Author: Christine Wyrtzen

Wise Men Keep Their Eyes Fixed

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Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who was born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”  Matthew 2:1-2

Scholars disagree on the length of the wise men’s journey to Bethlehem.  The shortest calculation is forty days.  The longest, and the one most everyone agrees upon, is approximately two years.  Whether a 40-day journey or a 2-year voyage, it took considerable planning. 

Had they always been looking for the star that appeared in the night sky?  How did they know its significance?   How could they be sure it wasn’t something of lesser significance? But they knew.   And as they traveled, they would have re-calibrated continually to ensure they were still on track.  Eyes fixed, they were led safely to their destination. 

Symbolically, each of us embarks on a similar journey.  We see the glory of God revealed, not in the skies, but in the face of Christ.  That event means more than what we can possibly convey in a dinner conversation.  It holds such significance that we are willing to stop everything, count the cost, and embark on a journey that will take a lifetime.  Ultimately, we don’t arrive in Bethlehem to see a baby but in heaven to see a risen, glorified Jesus. Along the way, we keep our eyes fixed.  We re-calibrate.  If our gaze remains on Jesus, the north star, we have a direct path home. 

Jesus understands the sojourn.  He made it Himself.  Eyes fixed on His Father, He was led safely to glory. 

Jesus, I’m looking at the horizon and not at my feet.  Amen

God’s Glory Still Invades Our World

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And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.  Luke 2:9

The shepherds didn’t ask to see the glory of God. They hadn’t done anything to earn the privilege. They certainly didn’t expect it.  Yet, God’s favor punctuated their evening and brought an experience they would never forget.  Nothing in their lifetimes would eclipse the night on the hillside when heaven opened.  Do such miraculous moments still happen today?  Sometimes.

A pastor we knew well suffered an aortic rupture…. something you don’t usually come back from. While clinically dead on the table, he witnessed a battlefield.  He saw forces of darkness and God’s angelic forces engaged in a confrontation.  When God brought the pastor back from death, he told everyone….. “If you could see what I saw, how outnumbered the enemy was, and how majestic and mighty the angelic warriors were, you would never be afraid of anything ever again!”  I think of his testimony every time I battle fear. 

I know that most of us will not have a near-death encounter and come back to speak of it.  But we can still witness the glory of God. Sometimes there are angelic visitations. I’ve had one of them that I know of. On other occasions, Jesus will appear to someone in the night. He bears witness of Himself and brings the most unsuspecting convert to the kingdom. It’s happening all over the Middle East.

And what about the times when the heavens open and God’s Spirit brings illumination about a scripture we’ve never understood before! It is cataclysmic to our spirits, is it not? It can instantly change our paradigms, banish our fears, and shine a light on a new path we are to take. These events are ‘Bethel Moments’ that define life is profound ways.

 It is easy to separate the times of scripture from the times in which we live.  Sadly, our skepticism can obscure the reality of God’s presence and power.  God wants to be experienced, is to be experienced, and the supernatural is to punctuate my life with poignant moments. 

My trust in You does not depend on the miraculous, but every miraculous encounter with You changes me forever.  Thank you for every one! Amen

Jesus Said Goodbye

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Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He [Jesus] took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. Philippians 2:7

Parents of missionaries who serve in dangerous places live with the pain of uncertainty. They often wonder if they will see their children again. The more hostile the culture to Christianity, the more danger their children face. There will be want, discouragement, and even threats of persecution. Does God understand these parents’ agony? Yes, He experienced it too.

The Trinity had always been together, functioning in perfect harmony from before time. Their synergy was described in terms of a rhythmic slow dance. Each had a clearly defined role and the execution of them was achieved without the slightest hint of friction.

Imagine how their rhythm was disrupted when the Jesus left the Trinity to go to His mission field. Intimacy was disrupted as He became a child in Mary’s womb. God said goodbye and watched Him leave, able to see into the future. He knew what awaited His child. He envisioned the 40 days of temptation in the desert. He knew Lucifer and could predict the all out war that would be waged. He foresaw the close calls; the brushes with death as the crowds would plot to kill Him. God would plan each way of escape to ensure that His Son would fulfill His mission on Calvary. He saw it all and He felt what human parents feel at their child’s departure. Joy and agony

God also knew who would accept His Son as the Messiah and who would openly reject Him. He knew the disciples that would be called to take the Gospel to the world. He looked down through the ages and saw an unstoppable church on the move. It would be battered but would prevail.

As Mary welcomed her newborn Messiah, the love story of the ages was being written. He would be the only way God’s estranged children could be restored to paradise.

Father, You gave it all up too. Thank you for counting the cost and deciding that Your creation was worth loving so recklessly. Amen

Wild, Yet Wonderful

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God is wild and wonderful.  He is also unpredictable.  He exalts the likes of Judah, the treacherous son of Jacob.  He blesses adulterers like King David.  He forgives betrayers like Peter.  He saves persecutors and murderers like Paul.  Judah, at the end of his life, offered to give his own for the life of another brother.  His father, Jacob, lived long enough to see Judah choose righteousness. The common thread in all of these stories was a heart of repentance.  God’s forgiveness was, and is, so radical that an entire past is put under His atoning blood.

No family is perfect. In the past few days, I’ve heard from more than a few who say that they have not seen their grandchildren in years. They grieve over that and feel embarrassed in public when others ask if they have children and grandchildren. Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ relevant to them? Is it relevant to us in the very places we long to see the righteousness of God revealed in the lives of our family members? Oh yes.

This Christmas, as we hear the Christmas story and are tempted to zone out at the reading of the lineage of Jesus, let’s wake up and sit on the edge of our seat.  When Judah’s name is mentioned, we can rejoice that God works in family messes.  No one is out of His reach.  We should never stop praying for forthcoming repentance.  God is good for every promise He has made.

For every family ‘Joseph’, there are tears of joy.  For every family ‘Judah’, there are tears of faith.  You are God over every family drama that is brought to your feet in prayer.  Amen

With Both Hands

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I will lift up my hands toward our commandment, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.  Psalm 119:48

When I lift up both hands toward heaven, I am paying honor to God.  The psalmist lifts both hands towards God’s Word.  He pays homage to it because he loves it.

The Word is old.  It is tested.  It is deep and layered.  It softens the heart of the most hardened person.  It strengthens the most feeble.  It brings a solution, like an arrow, to my deepest dilemma. It comforts like the cooing of a mother.  It changes the heart of a person where that person has simply remained unchangeable through many self-renovations.  Is there any reason why any man or woman shouldn’t raise hands toward this Word?  In doing so, we raise our hands to Jesus.  Logos.

What has caused me to drop my hands?   Discouragement?  There is a Word for me.  Sick?  There is a Word.  Weary in prayer?  There is a Word.  Betrayed?  Ah, there is a Word.  My prayer this morning is, no matter what has caused a slack in my hands, “Strengthen me to raise my hands, just one more time, Lord.” God will be faithful and another Word will come to my rescue.

Like Amos, I consume Your Word, hungrily.  Amen

When I’m Out Of Steam

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Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Romans 12:11

 Spiritual steam, the kind that propels a train up a mountain is hard to know how to come by.  Does reading more of my Bible give it to me?

I can learn something about WWII history, get excited, and share it passionately with others.  But that’s one piece of history and it doesn’t sustain my soul for a lifetime.  Bible study (apart from the reality of Jesus revealing Himself to my heart) is this way as well.  I can discover something in scripture, love what I find, but the excitement that facts sometimes bring will dissipate with time.  When I’m hurting, interesting facts from the book of I Samuel won’t give me spiritual fervor.

The steam needed for the long haul comes from something childlike.  Love.  When I’m tired from service, I need to go home to be loved.   When I’m beaten up by life, I need to go home to be loved.  When I’m physically weak from the pace of meeting so many needs, I need to go home to be loved.  The strongest saint retreats, comes to their Father with childlike faith and says, ‘Feed me, love me, hold me, and teach me.’  These elementary expressions of need fuel the saints we would describe as having mature faith.  Unlike what we might believe, their fuel does not come from some intellectual study of Calvinism verses Arminianism.

Deep weariness can send me to the line of total abdication.  I teeter on the edge of just giving up.  One small demand can send me over the limit.  My body won’t cooperate anymore in spite of my ‘drill-sergeant-kind-of-self-talk.  It revolts.  My heart doesn’t listen to one more internal speech to keep myself going.  Quitting seems to be the only answer.  I am afraid though that if I sink into an abyss of emotional and physical exhaustion, I won’t ever get out.  Oh, I have been there and I didn’t know what was wrong or how to heal.

God showed me.  Mature faith begins and ends with the recognition that my fuel is the love of God. And here’s the thing ~ it will foster the spiritual curiosity for my study of the scriptures.

Your love resurrected me from the pit.  I had given up, had no energy or joy, but I had not experienced Your love.  Thank you for the joy of serving You now with a fervent spirit.  Amen

Tied Down When I Should Fly

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Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.  Psalm 91:3

A fowler is someone who hunts any fowl.  The snare he sets catches a bird by its feet and traps it, rendering the poor thing unable to fly. 

That they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 2 Tim. 2:26

Satan also delights in making captives, tying me to the ground when I was meant to soar on eagle’s wings. Knowing how I am ensnared and how I am to soar must be understood.   

Weaknesses are Satan’s catalysts for entrapment.  Personal triggers are accessed to incapacitate me, leaving me compromised and unable to function.  Fear, shame, and discouragement…. are fodder for the fowler.  The way out is re-aligning my thoughts through exercised faith, ending the inertia by audibly re-asserting my faith in Jesus.  The robust proclamation of the scriptures opens the fowler’s traps. 

What is it to soar on eagles’ wings?  Is it a fulfilling job, pleasant circumstances, or satisfying friendships?  These do not comprise the concept.  It is to soar on the currents of the wind of the Spirit because I am enfolded in the life of Christ Himself.  It is to see numbness shattered and wonder return, seeing the veil of apathy toward the scriptures disappear. 

Oh Jesus, break open the fowler’s traps and set Your children free.  Show them heights only seen on eagle’s wings.  Amen

The Voice of Our Future

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It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’  And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’  Isaiah 44:28

At the time of this writing, Cyrus had not even been born. It would be another 200 years before he arrived to do precisely what God had promised: deliver God’s people from exile after their defeat, capture, and captivity.  

God is still fulfilling prophecy regarding future events. His prediction of Cyrus comforts us when our lives take an unwelcome turn and our immediate future is uncertain.  God knows the nature of our exiles and deliverances.  The names of those who will shape our future are already pre-chosen. All is on schedule to lead us to glory.  

Isaiah brings us this comfort today.  God has foreknowledge of every detail that constitutes our lives.  He spoke our name long before we existed, called us by name at the moment of our spiritual adoption, and will speak our name again when He welcomes us home.  Not one step (though uncertain as it may seem for us) causes Him to worry about us.  

He is the God who dismantles and the God who rebuilds.  He is the God who wounds and the God who comforts.  He is the God of the faithful and the God of the exiles.  These days, when anger and fear make up our global emotional climate, we trust a Father who whispers, “Don’t be afraid.”  Our life does not begin and end with deliberate, even erratic actions, of influential people.  God’s scepter of justice holds them in check.  

Your people are written prophetically into these days.  Let us rise to carry out the work of ambassadors with confidence and joy.  Amen

Accompanied Into Isolation

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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 in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:39

The love of those closest to us is a powerful force.  When we’re in trouble, they’ll come.  When we’re sick, they’ll sit with us.  When we’re in danger, they go with us if they can.  But there are limits to where they can go.  When I’m going in for life-threatening surgery, they must leave me at the door. When my soul is hurting, there also comes a point of separation.  They must sleep, go to work, attend to their own lives, and if it’s a friend, they must go home. 

When Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and spent three days in his belly, God was right there with him.  No friend could have done that.  When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, God was right there with him.  When he faced the dangers of re-entry back into our atmosphere and could have quickly bounced off and headed forever into space, God would have been there with him too.

What comprises the goodness of God today?  His promise of love, the assurance of His prayers, and the comfort of His presence no matter what I face.  No surgery room keeps Him out.  No maximum security prison locks Him out.  If I travel to the remotest part of our planet, He is there, in me and around me.

There is no place I can go on earth or in heaven that You are not with me, not out of duty but out of love and desire.  Goodness like this I cannot comprehend.  Thank you.  Amen

When I’m Stingy

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Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.  The one who contributes, let him give generously.  Romans 12:8

 There was an old man in the small town where I grew up who was quite wealthy.  His life’s goal was to amass a fortune and he didn’t care how he did it.  Was he driven by greed?  Not always.  Fear was also his taskmaster.  He had lived through the depression with his mother and several siblings.  For the family’s survival, he went to work at seven years old to deliver papers so there would be food on the table.  He made a vow never to be poor and his entire life would be shaped by those words.

Paul describes a believer as one who is never stingy.  He loves to give and just can’t help himself.  Perhaps you’re thinking ~  “I don’t give like this.  In fact, far from it.  What’s my problem?”

Like the man who was afraid of having nothing, there are many reasons why we don’t give generously.  Fear of deprivation, fear of giving away something that we’re attached to, fear that it won’t be received, fear that we will get nothing back.  Greed is not always at the center of why we withhold.

The cure is found in Paul’s words.  You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.  2 Corinthians 9:11  God promises, through Christ, to make us so rich that we’ll have no problem giving it away – confident that He will more than compensate.  This morning, perhaps we’ve only just begun to realize what is ours in Christ.

Show me where I’m rich in You.  Amen