesus, you won’t find prophecy that points directly to you, but if you get into the word, you can find yourself already there. Every situation, every crisis, every decision you face is covered.

Finding yourself in scripture will probably not generate the kind of drama that resulted from Jesus’ experience, but I can testify that it can produce some thrilling moments on a personal level. There is no excitement like a successful search for answers in the Bible. Of course, if you want to find yourself in the word, you are going to have to unroll that scroll and read.

The only spiritual contact that we have with God is through His word. . . . He does not communicate with us, as regards His will, independently thereof.*

December 27, 2022

Luke 2: 6, 7 (NIV)

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn son.

. . . love so profound, so utterly magnificent, that it cannot be defined, only demonstrated.*

From another room, I could hear a baby crying on the television and the thought came to me: That’s what Jesus sounded like when he was born. In spite of what we may have been led to believe through Christmas songs ("little Lord Jesus no crying he makes"), the newborn Jesus cried, spit up, and kept his parents awake at night. Indeed, he was a real baby.

Babies are so precious, and as parents we want to protect them and ensure a good future for them. Yet at the birth of his Son, God had to stand by while his baby met his destiny. Although he could be proud of his Son’s accomplishments as he grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man, there was always that cloud of future tragedy surrounding him.

I don’t have much in common with God the Supreme Being, but as God the Father, his pain makes him one of us. I can imagine the anguish of watching my beloved child suffer and die. But that’s where our common ground ends because I cannot imagine sacrificing one of my sons for the sake of some unworthy, undeserving sinner. How could God love me and the rest of humanity that much? In the garden before his arrest, Jesus prayed for a way out of what he was about to face. If he wanted to escape that horrible death, how much must God have wanted to deliver him from it?

You think you know what love is? Ha. God is love? We need a different word for what God is. What we call “love” is selfish and powerless. What do you call it when the Father turned his back on his Son as he hung on the cross? 

“Love” is the best our language has to offer . . . and so we live with it.

It is [its] very irrationality that gives the gospel its greatest defense.
For only God could love like that.*

December 26, 2022

Matthew 2: 1, 2 (NIV)

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea . . . Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

Is it so difficult to believe in God when all history is alive with His presence?*

I tend to think of ancient history only in terms of the Old Testament – as if there was nothing going on in any other part of the world until the birth of Jesus. In my mind, God’s involvement with mankind was limited to the people of the Bible. In reality, although the Jews were usually surrounded by pagan nations who had never entertained the notion of only one God, the Bible gives us peeks into the possibility that God may have had a relationship with other cultures and nations.

In Genesis 14, there is an intriguing encounter between Abram (Abraham) and a mysterious figure named Melchizedek who is described as “priest of the God Most High.” There is lots of speculation about his identity and purpose (read more about him in Psalm 110: 4; and in Hebrews, chapters five, six and seven), but the facts are: he was real; he was not a Jew (no one was a Jew, yet); and he worshipped the same God that Abram worshipped.

Moving on to the New Testament, we find this group of wise men from somewhere east of Jerusalem, who were aware of the prophecies concerning the Messiah – who in fact knew enough to read the signs, and had enough faith to follow where they led. They weren’t Jews, either. It is ironic that they had better comprehension of the prophecies than the people to whom they were given.

The Nation of Israel may have enjoyed “chosen people” status, but these stories – and others – underscore the fact that Jesus came for all people, not just the Jews.* We – Jews and Gentiles - become God’s chosen people today by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior and becoming part of a new kingdom. 

Citizenship in the new kingdom is not a right of birth or privilege but is granted to those who pass the entrance exam – Wait! That’s not how it works! There is no test. Our naturalization documents have been signed by the blood of Jesus. Through him, we have all the rights and privileges – and responsibilities - of a natural-born citizen.

Centuries before it was popular to be inclusive, Jesus started a church in which everyone has equal standing.*

December 25, 2022

Matthew 1: 18 (NIV)

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about . . .

     

Perhaps we should thank those who insist on calling it the holiday season, not because they are removing Christ, but because they have the decency to leave Jesus out of a celebration that has nothing to do with him.*

Do the words, “Merry Christmas” appear anywhere in the Bible? Is there any indication in scripture that we should commemorate the birthday of the King by partying for the whole month of December? The world may have hi-jacked the celebration of our Lord’s birth and turned it into a secular holiday full of bizarre traditions, but wouldn't you agree that Christians are as much to blame?

Matthew and Luke did not think it was important to tell us the exact date of Jesus' birth. While a birthday party for Jesus might not be a bad thing, it is not the day of his birth that he has asked us to remember. He wants us to remember his death. In a simple ritual performed every week by Christians all over the world, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (I Corinthians 11: 26) The Lord’s Supper is “the only thing done in public worship for which Jesus gave special instructions.”* While it might not set the mood for a festive holiday party, his death is a reason to celebrate!

Is it not important that after so many important things in the life of Jesus Christ, that the only thing He asks us to remember is His death?*