Breathless

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John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’”  John 1:15

The birth of John the Baptist happened months before the birth of Jesus. Elizabeth was pregnant first and was well into her pregnancy when Mary conceived through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. And yet, John told the people that Jesus existed before he did. The only possible explanation is that John was not talking about conception dates or birth dates. Something far greater was being revealed, and I believe they could tell that his reference was to something otherworldly by the breathless tone in John’s voice. 

Now, I know what you may be thinking. Nowhere in these verses does it say that John was breathless. Yet, when I imagine how John delivered this news while trying to comprehend the eternal storyline of Jesus, it is impossible for me to believe that he could be nonchalant. 

The Gospel of John Movie and The Chosen series unveil this scene in the most stunning way possible. I’ve watched them hundreds of times, and each time I see John speak, I remember Jesus’ words that ‘John was a lamp, burning and shining.’ His ministry was so short, but his impact was massive. 

It begs me to ask myself whether or not I’ve ever talked about Jesus this passionately. Does my ministry reflect such urgency? It is a litmus test for my own soul, and I assess myself often to see if I feel the degree of intensity I witness in John. 

Lord, I don’t want my testimony ever to be casual. Turn me into a burning flame. Amen

The One I Want Is Right In Front Of Me

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He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.  John 1:10

The Treasure that Israel had been waiting for was born in the middle of the night.   He was the Savior of the mother who delivered Him, the Teacher of the man God chose to be the father in their household.  He was the Rabbi in a manger who would know more than every other Rabbi he would meet.  He was the stone that the builders would reject, the Bread of Life for which His people would have no appetite. He was rejected in every way.

In many ways, I just don’t understand.  From prophecy, Jewish people in Nazareth knew their Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. They knew He would be born of a virgin, and they knew Mary’s story.  Certainly, they had heard the stories of the shepherds who witnessed a glorious display in the heavens and the wise men who followed the brightest star for 400 miles with expensive gifts in tow.  They also knew from their people’s history that many of God’s chosen leaders came from obscurity.  God had anointed a shepherd fresh from the pastures to be their greatest king from thousands of years before.  Why, then, did the Messiah from Nazareth make them stumble?

For the same reasons, I stumble today.  More than any other generation, I know the history of Jesus.  I have more Bible teaching at my fingertips than any previous people group who has lived before me.  Despite all these resources, I struggle to believe the promises in front of my face.  I’m not hearing them secondhand.  I’m reading them for myself with full spiritual understanding. 

I need peace, but I often look elsewhere outside the Peace-giver.  I need composure, a moment to take a spiritual breath, but I often remain so worked up that anxiety overtakes me.  I need hope, but instead of raising my eyes to look into the face of the One who has planned my eternity, I’m spun up about the hopelessness of the times.  Oh, it need not be. 

Rabbi, teach me.  Put your hand on my head and bless me.  I am at Your feet.  Feed me from Your hand. Comfort me, hush me, like the Mother and Father I need.  You are exactly what I need, the One right here, right now.  Amen

A Wicked and Perverse Generation

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Children grew up faster in the first century. Jesus knew, prior to school age, what living under the boot of the Roman Empire meant for his neighbors and the people of Nazareth. Evidence of oppression was everywhere. During the time of His childhood, Caesar Augustus, just for the pure pleasure of flexing his power, sent a mounted army into the temple to slaughter 3,000 Jews at the time of the Passover. (An event recorded by historians.) The Jewish people also had to pass crucifixion scenes lining the road in and out of Jerusalem. Parents taught their children early about God and eternal life. Evil was prevalent so faith was necessary.

In my generation, it was possible to raise children in an overly protective bubble. Many children never went to a funeral; they never encountered a deceased relative. Small communities were usually church going communities. People rarely locked their homes as civility ruled and trust in mankind was possible. While this was wonderful on the one hand, it also produced a generation of people who lived for ‘the now’. There was no urgency to provide spiritual instruction. Need for God was numbed out by peace and contentment.

But “Leave It To Beaver” has long passed. Our world has deteriorated into chaos and evil. Children can’t be protected from the news. Attempting to keep them in a protective bubble is impossible once they approach Kindergarten. While we grieve for their loss of innocence, we are also presented with an opportunity to show them what hope in Jesus looks like. We can model how to live in the promises of God. When scripture is life-saving for adults, children will embrace it as life-saving. Prayer will no longer be perfunctory at mealtimes. It will be a way of life as families look to the heavens together for the grace to live and the hope to endure.

I remember that Josiah, a righteous King, was raised in violent times. His father was the wicked King Amnon. Horrific scenes of child sacrifice were commonplace and Baal worship prevailed. Amnon made Josiah and his other sons pass through fire, practice magic, learn divination skills, and thought nothing of shedding innocent blood in great quantity in front of his children. In spite of this, when Josiah inherited the throne, he turned to the God of his fathers and walked righteously. He was not scarred for life. He did not embrace wickedness though it was modeled exclusively for him as a young boy.

God has chosen these times in which to raise our children and grandchildren. He who calls a people unto Himself makes a way for them to hear His voice. He cups His hands around their spirits and preserves their ability to understand and treasure righteousness instead of evil. Hope is alive and God can be trusted with our little ones.

Though your children walk through the fire, we will not be consumed. Amen

When Things Are Heated

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Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.   Psalm 34:19

The words of Jesus brought divided opinion.  He was righteous and he was afflicted, even among the religious.  Not many things are more heated than religious arguments.  Some were willing to consider that He was divine; others called him demonized.

Jesus predicted this kind of polarization.  “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.” Luke 12:51 It is better for people to be divided over Christ than for both parties to continue in sin and unbelief.

The chasm between a believer and unbeliever is wide.  And when it involves an intimate relationship, there are constant sparks when the ways of heaven and the values of the kingdom of darkness collide.  Clashes come numerous times a day.

Business partnerships can be at odds; divided on ethics, divided on styles of leadership.  Jesus promotes servant leadership.  This repels the one who seeks to use his power to further himself.

Marriages can be at odds; divided on financial priorities, divided on parenting styles.  Jesus asks parents to raise their children in such a way that when He calls them, they respond.  A parent who is obvious in his disdain for Christ is not willing to have his child serve a God who asks them to lose their life for Jesus’ sake.

Many of you who are reading this right now know the loneliness of walking beside a person where you share more differences than similarities.  At times, you may grow weary of speaking up so you cave in to behaviors that grate against your spirit.  Perhaps the lack of peace haunts you and you wonder if this can possibly be of God.  Jesus would answer with a resounding ‘yes’.  God’s children must not love peace more than they love truth or else we will relinquish our convictions for a sense of false harmony.  Peace at any cost is not Jesus’ way.

My natural bent is not to fight – but to cave to others’ pressure in order to gain peace.  You didn’t do that.  You were willing to be quiet and you were also willing to create heat so that people would have to choose truth or error.  Lord, I have a lot to learn from You.  Amen

The Past May Repeat Itself

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This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your word has revived me.  Psalm 119:50 

I saw a quote earlier. “Your past is not God’s future for you.”  Many would argue that. They say that so much of what they have suffered continues to visit them over and over again. They continue to get sick. They continue to sustain disappointments. They continue to get fooled by people. They continue to face losses. They continue to work with challenging financial parameters. They experience life as a cruel cycle and the abundant life seems nothing but a dangling carrot.

This fallen world will continue to be fallen until Jesus comes or I die and step into His presence. My ultimate future will look nothing like my past or my present. Praise God! But until then, my circumstances here will continue to be challenging, if not cyclical. Life will continue to present set after set of problem solving exercises, but in the midst of that reality, the kingdom is also here now with respect to my internal world.

How am I to regard my life when painful things keep repeating themselves? I have to remember that from the outside, things are often the same. But the inside is to be in the process of continual change. Here’s an example. When my mother died, I was thirty years old. I did not have a strong connection to God. I had no idea how to draw close to Him to weather the trauma. I floundered, grew depressed and inconsolable, and my faith suffered for another decade. Much further down the road, my father died of cancer. My relationship with God was alive. Scripture had driven my root system deeper into the person of Jesus. I knew how to live in hope, draw strength from my Savior, and put scripture into practice. Everything was different even though cancer had once again re-appeared in my life in the death of a parent.  Same circumstances. Different internal world.

My past is not my future. Right now, my internal world can resemble eternity with Jesus.  In Christ, God has made it possible for my soul to live in paradise.

You walk with me and talk with me. You tell me I am your own. That changes today entirely no matter how ongoing my affliction. Amen

    When Love Is Right In Front Of You

    Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

      I will never walk alone for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.  Psalm 26:3

      Everyone wonders what their future will hold.  Good times or hard times?  Healthy or unhealthy?  Married or unmarried?  Financially secure or living with meager provision?  Surrounded by those who love us or mostly alone?  We aren’t granted a clear picture of tomorrow but any of us who know God as our Father can know for certain one thing about our future.  In spite of uncertainty, David says that God’s love is ever before us.  Perfect Love is always and forever in our tomorrows.

      If times are good, God will join me in my celebration.  If times are difficult, He will offer open arms.  If times are rewarding, He will still remind me that heaven will be better because He will be there.  If times are tragic, He will assure me that this time of tears is short in comparison to an eternity of joy.

      Picture a groom, on his knees proposing, and he says in a deep and meaningful tone, “Spend your life with me.  I can’t promise you that it will always be easy but however it unfolds, I promise to be there with you and love you.”  It’s exactly what she needs.  Love.  Companionship.  Commitment.  And for any who have not known this in their human experience, Jesus is the Bridegroom who offers what is supremely better than that.  A perfect love without the imperfection of the flesh within mortal marriages.  There is perfect companionship as the groom knows His bride completely.  And there is  perfect faithfulness as this Groom never backs away.  No matter how well or how poorly the bride loves, His love is constant and true.

      Your love is here now.  Your love has always sustained me.  Your love waits for me in all my tomorrows.  You are timeless and I can rest that You have traveled ahead of me.  I’m so comforted.  Amen

      When Scripture Is Dull

      Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

      Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight.  Psalm 119:143

      When a person hears bad news, he often loses his appetite.  He feels sick to his stomach and what once appealed to his senses holds little value.  Friends and family encourage him to eat something to keep up his strength.  One of the first questions we ask someone in fresh grief is, “When is the last time you ate something?”

      Pain can do that to my spiritual appetite, too.  If I am seized with anguish and doubled over in pain, it doesn’t seem possible that my soul could delight in anything.  Yet, in the midst of sorrow, God promises to feed me a banquet from his table.  Even in the presence of my enemies, the table is laden with spiritual food.  God doesn’t scale back the meal with the equivalent of a bowl of soup when His children are bent low.  He only enlarges what we will consume.

      You might be asking, “What if I’m not hungry?  What if I have no desire to consume Living Bread today?  What if I’m in such a hopeless place that a bunch of words on paper don’t appear to me to be any kind of banquet for a ravaged soul?”  My answer comes from experience.  “Force feed.”  Never am I in greater danger of the effects of spiritual malnutrition than when God’s spiritual provision has lost its appeal.

      So is the Word of God the spiritual meal?  Am I just given a bunch of words to hang onto?  Is this all I can anticipate when it feels like life has fallen apart?  I forget that God IS the Word.  He IS the meal.  It is He who speaks His Word into my ear.  It is He who holds me tenderly as He does.  It is He who can multi-task; comforting me in a seeming suspension of time while,  simultaneously, working behind the scenes to work my pain for my good and His glory.  I can’t see what He’s doing yet but that’s okay.  I’m lost in the sound of His voice and the soothing promises that bathe my soul in His peace.

      In whatever ways I have shut down from life, stir my heart to experience the delights You have promised.  Keep the pains of this life from dulling my spiritual appetite. Amen

      I’ll Not Give Up On Him

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      His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Psalm 91:4

      Two people are traveling together.  One is severely wounded and can no longer move.  He must stay behind while the other goes for help.  The one who leaves promises to return but you know that this promise will be tested with time.  As the situation deteriorates and there is no sign of his coming, the one in peril thinks to himself, “It doesn’t look to me like I’ll be saved!”  There is mounting evidence of a broken promise but ultimately, love and trust wins.  The one who waits perseveres because, in spite of the odds, he knows that the love and loyalty of his partner will not fail.  Sure enough, when things are most desperate, help arrives.  The one who has hung on whispers, “I just knew you’d come!”

      Jesus is good for every promise He has made, including the one where He promises to come back for me.  The better I know Him, the more confident I am of that He is trustworthy.  I will not withdraw and distrust him when things gets hard.  As this world deteriorates, trust in His heart and His promises sustain me.  The harder the times, the more my faith is tested and the more my faith thrives.

      What is causing you to draw back today?  Where are you scared to trust?  Where do you taste death instead of life?  You need not succumb to defeat.  Faith can win.  It begins and ends with a review of God’s promises and God’s character.  Shun the love-killer and all of his lies.  Life can be yours right now – at this very moment.  He will not only come for you, He’s here now.

      Let Your daughter perceive You. Open her eyes to see You.  Open her ears to hear Your whispers.  Speak to her in the deep places of her soul and bring life to the places where life is tenuous.  Amen

      Yes, Jesus Is More Than Enough

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      Give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Psalm 107:1

      Nothing stirs up our flesh like family rivalry.  The personality and gifts of one child can be celebrated more than the uniqueness of another child.  Or, a mother favors one while the father favors another.  From birth, affections and privileges can be divided.  It would appear that harmony among children is often doomed from the start.  Even in old age, the stuff of youth is rehearsed.  Childhood offenses seem like yesterday.   A brother or sister can be despised all the way to their deathbed because of something that was done or said during their teen years.  Because our past replays vividly on the jumbo screen of our heart, the wounds stay fresh.

      Love, respect, favor, and wealth?  How can life-long prejudices dissolve?  Someone new must arrive on the scene to offer something that is greater in value than what we lost.  Someone has ~ and His name is Jesus.  Healing for severely fractured families is possible but only as they come together to love and worship Jesus.  As each one’s appetite is transformed by beholding the beauty and glory of Christ, the stuff that comprised their arguments seems miniscule.  Every family member comes to realize that what they had been fighting over is a trinket compared to the gifts Jesus freely offers.  And, He is no respecter of persons.

      Perhaps I have a life-long angst regarding other members of my family.  All I have to do is think about that person and my insides are churning.  Being loved by Jesus and becoming emotionally engaged with my spiritual birthright melts away resentment.  What I seek, I already have in Christ.  It may be hope deferred but it is real and it is mine.  If it doesn’t seem like enough to my heart, I must ask God to open my heart to incomparable gift of Him!  Is He not powerful enough to transform my affections?

      Open my spiritual eyes to see the value of You and everything You long to give.  Help me re-orient my soul so that my hands are clutching You instead of things that perish. In Jesus name, Amen

      The Great Difference

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      Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled. Psalm 6:2

      Everyone lives with the effects of the fall. We suffer unjustly at the hands of ungodly men and women. We are all vulnerable to disease. The many hurricanes that have plagued our southern states have devastated Christians and non-Christians alike. Yet, God says that we can tell the difference in how we handle adversity.

      • A child of God experiences peace in dark times. The unbeliever flounders without a compass.
      • A child of God exerts his authority over the dark forces at work. The unbeliever is captive to them.
      • A child of God is able to hear the voice of His Father, the voice that comforts him. The unbeliever is desperate for consolation.
      • A child of God has his eyes set on home. The unbeliever lives with a nagging fear of death.
      • A child of God knows the power of prayer to affect his life. The unbeliever is limited by his own problem solving skills.
      • A child of God looks for the supernatural redemption of his pain. The unbeliever finds pain senseless.

      Which one are you? Oh, if you don’t yet know the a luxury of being a child of God, I pray that, even now, God is setting your heart, mind, and will free to hear the Spirit of God calling you to faith so that you, too, may find your home in Christ. Because You will have a Father to call upon, who will be gracious to you, peace and comfort are within reach of His arms.

      Thank You for taking up residence in me. There begins the distinction. Oh, how great is Your love. Amen