“Don’t worry, it’s not a poisonous snake,” my friend called out when his wife spotted a snake in the house. “I don’t care what make it is, just get it out of the house.” Sometimes the “make” or manufacture doesn’t count for much when a dangerous creature makes its appearance. The average person doesn’t need to be a snake expert when one appears on the scene. Yet, we have become domesticated and tame when the snake of Revelation 12 makes its appearance.
Faith is not a menu
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Menus are wonderful things. They offer choices. Last week, when we were dining out with friends, I thought about this as my wife paged through a menu as thick as a magazine. Faith, however, doesn’t work like a menu. At least not the type of faith that Jesus promoted. He doesn’t offer a bunch of spiritual options from which you can choose. It’s not as if you can choose three items from the following list, and ignore the rest: prayer, commitment, self-control, love for fellow believers, plove for all people… Still, that’s exactly what many people do. We have a spiritual menu. We serve God on our terms and inside our comfort zones. We follow Him as long as we can determine the way, the direction and the sacrifices.
Good wishes are not enough in 2012
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Everyone is wishing each other merry Christmas and a happy new year. Even banks and clothing stores are doing it nowadays with a general text message. When your birthday arrives, good wishes abound as well. But has anyone ever followed up two weeks after their good wishes and asked whether they are becoming a reality? Have you discovered the true joy of the Child in the Manger like every text message wished you? Has anyone who wished you a happy new year send a message that they’re still praying for those wishes to come true in your life?
The right kind of joy has your name and address
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New year’s resolutions are the order of the day. Everyone wants to lose… weight, I mean! Everyone wants to change and become better. Still, most new year’s resolutions last only three weeks. No wonder that Joey Adams says: “May all your troubles last as long as your new year resolutions.” Mark Twain puts it even stronger: “New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
What about joy as the main aim of 2012? “What’s new?” I can hear you asking. Joy normally lasts only as long as the Christmas season. Joy is gone with the 2011 December break as soon as “real life” resumes in 2012. Well, here’s a news flash. You don’t have to search for joy. It is as futile as trying to catch a handful of wind. Joy searches for you — The Lord’s kind I mean! All other forms of joy are man-made and temporary. Only joy that reads “Made in heaven” is lasting. It’s circumstance-proof. It doesn’t fade with age or lose value with use.
Not a 2011 Christmas-victim after all
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From 26 December, Christmas is on sale. Literally! Then you can buy Christmas trees, crackers, gift paper and many other products at discounted prices. Christmas music is redundant ‘til this time next year. In the same breath, some people are also done with their idea of a sentimental Christmas-Jesus for the next year. Luckily, everyone who’s ever really encountered Jesus head-on, and whose lives are forever different because of this encounter, can still celebrate Christmas beyond Christmas. We know Jesus is the only reason for our entire life. It’s not just a 25 December experience.
On 26 December, and every day after this, Christians can still bow down in awe before the Child of the Manger, the One who came humbly and quietly to our broken world. He arrived among us without any trumpet blowing. His bed was a simple wooden container from which the animals ate. Still, this Child of the Manger rewrote world history. He has permanently tipped the scales. The scales have now shifted 100% in the favor of God’s grace, because Jesus is God’s living, unrefined grace in action. He’s the heavenly proof that God loves the world unconditionally.
Which clothes are in fashion?
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A legend goes that a shocked silence transpired in heaven when the news broke that Jesus was going to earth. The archangel Michael immediately offered to go in Jesus’ place. Jesus declined his offer. Other angels offered to make the most beautiful royal clothes for Jesus for his long journey to earth. He also didn’t accept that. He mentioned to them that He already had clothes for his journey… clothes not available in heavenly closets. Then the angels had to hear that Jesus’ clothes for his earthly stay was that of slaves, like Paul writes in Philippians 2. In the clothes worn by the lowest and the most redundant He came and walked among us. That’s the right heavenly clothing for earth.
The feast is in our hands every day
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The mere fact that the current cycle of 31 days is no longer known as November, but as December, causes people to be much more relaxed and cheerful. Suddenly one of the standard questions on everyone’s lips is: “Are you on holiday yet?” Surely we would have liked to spend every 30 or 31 day cycle of the year like this. (I really pray that you’re managing this already and this good news is old news for you.) If we allow the calendar year to exclusively determine our lives, it will also determine our happiness.
The best is yet to come!
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The story of Simeon in Luke 2 is one of my favorite stories for the Christmas season. It tells the story of someone who never lost hope. No wonder that the Spirit of God one day showed him that he wouldn’t die before he saw the Messiah. What a dream to live for!
I know many people who no longer dream big dreams. Or who never even started. They live like robots from one dull day to the next. Nothing excites them. For them, expressions like: “I have also tried that, but it doesn’t work,” are victorious. Not Simeon. For him, every day was a day filled with expectation and new possibilities. Possibly on this day he would see the Messiah!
And then that big day happened. I can only imagine with what joy the heavenly Comforter invited him to the temple in Jerusalem. After he arrived there, the Spirit directed his attention to the Child Jesus. Immediately Simeon approached and picked Him up. All of a sudden his dream came true. Salvation became a reality once and for all in this Child.
Vital lessons in the use of spiritual power (part 2)
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Yesterday we learned three things about God’s power form 2 Corinthians 12:
Lesson 1: God is the only Source of Power.
Lesson 2: We don’t need to feel God’s power before He starts working.
Lesson 3: We’ll always experience a power-shortage in our spiritual lives on this side of the grave.
Now for four further lessons on the use of spiritual power:
Lesson 4: As believers, we are power cables, not power sources. We transport breathtaking heavenly power. Paul prays in Ephesians 1 the eyes of your heart may be enlightened for this. God works in us with the same power that raised Christ from the dead. However, power cables don’t feel the power flowing through them. And we don’t need to feel it. Our calling as God’s earthly power cables is only to conduct his power.
Vital lessons in the use of spiritual power (part 1)
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We are constantly reminded that we need to use electricity sparingly. Paul also teaches us how to use God’s power in 2 Corinthians 12. Verse 9 in particular shares the biggest lesson. It says that God’s power works through human weakness. Do you remember these words: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
I hear a few vital things about God’s power from Paul:
Lesson 1: God is the only Source of Power. It’s all about Him and never about us or our spiritual power trips! God is the origin of all life, grace, goodness, and power. All honor goes to Him.
Lesson 2: We don’t need to feel God’s power before He starts working. Most of the time, He’s working despite what we feel, see or experience.
Echurch is an online community of followers of Jesus. But we have a large footprint offline as well. We take the charge to care for those who can't care for themselves very seriously.