Good Morning Friends,
Today we continue on an Advent journey not unlike that of Lent. Here we see that when stories converge power is created. The beauty is that in reading Bible stories we get glimpses of encouragement and insights and compassion that can translate into our current experience of God. The objects of focus may change but the living of the emotion with hope is the same whether it is old or new. We have the fall of Adam and the promise of something to get us out of the predicament we all have. God knows our heart but the practical question is this, When It Comes To Our Own Sin Do We Embrace A Holy Salvation Hope And Purpose?
Scripture: But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:9-15 (NRSV)
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’ (in the scroll of the book it is written of me).” When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:4-10 (NRSV)
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:26-38 (NRSV)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
1 Timothy 1:1 (NRSV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 (NRSV)
Message: Ever wonder why we have behaviors we know are not healthy, but we do them anyway? Sometimes there are reasons in our history that have formed us. We have to go back to the beginning of our stories to sort it all out. And this time of year, we get to consider those factors that should move us to repentance and a cleansing of our minds as well as bodies that prepares us for a rebirth. There are a few people in the Bible whose births were announced prior to their conception. In the Old Testament we had Isaac, Samson, and Samuel. In the New Testament we have John the Baptist and, of course, Jesus. The Gospel of Luke commences with the end of 400 years in which the voice of prophets had not been heard in Israel. Now God was about to break that silence. And God was going to do this with the cooperation of a young woman and the power of the Holy Spirit that was foretold of back in the garden of Eden. So, when the time had fully come and society was on the cusp of a new era, God sends forth his son and perhaps God comes into our lives in much the same way. We do not use the terms A.D. and B.C and C.E. and B.C.E. referring to our own milestones and yet now today we each might be on the verge of another era. What is relevant for us today, just as Jesus’ coming in the flesh ushered in a new era with new patterns of heaven and new laws that served to uplift people instead of only to reveal our inadequacies, we are to have a personal transformation. Before Christ the sacrifices were required by the LORD, but they had served their purpose in shadowing forth the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. So too in our time we have hints of the future and they might very well rock our existence if we are not grounded in scripture. Friends, this time of year is to be a time of rebirth. Friends, when we trust in God, we overflow with the hope of the Holy Spirit. When we seek first His kingdom… when we seek first to understand then to be understood, we open up the opportunity to accomplish more together than we could have possibly accomplished alone. Let us encourage each other through sharing study of the scripture. Let us be steadfast and focused on that which holds us together so our endurance would carry us to the finish line. Let us hope in the birth of a child. Our old ways will fail us. We need to embrace the perfect promise of Christ.
And So, in today’s epistles, taken in context, Paul is telling us to take as much as possible of fresh hope of the incarnation alive in us. He is hinting that the hope must be alive, and I could not agree more, for hope that is not alive is not hope at all. Paul is stating the case for an abundant hope that overflows because we think deeply about it and come to believe in Jesus’ love. Here is the deal… God created everything so that He could have a relationship with us and we could have a relationship with Him and others. And because God is timeless so too are the things that form our experience of the divine. This is never more evident than in God’s story of Jesus…. God coming to live with us as hope and love. We are that important. And here we might just find that satisfying our need to comfort, encourage and give courage to others on the journey is one of the best ways of connecting our stories with the story of Jesus. It is not working hard or in material items that we rejoice but in discovering compassion and hope discover also a love so deep that it must be expressed again and again as a relationship with Jesus that heals us. Sure, compassion costs us something. It is not free. But the grace of it, the hope of it, is as old as creation itself and as new as our last breath…the reality that Christ paid the price does free us. Here in this story, history and His story and our stories converge in the compassion of the great commandment… a Jesus in a manger, a Jesus on the cross, a risen Jesus…and now Jesus in us.
Pray we realize that Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit into a young woman changed the future of the world. Pray we seek to honor this past even as we strive to get better. Pray we realize that we are not our shadows and our shadows are not us. Pray that the controversial issues we face do not distract us from our true mission in the world. Pray that we realize that how we think can guide us in believing. Pray we gain understanding that Jesus was born, lived, died and was resurrected so we might be as one. Pray that we live in harmony with one another glorifying God as He permeates our hearts…our minds and our souls, binding us together with His love. Pray
we accept what is, let go of what was and have hope in what we believe God wants us to be. Pray the God of hope fills us with the joy and peace in believing. Pray our minds and hearts are focused on the hope of Christ and the gift of his love we experience at Christmas. Pray we realize that Jesus is our Hope. Pray we realize that circumstances may change, people may change but that Jesus is eternal hope. Pray therefor we bring the whole counsel of God’s Word together for the benefit of a future that honors God. Pray we learn from history but not be trapped in it. Pray we see the old in the new and the new in the old, but also the hope of something even better. Pray, if things get difficult in the world and its disruptions of our routines challenge us, that we keep the faith, endure to the end, and follow Christ who was and is worthy of all things. Pray we shine a light of service into the world realizing that God does not so much want our sacrifices as our love shared for the sanctification of us all.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 