Advice

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13

I think as we etch our way into 2014, this verse that I received in my email has some sage advice for the New Year.     

• “preparing your minds for action” I am reminded by this phrase that, as frequently as not, Christianity is a verb.  It is an action.  It is how we live, how we love, how we exist. It is a faith, for sure; but a faith that calls on no one to stand still.  We are to be prepared for action; as it says later in Peter’s letter, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you….” (visit 1 Peter 3:15)  I believe Christians are called to make a difference in the world, and that difference will not happen if we are sitting on our hands. 
• “being sober-minded” Despite the claims of our critics, Christianity is not a pie in the sky wishful thinking outlook on life.  Our faith is fully grounded in reality. We are not asked to check our brains at the door when we enter a church. We are sober-minded, being “transformed by the renewal of your mind.” (visit Romans 12:2)  We are firmly grounded in reality, yet...
• “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” While we are prepared for action and our minds are soberly grounded in reality, we orient ourselves through the tremendous hope we have in Jesus as part of that reality.  Frankly, if we are really sober-minded, then we will realize that Jesus is the only real hope we have. Earlier Peters says, “he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead….” (visit 1 Peter 1:3) this is where our ultimate hope resides; anything else is a pale substitute.

Great advice for 2014.  Good words for living!

2014

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

-Isaiah 43:16, 18-19

So here we are. Ready to celebrate the dawn of another New Year. Some of us might be thinking, “about time. I couldn’t wait for 2013 to be over.”

On the other hand, some of us might be thinking, 2013 wasn’t so bad…do we need to make a change?

The passage from Isaiah that I quoted above reminds us of what our attitude should be. “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it”

Those who are in Christ understand that our faith is a forward looking faith. It always has been.  In the Old Testament, the faithful looked forward to the day of the Lord; when the Messiah would make his appearance and make all things good.

In New Testament times (which we are in now), while we realize that a number of things that were wrong have been righted – especially our relationship with God through the sacrifice of Jesus, we still look forward.  Even in the post resurrection state, things are not perfect; we yearn for the times when they are.

The apostle Paul referred to this life as a “light momentary affliction” (visit 1 Corinthians 4:17) in which we look forward to the eternal.  Isaiah simply reminds us to not spend your time looking back.  A famed baseball player from my youth by the name of Satchel Paige used to put it like this: “Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you” Jesus was even more blunt than Satchel Paige when he said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (visit Luke 9:62)

Friends our very lives are never about what has happened in the past.  Good or bad.  It’s not that we are told to forget, but we are called to look and move forward.  As we end 2013 and move forward into 2014, what do you look forward to?  What do you need to have happen this new year?

Let me encourage you to lift these things up to God in prayer. There is a reason we are told not to look back.  And trust that God will be in what we are looking forward to in the future.

Happy New Year!

Angels

“But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Luke 1:68-70

God wants to have a word with you.  And me.  How best would he get through to you?  I’m not sure using an angel to reach me would be the best, but then, I’ve never experienced a message from an angel before. Well, maybe….

I am reminded that the word ‘angel’ as its basic means, "messenger" or "envoy."  I was also prompted at a gathering yesterday that in Revelation 1 (and 2)  “the angels of the seven churches” are clearly the pastors or overseers of the churches that John has been given a message himself to give.  The pastors being messengers or envoys who are bringing God’s word to his people.

Running with that definition, well then I have definitely have received messages from angels.  I do every time I open up the Scriptures.  Every time. I do at every worship service. I do when a friend or colleague has a godly word or two or three to give me.

There are writers out there in the blogosphere who I read nearly daily that inform, teach, challenge and sometimes frighten me.  Using the above definitions, they are angels; and to a person they frequently tell me, “do not fear” in spite of what may be going on in my life or in my world.

Angels.

God has his messengers (and yes some of them are angelic beings as seen in Luke 1).  The big question is whether you or I are open to hearing from angels.  And what the angels may be telling us, and what God through his angels has for us to do.

Joseph needed to hear from and Angel of the Lord.  You know what? So do we.

Trust

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”  - Luke 1:26-28

As I read passages like this from one of the accounts of the birth of Jesus, I am grateful.  I’m grateful for Matthew and Luke (and theologically, John) for giving to us the story of Christmas.

But I am reminded, perhaps even chastened a bit. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are to remember and commemorate Jesus’ birth.  In fact, the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthian 15 lays out simply what we are to remember: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures….” (visit 1 Corinthians 15:3,4)

Paul, as far as I can recall, never mentions the birth of Jesus; indeed all of the letters that follow the gospels refer to Jesus’ life, teachings, death and resurrection.

And sometimes because of that, I think we go a bit overboard in what all we do for Christmas. Maybe; maybe not.

Yet, Luke in the passage above wants to remind us.  And I’m grateful for the reminder.  That even the pregnancy of Mary and the subsequent birth of Jesus were all a part of God’s great plan of redemption.  I have no doubt that Mary didn’t have a clear idea about what was going to happen to her child.  In fact, I’m willing to speculate that announcements like that given to her by the angel Gabriel might have served to set her at some unease.  She likely would have had some familiarity with the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, and perhaps understood a bit about what the Messiah would have to go through. Was the Messiah going to be this child that miraculously was in her womb?

Ultimately, she is told that the Lord is with her, and she accepts that blessing in the midst of uncertainty.  She trusts God in what is going on.  And what is to come.  That is ultimately the message of Paul to the Corinthians.  That trusting in what Jesus came to do…and did is what it is all about.  In Mary we are given a great example of pre-Jesus trust.  In Paul we are given a great example of post-Jesus trust.

Remembering both his birth, death and resurrection is all about trust.  Seems that’s been the message from God to his people through the ages.  It is of first importance.

What do you trust?

Prophet

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.  - Hebrews 1:1-2

There’s a part of me that longs to be spoken to by a prophet.  That someone would walk up to me and say – “This is what God is telling you (“Thus sayeth the Lord”)….” And then just let me have it.  Because I deserve a good tongue lashing or two from a prophetic and faithful voice.

I know won’t like it; in fact I might actually reject what is being told to me because it might hit in private places that they have no business prying into. I’m such a typical evangelical. I guess there are just times when I wish the Lord would just let me have it and tell it to me plainly.

But we are reminded; in these last days we have been spoken to by his Son.  And we have entered a time of preparation to celebrate the birth of this son into the world.  As a baby.   I can’t visualize a baby yelling at me to get my act in order.

But I can almost hear the words of Jesus telling me that he loves me, that he came because of me and my sin; that he went to the cross because of me; that he rose from the dead for me.  That he has called me into some sort of covenant relationship with him, and that his grace will not fail even if I do.

Wow. I don’t need a prophet.  I have Jesus.

What more could I ask for? What more could I possibly need?