Resolutions???

Congress makes resolutions all the time and it seems that at the end of the year people make all sorts of resolutions to guide them into the New Year.

What about you?  What are you resolved to….?????

Unexpected Guests

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. —  A family did not realize they had an unexpected Christmas guest until a man who had been in their attic for days emerged wearing their clothes, police said.

Stanley Carter surrendered Friday after police took a dog to search the home in Plains Township, a suburb of Wilkes-Barre about 100 miles north of Philadelphia. He was charged with several counts of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal trespass.

“When he came down from the attic, he was wearing my daughter’s pants and my sweat shirt and sneakers,” homeowner Stacy Ferrance said. “From what I gather, he was helping himself to my home, eating my food and stealing my clothes.”

It kind of sounds like family to me…..

University of Chicago – A Disgrace!

Another example of a world gone crazy.  What ever happened to morality in America?  I’m not talking about a theocracy which we have never had but just plain and simple morality?  I mean, what in the world has come over leaders at all levels? 

News from the University of Chicago… “The University of Chicago is joining a nationwide trend of allowing male and female students to live not just on the same dorm floor, but in the same dorm room.

The school sent a letter out to parents last week informing them of the decision. The school says it was a student-led initiative that isn’t aimed at romantic couples. However, the school says couples won’t be banned from asking to be roommates when the program begins next month.

Nationally more than 30 campuses allow co-ed dorm rooms.

The University of Chicago program is called open housing and it won’t include freshmen. Students do not need parental permission to participate. The school says students will not be assigned mixed-gender housing. Instead it’s on a request basis.”

Well…that is comforting to know.  This really isn’t aimed at “romantic couples”.  Right.  Oh yeah..also this is on a request basis.  Well isn’t that quite open minded.  I won’t force anyone to live together with someone of the opposite sex.  And then there is the “student-led” initiative.  I wonder if they would be so open to a “student-led initiative” that assigns a grade of C just for enrolling in a class?

Come on people….

Christmas Week Thought

It becomes increasingly difficult to separate the celebration of Christ’s birth from the commercialization of the month of December.  Some of you may have mastered it but I continue to find it a struggle and one that I often lose.    The essence of the incarnation demands a focus that is solely on the person of Christ.  I used to think that reading the nativity story on Christmas day was sufficient but as I grow up in Christ I am finding that it is not.  It requires much more than that…a deeper reflection in the Scriptures.  And so I am taking time off this week to think a little more, talk a little less and commune with Christ as much as possible.

I encourage you to take the time necessary to think through what Christ did when he “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of  a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Phil 2:6-7) 

Advent – Day 17

“For my eyes have seen your salvation,
Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES
And the glory of Your people Israel.”
Luke 2:30-32

How long would you wait for God’s promise?  A day?  A month?  A year?  A lifetime?  Simeon had waited for a long, long time.  Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly how long but I suppose that it had been long enough.  How or through what circumstances the Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that the Messiah would be coming is uncertain.  What is known is that Simeon was waiting for the glorious hope of the consolation of Israel.

Of course we now know that it was in Christ Jesus that the promise made to Simeon would be fulfilled.  I can imagine that he looked at every person he ever saw and wondered to himself if this might be the one.  But when Jesus was presented at the temple, the Spirit of God revealed to Simeon the child’s unique nature and Simeon rejoiced.  He rejoiced to realize the fulfillment not only of the promise made to himself but the fulfillment of the promise made to all of us.  The light and the glory of God had arrived.

Remember that God is faithful to keep His promises.  He is faithful to keep His word.

Advent – Day 16

“His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear Him.
He has done a mighty deed with His arm;
He has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts;
He has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly.
He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel, mindufl of His mercy,
just as He spoke to our anscestors, to Abraham and is descendants forever.”
Luke 1:50-55

The miracle of the incarnation proved to be the spark that instigated Mary’s response of praise to Almighty God.  The focus is on Him alone and not on any merit that Mary may have had.  She emphasizes His mercy, His power, His omniscience, His provision, and His promise-keeping. 

What has God done in your life today?  How have you responded to His work?  Indifference?  Expectancy?  Praise?  The Almighty God has done great things for us…Holy is His name.

Advent – Day 15

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoiced in God my Savior, because He has looked with favor on the humble condition of His slave.”  Luke 1:46-47

Mary was a unique recipient of God’s grace and favor.  Not in the sense that she received special saving grace but that she was chosen by God to be the mother of Christ.  Theologians have struggled on how best to express this unique blessing that she received, alternately calling her the theotokos (God-bearer) as at the Third Ecumenical Council in 431 and/or the mater dei; mother of God. 

This result of this great blessing was an increase in her awareness of God’s goodness and grace.  While she is “most blessed of women” (Lk 1:42), Mary was in desperate need of a Savior.  She recognized this fact in her song, rejoicing in “God her Savior“.  Any doctrine that would deny that need or that would provide another way for her to obtain salvation is unbiblical.  The Scriptures teach that “all have fallen short of the glory of God” (Roms 3:23).  There is no record in the Scripture for Mary’s own sinless conception or that she lived a sinless life. 

What is recorded for us is the incredible grace of God shown to a humble young servant called Mariam.  She recognized His grace and her song reflects not her own standing before God but emphasizes His goodness.

Soli Deo Gloria

Advent – Day 12

“

When Baby Jesus disappeared last year from a Nativity scene on the lawn of the Wellington, Fla., community center, village officials didn’t follow a star to locate him.

A GPS device mounted inside the life-size ceramic figurine led sheriff’s deputies to a nearby apartment, where it was found facedown on the carpet. An 18-year-old woman was arrested in the theft.

Giving up on old-fashioned padlocks and trust, a number of churches, synagogues, governments and ordinary citizens are turning to technology to protect holiday displays from pranks or prejudice.

About 70 churches and synagogues eager to avoid the December police blotter jumped at a security company’s offer of free use of GPS systems and hidden cameras this month to guard their mangers and menorahs.”
http://www.star-telegram.com/238/story/1087266.html

OK, I understand the issue of not wanting to lose a pricey object and see nothing inherently wrong with a GPS in a baby Jesus.  I wish I could put one inside my thoughts so when I lose them, I could find them again.

But…it kind of seems to be symbolic of how we can treat Christmas.  Look but don’t touch.  See the baby in the manger but don’t have too much to do with him.  Heaven forbid anyone take Christ.  It may be just my old grumpier self coming through but I am growing tired of commercialism and holiday spirit.  I’d give anything to simply be able to sit back and think for a while about Christ’s birth and to see others take Him for themselves. 

No GPS attached.

Advent – Day 11

“When Zechariah saw him (the angel), he was startled and overcome with fear.”  Luke 1:12

I think Luke is understating the situation.  God has been silent for nearly 400 years.  For centuries there hasn’t been a fresh word from Him and now, in the quiet of the Holy Place, a messenger from God is about to speak.  I think being startled and in fear is an appropriate response.

We don’t know how long Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying for a child.  More than likely for a very, very long time.  We don’t know if they ever grew tired of seeking God’s favor in this area but I think they would have been fully human to do so.  We don’t know if they had given up.  After all they were old and beyond childbearing age. 

What we do know is that Zechariah was in a position where God was going to break through the silence of centuries and fulfill His plan.  In that moment inside the temple, Zechariah learned that God does indeed answer prayers; even those long past any hope of being answered.

Advent teaches us to hope beyond hope.  Not some wishy-washy type of hope that is peddled by politicians and song lyrics but a hope that is fixed on the solid foundation of a God who knows and a God who acts.  Advent teaches us that God is never late but always on time.  Advent teaches us to look for God to work in our lives even today.  And maybe, just maybe, in the quiet of our service in the Holy Place the silence will be broken.

Soli Deo Gloria

Advent – Day 9

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (Mal 4:5-6)  Thus Malachi closes his prophetic book and the Old Testament canon with a promise that would be fulfilled in the person of John the Baptist.  On the surface it appears that John’s ministry is a simple side-note to salvation history.  He comes on the scene and quickly leaves it.  But the gospel writers are purposeful to note the interaction between John and Christ.  This ministry of a forerunner was important in the preparation of Israel for the Messiah.

In the military, much attention is paid to the prepping of battlefield.  You literally prepare it for the main attack that is to come.   It is in the role that John came – “preparing the way of the Lord”.  And so, on that fateful day when the Gabriel appeared to Zechariah in the temple and revelation began again, the wheels were put into motion to begin redemption.