Unpacking Christmas: The Manger

10 Dec

Manger

Every year I gingerly unpack the green and gold Lenox boxes containing our hand-me-down nativity set. Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and the shepherds and wise men typically grace the table in quick succession. However, this year I am trying something a little different. We are adding to the nativity as we read about the accounts of the blessed historical characters of Christmas. Our nativity will unfold as does the Christmas account over the course of Advent.

As I consider the people surrounding the story of Jesus’ birth I am reminded of how His purpose in mission was foreshadowed in the details of His birth.

  • He was born to two poor, humble parents. Followers of God and expectant of the coming Messiah long before they understood Mary would be the chosen vessel, He chose these two, the seemingly powerless, to welcome the Most High God.

Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. (1 Corinthians 1:27)

  • He identified Himself with poverty of means in birth and foretold His poverty of Spirit even centuries before He came to earth.

He was despised and rejected–a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. (Isaiah 53:3)

  • Angels heralded His birth not to the wise and wonderful, but to the lonely and diligent servants of sheep for He would set the lonely into families.

God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. (Psalm 68:6)

  • No royal robes did he don, but swaddling clothes as he lay in a manger where animals fed.

But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. (Matthew 23:12)

As you gaze upon your nativity this year consider the true account of Christmas as told in the gospels and ask yourself, “What have we as a culture added to the story of Christmas? What have we taken away?” A wonderful resource to read to rediscover the history of the nativity is Answer’s in Genesis’s booklet: Uncovering the Real Nativity. (See here.)

Also, a closer look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, may prove profitable for you this year. Consider reading, Mary Christmas, a post I wrote over at Raise the Risk a few years ago or the fabulous account in this month’s Homelife Magazine, written by Liz Curtis Higgs, Between Now and Then: When you wait with God, you never wait alone. In this excerpt from her new book, The Women of Christmas, Liz pens, “God didn’t choose Mary because she was unique. Mary was unique because God chose her. ”

May our hearts turn ever more to beat in sync with the Savior of the world as we seek to know Him and make Him known.

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Unpacking Christmas Traditions

2 Dec

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Seasons Greetings! For the next three weeks we will unpack Christmas together. Much like we unpack the holiday decorations for our home before we enjoy the sights and smells of Christmas, we will unpack the meaning behind the people, practices, and promises of Christmas. Today I invite you to begin with a closer look at three Christmas traditions:

  • Tangled Christmas Lights (here)
  • Ugly Christmas Boxes (here)
  • Why Our Children Know the Truth about Santa (here)

May today be merry and bright!

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To Lay Down a Life

11 Nov

He picks up the fallen, sawed logs and lies them in a path for others to follow.

Raking dead and fallen leaves to clear a path for tiny feet and wrinkled hands.

Pushing the dead things aside, giving of his time and energy. Eagerly working at his task that will provide direction through the woods on a dirt path to grandma’s house.

 

 I see him working gladly and give thanks for his work.  Thinking all the while that in laying down our lives, the dead things, and picking up our cross, new life, we are laying paths for fellow man.

24Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25

Weeks approaching Thanksgiving may meditation be on this:

1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! 2Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!3Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him;bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100

In everyday tasks, to serve the LORD with gladness. To do this. To do this, is to lay down my life and walk in the newness of Christ’s.

Give thanks, lay down our wills, take up our crosses and lay a path for fellow-man to follow.

May praises and thanks be on our lips and gladness be in our heart.

*a repost

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Trading Our Hearts of Stone

29 Oct

Trading Our Hearts of Stone

As is often my custom, I like to escape from mommy and house duties a few times  a month and spend time writing in a coffee shop. A couple of years ago on one such outing, I had the opportunity detailed below.

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. (Ezekiel 36:26, NLT)

As I entered Panera, a couple came in behind me.  I noticed them immediately in the parking lot. The bald head, slow gait, and walker for a woman in her 30’s grabbed my eye first. Then her husband helping her and waiting on her patiently subsequently grabbed my attention.

I hurried in ahead and ordered already beginning to be disturbed by this frail woman whose diagnosis quickened one’s thoughts to the eternal.  The Holy Spirit began impressing upon my heart to go and talk to her and ask her name so that I could pray for her.  Also, He urged in my spirit that  I should share the gospel with them if they did not immediately decline my intrusion upon their lunch.  I squeamishly asked God to have them sit beside me as if I was the one having to labor to walk!  He did not do that, but instead put them within sight.  I prayed for my opportunity, ate my lunch, read some commentary, then gathered my writing supplies to travel the 5 yards over to their table.

After short introductions, I asked Nicole if I could pray that she would be healed from her cancer followed by asking her and her husband their thoughts on God and heaven.  They responded that they had just been talking about God. However, Wade said they weren’t religious at all so I proceeded to lay out the gospel.  In the course of our 15-minute conversation, Wade went from saying, “We are all god,” to saying, “What god would make only one way to him?” to, “It is my right to approach God without an intermediary let alone Jesus.”

Wow.  Wade had an obvious beef with Christianity because it proclaims that there is only one way to God and therefore heaven.

Both Nicole and Wade, much like the majority in our day, had a problem with absolute truth.  To say that Christianity is the only way is to say that one way is right and others are wrong. That was a stumbling block for both of them. I will spare you all the details of our conversation, but sadly, Nicole and Wade left saying they would pray that my eyes would be opened to the fact that Jesus isn’t the only way to God and for an open mind for me to embrace other faiths.  Undoubtedly, this was not how I had hoped it would go, but I was minimally contented in my obedience to Christ and prayerful that He would use my meager obedience to one day bring these lost sheep to Christ Jesus’ saving grace.

Don’t you wish that every lost and dying soul would appear to our spiritual eyes as a frail chemotherapy patient?  Wouldn’t that make the sense of urgency in sharing more real for us on an unavoidable level?  It would be hard to escape the emaciated bodies on TV, billboards, and restaurants across our land. Sporting events would look much different if the players were barely able to stand much less slam dunk, fast pitch, and tackle.

“Prophecy,” says the Lord in Ezekiel 37:4. In other words, preach. Tell God’s story.  How hard is that?

I was almost in tears before I even approached Nicole and Wade. I was praying and hoping that I would be able to hold it together to preach to them.  It didn’t take long for my emotions to subside once I was confronted with the hardened hearts of two very lost people. Neither this woman, nor her husband can save Nicole, yet she and her husband refuse to believe in Jehovah-Rapha.  Rather, they deny His provision and salvation.  These were dry bones indeed; very dry. Only God can breathe The Life into these two lost souls.

In Ezekiel chapter 47, Ezekiel is prophesying to wayward, exiled Jerusalem:

I will put my Spirit in you and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the LORD has spoken! (Ezekiel 37:14, NLT)

God longs for His glory to be revealed, to be reveled in, and to be made a big deal of.  Many times in the Old Testament God says, “Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.” It is for God’s glory and His renown that He saves us spiritually, physically, and undeservedly again and again. 

Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:20-21, NLT)

God wants the glory.  I hope God breathes His Holy Spirit upon Nicole and Wade. It will indeed take a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to give these people a heart of flesh to replace their heart of stone.

I will be listening and waiting expectantly to hear the rattling of bones, and then see the bones coming together with tendons and flesh and skin.  Until that moment, I will keep prophesying and praying and asking God to sanctify and refine me, a wretched sinner turned saint.

So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.” ( Zechariah 4:6, ESV)

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From Wonder to the Belly of a Whale

10 Sep

Magical moments in the ocean of life, we splash and dance like the world is our playground. Other times we feel  terrifyingly small in the presence of a great and wondrous  creation that at any moment can overtake the strongest man’s strength, or shock us like an unwanted visitor. Often, we live in between the two extremes with a holy fear and a sacred desire for discovery.


Emily Beach Crab

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I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. (Psalm 139:7-10)

I am so thankful that I can never get away from the presence of God.

Jonah foolishly thought he could escape from the Lord’s presence as he fled to Tarshish on a wooden vessel.

But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish. (Jonah 1:3)

Never imagining that God would send such a great storm for him to face his disobedience, Jonah sacrificed himself for the ship and men he traveled with “in the opposite direction” of God. He plunged into the farthest ocean depths and was swallowed into the belly of a great fish. Even there God heard Jonah’s cries of repentance and his pleas for deliverance.

You don’t have to be running from God out of disobedience to feel as if you have plunged into the greatest depths of the sea.

Do you utter a cry for deliverance from your present state? Do some moments, or days,  feel as if you have plunged into the farthest of the ocean’s depths and the times of dancing on the shore, of wonder, and rest seem a distant memory?

GOD STILL SEES AND HEARS YOUR CRIES FOR DELIVERANCE…and He hears mine too. Praise His great and glorious name! He hears us, friend, and he has not turned a deaf ear to those who belong to the family of Christ Jesus.

Perhaps our deliverance will come when we least expect it. Like searching in the ocean for a vacant shell and instead pulling out a huge and glorious living creature,  He will deliver us to newness of life from what now seems the mire of death and decay…our whale-belly experience.

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But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the LORD alone. (Jonah 2:9)

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A Lesson on Self-Worth

16 Aug

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“And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. “ (John 8:32, NLT)

How do you determine a truth from a lie? What is your litmus test for determining the truthfulness of thoughts that enter your brain?

Let’s step back a moment and travel to the food court inside our local mall. It was my husband’s day off and we were famished and ready for lunch. Ron took our daughter to place the order while my son and I located a table in the unusually busy food court. We found a table and borrowed a few chairs from other lone patrons and were happily people watching waiting for our food to arrive.

Off to my left was a Tropical Café Smoothie. (We have tried that as lunch before, but convincing the children that a smoothie was indeed a meal did not venture well for our family.) As I scanned the line of waiting customers, my eyes fell to a beautiful, tall, slender blonde. She was dressed in a black tank and dress jacket, with trendy jeans. She had long hair and perfect makeup, instantly allowing me to dub her Makeup Girl. She certainly had the look of a makeup counter saleswoman. You know the beautifully intimidating type that we “normal” women may shirk at asking for assistance in the case that we appear less than knowledgeable about powder, eye-shadow, and lip-glosses.

To finish reading the rest of this post, click here to go to iBelieve.com.

Thanks for reading friends!

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Waiting on the Rain

26 Jul

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How many times have I prolonged the children’s requests to play outside because dark clouds filled the skyline, only to end the day puddle free?  I have often thought I worry too much about the rain. I heed the omens of dark skies and miss adventures of the everyday.

If I am not careful, I will waste my days waiting on the rain that never comes.

Tuesday the kids and I piled into the car under clear, sunny skies. We headed to the beach for a few hours of fun. As we approached the shoreline the sheet of gray-blue cloud coverage threatened to cancel our plans. I parked our car and initiated a conversation with a mom of three in the truck next to us. “What do you think about this weather?” “I am hoping it holds off,” she replied. “The forecast says a 30% chance of rain…it looks like more than that to me,” I offered. She continued to put sunscreen on one of her boys as I made my way to the pay-station. If she was willing to risk it, so was I.

I snapped a picture of the darkening skyline and sent it with this text to Ron, “Stupidity or raising the risk?” I had already answered the question in my own mind but wanted him to be clued into our morning decisions.

We had not been on the beach five minutes when the wind kicked up, and the cooler breeze blew our towel up the beach. As the sand began to whip in the air and sting our eyes, I called to the kids to pack it up and head to the car. I mumbled complaints under my breath and picked up Little E as it was much faster to carry him than wait on him to fix his ever troublesome flip-flops.

The wind continued to pick up and the beach become desolate of people as the parking lot bustled with activity. I snapped a few more pictures and passed out snacks to the children already buckled in their seats. At least we could watch the storm come in.

That’s when it hit me. Risking an adventure in the face of rain cancellation makes for a better story.

We snacked and watched the rainstorm. It sprinkled a bit as the darkening sky now filled our 360 view. Only one sliver of the shore held any patch of blue sky. We pulled out and started our journey back to the house.

I continued to snap more pictures and text them to Ron. It poured as we parked our car in the drive.

Then as I unloaded the kids, the rain subsided and the sun broke through. At least we could splash in the puddles.

“Mom, it’s sunny now. Can we go to the pool?” Emily inquired. Well, why not? The rain had already come and gone. Another adventure awaited. “Why waste our bathing suits and sunscreen?” I thought. “Okay, Emily. Load up kids.”

As it turned out, we had a wonderful morning at the pool. The kids played, snorkeled, and laughed.

All because we didn’t waste our day waiting on the rain to come.

What dark skies are threatening the horizon which cause you to hesitate when He calls you to go forth? Ask yourself this question today, “Do I want to waste my life waiting on the rain that may never come?”

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Living this day in light of eternity because heaven is our home,

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Space to Breathe

12 Jul

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It is amazing what you can learn about your house while playing hide-and-seek.

Recently, during one particular game, an unusual warning spilled from my lips when I discovered my family hiding in the hall closet, “Be careful,” I said. “There is no telling what will fall out on you!”

The contents of the hall closet have changed over the last 11 years of our family’s occupancy. First, it held all the memorabilia that we conveniently kept in long-term storage for my father-in-law. Then, I moved Christmas decorations and other décor items into the space. Now, it is used for luggage, cleaning supplies, baby clothes…not to mention extra candles, griddle, and photo collections. Whew, just listing the contents is giving me organizational hives!

Back to the game of hide-and-seek.

It was my turn to search again when I noticed my bathroom counter was overflowing with multiple family members’ items. I am an “everything has a place and everything in its place” kind of woman. But that day, to look at my counter, you would have ascertained I am a “wherever an object lands there it is” kind of woman.

Read the rest over at iBelieve. Click here.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Five Verses to Help You Live For Your Eternal Home

26 Jun

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  • Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12
  • In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. 1 Peter 5:10

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  • The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. John 15:19
  • He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9

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  • Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:7

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Finding Grace

21 Jun

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When we dropped Little E off for one of his weekly visits with his biological father, my heart broke once again over this little boy. If and when E is reunited with his parent(s), the difficult circumstances that he found himself in the first two and a half years of life will not vanish without a trace. Our stresses of three children will return to only two, our frustrations with the state and its ways and regulations will momentarily be put on hold until we feel  we are ready to serve and love another child, and our contact with this precious child will be primarily non-existent.

As our car pulled out of the gas station where we meet his dad, tears filled my eyes and I told God once again, “This is not fair.” Only weeks before I had written a post for iBelieve on the subject of fairness.  I am linking to it below. Once you have read the article in full, please come back and see if you would add anything to the list of God’s grace in E’s case. If I think on it, I know there are multiple graces in the face of a seemingly unfair situation.

Even if we have not verbalized it, we have all thought it, “That was not fair, God.” Someone else was rewarded the promotion at work, the date with the guy, the house that we bid on. Another friend tells of her unexpected pregnancy when we have labored in prayer over just one child. Children are born with disease, into poverty-stricken homes, or left as orphans.

It’s simply not fair. He is not fair. Or is He? If He is, do we sincerely desire God to treat us fairly?

Think for a moment, what our lives would look like if God treated us as we so often demand: fairly. What if that which we worked for was all that His hand allowed; if people, including our families, treated us only with the kindness and respect which we have shown toward them void of mercy and forgiveness; if our religion was based on merited works?

My life, for one, would look drastically different if God treated me tit for tat. Would yours?

Click here to continue reading the entire article over at iBelieve.

God’s grace is demonstrated to E in his placement into a loving, Christ-filled home. Yes, he is separated from his biological parents, but he has received the best medical attention we could give him, he sleeps in a safe environment, and has two great siblings. Had it not been that he was taken away from his family he may have gone much of his childhood void of the message of Jesus and God’s great love for him.

This all reminds me of a Laura Story song that I am sure you have heard. If not, click here, or on the link  below and close our time today in reflections on the grace wrapped in pains of life.

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