our brilliant morning star

"And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

Luke 1:76-79

I remember one Christmas season coming across this verse in Luke about the birth of Christ as if I had never read it before. I'm sure I'm not the only that finds verses in very familiar passages speaking to us as if for the very first time. And maybe like you, at Christmas time, when we feel so familiar with its story, it almost becomes impossible to hear it fresh. We hear sermons, children's plays, abbreviated versions on TV and in movies, and slowly Christmas isn't new, and its lost its power to surprise and delight.

Yet I remember those surprising words 'God's tender mercy', and Christ as the 'rising sun' in regards to the advent, to the first parousia of Christ. Christ incarnate is like a beautiful and amazing sunrise on a dark and dying land. I need visual pictures to help me sometimes and often Christmas gets relegated to the image of a manger- tiny, small, insignificant. But here in these very verses Christ's birth becomes huge, larger than life and the most beautiful and wonderful thing in all the world.

Well this was a few years ago, but this advent I was drawn to this line from 2 Peter 1:19

'We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. '

You're probably thinking what on earth does this have to do with Christmas or advent, but here's the connection; this verse along with a good part of 2 Peter points us to the second parousia, the second coming of Christ, which is compared to the morning star in our hearts. Do you get the connection? The first advent was the morning star, sunrise on earth but the second and final one will be a sunrise in our hearts. That is how big and powerful and beautiful Christmas really is because what happened 2000 years ago will reach its ultimate culmination in us when Christ comes again, when the morning star will rise in our hearts forever. No more darkness, no more sin, no more evil - just glorious, beautiful, brilliant life and light forever.

So this Christmas as you reflect on the incarnation, on the birth of Christ let it draw you to His second coming, ever big, ever powerful, ever glorious!!!

deep organic love

I love the end of the semester. Yes, it's crazy, exhausting and challenging but you get these moments of clarity that blow your mind. Today it was a word in class, the mediation on a hymn and a passage from Romans all coming together.

Dr. Garner said . . .

' for God to stop loving us, he would have to stop loving his Son.'

Let that sink in for a moment. We know it is impossible for God to not love his Son. God is love, his Son is love. So how is it possible that we can be so connected with Christ that it is impossible for God to stop loving us because it would mean that he has stopped loving his Son? Dr. Garner went on to say . . .

' that is how organic the work of the Spirit is in uniting us with Christ.'

This means that the Holy Spirit's work in us is so interconnected to Christ that they can no longer be separated. It is no longer just me. Or just Christ. It is Christ and me so incredibly, inseparably, organically together that if God was to remove his love from me he would be doing that to Christ.

So when we come to Romans 8:38-39 and it says . .

' For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

Surely, this is what Paul was thinking about when he wrote it. He fully grasped that nothing could ever separate us from the love of God in Christ, because nothing can ever separated God's love from his Son. Christ experienced everything on Paul's list, but God never removed his love, instead His love conquered. It just blows my mind that God's love is so total, so complete, so perfect, so inescapable and so inseparably organic. I struggle to get my head around it but then I remember the song that has been stuck in my head for the last two weeks. And slowly like the dawning light, God's love for me and you grows even larger. I become lost in God's love for me like a fish in the sea, living water over me, under me, in me, taking me onward to perfect rest and assurance.

'O the deep, deep love of Jesus' by Samuel Francis

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward to They glorious rest above!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
How he loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o'er His loved one, died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o'er them from the throne!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
'Tis an ocean full of blessing, 'tis a haven giving rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, 'tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!

Rest in his love, abide in him and he in your for nothing can ever ever separate you from the love of God in Christ!

no return ticket

So I had one of those weeks where all of a sudden you comprehend something in a totally new way. Something was articulated in my prologomena class but then a book I was reading for a my counseling class helped.

Sinclair Ferguson said in The Christian Life:

'Perhaps the most wonderful thing of all is this: God lifts us not only from what we are by nature to what Adam was in the Garden of Eden, but what he was to become in the presence of God and what he would have been in the presence of God.

The Gospel does not make us like Adam in his innocence- it makes us like Christ, in all the perfection of his reflection of God.'

I think some where I had this strange idea if Adam had never sinned then he had a perfect relationship God. That he would not need to progress, to learn discipline, or basically be sanctified. However that is a completely false notion. Whether or not Adam disobeyed or obeyed God, he was still to learn, to grow, to perfect until it was time to be united with God permanently. God's plan for us was not a perpetual Eden, in which we remained innocent and unchanged.

His purpose for us was always growth, always to have his name glorified through us, always a greater end. And some how last week, this finally broke through in a new way. Its implications for counselling are amazing because we are never trying to return, but we are constantly pressing forward. We will never return to Eden. We will never return to the state of Adam before the fall. We will never return to innocence. And neither we will ever return to the reign of sin.

Instead we are going forward, moving in grace, attaining sanctification all through Christ. Through Christ we attain this perfection, experience growth and are changed day by day so that when we stand before the throne of God we are everything we were meant to be because of Christ and in Christ.

So while I get this nostalgic idea in my head about Adam never sinning, or even worse a world without growth and progress I must called to mind that God always purposed something more for his creation. Our growth, our sanctification in Christ allows us the full benefits and joys of a relationship with God, even more than Adam had in Eden with God.

The call is not to return to innocence but to move forward in obedience.

responsible voting

I am sure I am not alone in wishing that tomorrow's vote would already be over. I am sick of the slandering propaganda. I am tired of the polarization. I am exhausted with trying to listen past the polemic rhetoric and to find the truth in there some where.

But my mistake would be to get so worn down that I don't vote. Or that I get so annoyed that I don't check the facts. Or I get swayed by those around me. Instead I must remind myself and those around me that my vote does matter. And my responsible vote matters even more.

I must not vote based on one issue. I must not believe the lies about either candidate. I must not vote for someone just to get rid of the current politician. I must not get so frustrated with a broken system that I give up. I must not get so angry with all of it that I vote rashly.

Because honestly right now that's what I want to do. However instead I need to go check my facts. I need to wade through the information and not the propaganda. I need to weigh up issues of funding, education, the environment, and jobs against taxes, moral hot buttons and healthcare. I need to remember that one issue at the cost of several other important issues must not determine my vote. I need to prayerfully consider all the options and all the implications of either candidates position. I need to vote responsibly.

And I must urge you to do the same. Go check out www.votesmart.org and type in your zip code. Check out each candidates voting record. Each one- even the one you think you disagree with - you may be surprised at what you see. The voting position link on the right is particularly helpful.

Again I reminded that voting is a privilege. I know it sounds trite but seriously -people have died for this opportunity, let's not throw it away!

anger

So I was reading an article for class. It was on anger and how to deal with people who are angry. This pulled me up short . . .

"Look at your worst relationships and you will see your relationship with Jesus. Am I having warm, fuzzy relationships with all kinds of folks, but there is one person out there I can't stand and want to avoid at all costs? If you only hate one person, you hate God."

Wow! Its such a strong statement. So strong that we want to revolt against. Why? Because I think, if we are honest with ourselves we probably have one or two people in our lives that we struggle to get along with. Maybe we think if the co-worker would get assigned to another location, or if I just don't pick up my phone they'll stop calling, or why can't so-and-so just be quiet. Maybe we just think that's normal. Of course we aren't going to get along with everyone but are we letting those thoughts escalate? Are we wishing them ill, talking bad about them, avoiding them, cursing them? Sometimes it helps me to think about what I'm not doing.

If I'm harboring anger towards someone I am usually not praying for them, I usually can't find any good in them, and I forget that they are a child of God too. The moment I do that I am no longer in a right relationship with them because I have only seen their sin and I am sitting in judgment over them, which makes me God. Having made myself God, I can no longer be friends with the one and only true God. So while it might seem radical to say if I only hate one person than I hate God, it's the closest thing to the truth that there can be. Where is my right to judge someone else, who am I to be angry with another person, what right do I have to justify myself? None. I am not God. I am his child. I bear his image and my goal is to be like Christ, not actually Christ.

The reality check:

It's far too easy to let anger and judgement creep in without noticing I am slowly dethroning God.

full story

Leslie Newbigin said this . . .

'To be human is to be part of a story, and to be fully human as God intends is to be part of the true story and to understand its beginning and its ending.'

We all love stories, especially sharing our own stories. I think there is a real desire to be known. To have someone know our full story because if they knew our story they would understand us better. And there is much to be said in helping someone share their story, to walk in their shoes and to really understand them. It is an act of love to walk with someone in their story.

Likewise as believers we spend a good amount of time learning God's story. We read details, piece together themes and try to understand the cosmic story of God. We know this is often difficult because we like certain parts of God's story more than others. Some love the stories of the Old Testament, others the life of Christ and other still look to the future. Yet we know that by understanding it better, our love for God increases all the more.

In my counseling classes we talk about how to not only hear someone's story but also to reinterpret it into God's story. And I wonder if you've ever thought about your story inside the greater story of God? I am not just talking about isolated incidents where we see God working personally or believing that we are some thread in a tapestry. But what about connecting those personal experiences of God into the greater working of God? Expanding our understanding of suffering, faith and relationships so that our life lived out temporally is a reflection of God's eternal story.

To help direct us Newbigin suggests . . .

'Christians are those people whose rationality is shaped by their indwelling of the story of the Bible as it is lived out in contemporary society in the life of the Church.'

The full story is connecting our life story into God's story by our life lived out in the church.

extended suffering

I wonder what you think about Dan McCartney's thoughts on suffering and our relationship with God . . .

'our life with God is a struggle because we are still sinners, but it only compounds the sin if we try to avoid struggling honestly with God. There is no need for us to justify God, but we absolutely must encounter him.'

or the role of faith and suffering . . .

'In the silence and the darkness, such passionate pleading and beating on the gate of heaven is precisely what faith must do.'

or why Job's suffering is such an example . . .

'Even in the midst of his agonies and unceasing complaints against God, Job remained faithful, according to God's declaration at the end, because he never stopped struggling with God.'

Today there is much suffering- illness, loneliness, financial hardship, death, loss, depression and the list goes on. And I keep thinking about how we respond when suffering comes our way but mostly these thoughts by McCartney get me thinking about extended suffering.

What to do we do when the suffering goes longer than a month, a year, three years or a lifetime? How do we respond? Maybe you, like me, first cry out to God. Our suffering consumes our thoughts and prayers. We get our friends to rally round and pray with us. We remain hopeful and we seem to always be crying out to the Lord for his mercy.

But what about when it doesn't let up? Or when one suffering lets up only to make way for another? Do we keep crying out to God? Are we still wrestling with God as the months and even years drag on? And this is what I think McCartney is trying to wake us up to. When suffering becomes unrelenting and extended, faith must keep driving us to cry out to God. Crying out in pain, anger, even unbelief is better than not talking to God at all.

We must not let pride, exhaustion, apathy, or hopelessness keep us from begging on God's mercy. Extended suffering is synonymous with extended humility. Its humiliating being on your knees before God, crying out for his mercy but that is exactly the expression faith. It is not enough to keep going to church or surrounding ourselves with Christians hoping that God's silence in suffering will somehow resolve itself without any action on our part.

Being in process means:

Extended suffering must drive us to God's word and crying out for His mercy, we must not stop with struggling God.

work in process

Martin Luther said this in defense of all his articles . . .

‘This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise.
We are not what we shall be, but we are growing toward it.

The process is not yet finished but it is going on.

This is not the end but it is the road.
All does not gleam in glory but all is being purified.’

I love the reminder that we are all in process. Not even really progress but process. We seem to get so caught up in progressing and somehow thinking that we will attain it in this lifetime.

Yet as image-bearers of Christ, the point that Luther makes is that is a process, only Christ will complete and finish the work began in us. And I am comforted because sometimes it doesn't seem like I am getting anywhere and I am so far from being like Christ but it is about being on the right road, in being purified, in becoming, not about attaining righteousness, wealth, health, or even glory.

Read it again slowly- my favourite is that line that says not health but healing.

The point is:
Christ is in us, at work, transforming us, by the same power he saves us by!