Unlikely World Changers

"At night, some shepherds were living out in the fields in that region watching their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord surrounded them, and they became very frightened. The angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid because I am bringing you good news that will bring great joy to all the people.'" — Luke 2:8-10, Expanded

Maybe these guys wouldn’t have been our first choice to announce the arrival of the Savior of mankind. But just maybe, God was beginning to lay a foundation to the Gospel message, even before one word was spoken or before one miracle was performed as evidence and simply out of Love. A timeless foundation, and reminder, for even the 52nd week of another year quickly flown by:

This world is not our home, so make every day count while we're here.

Because the angelic announcement was made to home-less shepherds, about a home-less Savior who came to ransom the homeless of heart so that they (and we) would be sent back to the “fields” of the day-to-day to repeat the sounding joy...

...Sometimes with words, sometimes with deeds and by example, often both. And always, like the shepherds and the Child born in a manger — as unlikely world-changers — living each day with an understanding (and even with a sense of urgency) that this is all merely our transitional shelter. 

“It is true that God may have called you to be exactly where you are. But, it is absolutely vital to grasp that He didn’t call you there so you could settle in and live your life in comfort and superficial peace.” — Francis Chan

[ADAPTED FROM 12-22-13]

O Come Let Us...

"And after entering the house, they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then, after opening their treasure chests, they presented to Him gifts fit for a king..."—Matthew 2:11

There is absolutely nothing wimpy or cute about the word "adore."

Three (or quite possibly more) very wise men's men were among the first to put it into action. Adore is far more than a reasonable facsimile for "love" or "worship." It is shocking in its against-the-grain invitation to actually linger awhile instead of hurrying on to the next thing, or the next latest-and-greatest. In fact, adore is such a rugged word, its depth reaches to the point of being an expression of something that, considering the Subject, really can't be put into the right words.

It blows "wow!" and "woah!" out of the water.

Adore may not be found in the most authentic bible translations, but nevertheless, its call is on nearly every page, and embedded in every breath of a Creator who desires nothing more than daily relationship with His created kids.

Which, of course, is why He came in the first place.

And so, in the whirlwind of the season, it's good to take a deep breath this morning and sing like never before:

O come, let us…

Love and respect deeply

Cherish

Love dearly

Be devoted to

Prize

Treasure

Think the world of

Love in the highest degree

Put off shoes that stand on holy ground

Approach joyfully and yet in an attitude of reverent face-downness

And there, and only there, find perfect peace and rest...

...adore Him, Christ the LORD.

The ancient carol may take longer to sing that way, but this is not the week for wimping out on what really matters...remembering, celebrating, embracing, and learning to live out the greatest Gift ever given.

"Worship is life. Every breath. Every word. Every thought. Every deed. In public. In private. Everything. Everywhere..."

—Jeff Deyo, "Awakening Pure Worship"

A Joyfully Shocking Response

 
"An angel of the LORD appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid...'" — Matthew 1:20

His head has been spinning over how his wife somehow got pregnant without being with a man (yeah, right), never mind him. He loves his wife deeply and wants to believe her, but... He's stressed over what his family will think and say, and whether they might even disown him, and what might happen to his carpentry trade. He has no answers that make any sense to give anyone, including himself. And that's only the immediate issues. If Joseph, husband of Mary and earthly dad to Jesus, only knew what was ahead: no warm and comfortable place for his wife to give birth, the unspeakable fear of a terrorist-type king wanting to kill his son and all others in his age group, running for their very lives, and in the dark, to a strange place where they know no one, and then more running back home, well sort of, due to one more fear-inspired detour, this time to Nazareth where they would finally, finally settle down...

Joseph may not get all the attention the songwriters have given to Mary, the shepherds (and even their sheep), and wise men bearing unusual holiday gifts. But it's hard to imagine where we would be right now without Joseph's hard-to-swallow "Yes, Lord" response to several angelic visitations. He could have said, "I just can't do this." But God must have known something about what drove Joseph when the pressure is on, and so He stuck with him. In fact, Joseph is like that seemingly minor character at the beginning of the movie on whom the plot later turns, resulting in a fantastic ending for all that few saw coming:

"When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him...he took his wife,  but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
 And he called his name Jesus."

How does a guy get to "Yes" when everything within him was screaming "No way!" ? The clue to Joseph's joyfully shocking response, and our own hope in the midst of life's stresses, may be in which identity he chose to believe most about himself. In the flesh, as Matthew noted a few verses earlier, he is the son of Jacob — a presumably much-loved dad, but, like all others before and after, didn't hit it out of the park every single time, try as he might. The angel, however, spoke something even better into Joseph's life: he reminded him of his perfect identity as a son of a King's lineage and of a child of a perfect God who makes promises that cannot be broken. And so just maybe, when all was spinning and nothing was making sense, Joseph remembered this as the angel called him by his new ID:

"Once for all I have sworn by my holiness — and I will not lie to David — that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before Me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky." — Psalm 89:35-37

And to every one of us facing our own pressures and decisions of life more than 2,000 years later, the timeless angelic message of trust and true identity that was spoken into the life of an under-appreciated Nativity character repeats the sounding joy:

"Others might, in fact, others will, but I haven't failed yet, nor will I ever. Nothing may make sense right now. But trust Me on this one, and on all of the ones to come. I've got this. Better still, I've got you. And the safest move you can ever make is to stand on My unshakeable promises.... So, what do you say?"

Binder Upper

"...He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." — Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4:18-19

On HGTV's popular show "Fixer Upper," Chip and Joanna Gaines open each episode with a variation on "we take the worst houses in the best neighborhoods — diamonds in the rough — and turn them into something special." More than just a great motto for home improvement, here, too, is the Christmas story:

Jesus came to turn the broken hearts of sinful mankind, on this beautiful planet He created for His and our good pleasure, into a new, everlasting creation built for fullness of joy and His glory.

"Hallelujah!" never seemed so appropriate.

But not only that, just as the Gaines don't transform dead houses into masterpieces by just slapping on a coat of paint here and there, Jesus doesn't do band-aids when it comes to healing and transforming our hearts. In fact, the moment we said, "Lord, You alone have the words of eternal life — You are our only hope," our irregular, misdirected heartbeat became brand new and pure in His eyes. And for all the scars from arrows of word and deed we've accumulated since childhood, the Binder Upper is right there still in the midst of the brokenness, providing around-the-clock care, assurance, and protection.

While some of those scars are miraculously healed, others can seem healed one minute but then flare up again the next, triggered by an accuser who is constantly trying to rip open those old wounds in our minds, and almost always along the lines of: "God doesn't really like you all that much."

It's pretty easy to rip open a band-aid that has been slapped on and left alone. Instead, Jesus is the Binder Upper who works completely and thoroughly, always for our good. He is the Warrior Lover who guards the vulnerable spots with His very presence, and with Words of assurance that trump the adversary's lies every single time:

"See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would be permitted to be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are!" 

It is a compassionate, patient, attentive process designed to cultivate Father-son/daughter relationship and trust. One where words of positive identity are increasingly absorbed and thrown in the face of the accuser. And along the way, in the goodness of the healing and the fight, the One who came from heaven to earth has an uncanny way of continually arranging Divine appointments with others whose heart-busted wounds may be similar to ours...to encourage, to stand by, and to run with.

This is the magnificent power and love of the Binder Upper born in a manger. Tidings of comfort and joy, all around.

"A Christian is not simply a person who is forgiven and goes to heaven. A Christian, in terms of his or her deepest identity, is a saint, a spiritually born child of God, a divine masterpiece, a child of light, a citizen of heaven." - Neil T. Anderson