How Many Kings Would Do This?

Christmas time... a great time of year, yet the most misunderstood time of year.. We Christians rail about the secular takeover of Christmas, but aren't we just as guilty of that? So many "things" take our attention away from the fact that God became Man   ... Christ came into the world to save sinners 

(1 Timothy 1:15)  ... Are you one of the sinners He has saved? If you are, we need God to call us back to the real meaning of this day. The birth of Jesus Christ, our sin - bearer. We died that we might live! Make sure.. really sure, that you celebrate Christmas everyday by remembering that God emptied out Heaven to come and rescue you. Some key passages to meditate on are:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

                                                                                              (2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV)

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-10 ESV)

          The Christmas song, "How Many Kings?" illustrates these verses so well:                                                                                              

 How many kings step down from their thrones?

How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
And how many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that is torn all apart
How many fathers gave up their sons for  me?                                                                         

Let's see another King do that? ....  Have a blessed Christmas!

"Nunc Dimittis" Luke 2: 22-35

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
  “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
  And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”  (Luke 2:22-35 ESV)

What a day that had to be for faithful Simeon... He got to see and hold (and behold!) the LORD'S salvation: Jesus Christ... God promised Simeon that he would not die until he saw the One who would bring (consolation) salvation for His people. Isaiah 40 speaks of the comfort the Messiah would bring. Simeon knew the passage well, but imagine the impact as he actually HOLDS the One Isaiah spoke of hundreds of years before! Simeon bursts into song - in the Latin it is called the "Nunc Dimittis" because it is a song of dismissal. Simeon could now die knowing that God keeps His promises.
Believe it or not, it works the same way with us; We BEHOLD our salvation when we see and receive the Lord's salvation... Jesus Christ. We can now die in peace... Knowing our salvation is here! The comfort, consolation, and salvation that God promises is right there before you... His name is Jesus. Turn to Him and be saved.

Jesus Burned for You

"I’m a little like the duck hunter who was hunting with his friend in a wide-open barren of land in southeastern Georgia. Far away on the horizon he noticed a cloud of smoke. Soon, he could hear the sound of crackling. A wind came up and he realized the terrible truth: a brush-fire was advancing his way. It was moving so fast that he and his friend could not outrun it. The hunter began to rifle through his pockets. Then he emptied all the contents of his knapsack. He soon found what he was looking for–a book of matches. To his friend’s amazement, he pulled out a match and struck it. He lit a small fire around the two of them. Soon they were standing in a circle of blackened earth, waiting for the brush fire to come. They did not have to wait long. They covered their mouths with their handkerchiefs and braced themselves. The fire came near–and swept over them. But they were completely unhurt. They weren’t even touched. Fire would not burn the place where fire had already burned." 

The law is like the brush-fire. I cannot escape it. But if I stand in the burned-over place, where law has already burned its way through, then I will not get hurt. Not a hair of my head will be singed. The death of Christ is the burned-over place. There I huddle, hardly believing yet relieved. Christ’s death has

disarmed the law. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” - Paul Zahl 

Jonathan Edwards on Spiritual Pride

“Spiritual pride is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christianity. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit, to darken the mind and mislead the judgment. It is the main source of all the mischief the devil introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God.
Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt. But pure Christian humility rather tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity. Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself. He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and to be quick to note their deficiencies. But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He is apt to esteem others better than himself.”
Jonathan Edwards, Works (Edinburgh, 1979)

Reformation Day ... oh yeah, it's also Halloween!

October 31, 1517 - The day observing Martin Luther nailing his 95 Thesis on the Whittenberg door. A declaration that salvation is found outside of man. Our only hope is an "alien righteousness" ... Salvation and the Christian life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. The key verse for Luther was Romans 1:17, which is an Old Testament quotation from Habakkuk 2:4... "... the Righteous (Just) shall live by faith..."  Luther said when he finally understood what this meant, it was ".. like the heavens opened up.."   .   The just SHALL live by faith. Faith is Christ alone.. It is the only way we'll see heaven. 

Justification by faith is an answer to the greatest personal question ever asked by a human soul: “How shall I be right with God? How do I stand in God’s sight? With what favor does He look upon me? There are those, I admit, who never raise that question.  There are those who are concerned with the question of their standing before men but never with the question of their standing before God. There are those who are interested in what “people say”  but not in the question what God says. Such men, however, are not those who move the world. They are apt to go with the current. They are apt to do as others do. They are not the heroes who change the destinies of the race. The beginning of true nobility comes when a man ceases to be interested in the judgment of men and becomes interested in the judgment of God.”
                                                                    J. Gresham Machen, 1881 - 1937

A Wonderful Puritan Prayer

Father of mercies,
Hear me for Jesus' sake.
I am sinful even in my closest walk with thee;
it is of thy mercy I died not long ago;
Thy grace has given me faith in the cross
by which thou hast reconciled thyself to me and me to thee,
drawing me by thy great love,
reckoning me as innocent in Christ though guilty in myself.
Giver of all graces,
I look to thee for strength to maintain them in me,
for it is hard to practice what I believe,
Strengthen me against temptations,
My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin,
              a river of corruption since childhood days,
                flowing on in every pattern of behavior; 
Thou has disarmed me of the means in which I trusted,
   and I have no strength but in thee. 
Thou alone canst hold back my evil ways,
   but without thy grace to sustain me I fall.
Satan's darts quickly inflame me,
   and the shield that should quench them 
       easily drops from my hand;
Empower me against his wiles and assaults.
Keep me sensible of my weakness,
     and of my dependence upon thy strength. 
Let every trial teach me more of thy peace,
                                     more of thy love. 
Thy Holy Spirit is given to increase thy graces,
      and I cannot preserve or improve them
           unless he works continually in me. 
May he confirm my trust in thy promised help,
      and let me walk humbly in dependence upon thee,
             for Jesus' sake. 
* The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions
Edited by Arthur Bennett