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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

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

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

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

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Hebrews 12:1

Before you read the scripture, I bet you saw the title and thought of computers, data, and what it means for us to store digital information in the cloud.  But there is another cloud mentioned in Hebrews 11.  A cloud of witnesses.  Who is it that makes up this company?  Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Sarah, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. What a group it would be if we could gather them together today, in the flesh, and host them all in one setting.  What would fellowship look like?  How long would it take for us to ask all the questions on our mind, to hear all their stories, and to glean their advice and encouragement?

But we can imagine it, right?  One of the themes of Michael Card’s writing is ‘reading the Bible with your imagination.’  He encourages us to enter into the stories we read and imagine what the people were thinking, why they did what they did, and what they would want us to know from their mistakes and their acts of faith.  (And, God’s reactions.)  As I go back and review chapter 11 and the many devotionals written on each character, I can ‘imagine’ some of their encouragements.

Abel ~ “Carve out your own faith apart from your parents and follow God to the letter.”

Enoch ~ “As the world caves into lawlessness, prepare to keep yourself pure even if hated and made the brunt of mockery.”

Noah ~ “Don’t get tired of obeying God – even when He’s quiet. Stay faithful.”

Abraham ~ “Climb Mt. Moriah and believe in God’s goodness no matter what.”

Sarah ~ “If you’ve hurt your testimony, stop hiding. Get up and take a second run.”

Yochoved ~ “If you hold your child of promise, God’s plan will prevail.”

Six out of 15 voices.  They blend together.  Each is passionate and insistent on being heard.  Not one is distinguishable above another.  Each cheer is lifesaving.  We must take time to review each of their stories to internalize their encouragement on a bigger scale.  We have not begun to mine their stories for gold.

Don’t let me be afraid to tell my own stories of fear and faith and victory.  In them are sermons for the next generation.  Amen

The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”   Genesis 25:22-23

Rebekah is pregnant with twins.  She wouldn’t be the first to feel the angst of a child in her womb.  Much transpires there that shapes the future, both for the good and the bad.  I am naïve to think that I was not affected somehow by what happened around me while being carried to term in my own mother’s womb.  An unborn baby assimilates environments outside of its mother.  Kindness, violence, acceptance, and rejection ~ are all keenly felt.  They shape a child’s view of himself, and the world, before he takes his first breath.   

When Rebekah felt the striving between her twins, she was wise when she asked the Lord about it.  God prophesied that this spiritual rub between the twins would be historical.  The small amount of wrestling in the womb would escalate to involve nations at war in the future.  One child would prevail over the other because only one was destined by God to rule.

How did things turn out for the twins?  God’s prophecy prevailed.  One nation was born ~ from the child God blessed, and it ruled over the other nation for years to come.  In 2 Samuel, King David (the blessed twin’s line) conquered the Edomites (the 2^nd twin’s line) and they remained under his control for 130 years.  Nothing could transpire, whether in the womb, as toddlers, as adolescents, or as grown men, that could change what God decreed to Rebekah on that day.

God’s Word always prevails.

I learned the hard way that I am not exempt from what You have blessed and cursed.  Your Words rule over my life, but rule with power and love.  I’m so glad I stopped fighting.  Amen

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  Romans 8:26

It is not a sin to be weak.  Weakness is a human condition.  Frailty plagues the most righteous man or woman, especially when in the midst of suffering.  Quickly, every one of us loses our spiritual perspective.  Our prayers reflect this vacuum.

Job was righteous.  God said so.  Yet he couldn’t understand why he was suffering and his prayers proved his confusion.  His friends thought they knew the mind of God and probably prayed for him, but wrongly.

The disciples, as much as they loved Jesus, proved to be weak prayer partners.  In the garden, when Jesus needed them most, they feel asleep during Jesus’ hours of anguish.

Elijah, a prophet of courageous proportions, succumbed to a weakened state after a great spiritual victory.  Exhausted and emotionally drained, he prayed that the Lord would take his life.  The flesh and the spirit are so integrally connected.  When the body fails, the spirit is confused.

If I don’t know how to pray for myself, how can I be sure anyone else will be able to pray for me correctly?  The answer lies in my ‘best friend’ in intercession.  The Holy Spirit.  He is aware and fully engaged with my story.  He knows my limited ability to understand God’s sovereign plan for my life.  When I cry out to God and I am wordless, much like a baby in distress, He hears my weeping and interprets it to the Father.  He perceives my faltering words, my frustrating silences and interprets those too.  He tells my story better than I can and He tells it with omniscience.  He prays about everything with perfect perspective.

So many days, I pray…. “Oh holy Spirit, rise up in me and teach me how to pray.  Form my words.  Pray when my language fails.”  When I despair that no one might be praying for me, I have been led to remember that Jesus, Himself, is praying for me.  The Holy Spirit is praying for me.  Could the friendship of God be more perfectly proven than in this?

I rest in Your words, Your groanings, and even Your tears for the places in my life which have left me speechless and wanting. Thank you for being such a friend. Amen

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.  Isaiah 43:2

The power of this promise makes little sense if I fail to understand the sinister nature of water in scripture.  It’s hard to see the sea as something negative if I love the beach and the sound of waves lapping up on shore.  But to the ancient Jew, the sea meant something else entirely.  It was a symbol of something ominous and life-threatening. In Semitic mythology, a sea monster was synonymous with chaos and evil.  These verses provide a more complete picture.

• Isaiah said that the wicked were like a tossing sea. Isaiah 57:20
• A psalmist said that God divided the sea by His might and broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. Psalm 74:13-14
• David said that God’s vicious waves had swept over him like an angry ocean. Psalm 42:7
• And in John’s revelation, it’s most interesting that the Beast rises from the sea. (Revelation 13)

When God promises to accompany me through the waters, it is clear that He goes with me into the deepest chaos, evil, turbulence, and even death.  God doesn’t promise to take me around the sea, to keep me on dry land.  Just like the days we are living now; we find ourselves in deep waters.  The darkness is thick, life-threatening, and it’s comforting to be assured that we’re not alone.

Think about it.  How very fitting that Jesus walked on water!  The symbol of that is not lost on me.  He was not overcome by evil, not knocked around by the chaos of the waves, not swallowed up by the deep.  In the worst of storms, he walked on the waves.  Calmly, with no need to yell, He spoke to His disciples.  His voice penetrated the roar of the storm.

It makes me think of Ephesians 1 and I Corinthians 15.  “And He put all things under His feet.”   There is no evil He has not conquered.  There is no virus He cannot heal.  There is no chaos He can not order.  There is no life, for a saint, that will not triumph in life – and in death.  Everything, no matter how ominous, is subject to His authority.

You are Lord over all the elements, and I am never out of Your care.  Amen

Every day he (Mordecai) walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. Esther 2:11

Esther had gone to the palace along with many other young virgins. She had been uprooted from the safety of her home and separated from the faces she knew. Can you imagine Mordecai’s anxiety? How was she being treated? Was the king an honorable man with women? Were the people who worked for him trustworthy with impressionable young girls? Such were the fears of an adoptive father who paced back and forth near the courtyard of the palace, hoping to hear any word at all on the girl he raised and loved like his own.

This picture gives us a snapshot of an invisible God. Mordecai was consumed with the welfare of the child he had raised. So is God. Mordecai gave up his life to adopt an orphan. So did God. Mordecai invested himself fully to teach Esther that which would allow her soul to prosper. So does God. Mordecai positioned himself in her vicinity, just in case she might need anything of him. So does God. He knocks at the door of my heart. The sound is soft, but discernible if I’m listening for it.

“How are you?” he asks. “I never stop thinking about you. Do you need anything?”

Often, His arrival can seem more like a disruption. “I don’t have time to talk”, I’ve been guilty of answering. But still He lingers, waits a while, and then knocks again.

By the time I hear his voice the second time, life has begun to unravel. “Things aren’t going as I’d hoped. I’m getting tired.”

He’s not surprised. How could he be! ”I’m here. I am rest for your soul and wisdom for your decisions.” Now, I’m aware of my need and stop to include Him in my day.

If only I’d stopped the first time I sensed Him knocking to spend time with Him. I’d have been prepared for my day ahead, before the circumstances unfolded. Now, I’m in crisis mode. Undone. Disquieted. Dull of hearing. However, despite my earlier disinterest, He didn’t leave me. He didn’t even scold me for waiting so long. He knows I’ll put those thoughts together. When I do, I’m humbled. Mordecai is a picture of God’s steadfastness and enduring patience.

I simply cannot say today that nobody in the world cares about me. Your care has no limits. What a Father You are! In Jesus’ name, Amen.