That Christmas Ache

From Alicia Bruxvoort:

"Next time that yuletide yearning shows up like an awkward guest,
we don't need to let it steal our joy; we can simply let it stir our hope. Because God's promises are clear -- one day, our Advent ache will turn into eternal awe.   Until then, we can let it remind us that the best is yet to come.

Dear Jesus, sometimes I'm discouraged by the longing in my heart. Would you use Your Word to turn my awkward ache  into eager anticipation?  And help  me to stand firm in hope until I see You face to face. In Jesus' Name, Amen."


*For many hundreds of years the church celebrated Jesus' first coming to Bethlehem and also His future coming to reign - both
celebrated together at Christmastime.

One significant result of remembering both is many of our Christmas carols. For example, Joy to the World. Notice the words. They are about His future second coming, not His birth at Bethlehem!

Joy to the world! The Lord is come.

Let earth receive her King

Let every heart  prepare Him room 

and heaven and nature sing!

Joy to the earth! The Savior reigns. 

Let all their songs employ

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sound joy!

No more let sins and sorrow grow, 

nor thorns infest the ground

He comes to  make His blessings flow

far as the curse is found!

He rules the world with truth and grace 

and makes the  nations prove
The glories of His righteousness 
and wonders of His Love!

                                                 -- By Isaac Watts

Christmas - Zechariah Prays and God Works!

Zechariah Prays...


When Zechariah went into the temple to perform his term of service, "the whole multitude of the people were praying outside" (Luke 1).

What were they praying? What the Jews always prayed for....salvation from our enemies...and from the hand of all who hate us.....that God would remember to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.....

Did they realize God was at work? Maybe veiled from their eyes, but that for the last 500 years He had been preparing the world for the coming Messiah.

But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, that we might receive the full rights as sons (Galatians 4:4-5).

Or as in the King James Version..."in the fullness of time..."

God sent His Son, that we might be called the children of God (I John 3:1).

At the exact right moment, God intervened in history and sent to us His Son so that we, too, could become children of God!


God is at work.....


From the destruction of the temple in 586 BC, through the Babylonian captivity, through the return from exile, through the oppressions of the Persians, Greeks and Romans, God was busy at work, preparing His people and the world for His great rescue mission.

Look at some of the things that God did during those 500 years, preparing the world for His Visitation:

   1. The Greek culture had saturated the known civilized  world and its language was spoken throughout all the kingdoms. A common language makes communication so much easier!

   2. The Old Testament canon was organized and, in its entirety, translated from Hebrew into Greek, making its message accessible to all. (Translation was known as the Septuagint, completed around 270 BC, commonly called the LXX. It was written particularly to accommodate the dispersed Jews who were by then speaking Greek as their usual language.)

   3. God used the destruction of the temple in 586 BC and the exile of the Jews to Babylon to create a synagogue structure, a model for local congregations of the coming Church. People learned to worship God without the temple. 

   4. God purified Israel from idolatry and mixing with other religions. After the destruction and fall of Jerusalem, Jews never again embraced other "gods." They were cleansed.

Not only that, as monotheism became permanently central to Israel it became the foundation of Christian thought and all of western civilization.

   5. The dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the Greek/Roman empire provided a mission base by which Paul could carry the gospel to small Jewish communities throughout the world.  Because of the synagogues and scattered groups of Jews, Paul could organize his vast mission trips and begin the spread of the gospel.

   6. Because of their strict belief in monotheism, Christ's claims to be God led to the priests delivering Him up to be crucified, which, of course, was the central issue of God's rescue plan!

   7. The Greek culture unified the world, and the Roman Empire with its vast system of roads (used initially for military conquest and control) united the world in a way never before in world history. It was convenient for the gospel to flow from nation to nation, and there was easy access to all areas of the empire.  That made the spread of the gospel possible.


God worked His plan through the suffering of His people....

God was busy at work, weaving a extraordinary historical tapestry. But it all worked through the suffering of Israel. Without the Babylonian captivity, there would have no coming of the Messiah, no cross, no Christianity, and no civilization today as we know it.




In Psalm 137 we read about the sorrow of the Jewish people in captivity in Babylon:

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept

when we remembered Zion.

There on the poplars we hung our harps,

for there our captors demanded songs of joy;

They said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

How can we sing the songs of the LORD

while in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, 

may my right hand forget its skill

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

Five hundred years before Christ as born, the Jews were praying that they be saved from their enemies and that Jerusalem be restored to them.

Now, here, in Luke's account, while Zechariah was in the temple praising God for His revealed redemption, his family and friends were outside having a prayer meeting.

And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers are praying outside...

(Luke 1:10).

They prayed. God worked. The Messiah arrived...

"in the fullness of time."

Our God is always at work. 

Christmas - The Summons - James M Boice

The Summons...

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked,

"Where is he that has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him" (Matthew 2:2).



And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them,

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:8-11).

Thoughts from James Montgomery Boice 

The wise men and shepherds each obeyed God's summons.

In the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a number of people received invitations by an extraterrestrial people to a visit they were soon going to make to earth.

The plot of the movie was in the heroic efforts of these people to get to the meeting pace and be there when the spaceship came down.

That was the kind of invitation the shepherds and the wise men received.  Only theirs was to a far more significant encounter. This visit to earth was not merely a visit of an alien people, but of the very God of the universe Himself. It was an invitation to the birth of Jesus. God's unique Son.

Can we imagine the shepherds or wise men refusing that unprecedented invitation?

Perhaps.

The magi lived at a great distance from Jerusalem and were alerted to the child's birth only the appearance of His star.

They might have reasoned: "This star probably announces the birth of a  Savior-King in Judea, but of course we could be mistaken. The way to Jerusalem is long. Others will probably be paying their respects. We don't need to go. It would be a lot more convenient if we could stay here."

The shepherds, too, might have refused the invitation.

 They might have said: "We are not dressed for the occasion, We have nothing to bring. We are not fit company for Him who is announced by angels."

They might even have asked, "But who will care for our sheep? Who will tend to the things for which we are responsible?"

Neither the wise men nor the shepherds did that.

Instead of making excuses the  shepherds said, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened that the Lord has told us about (Luke 2:15).

I wonder if you have been as obedient to God as those shepherds, who were so low on the social scale of their day, or the wise men, who were so removed from the happenings in Judea.

You know the story of Christmas. You even know the gospel of Jesus' death for sinners, for which Christmas is but a preparation.

You know the invitation of Christ: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

Have you responded to that invitation?

Have you obeyed God's summons?

You have not found Christmas, nor will you ever find it, until you do.

   -- From The Christ of Christmas,
            by James Montgomery Boice

Christmas - What Kind of a Child is this?

I just heard again the old, wonderful Christmas carol, "What Child Is This?"

2nd verse:

Why lies Him here in  such mean estate

Where ox and ass are feeding?

Good Christians fear:

For sinners, here, the silent Word is pleading.

Two thoughts:

(1) The glorious fact of our rescue plan...

designed by God before the creation of the world...

described to mankind at the beginning of history...

reminded to mankind continually throughout history...

revealed to mankind in the incarnation of Jesus Christ the Word...

explained to mankind through the written record of the New Testament...

and, finally, completed through the coronation of Jesus Christ as Lord of All.

Then, "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2).

When Mary laid Him there in that manger, when the shepherds came to worship, when Joseph stood by to protect Him, in that tiny Body God's grace was already being worked out.

The silent Word was already pleading.....

(2) God loves to surprise us!

Think of it! The Creator -- God -- King -- arriving in Bethlehem of Judea in a stable! Who would ever make up a story like that?

And then in the last (future) days the Apostle John sees the throne of God and the elders call, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed."

But what does he see?  "Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne" (Revelation 5.)

Not a fearful mighty Lion, but a wounded Lamb...the Lamb that was slain from the beginning of the world (Revelation 13).

God's amazing rescue plan -- wrapped in a surprise package -- and we can now begin to glorify God and enjoy Him forever!

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh

Come peasant, king, to own Him

The King of kings salvation brings,

Let loving hearts adore Him.

Raise, raise the song on high

The Virgin sings her lullaby

Joy, joy, for Christ is born,

The Babe, the Son of Mar

Miscellaneous Thoughts to Ponder Today

To think about...

1. God loves me the way I am, but He refuses to leave me this way. He wants me to be like Jesus!

2. Every saint has a past! Every sinner has a future! 

3. The Church is a hospital for sinners...not a hotel resort for saints!

4. As the flower is more lovely than the root, so is the experience of fellowship with the risen Savior more lovely than the doctrine itself! --     Charles H Spurgeon