For God's Sake (And Yours) Celebrate!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the first Christmas was not the peaceful, all warm by the fire, holiday that is depicted on our Christmas cards. Mary’s experience alone must have been more humiliating, worrisome, and even dangerous than any experience any of us have had or will have (especially during the holidays).

3 Areas Where You Probably Choose Herod Over Jesus

One of the titles that Matthew gives Jesus in his first couple of chapters is “King of the Jews.” The irony is that the Roman senate gave that exact title to Herod a few decades before Jesus was born. As far as Rome was concerned, Herod was King of the Jews. But when some foreign astrologers look right at Herod and ask where the King of the Jews could be found, Matthew’s readers had to have known that something was about to go down.

What Matthew Means by "God With Us."

It’s mind boggling to think about how God chose to make his big entry into the world. The rulers of the Roman Empire got parades and cheering crowds. Their faces were on every coin and everyone in the known world knew their name. And there’s no doubt that any dissenters would quickly and harshly be silenced. But Jesus came in almost completely unnoticed (besides his immediate family, only some astrologers, shepherds, and a paranoid governor knew who he was). And even in his obscurity, Jesus’ birth was surrounded by scandal and his first years were spent in hiding. These are odd circumstances for the Son of God to choose for himself.

7 Things Your Church Should Be Doing But Probably Isn't

I am a big fan of church. And I would like to see every church reach its full potential. The following are challenges, not just to church leaders and pastors, but also to church members. They are challenges to push your church to excel in these areas in order to be a better ambassador of the Gospel to the world.

Why ‘Eaters’ Must Turn into ‘Feeders’ and ‘Feeders’ Must Always be ‘Eaters’

In a church family there are three types of people. There are “eaters”, “feeders”, and those who are neither. An “eater” is someone who comes to church and church events ready to be fed. They are eager to learn, eager to grow, and ultimately desire to be guided along the way to a deeper, more mature relationship with God. This is the ideal new Christian or new church member. A “feeder” is someone who is involved in church and church events with the goal of ministering to others. They are there to “feed” eaters.

God's Challenge to the Extrovert

My wife and I got married and moved to a new town in the summer. The first few weeks in our new home were very slow, quiet, and filled with alone time. That probably sounds awesome to most couples, and it was. But it wasn’t always easy. We weren’t alone by choice. We had just moved to a new town and didn’t know anyone and weren’t apart of anything. My wife is a teacher so she didn’t start work until the fall and I didn’t start my job until after that. So for the first few weeks, we had nowhere to be and no one to see.

God's Challenge to the Introvert

If you are like me, you value your alone time. Though I am not naturally an introvert, I do often find myself enjoying time alone over time with others. That’s not a knock to any of my friends, it’s just the way I am. I imagine most people have been glad to be alone at least once. And that is ok. Alone time is great, even encouraged. In the Gospels, we see Jesus alone a lot. But a love of alone time doesn’t come without dangers.

A Call to Pray and Pray Well

This time of year marks the beginning a busy time for many. The next several months will be drenched in routine and schedules and the never-ending struggle of time management. And this is a good thing. This summer was the first summer in years in which I really had no routine or even much responsibility. And if there is one thing I discovered, it’s that man was designed to work.

Personal Salvation, the Politics of Jesus, and the Kingdom of God: (A Response to a Guy I Know)

Jesus was indeed a political figure. I wouldn’t dare to give Him a right or left label, but there is no doubt that Jesus had a lot to say about the political system of His day.

The world into which Jesus was born was one ruled by emperors who were seen as gods on earth with there own “gospels” and their own divine authority to bring peace and prosperity to this earth. Some Roman emperors even claimed to have the power to forgive sins.

So I have little doubt that the terms and phrases such as “good news” and “Kingdom of God” used by Jesus were in some ways politically charged. Perhaps it was Jesus’ humble way of saying, “Now the real God is here.” But we cannot limit the Kingdom of God to a political platform.

Jesus is Everything

Consider this question: Is God everything to you? I mean really think about it. Can I be honest with you? To me, it’s kind of a silly question. Is God everything to me? When I hear that question, I immediately start examining all the different aspects of my own life. Do I make God everything in all of the different parts of my life? But if you really think about the question, it’s not really about me. Part of it is about me. But I think the bulk of it is about God. Let’s explore this question together.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Before there was anything but God, Himself, God created for Himself an arena to hold all of His creation. He created everything that is earth, and everything that isn’t earth. Point being: God created everything.

He spoke and there was light, He separated sea from land, He gave life to plants and animals, He breathed and a universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies each containing hundreds of billions of stars came together (it’s no wonder He rested on the seventh day).

The poem that is the story of creation in Genesis 1 has a certain repetition about it. There are more than a few phrases that occur more than once. Between every day “there was evening and morning.” Six times, evening and morning transition the reader into the next day and the next step in God’s creation narrative. Every living thing that is created has its own ability to reproduce “according to its kind” (a phrase that occurs 10 times). That’s just to name a couple. This repetition gives the poem a certain sense of rhythm, like a clock ticking, or a heart beating. And through this rhythm, this cadence, we, the readers, get this feel from the writer that the creation that the poem depicts is at work. We are given an image of a universe that is in motion.

            Surely, to the original readers, the image of a sun that comes and goes taking shifts opposite of the moon and stars would have been amazing enough. But to us today, with our knowledge of the cosmos, how much more amazing should it be?! At the very moment that you are reading this, you are siting on a planet that is moving 18.5 miles per second around the sun while also rotating at a rate of over 1,000 mph. Our galaxy, right now, is moving approximately 370 mph through space.

            And think about you. Your heart today, if you are the average person, will beat around 100,000 times. And it will pump almost 2,000 gallons of blood. Your skin cells completely regenerate every 7 days. And every 7 years, your skeleton is completely renewed. Your body is constantly at work. The universe is constantly in motion.

            For centuries, philosophers have noticed this movement and have tried to explain it. What is the force behind all that the universe is doing? Why does the universe have this sense of order about it? What makes the world tick?

Eventually, a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus identified this driving force, this order, as logos. Heraclitus wrote, “…all entities come to be in accordance with this Logos.”[i] Originally a Greek word meaning “word” or “reason”, Heraclitus adopted logos as a word to describe that which makes “everything flow”. And so philosophers and scientist who sought to find the order behind the movement of the universe were now in search of the logos.

Somewhere between 500 and 600 years after Heraclitus’ contribution, a Jewish fisherman named John identified the logos as Jesus (John 1:1). The order that is about the universe, the force that drives all things, the reason for creation that the Greeks so earnestly sought after, to the first Christians, was Jesus. Around the same time as John was writing his Gospel, Paul had this to say about Jesus to the Christians in Colossae:

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)

            The first Christians believed that Jesus was the origin of the creation of all things. That everything we see around us was made “by him and for him” (Colossians 1:16) and that nothing was made without Him (John 1:3). “The Word” or “the Logos” with which God spoke all of creation into existence was Jesus. But the early Christians didn’t stop there. To them, not only was Jesus the reason for creation, He was also what keeps creation going.

            There are many who view God in the same way they would view a watchmaker. When one builds a watch, certainly it takes a lot of care and effort. Attention to detail is a must. But no matter how much the maker puts into the watch, his or her work will come to an end. Once the watch is built, it must be able to function on its own. Or else who would buy it? Sure, it’s understandable for the watch to occasionally require repair, but for the most part, it isn’t continuously dependent on the watchmaker.

            God is not a creator who put 6 days of hard work into the universe and then set it loose to tick on its own power. If God had desired to create a world that worked like that He could have. But He didn’t. Just as Jesus was “the Word” through which God created the world, He is also the One who sustains it. Jesus, “the Logos,” is the reason for the world’s movement. He is the force through which “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). Just as nothing would exist without Jesus, without Jesus, nothing would continue to exist. If Jesus was to die (if such a thing was possible) the universe and everything in it would also.

Take a breath. Take another. Without Jesus, you don’t do that.[1] Because of Jesus, there is everything, but without Jesus there is nothing.

           

When I was in college, I had a job working with children, most of whom came from poorer, broken homes. During the summer, the organization that I worked for had a program where kids could come and receive counseling.

Every morning, I sat by the door waiting on the kids to arrive, either by a parent’s car or by a government funded bus. I watched the kids, aging from 6 years old up to 15, walk in the door and go to whatever room they were sent to. Many of them were happy to be there. Some of them were not.

I remember one little girl. She was the youngest girl in our program. For privacy reasons I can’t use her real name so we will call her “Caroline.” Sometimes Caroline rode the bus, but most mornings, she was dropped off by her dad. For him, getting her there was easy. But dropping her off and leaving proved to be much more difficult.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I saw her fight her hardest to stay with her father. She would kick and she would scream and tears would pour down her face. It wasn’t that she hated counseling. She always had a great time once she was in our offices. She simply didn’t want for Dad to leave. At the moment, Caroline couldn’t bear being away from her father, even if it was only for half the day. And why should she? Her dad was everything to her. He provided her with food, water, clothing, a place to live. When she was sick, he took care of her. When she had to go to school, he made sure she got there. Everything she needed was provided for her by her father. He was the reason she was here (on this planet that is, not necessarily at counseling). And so she clung to him because in her mind he was comfort, he was home, he was life. To Caroline, her dad was everything.

            Whether we realize it or not, Jesus is everything to us. Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Jew, an atheist, etc., Jesus is everything to you. Whether you are black or white, Republican or Democrat, gay or straight, rich or poor, Jesus is everything to you. He is the only thing sustaining you. He is the only thing keeping you here. He’s the reason you got up this morning and He’s the reason you are reading this right now. It is all because of Jesus! Whether you believe in Him or not.

            It doesn’t matter how rich you are. No matter how successful you are, no matter how famous you are, no matter how respected you are, no matter how happy you are, no matter how good your job is, no matter how great your spouse is, no matter how well you’re doing in school, no matter who your parents are, no matter how great your kids are, no matter how much you think you have; if you don’t have Jesus, you have nothing.

            It doesn’t matter how poor you are. No matter how hungry you are, or how destitute you are, no matter how outcast you are, no matter how hated you are, no matter how beaten down you are, no matter how worried you are, no matter how scared you are, no matter how far behind you are on your bills, no matter how much debt you owe, no matter how broken your family is, no matter how much junk you have in your life, no matter how much you think you lack; if you have Jesus, you have everything.

           

For the greater part of my life growing up in church, I thought that I was somehow supposed to make Jesus everything to me. As if I was doing Jesus a favor. I was under the impression that Jesus wasn’t a big enough part of my life and I need to make Him bigger. Certainly, as His followers, we are called to give up everything in order bring Jesus to the forefront of our lives, but surely the Creator of the Universe doesn’t need me to make Him everything. He already is.

            Our faith, as Christians, isn’t us giving Jesus the right to rule and sustain our lives. It’s us actually recognizing that He already has that right, and then trusting Him to do so.

            Many of us are like teenagers with good parents. When I was in high school, like most teenagers, I had a hard time understanding that my parents knew what was best for me. They just could never get it through their heads that I was wise beyond my years and bulletproof. Whether it was my mom telling me to, “be careful,” or my dad letting me know that something, “wasn’t such a good idea,” their advice was rarely solicited and far from considered. I was perfectly content with draining my parents’ money, food supply, and hot water. But when it came to wisdom, I had enough of my own. My image of my parents wasn’t that of caregivers or my source of guidance, but as two old people who got in my way.[2] DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand” is certainly an anthem for an entire generation.

            However much I wanted to ignore my dependence on my parents, that dependence was very much a reality. I could reject their words as much I wanted, but had my father decided to cut me off, life would have taken a quite undesirable turn. Thank God for grace!

Often, Jesus is to us like a parent is to a teenager. Everything that we are and everything that we have flows from one source. But, for whatever reason, we have turned Jesus into a parent who’s provisions and advice we get to pick and choose (or completely ignore, despite our undeniable dependence on them).

God is a perfect parent. Jesus knows beyond a shadow of a doubt what is best for us. And if there is one thing we can learn from the Scriptures, it’s that God provides. We owe everything to Jesus. Perhaps the right question to ask ourselves is never, “Is Jesus everything to me?” The answer to that is already certain. Rather, the right question might be, “Do I realize it?”

---

[1] In the Hebrew Bible, God is actually referred to as “יהוה” (commonly translated as “YHWH” or “LORD” in most Christian Bibles) 6,828 times. This word is actually impossible to pronounce. Many believe that it is the sound of breathing. Could it be possible that the very thing that you must do in order to live isn’t to breath, but to say the name of God?!

[2] Please don’t get me wrong. I loved and still love my parents very much. I simply want to illustrate a point. Love you, Mom and Dad!

---

[i] Heraclitus, and T. M. Robinson. Fragments. Toronto: U of Toronto, 1987.