Isn’t it rich? The people most loudly decrying fake news these days are often the very people who have been telling us for years that there is no absolute truth. It is relative: what’s true for you and what’s true for me can be two different things. Therefore, you must give up your holy roller Christianity and finally acknowledge moral relativism so I can do what I want without guilt. Who are you, Christian, to push your beliefs on someone else? And yet someone else now can determine what’s fake and what’s real when it comes to “news.” Does anyone else find this incredibly ironic? The truth suddenly matters and it’s not relative at all.

The big and original Christmas event–the birth of Christ–is Evidence Exhibit A that truth is absolute and He is a person. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6 )

Yes, the Christ Child, Jesus, is God’s means of bringing about judgment. And justice, reconciliation, peace, mercy, punishment, and even wrath. There will be no deliverance without His Truth, and no life without His Christ.  Salvation is found in no one else.  Acts 4:11 [Jesus] is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Consider all the “fake news” out there about the birth of Christ, His life, and ministry.

• Jesus was just a good moral teacher and a prophet. The Quran says so.
• He wasn’t born of a Virgin. A consensus of scientists says that would be impossible.
• He isn’t God’s only Son. Elvis says so,  Santa knows that we’re all God’s children. That makes everything right.  Fill your hearts with Christmas cheer. ‘Cause Santa Claus comes tonight.
• He isn’t Savior. It’s dust to dust like for all the animals. Darwin said so.
• Jesus isn’t God’s unique Son, but was elevated to godhood because He lived such a good life. We’ll all get to be gods if we do likewise. Joseph Smith of Mormonism heard that from the Angel Moroni.

Bunk.  Fake news.  Totally false!

Now get this: Longtime atheist activist Rob Sherman died a few days ago in a plane crash. Sherman loved to push a false narrative – fake news – about Christianity in particular. He was the Green Party candidate for Congress this year and wrote this into his platform.

No more God on our money. No more God in the Pledge. It’s time for the federal government to stop bullying atheists that way. Eliminate Christmas as a federal holiday. Christians want to put Christ back into Christmas. That won’t happen as long as the government is involved. When the government is involved, Christmas has to be bland, generic and secular. Christians want Christmas to be religious. You do that by getting the government out of Christmas. Also, I will sponsor legislation to eliminate the National Day of Prayer. The government has no business telling us when to pray or if we should pray since, when you pray, Nobody is listening. Nobody lives in Heaven.

Here’s the interesting thing about fake news… it’s not fake if it’s true. I wonder what Sherman thinks of Nobody now and whether he wishes he’d been listening to the One alive in heaven. 

Reflect on this truth:  Not even the government can take the Christ out of Christmas.  The angels said so.

Luke 2:11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

Mark Lowry’s lyrics in Mary Did You Know ask many questions, each stanza concluding with a confidence-inspiring statement about what the birth of Christ actually means. The Christmas story is more than just a baby in a manger. A pregnant Mary and a believing Joseph not finding a place at the inn. Giving birth in a stable.

It set in motion the most confidence-inspiring event of all human hope in history to-date.

1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 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.

Justice is coming, but it will be God’s kind. Because of the birth of Jesus, we have witnessed God’s perfect love and have no need to fear.

The angels even said so: Luke 2:9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

For further reflection, read the lyrics to Mary Did You Know and listen to this version by Pentatonix

• Mary, did you know
• that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water?
• Mary, did you know
• that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters?
• Did you know
• that your Baby Boy has come to make you new?
• This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.
• Mary, did you know
• that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man?
• Mary, did you know
• that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand?
• Did you know
• that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod?
• When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God.
  • The blind will see.
  • The deaf will hear.
  • The dead will live again.
  • The lame will leap.
  • The dumb will speak
  • The praises of The Lamb.
• Mary, did you know
• that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation?
• Mary, did you know
• that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations?
• Did you know
• that your Baby Boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb?
• The sleeping Child you’re holding is the great “I am”

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

God’s Kind of Justice is the whole reason for Christmas. Somehow, God had to hold onto His holiness, His Law, His love, His mercy, His wrath, and His justice–all at the same time in order to be perfect.  God’s justice goes beyond any parent’s “tough love” in which those being disciplined actually experience the consequences of their actions for their own good.

Why is it not “tough love”?

Because Jesus didn’t do anything wrong. Ever. 

God did something completely unexpected with the birth of Christ.  The process began by which He would accomplish justice by taking our punishment upon Himself at the Cross and offering the free gift of forgiveness back to us without partiality.  God’s Kind of Justice is not something the world readily understands.

Luke 15:1 Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

God couldn’t force forgiveness on us any more than He could force love on us or force us to love Him.  That kind of force isn’t Love and isn’t really just either. God’s Kind of Justice is a different kind. His justice is an equality of opportunity that He purchased when He purchased our freedom.  And He offers it freely, but it still requires a response on our part.

John 3:7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

God’s offer and our response complete the circuit. God’s offer is sufficient all on its own. He took all the punishment and He offers all the forgiveness. We bring nothing to the table but a willingness to receive.  Will you receive the Christ Child and the forgiveness He was born to make possible?

For reflection, read again this passage in Isaiah, looking specifically at the concept of God’s Kind of Justice. Isaiah 9:1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan– 2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

We live in an age in which feelings and facts have traded places in forming our understanding of reality. A modern generation says, “I feel…” far more often than they say “I think…” or “I believe.” The latter two are fact-based, doctrine, and logic-reasoning means of processing information and responding to it. True biblical love is more than a feeling. But it’s also more than just knowing about God’s love .

I confess to this being my greatest ministry struggle: to really understand what God’s love is…and to feel like I’m loved by Him. Oh, the doctrine is perfectly clear:

• Lamentations 3:22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
• John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
• Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God’s love is too big for any human to wrap his mind around completely. It’s too big to be contained in any human heart. But amazingly enough, it all fit perfectly inside a little baby named Jesus who was sleeping in a manger.

For further reflection on this Timeless message of the Gospel, consider how God’s love and justice meet in the person of Christ: 1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 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.

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

I’ve had cause recently to think about love, yes, but also about how many people are spending Christmas alone … or with an empty seat at their table. We can acknowledge that it’s a Hallmark version of Christmas (or Walmart or Target…take your pick) that shows a family happily gathered around the tree, delicious and festive foods, party finery, great big gifts, and celebrations.

For many of us, however, Christmas comes with a certain degree of sadness. For us, we’ll have a blue Christmas…a Christmas alone.

How do we get through it?

Many of you, my dear readers, have heard this story before, but please indulge my telling it again. There is a ministry purpose to it. In 1998, my third child, Julia Marie, was stillborn on my due date of December 22^nd.  About that Christmas alone, with a fresh wound of deep, deep sadness, I recently told a friend: “Christmas 1998 remains the most profound, beautiful, symbolic, and truly joyous Christmas we’ve ever had as a family…

We found that when everything else fell away, we had the most joy when we had the least to be happy about.”

Why would I say such a strange thing?

It is because Julia’s death was a reminder that apart from the birth of Christ to be our Savior, we’re totally without options for our own salvation. The birth of Christ means that I’ll see Julia again and she’ll see me! She’s alive—more than I am—because she’s alive in heaven and that would not be the case except for Christmas alone.

For without the birth of Christ there would be no death of Christ.

Were it not for the Christmas alone, I wouldn’t have the clear vision of the kind of love it takes for God to send His Son. For the kind of love it takes for Christ to step down from heaven into our world. And the kind of love it took to be born to die so that a Christmas alone—for me, for you– isn’t the end of the story, but a chapter in why we can still have joy to the world. You see, it’s Christmas: the Savior comes. Let earth receive her King!

For reflection, consider how the birth of Christ was necessary in order for His tomb to be empty and our Lord risen.

Ephesians 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions– it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

Confession: I have read Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility a bazillion times. It’s one of several books that form my nighttime please-shut-off-my-mind reading ritual. Some people read the Bible to turn their minds off, lay down their burdens, and set their hearts on a path of restful peace. I can’t do that. The tragic flaw of ministry is that the Bible becomes work and it turns my mind on. Not that I mind it. It’s just reality that I really enjoy this type of work.  (Judge not! LOL)  Anyway, the excessively romantic Marianne (one of the sisters in the book) has a dogma she lives by –that a first love is the only love and a forever love. Jilted in that love, one can never love again. She learns at the end of the book to embrace falling in love one more time, having nearly died from the pain of a former love rejected.

At the risk of ruining my reading ritual, I’ve been thinking a lot about love.

Why did Jesus come as a baby at Christmas?

Only love explains that.

• Only love could cause Jesus to leave the glory of heaven to enter our earthly pain.
• Only love could rescue the Image of God so dear to His Father, a love rejected when Adam and Eve rebelled against Him.
• Only love was worth the sacrifice and pain of Incarnation and death.
• Only love makes forever worth it.
• And only love of His Father compelled Christ.

Many people personalize John 3:16 to make it say that Jesus died for … me. (Most don’t intend the implication lurking in the background, that it’s because I’m important and God loves ME). But the truth is God didn’t do it for me, my flesh, my soul, my happiness, or my person. God did it because buried deep underneath everything I bring to the table–all my sin and flesh and (intentional or not) personal rejection of His love–God did it because no credit to me, I bear His Image. That’s why Jesus had to come and no one else could do the job.  God’s Image was at stake and Jesus loves the Father (John 14:29-31).

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)

Only love could do that.

Reflect today on how God loves us with an only love, a forever love, a redemptive love, and a forgiving love.

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

There are a few things in the Bible that I always kind of wish weren’t there. They’re hard to understand and their truth value (while profound) just makes Christianity kind of unpopular. For example take Jesus, our Prince of Peace, saying,

 Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34)

Ouch, Jesus. Really?  Oh wait, it gets worse:  Matthew 10: 35 For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Peace is not so easily achieved as compromise or negotiation. Being nice and picking your battles carefully while you end up choosing none.  Deciding in the end that nothing is actually worth fighting.  Thankfully, God didn’t.  That’s why He sent His Son. The Prince of Peace.

There are a few hot spots in the world that haven’t seen peace in so long, they probably have forgotten what it might even look like. Jerusalem is divided. The Middle East is divided. The East and West are divided. North and South Korea are divided and so are certain parts of North and South US if you get down to it.  Division happens even when the country is called United something.

Lasting peace is peace with God, and it unites us on a common path because genuine peace only comes one way: The Prince of Peace.

Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.'” (John 14:6 )

Reflect on Jesus’ words above and how Timeless peace is not compromise and diversity, but is one narrow way and comes at a huge cost and that’s why He’s called the Prince of Peace.

Now reflect upon the role of the Prince of Peace as you read again Isaiah 9: 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

Sometimes I think it’s a good idea for churches to advertise on their sign out front what they actually preach. The sign said, “Christmas is not just a season. It’s a state of mind.” If that’s what they’re actually teaching on the inside, I don’t need to check it out. It will save me from a waste of time in the hectic holiday season of peace.

What exactly is a Christmas state of mind?

Is it like Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind.” Full of nostalgia and scenes–feelings of give-and-take. Don’t care if it’s in Chinatown or on Riverside. Reality, you’ve let it slide. You don’t need any reasons, you’ve left them all behind?

Uh, hello?

Jesus is the reason for the season. Leaving Him behind in your Christmas state of mind is missing the most important part of why Christmas should even register on our calendars.  

Luke 2:10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

In the Santa Baby world of materialism, the state of mind called “inner peace” will never intersect with reality. No accumulation of stuff as a Black Friday bargain to put under the tree will replace God’s free gift of His Son, placed in a manger. 

Nothing you can buy can replace what you can’t:  Jesus. 

If this Christmas reality is what you’ve left behind, what He did for us in His birth, life, and death, then without Christ, your Christmas is just “mas” or maybe even más.  Which will always be unfulfilling when it ends up back at the store, out at the curb, or in a box for the summer’s garage sale.  We need Jesus to intersect with our reality. It’s only in Him that we will have peace with God.

Reflect today on how nothing else can substitute or give us that state of mind in this season of peace. Only Jesus is our Prince of Peace.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

Power and fame bring out the worst in most people. The landscape is littered with child actors who became total misfits, celebrities who turn into their own solar systems, and with politicians who want to run everyone else’s lives even while failing to manage their own. It’s not surprising it’s called a “lust” for absolute power.  Lord Acton once famously said,

 Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

While the corrupting influence of power is kind of a truism among humanity, there is one notable exception: Jesus Christ.

Famous as a baby.

Famous, period.

Arguably the most influential person ever to walk the planet.

Even for those who don’t regard Him as Savior.

What other 33-year-olds whose work span lasted only three years had such a lasting impact on earth, even nearly 2000 years after death?

Absolute power.

Ah, but absolutely perfect, absolutely just, absolutely benevolent, absolutely holy.

This is what was prophesied about the Messiah in Isaiah 9: 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Reflect today on what sets Jesus Christ apart in terms of absolute power.

For insight, read Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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Join me for Advent 2016 Devotionals called Timeless: the Message of Christmas for All Ages beginning November 27, 2106.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love will be ours as we look into the Word, see the face of our Lord Jesus, and experience restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless.

Advent began November 27, 2016.  If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the Advent devotionals automatically.  If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so.  Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings.  You don’t want to miss this great way to prepare your heart for the true meaning of Christmas!

One of the surest ways to recapture the wonder, the timeless wonder, of the Christmas story is to recall what actually happened from the perspective of power. Until the birth of Christ, Death held the knife at our necks for every man, woman, and child. It was always there, all the time. Lurking in the background. Waiting for the next kill.

Death was in the power position and no one had the power to escape it.

Then the Savior was born, bringing eternal life as the Son of God and Son of Man. “In Him was life” (John 1:4).

It was God’s power play and the Timeless hope for all humanity.

Isaiah 9: 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Why is it so hard to experience the wonder?

Perhaps it’s because in our youth-driven world, we go through our days denying the reality of death. We know it happens…to other people.  In other places.  All the time.  Most of us though, remain untouched by it for the vast majority of our days.  The truest horror of the magnitude of death is something many of us have been graciously spared from witnessing.  We have a hard time relating to scenes from Aleppo or Mosul or seeing with wonder, that the Gospel still offers real hope to those very places.  Indeed, there are people in Syria and Iraq and refugees in Germany discovering the hope of the Gospel and the reassurance that nothing can separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:31-39). 

To the soldier who prays through each verse of In Christ Alone (Townend/Getty), knowing the assurance and reality of God’s power–this is what gets him through the stresses of war, of seeing his fellow soldiers die, and be permanently wounded.  Stuart Townend was interviewed about his song In Christ Alone,

“It seems like this song is timely,” Townend says. “We in the West have had our sense of safety and security brutally torn apart by recent world events, and it’s caused many to re-evaluate the foundations of their life. I feel that the song has helped to stir faith in many believers that God really is our protector; that our lives are in His unshakable hands.”

For reflection today, read the lyrics of In Christ Alone and identify how Christmas was God’s Power Play over death.

• In Christ alone my hope is found,
• He is my light, my strength, my song
• This Cornerstone, this solid Ground
• Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
  • What heights of love, what depths of peace
  • When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
  • My Comforter, my All in All
  • Here in the love of Christ I stand
• In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
• Fullness of God in helpless babe.
• This gift of love and righteousness,
• Scorned by the ones He came to save
  • Till on that cross as Jesus died,
  • The wrath of God was satisfied
  • For every sin on Him was laid
  • Here in the death of Christ I live.
• There in the ground His body lay,
• Light of the world by darkness slain:
• Then bursting forth in glorious day
• Up from the grave He rose again
  • And as He stands in victory
  • Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
  • For I am His and He is mine
  • Bought with the precious blood of Christ
• No guilt in life, no fear in death,
• This is the power of Christ in me
• From life’s first cry to final breath,
• Jesus commands my destiny
  • No power of hell, no scheme of man,
  • Can ever pluck me from His hand
  • Till He returns or calls me home
  • Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

(Stuart Townend, Keith Getty)