Welcome to Bethlehem

What a weird time in history! The world at large seems to be mentally deteriorating around us. So many were waiting on the end of the world based on the skewed calendar of an ancient and extinct people whose worship service included bowling with the severed heads of excommunicated worshipers. Though the Mayans may have been brilliant in their discoverable advancements, their genius was not enough to secure their existence. Even with these obvious facts, many were resting their security on this so-called doomsday calendar. However, the broken people of Newtown, CT have lost all sense of stupid clocks and calendars as they mourn their many losses.

These are disturbing times if we add up the tide of ignorance and lack of personal integrity that keeps threatening us with a tsunami of lost life and lost liberty. We need Hope! Merry Christmas? Yes … rejoice and remember The Hope that came to us on that very first Christmas.

“NOW unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3:20,21

Just for a moment, let's lay aside all the trash the world is trying to dump into our hearts. Let's leave the mad dash for the bargains. Let's move out from the masses rushing to the cash registers and office parties. Let's breathe in the Spirit of the Eternal Season to regain some sanity in the midst of this crazy world. Just for a moment!

Welcome to Bethlehem! The “House of Bread”, had become a den of thieves; but did the character of the city derail the plan of God for the World without End? Although there was no room in the Inn and the initial welcome party would be the local animals instead of family and friends, would this have God cease His plan to call out a people that would hold Him in their highest opinion? Who will look and take His Birth to heart? Shepherds were called near to witness ... that the God that held them in celestial wonder night after night, now lay helpless in a feed trough wrapped in the garments of those needing healing. The gaze of the local worshipers and magistrates that had turned to gain and greed, would not even remotely be distracted from the clutter that was blinding their vision. This worldly distraction would create the perfect protective canopy to allow for the events of this wondrous evening to unfold without threat.

“Now unto Him who is able”...God, this night, would become helpless. He literally committed His power and glory to the care of two individuals, that by worldly standards, were inconsequential and undeniably inexperienced to care for history's Game Changer. While the visible world was being conquered and enslaved by powerful rulers of darkness in high places, God had begun His unstoppable invasion. He would bring His Kingdom without End into the world of broken men by breaking along side of them. This breaking would begin by experiencing all the benefits and handicaps of needing to be cared for as the “babe of Bethlehem”. This breaking would be effectual.

“Now unto Him who is able”. This night in Bethlehem would begin the living illustration of the truth of Emmanuel, God with us. In the essence of its signature proof : “You shall find the babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger”. ...we find the tender hand of Mighty God becoming ... God with us. “Exceeding abundantly above all”...”above all that we ask or think”. Stand with me a see the truth unfold and you shall find:
The Babe – God, a baby, joining with us in the struggle of our beginnings, even from birth. Wrapped in swaddling clothes – He had no choice of status but like with our beginnings, He will be reminded daily of our ending. He was clothed in the most versatile cloth – for throughout life it would meet the basic needs for health and hygiene but also at the last would be the choice of cloth for His grave clothes. Can you not see the shadow of the cross already in the life of this child?
Lying in a Manger – The Bread of Life, the gift of God, lying in a feed trough, was and is absolutely no threat to those who choose to bow their brokenness before Him. Lying in this manger is everything that is “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”.

- Can you see how even in His birth He has positioned Himself to under-gird our helplessness?
- Can you begin to trust differently so He can continue to unfold His exceedingly abundant care for you?
- Can you more deeply understand that His love for us goes above and beyond what we ask or could think to ask?

Once again we find that the evidence of His abundant care is to be housed in the lives of the inconsequential and the inexperienced of this world. Christ in You, the hope of Glory! Can you see the strategic nature of God choosing you? This has you positioned perfectly for the miracle of His revelation to you and through you … You are to be the evidence of “God with us”. You are the hope carriers and the praise makers. When you are living openly for Him you allow Christmas to come alive today... the song of angels can now be heard via the voice of men … “Glory to God in the Highest ...”

No doubt the world is going crazy …
possibly just trying to see …
that He lives in you,
and that He lives in me.

May Christmas 2012, be the Christmas where we continue to realize the gift of His abundant care!! The world around us is counting on it. “And on Earth Peace, good will toward men.”
HLFA,
Jeff

Shock Waves -- Go Crying!

Totally strange and disheartening times … Sometimes even dreams carry wonder for awhile until they collide with a catastrophic reality. The Events of Friday, December 14, 2012 in Newtown, CT, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, seem so surreal that we wish it were just another bad dream.  If so, then we would find the liberty to wake up unscathed. Not gonna happen unless we are comatose.

In a way this nation's courage and spirit is continually being disemboweled by incidents that throw great doubt into the arena of personal safety and security. Such horrendous events openly herald that the human race (with all of its advancements in communication and education) still continues to foster and unleash extreme darkness. This darkness is always lurking, always looking for the perfect inopportune moment to strike; and we are helpless to do anything about it.
 
We all have observed that just as seagulls will almost kill each other for an abandoned french fry, the fear mongers of this world stomp madly over each other to be the first to publish the sordid facts. Like tragedies before this, the facts will come out , will somewhat clarify, and possibly give us an opportunity to reassess the risks of living in our times. Those with deep political agendas will more than likely slither in and take advantage of the scared and uninformed public. Spiritual anarchists will heat up the situtuation by shouting harsh and critical doomsday prophesies from a safe distance (So as not to be directly involved). Survivors will be advised to embrace mantras that will get them further down the road where the pain and memory will begin to dissipate. But what of the Redeemed?

All of the Redeemed will have to face the questions of their soul and the Spirit will have us lift our hearts to cry “Tell me what You want from me!” Some will stand and wait for the reply while others will feel they have done their duty to pray and walk away.

If it is "the goodness of God that leads us to repentance" … what has happened this day? (Some may say “judgment” – but what of the children?) If "God is not the author of confusion" … then why are we confused? (Some will say – We are not confused, we had it coming – but what of the children?) If "God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" ...what are we doing? (What?) If all we do is grovel in the paths of worms to find the answers to tragedy or pull out all the stops to accurately place blame, we will continue to plague ourselves with a paralysis that will have us rotting in the comfort of our own educated sanctimony.

An old friend told me one time that I was “incoherent, disillusioned and mad” … I was so grateful for his frank honesty because so often this is an acurate accessment. Possibly at this point (in the sharing of my heart) you may be feeling that way of me also, but Please listen on --- (it may get a little more incoherent especially if you read the next grouping of words just to get it done).  

In Jeremiah 9: 1, 2 “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.” , Jeremiah appears to be very much like us especially in the way we respond in our most desperate moments.

(Merry Christmas!) The world feels there is no Savior in the situation …
(Merry Christmas!)... in a world where we have all but given up hope.
(Merry Christmas! ) CRY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN SLAIN IN THEIR INNOCENCE,
and if you must, RUN AWAY TO THE REMOTE SAFETY OF LIKEMINDED FELLOWSHIP – BECAUSE OF THE WICKEDNESS OF THIS GENERATION...  BUT then Go into the world and stand in the truth of “Merry Christmas!”

We could not continue this way and God knew it when He sent His Son … “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and THEY shalt call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with US.”  Who are THEY?
  
THEY are those who have believed and received the Christmas story.
THEY are those who are crushed by the pain of others.
THEY are those who choose to leave the safety of the fellowship to reach out.
THEY are those who SHALL CALL HIS NAME into a disheartened world around them.
THEY are those who proclaim that JESUS is GOD WITH US !

He was born to live among our breaking.
He walked among us to feel the depths of our brokenness.
He died to own every situation of human tragedy.
He bore His sacrifice to reconnect sinful men with a Holy God.
He arose again to break the bonds of our brokenness and bind up our broken hearts.
He fully satisfied the requirements of Holiness to secure eternity for the believing.
He fully secures and empowers us in our brokenness by His indwelling Spirit.
He now wants us to join Him to be there for the traumatized, the confused , the hurting ... and let those robbed of hope know that
JESUS IS HERE.
JESUS IS WITH US!
so GO in Love with Him!
 
Merry Christmas !

HLFA,

Jeff

Silence

Silence
God had given us a moment together. We earnestly prayed for a genuine need. There was no audience but God. (I guess as always, He is not about the business of embarrassing His kids.) We placed the situation in God's hands trusting He would deliver. In prayer we asked God for the obvious - “Lord, Please let the employer not fire the employee. Please allow ______ to keep his job. We will trust you with this situation knowing that You alone know what is ahead and what is best … in Jesus' Name, Amen!” And we both left the moment feeling God would take care of the situation.

My brother was worried that he would lose his job, and in the story of his tenure he had reason to feel this way due to past blemishes on his record. But this was a new day, he was trying to walk honestly before man and His God. Although in times past he was labeled negatively, the new crew he was working with thought of him as “the best.” Once he may have tried to cover up the incident, but this time he would be honest, report it, risk termination, and trust God's mercy to deliver Him. He was going to do right no matter what.

 I Peter 2:12 – “Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

I received a text mid-week that went something like this “Thanks for praying with me Sunday Night, they let me go but it is okay, I will be all right.” My heart sank and tears came for my brother. I felt a little bit disappointed that God had not done exactly what we had asked (… except for the reluctant, carefully chosen words that committed us to the thought of being "okay" with termination... if that was what God wanted). Although we know that better things are ahead, right now the silence of the moment is killing me.

 I Peter 2:19 – 20 “For this is thank worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.”

Under the pressure of the church congregation, we do our best to appear spiritually content with the decisions made about us and our brethren. We try to keep a Godly "stiff upper lip," although our spirit is broken, scarred, and scared. This is the moment that we feared would come, and now it has. Are we to be quiet when there is so much noise and turbulence in our souls? Will we find Him patient with us while we do our best to try and work through this moment of human mess we call “I'm okay?!”

The facts are thrown in our face by our adversary “You prayed he would keep his job, and he lost it!”

“What power is there in prayer if it “always” goes this way?”

These seething words always seem to hiss from the depths of Hell trying to alienate us from God who truly loves us, from the God Who stands, waiting at an open door. If we stay close to Jesus, even in disappointment, we will find Him already opening the way before us. He is not silent … we are not fully listening. Listen and we will hear and be refreshed!

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him for the help of his countenance.” Psalm 42:5

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. “ Psalm 42:11

 My hope, His help, My health, My God! I shall yet praise Him! Silence... I'm listening.

 HLFA,

 Jeff

There is Gold in Them There Words

“There is Gold in them there hills!” … was the one liner I heard as a child while watching particular “westerns” on the black n' white television screen. Using the theme of the California Gold Rush that began in the Mid 1800s, the movie industry would capture the imaginations of its fans as cinematic “Cowboys” would gallivant across the “big screen” in conflicts created by the rumors and discovery of gold.

Even today, gold captures the heart of men and women. And with a gem enshrined within its setting, gold captures the eye of the beholder. Scripture, however, pulls us from the focus on gold by letting us know that the Word of the Lord is to be desired more than even fine gold. Gold may give us temporary comfort in the acquisition and accumulation of things, but the Word of God can give the believer lasting and eternal comfort when our temporal comfort is threatened.

Digging for Scripture's treasures is only as rewarding as the heart allows the Spirit to capture the wonder of His truth. Weekly, I go treasure hunting for Scriptural-taught-thoughts in hopes of finding a “gold nugget” that might cause seekers to be captured more securely by these truths.

Psalm 27:10 was in this week's dig. “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. [Please hang with me for a moment as I share an awesome truth buried just below the surface of this passage.] The word “forsake” in this passage can literally speak directly to an orphan, a castaway, the bereaved, the lonely, and the spiritually abused or abandoned. It must be noted that captured in the action of the word “forsake” is a momentary event that has left one without an earthly parent or primary caregiver.

As a result of this life-challenging “moment...” “the LORD will take me up.” Where the “forsaking” was for a moment, the LORD brings in a season of active, personal and continual nurturing and care. Held within the golden setting of “take me up” are the following actions: holding us carefully with the eternal comfort of His love, gathering us into the company of others, taking care of loose ends (bringing up the rear), moving us from our loss to His hope (little by little), taking away the shame caused by the “forsaking,” and bringing value through us to others. ALL THIS FOUND WITHIN SUCH A SMALL PASSAGE? If you are saying “I don't get it” ...slow down. You may not need this but someone else near you may.

During the real California Gold Rush, many a man returned quite wealthy from his adventure, but many returned even poorer than when they had left. As with scriptural “treasure hunting,” the key is not to capture the Word for yourself, for with that selfish, pitiful purpose you could soon find yourself spiritually bankrupt. God is not a harsh, knuckle-rapping school teacher. He will bring truth to you with the hope that you start seeing the value of others around you. Try to hold on to this – “When my father and my mother forsake me ... (I may actually be abandoned and feel worthless at this moment) ...then the LORD will take me up” (but my Heavenly Father is actively involved in renewing that care for me, and bringing greater value to my life).

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defense; I shall not be moved.” Psalm 62:5-6 Seek Him while He may be found,

Wow. There sure is gold in “them there Words.”
 
HLFA,
Jeff