What's So Great About Christmas?

"And she brought forth her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger [feeding trough of dirty, smelly animals] because there was no room for them in the inn." - Luke 2:7

"Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief..." - Isaiah 53:10a

"God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display His wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." - Ephesians 3:10 (NLT)

“The things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven; things which angels desire to look into.” - 1 Peter 1:12

Think with me for a moment about one of your heroes or rather, someone you know personally who was of noble and great character. It could be a boss or a pastor or a good friend, just someone who you would trust with your life and follow practically anywhere. I can think of an old boss like this. Now imagine if this person told you he/she was going to give up everything, their position, livelihood, power, etc., and leave to go scrub toilets and remove gum from railings in New York City and not get paid while taking constant grief and beatings from the local gangs. Would you question what they were up to? Would it amaze you that they would do such a thing? Not only are they leaving you behind, but also laying down their greatness for such a lowly task and position.

Now put yourselves in an angel's place and what their thoughts might have been. They, as we know, are not divine nor even close to being all powerful like God. They, like us, possess a finite knowledge (they aren't all knowing like God) and get to be amazed by God's works. They, like us, do not see the future. Though, not like us, they were in constant fellowship with the Triune God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then one day (though prophesied thousand years ahead of time and known by God before angels or time were created), the Son of God leaves Heaven's glories and empties Himself be to be born a man, the incarnation as we call it. Now we think being a man is great, but compared to God it's a huge step downward. It's worse than going from being a CEO of a huge company to being a shoe shiner for a penny a shoe. It's worse than being a human and being made into a chiwawa in a pound full of pitbulls. It's too huge a step down for us to even comprehend or make close comparisons!

But Jesus did not become a man because we were so hip and so cool and worthy for Him to be one of us. It was because we were hopeless, lost and trapped in sin, and even enemies of God (and if you don't know Jesus you still are). He was born in fact to die - to die a horrible, bloody, painful death as a criminal rejected by the very ones He loved and came to save.

But again, back to the angels. They, even as they sang to shepherds (which were not glamorous people), probably had to be wondering what in the world was going on. Why would the King of kings be born and be a human, to a lowly family, in an animals stall and laid in a dirty feeding trough, in a way that was unknown to most of the world? And worst off, to humans who had constantly followed after sin and rebelled against God! The voice of God now cryed as an infant to strangers who could not comprehend what they held. This amazing grace was something that had to just overwhelm them. In fact, they still learn about God as they see Him work in the lives of the saints (see Ephesians 3).

Have you ever just stopped and pondered that? I know it is so easy to take Christmas for granted or get lost in the busyness of shopping for gifts, watching the movies and trying to suck as much out of the Christmas "season" as possible, enjoying this special time for all it's worth.

BUT GOD BECAME A HUMAN BORN TO DIE!!!

How amazing, how astounding, how breathtaking, how extraordinary, how mind-boggling, how overwhelming and remarkable, how prodigious and miraculous, how staggering, stupendous, stunning, wondrous and wonderful is that?!? Or perhaps, like so many, it simply elicits a yawn, a slight smile and simple thoughts of the manger scenes we have on our mantles or church lawns.

He was not born handsome or rich. He lived a lowly life and was unknown to the world for 30 years before He even began His public ministry. And then He did that for only 3 years while He was insulted, antagonized, and rejected even by His own family, before being beaten, beard ripped out, spit on, and crucified, by those He came to save and those He loved. And He did all this knowing in advance everything that would happen to Him.

That is what is so great about Christmas and why we should celebrate it. He came to us to be born to die. Our Christmas trees can elicit thoughts of the cross, the tree He hung on and our lights the Light of the World. We give gifts (hopefully) in remembrance of the gift that was given to us - His very life.

But if the story only ended with His death, then it wouldn't be much for us. He rose again 3 days later giving eternal life to all who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord (following Him) and believe in their heart God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9).

I pray you'll stop and just ponder the birth of Christ. That you'll allow your mind to try and take on what the angels' minds might have been thinking. That you will be humbled by the awesome love and grace of Jesus Christ. That you'll be blown away by the humility and craziness of it all. And that Christmas would be great to you for all the right reasons!

author's suggested listening: "Born to Die" by Bebo Norman

Intellectualism vs. Faith

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." - Matthew 7:24-25

There always seem to be waves in our lives where what we really believe is tested. We hit that breaking point that test us and reveals to us whether what we believe is simply in our head (intellectualism) or truly in our heart (faith).

For me it was my four year old son's leg, which, literally, broke.

A bad bounce on the trampoline and he was down, and I was suddenly faced with a chance to examine what was in my heart when it came to God's goodness and His power. As we brought my son inside the house, still grasping his knee, crying and writhing with pain, those of us at our men's get together began praying for him. It was at this time that I began my Job like questioning.

Now in my mind, there was never any question as to whether God could heal him or not, but it was question of whether He wanted to or was willing. I've seen the Lord Jesus miraculously heal a fractured rib at a men's retreat and even fully heal my sprained ankle on my first missions trip to Russia, but yet I found I had zero faith that He would miraculously heal my first born. Here I am, a pastor to so many college aged and twenty-somethings, with full faith in His provision when it comes to finances, but bankrupt at this moment when it came to His love and goodness for my helpless boy. I know He doesn't heal everyone and He has His reasons, but why let a four year old encounter so much pain?

And that's when the Lord spoke and asked, "Do you trust Me?"

Repeatedly, the Holy Spirit gently asked that to me in that familiar still small voice and I had to reexamine whether my faith was merely intellectualism or true faith. Did I believe Jesus is good like I simply believe George Washington crossed the Delaware or did I know it to be true and hold onto it during this trial?

I am a man who likes to know details - not in any sort of micro-managing way, but I simply like knowing it all. All I need is a reason and I am good to go. Yet here I did not know the reason but the question remained, did I trust God? Do I fully know Him to be loving and good in spite of not getting a reason to help satisfy my wondering?

Now a few days later, Caleb is in a full cast on his left leg, having suffered a hairline fracture right below his knee but above his growth plate ("best" place for a break if one should happen) and is in fairly good spirits. He is not questioning the Lord's goodness or his father's love (as I had just gotten on the trampoline with him when it happened), nor is he constantly complaining. I found in me that I do trust Jesus, but still have lots of room for improvement in the area of faith when it comes to the full love of God in matters of small life affairs. It was a good moment of examination in my own walk with Christ and a way to once again surrender to the fact that God knows what He is doing (and if one is unsure, a quick read of Job 38-41 will remind us of our finite status and God's infinite standing).

Perhaps you are facing (or will face) one of those moments of testing/purification of your faith (James 1:2-4). Make sure what you hold onto isn't merely intellectual in nature but is something your truly believe. And if it is something you truly believe, walk in it so that you will strengthen it in your own heart and mind. Find time to praise Him in the midst of that. Pray, even when your faith is weak. These things strengthen us. We are bombarded constantly in our world, through global events, bad news, and our own conflicts, with questions of God's goodness that challenges whether we believe it simply in our heads or our hearts. But it comes back to those words which He asked me and will ask you,

Do you trust Me?

Is This Really Radical?

Having “grown up” spiritually and being in ministry within a Calvary Chapel for nearly 15 years, verse-by-verse, solid Bible teaching is a norm, as well as a sound Biblical base of ministry, so I’m not one to be drawn quickly to new books aimed to challenge the thinking of the church (after all, Calvary Chapels are solid and focused on equipping people to do the work of the ministry). I had read “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan and was impressed. I then heard David Platt speak at Liberty University and thought I should check out his book. In fact, I enrolled at bloggingforbooks.com for that very reason, simply to have a chance to read/own this book. However, it was not anything new that I had not already heard before which was a bit disappointing. I don’t say this because I feel I know it all or because being for a C.C. we have it all together, but the book didn’t really make me really have to stop and think the way other books have. However, to the Christian going to the church where the focus is on clever sermons than expository, deep teaching of the Bible (not simply about the Bible), or to one who hasn’t been exposed to this Biblical line of thinking, this book is one that should be considered on the reading list (though I would recommend first “The Upside Down Church” by Greg Laurie or “The Jesus Style” by Gayle Erwin first). David Platt’s heart is to see the American Christian’s heart stirred past the idea of the American Dream and instead focused on the heart of God, an idea to which all of Christians should strive. Is this really radical? Well for those who are striving after this way of thought, no. But to those who are living their lives according to the American Dream – extremely! The danger with this book: simply reading it and not putting into practice what you learn (or are reminded about again).

I would like to thank WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for giving me a free copy of this book to review as a part of their review program

Abounding Grace

"In Him we have redemption though His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence" - Ephesians 1:7-8

To start let me break this down with some definitions:

redemption/redeem = to buy back, pay off, deliverance, rescue

forgiveness = to grant pardon to, to cease to feel resentment against, to cancel an indebtedness or liability of

abound = to occur or exist in great quantities or numbers, to be rich or well supplied, to be filled, to be plentiful

Now let me break down this verse in short meanings:

redemption though His blood = He bought us back and paid off our debt of sin by the spilling of His blood on the cross, paying off the penalty for our sin which is death

forgiveness of our sins = because of His death and resurrection, we can be fully forgiven without ever worrying about Him bringing up the past again (Hebrews 8:12, Hebrews 10:17)

So what does this all mean for us and how is this part of those spiritual blessings we have?

Because of what Jesus did on the cross, our sins (past, present, future) have been paid for and completely forgiven. Instead of thinking you have blown it too much for the Lord to ever use you again, you can be totally free from that sin or failure that has you entangled. You no longer have to live for it or yourself. We have been purchased by Him and now owned by Him, a perfect God who only seeks the best. In following His will for our lives, we no longer worry about falling prey to stupid decisions and foolish living.

He has done all this through the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us! We think because of our latest failure, God is through with us and we should just give up now. But His grace ABOUNDS toward us and it abounds towards us in all wisdom and prudence. So His wisdom that formed the whole universe, is the same wisdom that abounds grace towards us. You can never out abound God's grace with your sin - there is nothing you can do that His grace can't and won't cover! You don't have to try and earn your way back to God's favor (i.e. "okay God, I'll pray and read my Bible an hour a night for 2 weeks and then maybe after that I'll be ready to be used again and be close to you again") - you simply repent and walk in the full grace and forgiveness that has already been supplied.

The past, your past is history. Yesterday is over. His mercies are new today (Lamentations 3:22-23) and His grace is abounding towards you. If you've repented of your sin, your failure, your purposeful transgression, then walk in grace and the freedom that comes with it. Use that freedom and that grace to simply draw you to the One who loves you unconditionally and fall more in love with Him! You are not a slave to sin...you are free!

Abounding grace - you didn't earn it and you can't earn it. Stop trying and simply start enjoying!

Chosen & Adopted

"just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will," - Ephesians 1:4-5

***Before beginning, it is important to note that the chief purpose of this post is not to write on the meaning of predestination or sovereignty of God vs free will of man, as there is already much debate on both sides of the camp and I for one hold that the Bible clearly teaches both God's sovereignty and man's choice. This post rather is to focus on another of the spiritual blessings we have in Christ and that is the fact that we are chosen and adopted - debate all you want on the topic but don't miss the fact that God has chosen and adopted us.***

Stop and think on adoption for a moment: a person wants a son or daughter to be in their family and then chooses that person to be part of their family, carrying all the rights and privileges that comes with that last name. That child, once an outsider and not wanted, is now wanted and as every bit part of the family as the other children. He or she is loved and fully accepted and does not need to work to try and keep that last name.

Now for us who have chosen to receive that free gift of salvation made available to us, ponder how this adoption relates to us. We were unwanted by the world and living for ourselves. We were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:5), enemies with God (Romans 5:10), children of darkness (Ephesians 5:8), and foolish, base, unmighty people (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). We weren't cute kids who seemed to do no wrong or mere infants, but we were at war with the very One who in His love freely chose to adopt us! And with this adoption comes all the rights and privileges of being a child of God! That is absolutely amazing. And since we didn't do anything to earn it, we don't have to "do" things to keep the name. Our response to God shouldn't be out of "have to" but "get to". Just like we do things for those we love because we love them, we keep His commandments because we love Him and we know He knows what is best for us. What a blessing!

And think about choosing for a second, especially when it relates to team competition games. Remember those dreaded times of waiting with the crowd as "team captains" handpicked their teams, and you just hoped you wouldn't be one of the last picks, or even not chosen at all? Those times felt pretty bad. Or maybe you were always chosen being great at the sport you played.

However, God doesn't choose too many who are mighty and strong and wise, but He chooses the nobodies! But then He goes and He wins with them, with you and I. Not because we have anything to offer, but because He supplies everything we need to His praise and glory! If you feel like the last person on earth who could do any good for the Kingdom, then you are the right choice for Jesus because He will surely get the glory if you allow Him to do His work.

So the next time you are tempted to fight and debate over God's choosing or adoption or election or any of those things, think instead on the tremendous blessing it is to be adopted and chosen by God and be in His family! We don't have to understand (nor can we ever) just how this whole thing works, but like it, enjoy it, and know how rich you are because of whose "last name" you carry!

Rich Paupers

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" - Ephesians 1:3

Decided that last night I wanted to read Ephesians 1 again simply due to the plethora of wealth these chapters hold for us as Christians. However, I got stuck on just this verse for a while dwelling on the impact of it, and from this "stuckness" decided I should do a few blogs on this chapter (so we'll see how this goes).

Too often we shortchange ourselves forgetting the many riches we have in Christ. We make ourselves paupers when in reality we are filthy rich. From this verse alone we are told that we have already been blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing. Anything spiritual that we would need we have already been blessed with.

Because we don't see these with our physical eyes, we choose instead to focus on our physical, temporary blessings (or lack thereof) and often whine because we don't have what we want. We allow ourselves to get stressed out, depressed or angry/upset because of this focus on the physical. "If I only had this __________ then I would be happy", or "why don't I have a wife/husband/better job/etc.?"

Get your eyes off the physical things and look at the riches you have in Christ. And that is key, these spiritual blessings are found in Christ. To try find them anywhere else apart from Him is going to lead to frustration. He has already given you them, your response is just to walk in fellowship with Him to enjoy them.

So next time you find yourself upset about something physical you don't have, look back to Christ and realize everything you do have that is much more precious than anything else you think you "need".

Knowledge Is Useless

"But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." - James 1:22

If you're reading this it's probably because the title made your curious to find out what I'm saying and/or you're ready for a fight against the above statement (or perhaps you are having a bout with insomnia and need something to read or perhaps you actually are a casual reader of this blog). You'll understand the context of what I mean after reading the rest of this blog (because if I let you know now, you'd probably not finish reading).

It seems now, in the Christian's battle against their sin and struggles, that the goal is to get knowledge of their sin and/or why they have such a battle against it. Somehow, if one can just obtain the knowledge, that will give them victory against their particular issue. However, they find that after obtaining the knowledge needed it isn't helping and so they must need more (so they buy self-help books, Christian literature on the subject, etc., all to get this knowledge).

In the wrestle against your flesh and those sins you are ensnared in, knowledge is useless....unless you are doing that which you know. We can all know to love our enemy, but knowing is not enough, we must do it! Throughout Scripture we find that Jesus has already set us free from the captivity of sin - when we sin now, we choose to do so. You don't have to continue to give into that thing your flesh keeps having you give into. You simply need to walk in the victory that has already been provided. Does that mean you won't be tempted or have to wrestle against the flesh? No, but you don't have to give into the flesh, as much as it may deceive you to thinking you have to.

Is Facebook causing you to stumble? Get rid of it (yes you can live without it, you did before). Does the internet make you fall? Buy a program or better yet, get rid of that smart phone, laptop or whatever that is causing the sin. Jesus called us to radical action in dealing with sin but again, knowing won't help - you must do! You can understand all you want about sin, why your body chemically makes you want to do whatever it is you do, why your psychological makeup and family history aids in your shortfallings, blah blah blah, but at the end of it all, it is still a choice you make to sin - the other things are just excuses or justifications for you giving into that sin.

You want to free yourself from that sin that ensnares you? Don't just gain knowledge - do that which you know to do, no matter how radical or sacrificial to your flesh it may be. Only then will you gain victory. Jesus made it simple - "Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). Why we complicate things is simply so we can conquer in our own flesh, which as you have already realized, does not work. Walk in the victory already given to you. Walk in the power already supplied for you. Walk, do...don't just know. If all you do is simply know, then your knowledge is useless.

Compare and study on your own these passages: Galatians 5:16-26, Galatians 6:7-9, Romans 6:1-23, Romans 7:1-6, Romans 8:1-11, Ephesians 2:1-10, Colossians 2:11-23, James 1:21-25