No Ordinary Birth

Vol 2 No 52 THEO'S DEVOS

Matthew 1: 18a Now this is how Jesus the Messiah was born.  NLT

I am always amazed at how the Bible can state somethibg extremely profound in such ordinary language. I read lots of authors who can take way too many words to say something simple. Our verse today is a great example of this. Much like Genesis 1:1 it uses a few words to describe a monumental event.

Many have tried to picture the scene in heaven just prior to this event. What did the angels think when they heard that the Second Person of the Trinity was going to enter earth as a baby in a manger? I'm sure that God the Father explained some of the details to them but it is certain that this act must have caused quite an uproar. Matthew tells us that the angels were there to announce the birth and we know about the shocked shepherds. But after all is said and done what we have is the Lord of All entering time and space, here on earth, born of a human mother, and lying in a manger.

And so God became man. God in flesh. A child in a human family. Emanuel. The center of your manger scene. But is He the center of your life.

There are some things that flood my mind and senses around Christmas time. There is a song that starts out “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...” It may be a simple song but it has significant meaning to me. I remember, when I was just a young boy, going downtown with my parents. We would walk down Market Street in Philadelphia and there would be vendors selling merchandise along the sidewalk. One of my favorites was the guy selling chestnuts he was roasting right there on the street. We would buy a bag of them and take them home, eating some on the way. To this day I enjoy roasting chestnuts but they never seem to taste as good as those that we bought downtown. In fact, as years go by, it seems that a lot has worn off of the Christmas spirit. We have turned it into a shopping nightmare. It has become, for many, a time to anticipate what we are going to get under the tree rather than contemplating what went on in that manger long ago.

God loves to trasnsorm things and the greater the transformation the greater His pleasure. Conversely man seems to like to tear things down and the more the get torn the better he seems to like it. This Christmas we all have a great opportunity. We can fix our minds on the true meaning of the season and celebrate the coming of Jesus. We can discuss the beauty of our savior. To be sure the air may be filled with the smell of pine and our fireplaces will be aglow with the logs we burn giving heat to the room. We may hear the sound of toy trains that we have set up to enjoy (do we do that anymoire?). The tree will be decked out with ornaments that may or may not have meaning and we will probably eat too much again. But while all this is going on we can also think back to that first Christmas when the angels cried out and the shepherds made their way to see the baby Jesus. We can think about the wise men who sought to worship Him and give Him gifts. Finally we can discuss the meaning of this birth, that He came to save us from our sins.

I hope you get a chance to go to a church where they will be singing hymns and reading scripture about the coming of our Lord. Try to make that the center of this holiday. Enjoy the family and think of the family of God. As you drive around, look for someone less fortunate than yourself and offer them something to show them the love of God. Jesus came to make strangers family. He went to those who hated Him and showed them love. Let's make this Christmas different from all the others.

I hope this is the merriest Christmas you have ever had. May God bless you this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N35VmlaCgqc

heo

GREAT JOY

Vol 2 No 51 THEO'S DEVOS

Luke 2:8-10 That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. ⁹Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, ¹⁰but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news of great joy for everyone!

By now I suppose most of you have heard about controversy over the sign placed next to a Nativity scene in the Washington State House. It has created quite an uproar since it was placed there by a group of atheists and it proclaims a diatribe against people of faith in God. I won't repeat what it says here but it does lay out the atheist position that organized religion is a 'myth' that 'hardens hearts.' Now we know that 'religion' is not a great word. There has been serious damage done by 'religions' in the name of God. The word means 'to bind back' and all religions teach some form of trying to get back to God. That is why I have often said that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with the God who did not wait for us to come to Him but reached out to us in the form of a child, Jesus, to save us from our sin.

Having said that, it is obvious that I am no fan of 'religions.' However, at least religious people are willing to admit that there is a God or god. They have reacted correctly to the creation around them. Even agnostics do not go so far as to deny God. But atheists do. Now my question for them is: as a result of becoming an atheist, what joy have you produced? What national holidays have you given us to celebrate a better future? The truth is quite the opposite. If they had their way our streets wouod be dark at Christmas time. There would be no Christmas. No parties. No manger scenes. No presents around the tree. I say this with no intended disrespect but atheists do live in a cold, barren world. They have no hope for the future and no real reason to celebrate life. For them, a death in the family is a great tragedy for which there is no reason to rejoice. I could go on with this but I think you catch my meaning.

However, our verse for today catches a glimpse of why we Christians celebrate the Christmas holiday. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be a shepherd out in that field when the angel appeared to them? At first they were frightened out of their minds and rightly so. But the Angel was quick to reassure them that they had no reason to fear. “I bring you good news of great joy for everyone!” they said. Great joy they said. That is the result of what God did when He sent Jesus to earth. He gave us reason to have great joy. Not the great sadness you can expect at an atheist funeral. Great joy.

Do you have great joy today? Have you trusted that Jesus Christ came, lived, and died on that cross to pay for your sins and mine? If you have then you know the meaning of great joy. You have no fear of death. You know that God loves you and can see His love in your life daily when you look for it. If you have not, then now would be a great time to trust in Him. Believe that Jesus died for you. Trust in the sacrifice that He made so you could have a relationship with God. It could make this Christmas different from all the others in the past. I trust that you are getting excited about the celebration of Jesus' birth. Oh, and don't worry about the signs that atheists put up. They are advertising for us without realizing it. No God, no hope. No God, no true joy. BUT “Hark the herald angels sing...” They sure do.

Here is a last minute addition sent to me by a good friend in Texas, Bob Holmes. If you haven't seen this about the 13 year old boy who called in to a Christian radio station you need to right now. Thanks Bob.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0r_FbARIn8&NR=1

Theo

Truth Unseen

Vol 2 No 50 THEO'S DEVOS

Psalm 73:17 Then one day I went into your sanctuary, O God,

and I thought about the destiny of the wicked.

We have noted, on several occasions, that there is a reality not visible to mortal sight. Within that reality there is a spiritual war and we are pawns in that war. You and I become collateral damage at times and, when we are, it can hurt – badly.

Quite a long time ago I found myself misunderstood and it felt like my world was spinning out of control. Now I am not given to depression. I am, seemingly by nature, a very positive person. So, at that time, as I experienced a touch of depression, I had no idea how to pull out of it. My brain told me that (and I would like to say God told me) that the answer to my dilemma was within the pages of scripture. So that is what I did. I opened God's Word and just started looking around for some word from God that would help me in this time of worry.

Another thought came to my mind that a good place to look would be in the book of Psalms. I remembered that David had wrestled with depression so it could be that he had some thoughts on the subject and I could not have been more right. In reading through this book I found a new appreciation for the truth that the Bible is a living book. It can reach inside your mind and heart and bring about change that no other book, or person, could hope to. With the exception, of course, of Jesus who is the Living Word.

To really appreciate our verse today it would be a great help if you went back and read the entire 73^rd chapter. David was being threatened and that threat came from evil men who appeared to be doing very well. While David suffered, those who caused his suffering fared just fine. So how did the knowledge of God help David at the time he needed it most? That is where our verse comes to play. He entered the sanctuary of God. He went into the presence of God. For David it meant entering the temple. For you it might mean going someplace quiet with your Bible and reading these verses over and over again.

My problem was that, until I turned to scripture, I was using my natural thought processes to deal with my problem. You see, our natural processes were never intended to help us deal with inner stress. We may be able to put a bandied on our problem but it will not deal with the essence of the problem,. In fact you begin to focus on the problem itself and that is not the heart of the matter. We are in a spiritual battle and most inner struggle is best faced with a spiritual mind. How do you appropriate this spiritual mindset? God's Word. It is the reason we were given this book. To help us see things from God's perspective and not our natural one.

When David entered the sanctuary he began to see his situation from God's point of view. He then saw that the end is not visible to him. He began to see that God was in control. It is so easy to be short sighted when faced with difficult problems that perplex us. Only God can bring you mind into clarity and you can understand the reality behind what seems so obvious to you.

One very important thing needs to be understood at this point. Where is the sanctuary you can go to like David? The church building? Well meaning people call the worship room in the church building the sanctuary don't they? Maybe that is where you should go. Sit in a pew and meditate on scripture. That is not a bad idea but it is not the sanctuary in the sense that David knew. The Bible tells us that our bodies are the sanctuaries of God. You can focus on scripture wherever you are and allow you mind, now the sanctuary of God, to think God's thoughts along with Him

The next time you are faced with a difficult problem, especially one involving someone else that seems to be causing you stress. Turn to Psalm 73 and begin reading it. Not just once or twice but several times. Watch how God uses the words to bring you comfort and transport your thinking into a spiritual realm that you could never have accessed with your own natural thinking. You will learn what many others have learned: God is still living in the words of the Bible. It is still a living document that can divide the indivisible and bring calmness even within great stress. You will know, beyond any reasonable doubt, that scripture has been given to us by God to enable us to understand the spiritual aspect of life.

May God bless you as you ponder His Word.

Theo

TRUE CHRITIANITY

Vol 2 No 49 THEO'S DEVOS

1 John 2:11 Anyone who hates a Christian brother or sister is living and walking in darkness. Such a person is lost, having been blinded by the darkness. NLT

Our verse today is, perhaps, one of the most difficult to appropriate given our fallen human natures that haunts us even as Chrisitians. It would be bad enough if the Bible said that anyone who hates his brother is doing a bad thing that needs to be confessed. but it is much worse than that. To hate your brother or sister is to walk in darkness. The implication here is that hating your brother or sister flies in the face of true faith. The ability to hate comes naturally to us and the ability to love in the worst of circumstances can only happen when something supernatural is alive within us. Only God can truly love like that and He is the only one that can enable us to.

One major impediment to not hating someone who we believe deserves it is wrapped up in our reluctance to forgive. Human beings can oftentimes find it almost impossible to forgive when we believe that the person in focus does not merit that forgiveness. This is to misunderstand the whole process of forgiveness. It is a failure to understand that forgiving someone fress the forgiver as much as the one being forgiven. Bearing hatred in our hearts is a blinding force. It tends to draw our focus on the one hated and can keep us from loving others in the manner that God would want us to. When we forgive someone, we free our minds to love others and can get our thoughts off of the paralyzing force that has captivated us.

Did you know that you can be surrounded by light and walk in dsrkness. It really isn't hard to do. Just close your eyes. Light does you no good if you are not watching where you are going. To be a Christian and to hate you brother is like walking through life with your eyes closed. You blind yourself and are, in effect, lost. Just as lost as if there were no light at all. But this isn't necessary. You can open your eyes and take advantage of the light. You can forgive that person who, you feel, doesn't desreve it so that you can focus on the direction that God would have you go. It is to open your spiritual eyes and allow God to guide you past whatever obstacles life has put in your way. Do not allow our adversary to blind you by throwing boulders in your path in the form of other people. Learn to love like God does. I know that this is easier said than done but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

“How can I forgive that person when I know that I will never forget what they did?” This is, perhaps, one of the most often stated lines where forviveness is required. And it is true that you may never forget. Forgiveness does not mean to forget. It simply means to 'act' as if you have forgotten. Now that you can do and that is what God is looking for. It is our actions that reveal what we are thinking and God can help you with them. Ask Him to do what you cannot. Ask Him to live His life in, and through, you. Watch what changes. Talk to Him every morning and renew your desire to follow His lead. If this is something that you know you should do, please do not wait. Every day that you hesitate will make it less likely that you will follow through.

Is there someone you should forgive? Is there someone that you harbor hatred toward? Please be careful. Allow God to do His work and help you do yours. You are not in this alone. There are many who pray that you will be able to learn a life of love and thereby do the work of God. May He bless you as you do.

Theo