Tag: Christmas

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Faithlessness, Idols, and Such

Dear Sister,

We live in a land of opulence. Look around. Everyone has a cell phone, a car or two or three, houses, yards, food in abundance, leisure time to spare. Look in your closet. Count your shoes.  But wealth is also relative.  I’m wealthy compared to so-and-so but a pauper compared to that one. It is the same with you. And when we in the U.S.A. compare ourselves to billions of people on our earth our personal wealth becomes obvious. So why are we so discontent?

A plethora of people have written about idols of late. I will join the crowd. As painful as it is to admit, we all struggle with idols. Not the stone and wood kinds but the ones in our minds which vie for our affections, the dastardly ones in our hearts which seek to rule us. Even good things…

I’ve read all sorts of definitions of idols/idolatry. The most concise in my mind is this: An idol is anything that rules in my life—apart from God.  To rule means to have authority over, to control. The government of the United States, according to the Declaration of Independence, “rules” us, but only with the consent of the governed.
Idols in our lives rule because we have consented to be ruled or governed by them. It can be good (in theory) in government, but not when it refers to idols and our consent to their rule in our personal lives.

I like to the think of idols in the motif of master and slave. If we meditated in that context about our lack of satisfaction with the Lord and Him alone, of pursuing the things of this world which will burn up in the final analysis and refuse to satisfy for more than a few minutes in the here and now, the insatiable appetite we often have for the perishing ornaments of the domain of the enemy of our souls, of being a groveling slave to trinkets, of how we malign the name of the One we profess to love when we seem to adore other things and people more than Him, when we realize we are grieving the Lord who bought us when we submit to our lusts—perhaps we would repent more quickly of our unfaithfulness to our always faithful God, the One who is faithful to reprove, faithful to convict, faithful to discipline, faithful to forgive, faithful to restore.

A great antidote to our seasons of discontent and yielding to the idols we are prone to worship is thankfulness to our Creator and the lover of our souls. Let’s try it. Make a list of all He is, all He has done for us, all He gives, all the things we would find dreadful that He does NOT give because of His patient mercies, all His promises in Scripture. I could go on. Think on these things. Spend time meditating on them. Give the Father your thanks and praise and worship. Be overwhelmed with this and not the love of the world.  I have found that in the doing of these things, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

During this season of Thanksgiving, just prior to what can often be an unchecked, obsessive, and unrelenting sprint toward Christmas,  let’s make an effort to slow down, spend time in the Word, spend some extended time in prayer of intentional and genuine thanksgiving to the One to whom we owe our lives, our breath, our eternal souls.

“Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to selfish gain.
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in Your ways.”
Psalm 119:36-37

May Christ be put on display in our lives this season in a way we have never known before.

Love,
Cherry

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The Greatest Faithfulness

Dear Sister,

We just celebrated Easter. Like Christmas, Resurrection Day has taken on all the trappings of the Secularist. New Beginnings. Spring. Freshness of rain and sun to wash away winter.  Goddess of fertility.  Tulips and Narcissus. Bunnies and dyed eggs and pure sugar jellybeans. Such misdirection.

Recently, I read and reread 1 Corinthians 15.  If the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not true, we, of all people, are most miserable. If the resurrection is a fable, why give our lives to a myth just to make ourselves feel better about inevitable death hanging over our heads. Let’s eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow only brings death, and with it, total silence. If Christ is not raised, nor will we be raised. Our faith is empty, says Paul. We are still in our sins. We might as well shake our fists at a mythical or unfaithful, mocking God who sits in a heaven reserved for Himself alone.

Ah, but we know better. We can read all the books on apologetics, proving the resurrection, and they help. But the greatest apologetic for the believer is the living and powerful Word of God which quickens our hearts to believe and understand the resurrection, the dynamite power that raised Christ from the dead, the same power that removed the glaze, the veil from our own spiritual eyes and lack of understanding concerning our Risen Lord. We now know wholeheartedly that we died in Adam. We, by faith, are certain we were made alive in Christ. Peter tells us we have been given a living hope, the confidence that comes from God Himself that we too will be raised from the dead, a heavenly inheritance that is not subject to earthly corruption or defilement, nor does it fade away. Peter continues to state that we are able to remain faithful to God despite the sure trials of this difficult life because His power and presence in the sufferings will prove the genuineness of our faith in Jesus Christ. The end result is the salvation of our souls. But only if we are His…

Life really is very short. The older we get, the shorter it seems. Eternity is a very long time.  We know the day of our birth. We do not know the day of our death. God knows. God determined it. Are we ready? Do we know Him? Do we belong to Him? We can work hard to make ourselves acceptable to our Creator or to make sure we make the cut between heaven and hell, but He says our supposed attempts at righteousness are the same as filthy rags. Jesus will say to those who worked hard with wonderful deeds, “Depart from me, You workers of iniquity. I never knew you.”  Terrifying. Our right standing before Christ is not based on our works or we would boast. It is based on His work for us, our sins placed on Him, His perfect righteousness given to us by grace alone, by faith alone, through Christ alone. (Ephesians 2:8-9) God says we are dead in our sins and corpses do not respond or make decisions.   Ask Him to make your heart alive to Him. You can’t conjure it up. He has to do it for you. He will take away your sins and make you His own daughter, and us, your sisters.

Trust Him, my friend, with all your soul. His Word says He is faithful to do it. He can be trusted completely. He will never deceive you. His faithfulness is without blemish, untarnished by any weakness.

” ‘Jesus sinners doth receive’,
word of surest consolation;
Word all sorrow to relieve, word of pardon, peace, salvation!
Naught like this can comfort give;
‘Jesus sinners doth receive.’

On God’s grace we have no claim,
yet to us His pledge is given;
He hath sworn by His own name,
open are the gates of heaven.
Take to heart this word and live:
‘Jesus sinners doth receive.’

When a helpless lamb doth stray,
after it, the Shepherd, pressing
thro’ each dark and dang’rous way,
brings it back, His own possessing.
Jesus seeks thee, O believe: ‘Jesus sinners doth receive.’

Oh, how blest it is to know: were as scarlet my transgression,
it shall be as white as snow by Thy blood and bitter passion;
For these words I now believe: ‘Jesus sinners doth receive.’

Now my conscience is at peace,
from the Law I stand acquitted;
Christ hath purchased my release
and my every sin remitted.
Naught remains my soul to grieve–
‘Jesus sinners doth receive.’ ”
(Hymn based on lyrics by Erdmann Neumeister 1671-1756)

Love,
Cherry

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The Greatest Gift

My Dearest Sister,

It all starts the day after Thanksgiving. Department stores are flooded with shoppers, television commercials spout the latest holiday sales, and wrapping paper is sold by the thousands of yards. It’s the season of giving and even the best of us can get caught up in the mad rush to find the perfect gift for our loved ones. All too often though, we forget the very first and greatest gift ever given. It was over two thousand years ago that God sent His Son to this world in the form of little babe born in a stable in Bethlehem. In doing so, He made a way for us to become a part of His family, adopting us as His very own children.

The apostle Paul tells us more about this gift of adoption in Romans 8:15: “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together.” To fully understand the magnitude of this adoption process, we have to consider the audience to whom Paul is writing, the Romans. In order to adopt a son in Ancient Rome, the adoptive father had to buy him three times from the biological father, selling him back again after each time. After the son was sold to the adopting party for the third time, the biological father could claim him no longer. The son was then considered to be in the family of the adoptive father and had the same inheritance rights as one of his natural-born children. However, unlike a natural-born son, he could never be disowned by his adoptive father; the adoption was permanent.

Usually these adoptions happened when a person of great wealth or influence needed a son to carry on their family name and heritage. For example, Caesar Augustus was adopted by his own uncle, Julius Caesar, who had no children of his own. As a result, Julius was able to carry on his lineage and Augustus inherited an incredible position of power. It was a win-win. Because of this custom, it was virtually unheard of to adopt a slave. After all, the adoptive father needed someone worthy of carrying on his legacy, not some poor, dirty wretch who wouldn’t know the first thing about being the inheritor of a wealthy estate or important position. Yet we know from scripture that we were indeed once slaves to sin, following the desires and whims of our flesh. What, then, does God have to gain from adopting us as slaves of sin into His powerful family? What do we have to offer Him that makes us worthy of His affection? The answer is absolutely nothing. That’s what makes His desire to adopt us so amazing!

You see, God already had a Son to carry on His legacy and inherit all of His riches and glory: His name was Jesus Christ and He was perfect in every way, the apple of His Father’s eye. And yet God chose to send Him to this world in the form of a little baby boy, so that He would grow up to be persecuted, mocked, and killed by the very people He came to save. Do you understand what a sacrifice that was? Jesus took the blame that was not His and God, not being able to look on sin, had to forsake His precious only Son on the cross. And for what? For us, sister! Just as a Roman father had to buy his adopted son three times, God bought us with three days and nights of Jesus’ death.

There is only one thing that could explain such an amazing sacrifice: “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 1:3). LOVE, dear sister. God cared about us – poor, wretched slaves to sin as we were – enough to purchase our adoption with His own Son’s blood. And not only that, He made us equal inheritors with Christ. I ask you, what greater love can there be than that? So this season, let’s take a break from all the last minute shopping and present-wrapping to appreciate the greatest gift we will ever receive – our adoption as sons and daughters in the family of our ever-loving Abba Father. Merry Christmas, my precious sister!

In His love,
~ Lauren

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Yes, We Need a Little Christmas

Dear sister,

Having moved to a new town I have been in the process of seeking out a new home church. Every Sunday I have been to a different church and the sermon I heard at this Sunday’s church was on how Christmas is about productivity. Now you’re probably raising your eyebrows, but I urge you, dear sister, to keep reading.

During the hectic holiday season it is easy to get lost in family dinners, Christmas decorations, and checking off everyone’s Christmas lists. But this is not the kind of productivity the pastor was getting at. He furthered explained that Christmas is about the productivity that was established in the very beginning.

In Genesis 1:28 God commands Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply.” This verse is not simply referring to reproduction but to the very kind of life the Lord purposed his creation to live. He created us in order to accomplish the work he had prepared for us. He created us to be productive. But what happened? As you’ll remember, Adam and Eve rebelled against God, plunging all of humanity into the deep darkness of sin.

As a result, we now struggle to live productive lives. We struggle to accomplish the things that, before sin, would have been completely natural to do. It is this barrenness that brought Jesus into the world. He came to restore us to the kind of fruitful and productive life that God created us to live.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is singing Christmas songs but much of today’s popular Christmas music has nothing to do with Jesus or the reason for Christmas at all. “Silver Bells” (now on my list of hated Christmas songs) speaks of Christmas being “Santa’s big scene” and “We Need a Little Christmas” demands tinsel on evergreen boughs, fruitcake, and stockings so that we can feel like it’s Christmas time.

But none of these things give us what we need. Santa isn’t the star of the show. We are in desperate need of restoration so that we can live lives of productivity for Christ as God purposed for us before He even laid the foundation of the world. This is what Jesus brings. This is why we celebrate Christmas—not because Santa Claus is coming to town.

So, yes, we do need Christmas. Without it we remain dead and barren. Christ accomplished what we could not. He did what the Lord had assigned to him and he did it perfectly. Praise be to the Lord that He did too. For there is no other name in which we find life, no other name by which we are saved and no other name by which we can be called sons of God.

Merry Christmas!

Your sister,

Kayla

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Christmas Hope: Painted on the Scene of Despair

Cheer and hope is in the air this season, as we all flit around giving gifts and taking in the Christmas lights and sights.  But on that cool night in the Bethlehem inn, there was hardship, discouragement, and I’d bet there were even moments of despair.  Mary had been given a joyous task, but I am certain it was a chore to take the journey away from home, quite pregnant, to give birth to the Holy Child, Jesus.  And Joseph had his moments of discouragement and despair, I am sure.  His beautiful betrothed was with child…and before he had the vision to let him in on the what was happening, I can only guess that he was losing hope, having planned to ‘to divorce her secretly’, Matthew 1:19, HCSB…if my wedding had been called off, after all the excitement of planning and preparation, I’m sure I would have been feeling lots of despair.  Even the time in history God chose to paint the landscape of the Nativity Story was a dark one.  The governmental powers and challenges were tense, the rebuilding of the temple was slow and not nearly as grand as the previous one, and there had been no revelations from God for hundreds of years.  [source:  my knowledgeable former-pastor husband]
The events leading up to the birth of Christ were despairing in many senses.  And yet, isn’t this often how God chooses to work?  I know in my own life, numerous times, God has chosen dark times to break forth with the grandest displays of joy and hope.  My mid-twenties proved to be quite discouraging, but this was followed by a season of such joy, meaning, and encouragement.  You’ve heard the saying, ‘the night is always the darkest just before the dawn…” Joy and Hope shine brightest after the darkness of despair.
​But what does this have to do with you, this Christmas?  I believe it not only relates to what was happening on that quiet, holy night in Bethlehem, but it is what happens in each one of our souls on a regular basis.  We are all going through personal and public struggles, fighting against our sin nature, the world, and the devil.  We are striving to put aside our sin and despair, to CHOOSE the hope, peace and joy that are ours in Christ.  This Christmas, may I encourage you to keep fighting that fight?  Whatever your struggle may be, there is always hope in Christ.  Christ came on the scene during a dark time….and I urge you, He wants to come on the scene for you personally this Christmas…to be born anew in your heart, to be the hero for you, for your situation, for this lost and dying world.  That is the joy and hope of Christmas, my friend.  And it is ours for the taking.  
 
Hope is a candle
A light in the window
Showing the way for
A heart to come home
Hope is a Savior
Who was born in the manger
Sent down from Heaven
To rescue our hearts
Our Christmas hope
 
–The Christmas Hope, NewSong
 
Merry Christmas to You and to All You Hold Dear!  Ruth