Luke 1:26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.  The virgin’s name was Mary.

For the record, I am really glad that God fulfilled the “Virgin Birth” when He did.  God chose Mary and boom!  Done deal! 

There was no pundit analysis about whether God had chosen the right virgin to bear the Son of God.  62% of the American public thinks God made the right choice, 33% think God’s choice is in the wrong direction, and 5% are agnostic and just don’t know.

Or worse, how awful things would be if He were to have waited until the present day’s reality TV and did things the modern way.  Ugh. 

Just imagine a sordid amalgamation of The Bachelor, The Apprentice, and a Woman’s Day essay contest answering, “Why I should be the Mother of the Son of God” in 500 words or less.

Fortunately for all of us, God was not on The Bachelor, gathering virgins around Himself to decide which one would be chosen at the end of the season.  God was not looking over well-crafted résumés; evaluating job performance; deciding which virgin would not move on to next week, and telling her, “You’re fired!”  The virgin didn’t have to win a talent competition, model a swimsuit, answer a question about world peace, dance with the stars, or even be interviewed by God before He might choose which lucky lady would be crowned Mother of the Son of God.  There were no tabloids featuring pictures of Mary with a baby bump with a headline that reads, “Virgin says, ‘God got me pregnant!’ Read our exclusive interview with the virgin on page 2.”

Rather, in a time of slower communication, in a rural nowhere town, there’s a humble young woman named Mary.  Luke, the writer of this Gospel, peels the onion away one layer at a time from the region of Galilee, to the town of Nazareth, to a virgin who is pledged to be married—layer by layer—until we see God knows her personally.  Her name is Mary.

No celebrity status.  No contest.  No qualifications on a resume or prior birthing experience.  Just a humble young woman—a virgin—full of godly character, having a huge heart of faith, and brimming with a willingness to serve God.  God chose.  Mary responded as God knew she would.  Simple.  Beautiful.  Humble.  Perfect.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Luke 1:26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

It’s a big announcement of an event anticipated since the Garden of Eden, so God sends an angel (Gabriel—one of the angels mentioned in the Old Testament and New Testament as a herald) to Nazareth—an obscure little town in the middle of nowhere.   A humble rural place.

Nazareth.   It’s never even mentioned in the Old Testament but by the time of the New Testament, it was considered a no-good kind of place, although it’s not clear why.

And Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:46 NAS)

You can almost hear the disdain.  Nazareth’s reputation must have been common knowledge.  Was it a hick town, so small and insignificant that it wasn’t worth noting?  Or was it a place known for its lack of faith?  Scholars suggest both.  I suppose every town is known for something: Las Vegas has a reputation as Sin City–a place where your hidden activities stay secret, and Newark evokes images of smokestacks, industrial pollution, and generally being the armpit of the nation.

Yet, Nazareth was Mary’s hometown.  It became Jesus’ too.  After Joseph and Mary escape to Egypt to preserve Jesus’ life, Scripture tells us:

Matthew 2:19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Nazareth was a no-good kind of place in the middle of nowhere.  But a young girl who loved the Lord lived there and she would be the mother of Jesus.  Because of Jesus, we can say “Yes, someone good and perfect  and wonderful came out of Nazareth.  He is our Savior.”

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,  to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. (Luke 1:26-27)

I guess we can all be glad that the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—when God became flesh—happened when and how it did.  In the person of Jesus Christ, God added manhood to His already existing Godhood.  God’s timing and His ways made the event of the Incarnation even more remarkable beyond simply miraculous.  It was perfect.

In this year’s Advent devotionals, we will explore the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan.  His perfect plan includes His ways of bringing things to be, but it also includes His timing.

Sure, it’s easy to bemoan God’s timing when it isn’t fast enough to suit us; when we feel like we’ve been in the fire being purified a bit too long; when our Type-A-microwave-instant-gratification-high-speed-Internet-gotta-have-it-now personalities wanted God to do something yesterday and it’s today already; or when we’re languishing in a bad situation and praying for deliverance from it with no deliverance in sight.  These are the times that God seems like Mr. Slowsky, instead of the Divine Architect of the Perfect Plan.

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth—a tiny, humble little backwater town in Galilee—in the sixth month.

The sixth month of what?

Of Mary’s relative Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist.  Let’s face it, though: Elizabeth was old.  She was resigned to being infertile on account of her biological clock having ceased ticking many years ago.  But now, look!  She’s far enough along to be showing considerably and to feel her baby moving.  First time mothers will often feel their babies move between 18-24 weeks.  That’s 4-6 months.  Yes, the sixth month.

Perfect timing.  Let’s jump ahead to see the perfection of this.

Luke 1:39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

Yes, the sixth month of Elizabeth’s unexpected pregnancy was absolutely perfect to provide evidence that Mary, also, was right to be expecting the unexpected.

Is it possible to rejoice even when things don’t seem to be going well for you?

It’s easy to have faith and to rejoice in the LORD when everything is going along smoothly and you’re on the mountain top.  But when plunged into the valley; when suffering comes your way; when difficulties arise; when diagnoses aren’t what you hoped for; when you feel let down by God; when you’ve tried to do everything right–eat well, exercise, study Scripture, pray, shop at Target where you expect more and pay less, read the Wall Street Journal; and when you’ve done it all and things fall apart anyway, can you still rejoice?

Habakkuk says yes.

The Apostle Paul says yes, too.  He wrote the book on human suffering for the faith.  After listing numerous ways of suffering, he says this:

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)

Do you see how Paul kept his focus?  Just like Habakkuk.  We can rejoice in God our Savior.  Nothing can separate us from His love.  With this as sure knowledge, our hope endures and we press on!  Our faith will be rewarded someday.  We are strengthened to go on to the heights.

There is a sense of wonder about the dawning of another day when we look at each new day as a gift from a loving God.  Even when we are facing illness, sadness, confusion, or loss, these events are part of God’s handcrafting an eternal string of pearls.  From the perspective of eternity and with knowledge of a loving God through whose hands all things must pass, what seems unbearable today is tomorrow’s beauty from ashes.  No matter what comes today, know that God loves you.  He is hard at work today to give your life eternal beauty.  Imagine today as a pearl He is faithfully forming to be revealed some day in all its perfect beauty.

Rejoice today and wait upon the LORD.

Lamentations 3:18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.” 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

Do you ever feel like the world is against you?  That everything is imploding all around you and you don’t know where to turn?  Maybe that familiar feeling of panic is breathing its breath right in your face?

If you’ve been walking the Christian walk for awhile, you know what I’m talking about.

One hopes that the life of God’s faithful people involves blessing after blessing, but the truth is our walk of faith is filled with opposition.  That’s because opposition is the soil where faith grows.

Where do you turn when opposition arises?  The Bible is clear on the subject of suffering and opposition and the way in which we can stand firm. When opposition arises, we look to God with eyes of faith. There’s an interesting passage, one that I have theatrically portrayed a time or two in the role of Miriam, Moses’ sister.  We have become so accustomed to the story that we give a great yawn of ho-hum, yada, yada, yada.  But when it is reenacted, this story has captivated people who suddenly see themselves in a place of needing deliverance and the desperate straits of God’s people who desire to live by faith.

Read along as I interject thoughts about dealing with opposition, struggles, and suffering:

Exodus 14:9 The Egyptians– all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops– pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon. 10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

The goal of opposition is to cause us to look back, cease progress, and destroy our lives of faith.  Don’t you find it interesting that they were terrified and cried out to the LORD, but then they spoke to Moses?  With a horizontal outlook, they saw the tyranny of the Egyptians and the fault of Moses.  All of this is a worldly perspective.  When suffering comes your way, don’t look around.  Look up.  That’s what Moses did.

Exodus 14:13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Moses was trying to get the Israelites to look to God.  Look up, he exhorts them!  But he had one eye up and one eye on the same Egyptian pursuers they saw.  Sometimes all the faith we can muster is one eye up and speaking words of faith to try to pull the other eye up off our circumstances.

Have you ever had double vision in that way?  Trying to see with eyes of faith but finding yourself unable to keep your eyes off the pain of your present situation?  I’m not one to be too hard on Moses.  It is by God’s design that the deliverance and faith required was more than one man could accomplish.

Exodus 14:15 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

The LORD said to Moses, “Why are you [Moses] crying out to me?”  It’s like Moses had been crying out, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). 

God takes our mustard seeds of faith, plants them in the soil of opposition, and multiplies our faith. 

He gives Moses a plan and a process through which God will work.  When we exercise all the faith we have and endeavor to look up, God multiplies the faith we have.

God did not say that He was going to part the waters from heaven when Moses cried out.  Moses would raise his staff and stretch his hand and the LORD’s command to Moses was “divide the water.”  A command no different than raise your staff, stretch out your hand.  Moses’ faith had been multiplied.  He took God at His word.  Moses didn’t stop and say,

That doesn’t make any sense.  I’ve never divided water before in my life.”

He just believed God would do it.  Moses was an amazing man of faith, but this is the same way in which God wants each of us to go through our days. Believe.  Look to God with eyes of faith.  Trust that your deliverance will be accomplished.  Plant your seeds of faith in the soil of opposition and God will make faith grow.

Exodus 14:19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

I wonder how Moses would have felt, seeing the angel of God and the pillar of cloud moving from in front to standing in the gap behind them.  Would it have inspired fear that no one was in front of them?  They were alone, facing the sea!  Would Moses have to overcome the fear of what lay ahead knowing that God was not walking before them?  Or would it have reassured him that God was giving evidence to increase Moses’ faith by standing in the gap Himself?  I don’t pretend to know.  But I do see the outcome:

Exodus 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

God wasn’t going to make Moses part the sea, to truly do the humanly impossible.  Moses divided the sea by faith.  God divided it by divine power.  Even so, the attackers pressed on into the place that LORD made when faith acted.

Exodus 14:23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Isn’t it interesting that the Egyptian oppressors, faithless opportunists, pushed in to gain even after the Israelites moved in faith?  If you have ever experienced spiritual opposition, you know (as I do) that the attack can often seem worse the more faith you exercise until that moment when God brings you to that line where the faithless cannot go.  Maybe you feel like “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

But a point comes when your faith bears fruit and you take that step into an area where the faithless cannot tread.  The spiritual opposition stops in its tracks, confused, unable to move forward.

Exodus 14:26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen– the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. 29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 

Deliverance from difficult times happens when our faith bears fruit.  The opposition—that once sought to keep us from taking an imperative step of faith—gives up, having lost the battle to have you turn back.  To fall away.  To say, it’s just not worth it.

Exodus 14:30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

Faith’s fruit contains seed that when sown, produces offspring like it.  Faith grows more faith. 

Sometimes, you may hear people say things like, “New level, new devil.” 

While I’m not sure whether there’s a new devil or just the same old one that tries new and more drastic measures, I have great confidence that faith in God grows more faith in God. 

And this faith grows best in the soil of opposition.

1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Be Still, and Know that I am God

What reassuring words!  In a world filled with turmoil and unpredictability, we can rest assured that God is not on vacation, unaware somehow of what is going on.  We look around and the world doesn’t look at peace at all.  But, Scripture says:

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

I love this verse.  Be still.  Cease striving.  Don’t get all worked up into a lather. Look at the context of this verse:

Psalm 46:1 For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. 6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. 10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Clearly, a world in trouble is present but we are not to fear it.  God is our refuge.  He is our strength.  He is our help.  How encouraging!

Look at the troubles listed in the psalm.  The earth gives way, mountains are falling into the sea, waters churn in the hurricane winds, and volcanoes are erupting.  There is a world of trouble.

But, there is a peaceful river of life.  We know from where it flows which explains why the city of God is glad.  God still dwells in His holy place.  God is within the city of His faithful people and this city will not fall.  The darkness surrounds the land, but God will be her help at daybreak.

Do we see that our help cannot come from within us? 

We cannot save ourselves. 

Government of the people cannot save us. 

It’s frustrating sometimes to acknowledge—what God has already told us–that apart from God we can do nothing.  In the midst of seeing our own inability, we are positioned perfectly to see that God is all the help we need to save us from the midst of even the most difficult circumstances.  He is our fortress.  The LORD Almighty is with us.

Are you among God’s faithful people?  Then He’s with you and with me and with all the faithful people who look to Him in times of trouble.

What is the encouragement we get?  He invites us to come and see the works of the LORD.

Headlines today may read, “Hallelujah!, Hallelujah!” for the nation, but they are gravely misplaced.  Only God deserves our praises.  And God will not remain silent forever.  The nations churn and rise, but ultimately God brings the nations and the kingdoms to naught.  He allows them to rise up… in order to cast them down… and in doing so, He demonstrates His mighty power.  He takes the warring factions filled with their loud boasts and they are silenced in light of His glory.  He takes the most powerful instruments of their striving and breaks them.

History is replete with the rise and fall of nations.  Truly, will America somehow be different?  I doubt it.  The Egyptians enslaved the Jews before deliverance.  The Assyrians hauled off the Israelites and Judah was taken captive by Babylon.  Did that stop God? No! God was raising up and casting down then.  Today is no different.

Psalm 33:10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

God has spoken and someday we will see the truth of this.  Praise be to God alone.  Hallelujah!

Until that day, be still.  Cease striving.  Trust.  Believe that today serves some greater Kingdom purpose. 

And know that your God reigns.

Every morning, I come downstairs and make coffee to start the day.  I pause to look at one of those wall calendars with pictures and Bible verses as I pass by from giving the dogs a morning treat to treating myself with joy in a cup: my morning coffee.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4

I couldn’t wait to turn the calendar to November so I would be greeted with this encouragement.  I love November.

Have you ever considered the intimate connection between joy and thanksgiving?

Many of us go through our days with nary a thought of thanksgiving.  We’re too busy searching for happiness and joy that seem to slip through our fingers like fine sand.  But happiness and joy are intimately connected with thanksgiving.  Consider the full psalm for my November:

Psalm 100:1 A psalm. For giving thanks. Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

In the entire Psalter, this is the only psalm specifically purposed “for giving thanks” though many of them are related to thanksgiving.  Psalm 100 is special.  It is a crown jewel of thanksgiving, showing us that we can give thanks in a few good ways:

Shout!—  Doesn’t this seem like an odd way to praise God? We may feel more comfortable shouting for our team in the NFL than in the context of a worship service or private worship of God at home, but starting our day with a shout of joy with thanksgiving can inspire us to see God’s goodness throughout our day.  It’s worth asking why we are not at all uncomfortable cheering our team’s scoring a goal, but feel sheepish about praising God for what He has done.  Could it be that we take praiseworthy things for granted?

Worship!—With an attitude of gladness, we can sing joyful songs.  Have you ever noticed how a song can cheer your spirit and lift you out of gloom?  I sing a lot.  Not that I’m all that gifted as a singer, but singing in worship of God makes me happy.  People stare at me when I’m walking the dogs and singing (albeit quietly), but it’s good for my soul.  Perhaps they’re jealous and should try this themselves.  Or maybe they just think I’m strange.  My kids used to catch me humming praise songs in the grocery store and say, “Mom! Stop that!”  Yes, I have a long history of embarrassing my children.  But worship in this psalm’s context is more than just singing.  It is literally “Serve the LORD.”  Jesus has been opening my eyes to how worshipping Him also happens when I serve those in whom His Image is present.

Matthew 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

This is the reason I bring the Gospel to Advocate Condell Medical Center faithfully every week as a volunteer.  It’s my way of using what God has given me to minister to strangers, the sick, and those who need the healing, loving touch of God.  It’s an act of worship: serving the LORD with gladness.

Know!—A recounting of all the things for which I can be thankful ought to start every day, and topping my list of things is no thing at all: it is God Himself.  I know I don’t recite His faithfulness often enough, but paying careful attention to knowing God and seeing His faithfulness in all things inspires joy.  In a joyful disposition, I’m more likely to feel thankful.  But thanksgiving is more than a feeling!  More than just paying attention to the things for which I can be thankful, knowing involves recognizing who God is.  He is Creator.  He is Redeemer.  God made us.  We are His.  He is God.  We are created and truly, we are nothing apart from His grace.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise!—The gates referred to here are the temple gates and show the clear collective of God’s people gathered together in thanks and praise.  But it might as well apply to my times of prayer.  Entering His presence with “Thank you, Lord…” and praising Him for His goodness places the focus on Him.  It forces me off the throne of my own life when I praise Him.  It pushes me from thinking more highly of myself and into seeing that I do not think highly enough of God.  No matter how big I think He is, He is bigger, better, more wonderful than I know.  To praise Him along with others who also love our Creator and Redeemer–Wow!–this just makes the chorus more of a Hallelujah!  God deserves everything we can give in praise and thanksgiving.  Indeed, from all of us, all the time.

Give thanks to Him and praise His name!—Odd, isn’t it, that many people celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving with no God to thank?  I once had a conversation with an atheist about Thanksgiving.  He explained that (in his view) we are accidents of evolution and therefore, his family celebrates their achievements.  They thank their mother for making turkey for dinner.  They thank ESPN for carrying good football.  They thank each other for things they are thankful for.  Personally, I find that lacking.  It’s a shallow thanks.  It’s like thanking one of my hands for shaking the other, or one hand for clapping the other.  There’s a mutual self-gratification and an affirming sound of thanking each other.

Thanking God is totally different!

Thanking God is one-sided.  He doesn’t need to thank us back, not even as a courtesy, because there’s nothing we can do that merits it.  It’s recognition that we have been given much, though we did not deserve any of it. Thanking God is not like the sound of one hand clapping–a void of anything productive.  There’s a power in thanksgiving.  When we are thankful, we are blessed with remembering His goodness to us.

But more than that, the end result is also the power of God unleashed on our behalf.  We see it in Paul’s and Silas’ lives in Acts 16.  It is seen equally as clearly in 2 Chronicles 20:15-24 (click here to read the full story).

2 Chronicles 20:20 Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” 21 After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.”

Scripture goes on to say that as they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes and the vast army against them was destroyed.  Praise and thanksgiving have power because they are directed at the Power Source: God Himself.

Just as a toaster cannot operate on its own, apart from being plugged in, so praise and thanksgiving plug us into the source of power that has been in the outlet all along.

Praise and thanksgiving are owed to God whether or not He answers prayer in the way we hope.  He receives our thanksgiving and praise and gives us more for which to be thankful.  It is His nature to bless and He blesses us in the best possible way even when it’s not what we expect.

My calendar gives the best advice to start any day!  This is why I love November:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4

Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Of course!  Why didn’t I ever see it before?

Perhaps you know the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God… but have you ever wondered why or how there could even be a second commandment “like it?” 

* * *

Why did Jesus say that?  He was only asked for THE greatest, not the best two out of ten.

So I’ve been pondering “Why?”  In what way is the second like the first? 

I just had a “Could have had a V-8!” type of moment.

My past answer to how the second is “like it” has been: love.  Today, Eureka!  (Eureka is Greek meaning “I have found”)…I have found a new and far deeper perspective on this.  It has to do with the Image of God.  It’s one of those moments where I feel like I’ve seen the train of the LORD’s robe or been given a glimpse of His Glory passing by and I cannot find the words to express the deep place where it has taken me.

Of course, it’s also like knowing there’s a thought of complete brilliance as a gift of God on the other side of a spiritual fog that I’m not quite seeing through.  So if you’ll bear with me, I’ll try to share the V-8 minus the fog and do it with a chart.

I’m a visual person and a chart is the best way I can put a contrast together regarding my old perspective and my new perspecitve on how the second commandment to Love your neighbor as yourself is like the first, Love the Lord your God.

My old perspective of love—while not biblically indefensible—seems to be one lonely horse of a two-horse team.  It is a rather surface-deep notion compared to the Image of God.  Jesus didn’t die to save our flesh…or even our souls.  Our flesh and our souls still put too much credit on us!

Jesus died to save the Image of God in as many people as possible. It’s why He is patient not wanting any to perish.

If love alone was the key, then wouldn’t God have had Jesus die to save puppies and parakeets and kittens and the angels—in addition to people, because God is love?  God’s love isn’t limited to people, yes?  And His love is not limited to believers, yes? 

For God so loved the world (John 3:16).

But if God’s Image is the key, then it explains the vast importance of mankind to God while we were yet sinners!  Our importance is not because we are men and women, but because of God and who He is!  We are men and women made uniquely in the Image of God, unlike the angels or other created things.  It is His Image that He is reclaiming!

Therefore the second command is like the first and the new command is actually very old.  It goes all the way back to God’s decision to make mankind at all…and to make us in His Image.  Consider these:

1 John 2:7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. 9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble (emphasis added).

1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother (emphasis added).

How well do we see the Image of God in our fellow man? 

Do we love God by loving our neighbors as ourselves?

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For further study, consider these Scriptures:

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. 6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

1 John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

1 John 3: 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

1 John 4:15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.