The Christmas Question

What if...God became a Man, born with the sheep in a barn, laid out on the straw under a star so bright astrologers followed it to find Him. Shepherds on a dark cold night saw a sight that frightened them nearly to death...the same shepherds who regularly cared for and bred sacrificial lambs for Jewish feasts. Called by angels to visit the Lamb of God newly born in a stable in Bethlehem. What if this Lamb was the lamb that ended all sacrifices?

What if...some of us have too small an idea of Who God is? We think the story of Christmas and the death and resurrection of Jesus is far-fetched and silly: God become man to therefore die as the ultimate redemption from our sin. What if our thinking is silly? We think we are so smart that God couldn't have a story that far surpasses our reach and grasp, yet is so simple even those with little reach or grasp can understand it. What if we have boxed God in to our own story so that He can't get out and be more vast than we can imagine? How pedestrian we must look to Him if His story is true and we discount it because it's crazy to think about.

What if...all the years of Jewish sacrifices pointed to this One offering? Year after year, Passover after Passover, the blood teaching that our wrongs must be righted, atoned for. Then this One Lamb...

What if...all our judgments of Christian churches and the imperfect preachers and congregations keep us from relationship with a God Who eschews the religious rites practiced on His behalf in deference to intimate one-on-one relationship with those Who choose to love Him? What if many...or most...religious types have missed out on the one thing most important to God: intimacy with His children. After all, the Lamb was to be called Emmanuel--God with us.

What if...you could live the life Jesus called you to live? "Life--and more abundantly (John 10)." What if knowing Him, Christ in us, causes judgment to fall away, love to burgeon in our hearts, wisdom to grow and power to overcome to be manifest? What if we didn't look at how others are living the Christian life to negate our need to follow, but, instead, walked it ourselves, knowing we live for Jesus...not ourselves, not for what others think. What if you could live the life you accuse others of falling short of? What if I could?

What if...the question isn't what we do with the Lamb of God, but what is He to do with us? If the hands that created the universe were pierced for us? What if the Word that spoke it all into being spoke "It is finished" on my behalf. If this story is true, God became flesh and lived among us (John 1), then the question of what we do with Him is embarrassingly juvenile. The fly on the back of an elephant asking what it does with the elephant (C. S. Lewis). God, by virtue of the fact that He is GOD, can tell whatever story He decides.

What if...people embraced the cradle in the barn and the cross on the hill as the culmination of God's redemptive plan? Not waving the hand in dismissal of such a noxious story. If it is, indeed, the story GOD is writing, wouldn't it be worth embracing? Because, if this is the greatest love story ever told, and we are invited into it, our hubris, judgment, theology or offenses could keep us from true intimacy with the God Who would call us "children."

Should We Be Afraid? An Open Letter to a Child of My Heart

"You will hear about wars and stories of wars that are coming, but don't be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes. Nations will fight against other nations; kingdoms will fight against other kingdoms. There will be times when there is no food for people to eat, and there will be earthquakes in different places. These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born. Then people will arrest you, hand you over to be hurt, and kill you. They will hate you because you believe in Me. At that time, many will lose their faith, and they will turn against each other and hate each other. Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe lies. There will be more and more evil in the world, so that most people will stop loving each other. But those people who keep their faith to the end will be saved. The good news about God's kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come."  Jesus, Matthew 24

Your questions were good ones, sweet child of my heart. I read and reread your letter to me last night and again this morning. I understand your fear. We live in a crazy and confusing time when right and wrong are upside down, when evil might be lurking in a garage next door, when Christmas parties and concerts are only questionably safe, and warning others about eminent danger could look like racial profiling. We try to function in a catch-22--damned if we do, damned if we don't...or dead either way, even. I felt the cringing of your heart when you pulled your car back into the garage and hurried back into your house because the men in the car parked along the curb looked out of place and dangerous as they sat there looking out the windows at what was supposed to be your departure. Your baby unsafe, maybe. Pushed back into the confines of the four walls, not wanting to risk even the perception of danger. Conflict in your heart because you know good people whose beliefs lead them in a different direction than the San Bernardino terrorists who looked like they were okay...even at the baby shower the very people they killed had for them in the months before. Who do we trust? How do we know? And...your bigger question...where is God--is He good?

With all my heart, I don't want to give you a trite, hackneyed or easy answer. That doesn't satisfy me, either. However, I can only give you the responses that occur to  me today, because I don't have all the answers. A few days before the Passover on which Jesus would be arrested, His disciples asked Him to tell them about the end times--what would they be like? Jesus's response is found in Matthew 24. It's going to be bad. It's going to look a lot like it looks right now. Climate issues. Earthquakes. Famines. Hatred. Lawlessness. And people will hate more; love less. Natural affection will be hard to find--mothers for children, children for parents, friend for friend. Betrayals. Upside down and inside out. And some Christians will lose faith. Jesus predicted this. Because God sees history as a straight line. He isn't surprised by what has happened in any era of time. In fact, Jesus knew two thousand years ago what it will look like right before the end of the age we live in. That is comforting. Jesus wanted to make sure His disciples then and now know He is in control. And not to fear. Don't be afraid. It's seems to me to be an intentional imperative. We decide not to succumb to it. Decide to trust that if He had the prescience to warn us, to spell out the events of the end, that we can trust His epic plans as well as His plans for us as individuals.

I have a new prayer these days: Father, please keep us. Thank You that Your Word says that Your eyes are on us (2 Chronicles 16:9 The Lord searches all the earth for people who have given themselves completely to Him. He wants to make them strong). Thank You that You have promised to hide us under Your wings  (Psalm 91). Thank You that You are greater than our hearts and You know everything (1 John 3:20). And thank You that the plans you have for us are not to hurt us, but to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29). This day is what I have. This hour to trust You. Give me great wisdom to navigate this chaotic world; give me great faith to believe You for anything; give me perfect love so that I adore You without the fear of what might be coming from Your hands into my life. Please keep me in these turbulent times that I might be a light that doesn't dim because the world is sinking into darkness. I want my head above the waves, each breath coming from You. Be strength to those Christians dying and imprisoned for knowing and loving You today. Be present in a way I can't fathom in my ease. Come quickly, Lord. Come quickly. Amen.

A lesser god would not have, in love, prepared those who love him for the end of things...nor would a lesser god even know what is in store. Lesser gods rule so much of the world right now--in particular, the god of self, sitting on so many separate thrones ruling in favor of anything that feeds the beast, which is never satisfied. But the One True God is actually in control. And, precious daughter in Jesus, we are here, right now, at this time in history, because He ordained it with purpose. That is how I claim joy. And we have the Spirit to speak to us individually. Giving us nudgings, making us wary when we should be and bold when we should be. Listen to Him. We can trust the God Who made the world, Who predestined and foreordained us to be His children before the foundations of the world (Ephesians 1) to move history and at the same time keep us until the very end. Jesus has the power of God, by which He has given us everything we need to live and serve God. We have these things because we know Him. Jesus called us by His glory and goodness. Through these He gave us very great and precious promises. With these gifts you can share in being like God, and the world will not ruin you with its evil desires (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Books have been written on why there is suffering in a world created by the God of love. We choose some of it. We live in a fallen world, yes. But those answers can't contain nor absorb some of the things that offend your heart. Men and women have lost their faith in God over just that question. The root of it is that: God isn't good. My response may seem too simplistic given the attention this accusation against God has received over the ages. From the beginning to the end of the Bible, the message to us is that our God wants to live among us. The garden; the exodus; the temple; Emmanuel, God with us, in the flesh--Jesus. I don't believe God looks onto this horrific mess of a world, tsk-tsking and blaming, wrath like smoke billowing from His holy nostrils...I believe He is as tired of it all as you are, baby. Yet, because He is love, He waits. Feeling what we feel...not feeling about us. I believe that I am His daughter...as you are. And, though I know your concept of a dad is at the very least a blurry mess, being God's child is a place of ultimate safety and understanding. You are not home here. I'm not, either. But we are never out of His sight either place. If suffering comes here, we know He understands it...knows how to bear it. The blood-soaked ground beneath the cross of Christ's death assures us that in our suffering we are not alone. He isn't callous to our need. And our deaths, like His, take us home to our Father. What we know as believers is that, unlike the current world view, our suffering has purpose, as His did. And we will never, ever be alone in it:
Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can troubles or problems or sufferings or hunger or nakedness or danger or violent death (sword)? As it is written in the Scriptures: "For you we are in danger of death all the time. People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed (Psalm 44:22)."  But in all these things we have full victory through God Who showed His love for us. Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!  (Romans 8)

Take a moment to listen to this song by clicking the link below.  We don't have to be slaves to fear.  I love you.