In the person of Jesus Christ, two worlds met. One was the visible world populated by men and women, boys and girls, animals and minerals. It was an old and tired world – worn down by millennia of suffering and pain. It was a world that was in desperate need of hope, or a hand to lift it up once again. It seemed, to those who were looking, as if it were the older of the two worlds, but it wasn’t. The other world was populated by God and Satan, angels and demons, principalities and powers. And contrary to popular opinion, it was by far the older of the two worlds. Yet it, too, had been waiting. It, too, had been agonizing over the fallenness of the visible world of humans.
But at the manger, the two worlds met in the Person of Jesus. All the promises of the Old Testament, beginning in the garden of Eden, found their “Yes” and “Amen!” in the New Testament and the Incarnation. And after so long of a wait, as Michael Card put it in Immanuel – Reflections on the Life of Christ – “It was good news to finally be able to embrace the Promised One. But far and away the best news of all is that He embraces us. That was the reason for His coming. Most of us describe our coming to faith by saying, ‘I’ve asked Jesus into my life.’ We should really say He has invited us into His life.
“That was the reason for Simeon’s song. Deep inside his tired old heart, he knew that the infant he held in his arms was in truth the One who had been holding him all his life long.”
As you run headlong into this holiday season, how is your world intersecting with Christianity? Do their paths cross in visible ways, or are you trying to keep your faith hidden from sight? The two worlds meet in each of us who are disciples. Which one will you show to the world this Christmas?
Luke 5:32 (NLT) – I have come to call sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think they are already good enough.
PRAYER: Thank you, God, for caring about us! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The ossuary (bone box) of Caiaphas, in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
John 11:47-50 (NIV) – Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
Not much is said about Caiaphas. And what is said of him is not favorable or flattering. He seems to be a man who didn’t have much of a soul left in him. He was the high priest at the time Christ was crucified (interestingly, the text says “that year” – the Romans had opted for a rotating high priesthood rather than the life-long office God prescribed in the OT), and as such, must bear tremendous responsibility for what transpired.
How could Caiaphas, a seemingly religious man, become so evil? In The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning wrote: “A terrible thing happened to Caiaphas. Religion has left the realm of respect for person. For Caiaphas sacredness has become institutions, structures, and abstractions. He is dedicated to the people, so individual flesh and blood men are expendable. Caiaphas is dedicated to the nation. But the nation does not bleed like Jesus. Caiaphas is dedicated to the temple – impersonal brick and mortar. Caiaphas became impersonal himself, no longer a warm human being but a robot, as fixed and rigid as his unchanging world.
“The choice usually presented to Christians is not between Jesus and Barabbas. No one wants to appear an obvious murderer. The choice to be careful about is between Jesus and Caiaphas. And Caiaphas can fool us. He is a very ‘religious’ man.”
It is tragic when we lose the focus that God intends for us to have. We can become so dedicated to the church (like Caiaphas was to the temple) that individual people become exchangeable pawns, disposable pieces on the chessboard of church practice. We lose sight, all too easily, of what Christ never lost sight of: the value of a single individual.
Caiaphas lost sight of the value of a single human. Caiaphas was willing to sacrifice Christ for the nation, to throw away a life for the “institution”. How precious do you hold each member of your congregation? Of your family? Your friends? Every person was born with great value – and every person will die with great value. So it is with the things which are made in the image of God.
PRAYER: May we come to value individual people as You do, Lord, and treat them as beings with great value! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
In A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Rev. John R. Ramsey tells how in one church a certain person provided him with a rose boutonniere for the lapel of his suit every Sunday. At first, he really appreciated it but then it sort of became routine. Then one Sunday it became very special.
As he was leaving the Sunday Service a young boy walked up to him and said, “Sir, what are you going to do with your flower?” At first, the preacher didn’t know what the boy was talking about. When it sank in, he pointed to the rose on his lapel and asked the boy, “Do you mean this?”
The boy said, “Yes, sir. If you’re just going to throw it away, I would like it.”
The preacher smiled and told him he could have the flower and then casually asked what he was going to do with it. The boy, who was probably no more than 10 years old, looked up at the preacher and said, “Sir, I’m going to give it to my granny. My mother and father divorced last year. I was living with my mother, but she married again and wanted me to live with my father. I lived with him for a while, but he said I couldn’t stay, so he sent me to live with my grandmother. She is so good to me. She cooks for me and takes care of me. She has been so good to me that I wanted to give her that pretty flower for loving me.”
When the little boy finished, the preacher could hardly speak. His eyes filled with tears, and he knew he had been touched by God. He reached up and unpinned the rose. With the flower in his hand, he looked at the boy and said, “Son, that is the nicest thing that I’ve ever heard but you can’t have this flower because it’s not enough. If you’ll look in front of the pulpit, you’ll see a big bouquet of flowers. Different families buy them for the Church each week. Please take those flowers to your granny because she deserves the very best.”
Then the boy made one last statement which Rev. Ramsey said he will always treasure. The boy said, “What a wonderful day! I asked for one flower but got a beautiful bouquet.”
That’s the thankful spirit. That’s the gratitude attitude. And it’s that attitude that should guide our giving and our lives. Like that boy’s granny, God has blessed us so much. God has been so good to us that giving shouldn’t even be a question. It should just flow from us naturally.
PRAYER: All glory, majesty, power, and authority to You, the Alpha and Omega, Who lives forever and ever, and who WILL present us to the Father without a single fault on our record! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
1 Cor. 1:25 (NLT) – This “foolish” plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength.
1 Cor. 1:27 (NLT) – Instead, God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful.
The mystery of the cross is mind-numbing. That the life of a single Nazarene carpenter should have affected the world the way it has defies logic. Yes, some think he was a good man, a great teacher, a wise prophet perhaps, and they put him in the same classification as Buddha, Mohammed or Moses, in an attempt to say, “See, he’s like they were.” But they’re wrong. Those folks are still in their tombs. Jesus isn’t.
But the power of God is a fascinating thing. There are two kinds of power – right-handed power which is direct and is clearly visible as power, and what Martin Luther referred to as “left-handed power”. Left-handed power may not even be seen and recognized as power to those who aren’t looking closely. It was a marvelous mix of both right-handed and left-handed power that was on display in the life of Jesus Christ, but it is largely the left-handed power that puzzles us, but which also truly changed the world in a way that we still struggle to understand.
In his book, Parables of the Kingdom, Robert Farrar Capon wrote about this left-handed power: “Left-handed power, in other words, is precisely paradoxical power: power that looks for all the world like weakness, intervention that seems indistinguishable from nonintervention. More than that, it is guaranteed to stop no determined evildoers whatsoever. It might, of course, touch and soften their hearts. But then again, it might not. It certainly didn’t for Jesus; and if you decide to use it, you should be quite clear that it probably won’t for you, either. The only thing it does ensure is that you will not – even after your chin has been bashed in – have made the mistake of closing any interpersonal doors from your side.
“…when you come to think of it, it is power – so much power, in fact, that it is the only thing in the world that evil can’t touch. God in Christ died forgiving. With the dead body of Jesus, he wedged open the door between Himself and the world and said, ‘There! Just try and get me to take that back!’”
Straight-line, or right-handed power, may be exercised by those who attempt to make converts to a religion by the edge of the sword. And while the numbers of their followers may grow, they’ve not really made converts in the heart. Therein lies the great mystery of Christ: through his left-handed power that looked for to all the world as total weakness and lunacy, hearts have been changed. People have been reborn. Pasts have been washed away. It is a mystery that takes place in the heart – where for a long time only God can see it growing. But the martyrs died with songs on their lips and glory in their hearts while their souls were far from the touch of evil. May we know his left-handed power in all its fullness today!
PRAYER: Lord, if not for your great victory, we are all defeated! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Jude 1:24-25 (NIV) – To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy–to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
I suppose it is a common feeling among those of us who wear the name “Christian”, this feeling of “I’m just afraid I’m not going to make it.” It’s a feeling born of the thousands upon thousands of failures, falls, and sins that have plagued us from the time we were old enough to know what is right and what is wrong. It is a feeling of hopelessness, unworthiness and utter despair. To feel like we have blown it not just one time too many, but hundreds or thousands of times.
And when that happens, Satan has been playing with our heads. That is precisely the way Satan wants us to think. He wants us to believe things are hopeless. He wants us to doubt that God could be “that” merciful, “that” loving, “that” forgiving. He wants us to think that either God is not willing to forgive us that many times, or that He is, because of His holiness, unable to forgive us for such a huge pile of failures. When we think those thoughts about our God, Satan smiles.
How do we know that it isn’t true? Read today’s passage again – slowly – especially verse 24. “To Him WHO IS ABLE to keep you from falling, and to present you before His glorious presence WITHOUT FAULT and great joy…” Are there any sweeter or more promising words in all of Scripture?
When we think despairing, hopeless thoughts, we are playing into Satan’s hand and his strategy. God is neither unable nor unwilling to forgive you…over and over and over again. And there’s another wonderful part of that passage that also very much deserves our attention and which lifts my spirits. And here it is: not only is He able to keep me from falling and to present me before God’s glorious presence without fault…but he will do so with “…GREAT JOY…” What does that mean? It means that Christ won’t begrudge me that forgiveness. He won’t look at me and shake his head from side to side and say, “Boy, it pains me to say this, but come on in.” There will be none of that. There will be only great joy on His face, on the face of Christ…but especially on mine. I will know that I didn’t deserve it – but he will insist upon it, with a loving hug, a warm smile, and a pat on the back, and the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Master!”
So, for those times when you just can’t believe that this will happen to you, go back to this verse in Jude…and smile, knowing HE is able!
PRAYER: I am so filled with hope in knowing YOU are able…and not only are YOU able, YOU will finish this according to Your promise!! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
From the DayBreaks archive: Once again, confession time. But first, a caveat: I’m going to tell you about something I’ve not done for a long, long time. Are you ready? I used to read Stephen King’s books. I was a fan of his writing. I loved the suspense and strange twists that he’d bring into play. I also loved the cartoon strip, “The Far Side” and “Calvin and Hobbs”, and I still love “Dilbert”. They are all a bit off the wall, and helped to take me to unexpected places – some of which were healthier than others. But one of my all-time favorite Stephen King books was “Pet Sematary” (yes, that’s how it was spelled). It was about a strange place out in a twisted wood behind a farm where dead things would come back to life once they were buried there – in a little pet cemetery. I very seldom read any book more than once – but I did that one. Of course, in true Stephen King style, the pets that came back weren’t quite like they had been previously – they were changed, and not for the better. I won’t tell you the rest of the story…let your imagination work on it, if you wish.
But the concept was intriguing. As many of you know, it’s been just over 10 months since my dog, Ramses, died. How I wish that there were a real pet cemetery where we could have taken him and gotten him back in a few hours – breathing, twisting, wagging, and playing as he had before. But I don’t know of a pet cemetery like that. Just last night as I was on a retreat, I told a fellow pastor about my father’s passing over 6 years ago – and I cried. I miss him.
It is interesting that many times in scripture, we find things that were dead coming back to life. It may have been hope that died, faith that died, trust that died, or it may have been someone that died. Several times in the Bible, when something dies and it is going to be brought back to life, a cave is involved. Elijah, after his trust and faith died, ran to the cave on Mt. Horeb where his hope was reborn. David, running from Saul in fear, feeling like a failure after having been anointed, only to be chased for years by Saul who still sat on the throne, spent years in a cave regaining his hope and having God grow his trust. Lazarus went into the cave. Jesus went into the cave. But none of them stayed there. Why? Because caves are the place where God resurrects dead things.
Not every cave is made out of rock. Some are made out of the shambles of our hollowed-out spirits, marriages, families, and collapsed dreams. Some are made of the demons of guilt, shame, or abuse. Sometimes it seems as if the entry to the cave through which we entered has been sealed off by all the debris of our lives, and that we will die – alone and cold – in the hard, rocky darkness. But then something happens. A voice from the other side of the cave or the other side of the collapsed tangle of trees calls out to us, “Galen! Come forth!” And that which was dead breathes again by the grace and miraculous power of God.
Life can, and is, a very, very long, hard, cold cave. I know people who have lived in a cave of some kind of suffering and despair virtually every minute of their lives. I don’t know how they do it. But I do know that God spoke to Elijah in a cave, He led David out of the cave to the throne of Israel, He called Lazarus out of the clammy darkness, and He brought Jesus forth gloriously – never to die again.
If you’re in a cave right now, rejoice. You may be about to see and hear God speak life into you again. And you’re in VERY good company.
John 11:38-44 – Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’”
PRAYER: I am so grateful that you are a God who does amazing, impossible things – even in the darkest of times in our lives! Glory to You now and forever! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The day before yesterday as my wife and I drove along in the car, I asked Alexa to play the song, Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone, by Pentatonix.
If you’ve not heard or watched the official video, I’ll attach a link below. When I hear them sing it, I almost invariably find a tear running down my cheek. I am struck over and over again at the wonder of grace, and on this particular day as we drove along, I was struck afresh with the incredible amount of grace that I need if I am ever to be saved. That, in itself, is not a new thought. I believe that I have taken the title from the apostle Paul of the “chiefest of sinners”.
But what really struck as was a new thought: yes, grace is essential, but what really cements my, and your, salvation is God’s faithfulness. Sure, he could tell us he will be gracious to us, he could promise to save those who believe in Jesus, but if he wasn’t faithful to his word, all would be lost.
Can I trust that God will be faithful to me? I admit that there are days when I think I’m too big of a sinner and that God will not be faithful because my sin is too great. As I think about that, though, I realize how and why that thinking is so flawed: it’s because I am thinking that God is like a human. He isn’t. While it is possible for us to be faithless, he cannot be.
How often have I, and you, been unfaithful? We’ve been unfaithful in our promises to our children, to our boss, to our neighbors, perhaps to our spouses. We have broken promise after promise after promise…day in and out, week in and out, month in and out, year in and out, decade in and out. Those acts of unfaithfulness were not planned. They are not things we are proud of. They are human. God is Divine. If he has ever been faithful to a promise he made, he will always be faithful to all promises he has made because he cannot be untrue to himself and his nature.
Amazing grace, my chains are gone, my God my Savior has ransomed me!
Do you want to be more Godly? Practice faithfulness today!
Know that Yahweh your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commands. Dt. 7:9
Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. – Heb. 10:23
Life certainly has some strange twists and turns. I never expected to be doing what I am now, nor to do the things in life that I have done. I never expected to see so much of the world. I never expected to live in as many places as we have.
When I was younger, I thought I had my life figured out, or at least knew how I’d spend my life. How foolish!
In hindsight, my life reminds me somewhat of the story of Joseph. As a young man who, rightly or wrongly, fancied himself as the favorite and heir apparent to the power in the family, one day looked up to find himself cast into a pit, sold into slavery, hauled off to a hot, desert country where he languished in servitude and even prison. I wonder how many times as he sat in the dungeon he pondered his life and said, “God, this isn’t how it is supposed to work out. Go back and read the playbook for my life again!”
I’ve had those thoughts sometimes. But the adventures of Joseph aren’t supposed to be entertaining per se, but to be instructive for us. And there’s a lesson here: sometimes the unexpected detours of life is precisely the map for our life that God has decreed.
We may not understand it, we can ask “Why?” all day and night, and we typically won’t get a direct answer. It is only in hindsight, I believe, as Joseph sat on the throne that he understood when he declared to his brothers that what they intended for evil, God intended for good.
I believe with all my heart that God still works that way. We may not see it, we certainly may not like or even appreciate it, but what others in our lives meant for evil, God intends for good. The detours that seemed to delay us or stand between us and our future are a part of God’s plan for us. They aren’t the destination, but they prepare us for the next step in the journey. If you can believe in God’s goodness and omniscience, it will help you keep from frustration at your circumstances. Yes, we need to keep forging onward to what we believe God is calling us to, but we’d be wrong to get too impatient. God knows what He’s doing!
PRAYER: Thank you Jesus for the incredible power than can make all things, even detours, work together for our good! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
“Several summers ago I spent three days on a barrier island where loggerhead turtles were laying their eggs. One night while the tide was out, I watched a huge female heave herself up on the beach to dig her nest and empty her eggs into it. Afraid of disturbing her, I left before she had finished. The next morning I returned to see if I could find the spot where her eggs lay hidden in the sand. What I found were her tracks leading in the wrong direction. Instead of heading back out to sea, she had wandered into the dunes, which were already as hot as asphalt in the morning sun.
“A little ways inland I found her: Exhausted, all but baked, her head and flippers caked with dried sand. After pouring water on her and covering her with sea oats, I fetched a park ranger who returned with a jeep to rescue her. He flipped her on her back, wrapped tire chains around her front legs, and hooked the chains to a trailer hitch on his jeep. Then I watched horrified as he took off, yanking her body forward so that her mouth filled with sand and her neck bent so far back I thought it would break.
“The ranger hauled her over the dunes and down onto the beach. At the ocean’s edge, he unhooked her and turned her right side up. She lay motionless in the surf as the water lapped at her body, washing the sand from her eyes and making her skin shine again. A wave broke over her; she lifted her head slightly, moving her back legs. Other waves brought her further back to life until one of them made her light enough to find a foothold and push off, back into the ocean. Watching her swim slowly away and remembering her nightmare ride through the dunes, I reflected that it is sometimes hard to tell whether you are being killed or saved by the hands that turn your life upside down.
“Our hope, through all our own terrors, is that we are being saved. But this does not mean we lie down before the terrors. For as long as we have the strength to fight, it is both our nature and our privilege to do so. Sometimes God’s blessing does not come until daybreak, after a full night of emptying ourselves and wandering in the wrong direction. Our job is to struggle with the terrors, neither surrendering nor stealing away until they have yielded their blessings.” – Barbara Brown-Taylor
Psalm 30:5 (NLT) – For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.
PRAYER: Thank you for the rest and relief you give us as we struggle here in this world! Give us the good sense to stay close to our Shepherd! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Jesus quoted the words of the Psalmist: The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner… (Ps. 118:22) Later, Simon Peter would quote these words to the rulers and the elders in testimony concerning the good news of Christ. (Acts 4:11) Later he would cite those words again in his epistles. (I Pet. 2:7)
There was a legend that was well known in New Testament times that in the building of the Temple of Solomon the stones were of the same size and shape. One stone arrived, however, that was different from the others. The builders took one look at it and said, “This will not do,” and sent it rolling down into the valley of Kidron below.
The years passed and the great temple was nearing completion, and the builders sent a message to the stonecutters to send the chief cornerstone that the structure might be complete. The cutters replied that they had sent the stone years before. Then someone remembered the stone that was different from all the rest that somehow did not seem to belong. They realized that they had thrown away the cornerstone. They hurried into the valley to retrieve it. Finally, under vines and debris they recovered it and with great effort rolled it up the hill and put it in place so that the great temple would be complete. The stone that had been rejected had become the chief cornerstone.
Jesus, during his lifetime on earth, was rejected and even despised by man. Even today there are many in this world who cast Him aside, deeming Him useless and unnecessary. Today, however, something has changed: He who had been rejected now reigns at the right hand of the Father. And all heaven joins in the rejoicing!
PRAYER: Though most of us would like to think we would never reject You, Lord, the simple fact of the matter is that we do reject You each time we choose to dabble in sin! We are sorry! Forgive us and let us turn Your rejection into rejoicing! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
DayBreaks Devotions 