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All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:18

What a package of explosive potential lay in the manger.  He was the little Lamb and the little Shepherd, each one offering life altering implications for those who needed a Lamb slain for their sin and for those who were lost and needed a shepherd to show them the way home. 

Oh, but Baby Jesus could do far more than that.  He was also the little Reconciler who had the power to bring together two enemies and make them, not only compatible but, intimate.  Reconciliation rarely has such stunning outcomes.  It is one thing to bring together two parties who are at odds over an issue.  It is quite another thing to cause two people, far apart in every way, to eagerly join hands and become one in their thinking and feeling. 

Oh, how deep was the fracture in the Garden of Eden.  God had made man perfectly.  It was he who wanted more, who bought the Serpent’s lie, and then opened his mind to evil.  It was a world he was not created to understand nor be compatible with.  Yet, evil corrupted him and he began to choose everything that God wouldn’t choose and to think all things God wouldn’t think. Alienation ensued and the two were separated by a great gulf.  God’s answer was to send a Reconciler who could also be the Lamb to forgive sin and restore the sinner to what he once was ~ holy before God.   

The baby didn’t automatically reconcile enemies at His birth.  God’s timetable moves slowly.  It took thousands of years for God to send this Lamb.  It would take thirty-three years more for the Lamb to die for the sins that separated mankind from His Father.  But how necessary the three decades were.  The only way for people to trust the Lamb would be to watch Him live, hear Him speak, and experience God’s love, grace, and mercy through direct interaction.  His Light would woo sinners and warm up their icy relationship.  Despite the beauty of this picture, not all would come to hate their sin and mourn their estrangement however.

Ah, but for the ones who did, life would be different.  There would be complete compatibility, impeccable restoration, and perfect reconciliation with the Father who waited, once again, to walk with His children in the garden of paradise.

If there is tension in our relationship, it can be fixed now.  Thank you, Jesus. Amen

You made him lower than the angels for a short time; You crowned him with glory and honor and subjected everything under his feet. Hebrews 2:7-8 

The angels were with God before the earth was created.

The angels were with God when he touched this dead planet and everything barren and brown turned green with promise.

The angels watched as Adam took his first breath and as Eve joined him to walk in perfect love.

The angels watched God walk with Adam in the Garden and felt the wonder of God giving man dominion over all living things.

The angels watched as Adam and Eve turned mutinous.  They saw God’s heart break when paradise disintegrated.

The angels pondered the news throughout Israel’s history that a Messiah was coming.  Did they know it would be Jesus?

The angels watched the ebb and flow of obedience and disobedience, blessing and judgement.  Loving righteousness, they wept with their Sovereign.

The angels quickened at the news that Mary was chosen to birth God’s Son. Michael, one of their own, had a story to tell.  Perhaps he prepared them for a cataclysmic change.

The angels were sent to sing and announce the birth of the One they had served throughout time.  He would lie in a manger instead of sit on a throne.

The angels rushed to Jesus’ side in the wilderness.  They served him there just as faithfully as they had in heaven.  They ministered to His frailty; hunger, thirst, and discouragement.

The angels saw Jesus’ miracles and having witnessed much greater things, they thought to themselves, “People haven’t seen anything yet!”

The angels watched the world reject Love.  They saw their King beaten, scourged, and crucified.  I believe the throngs of heaven wept in disbelief.

The angels witnessed and took part in the resurrection.  Their Jesus was glorified and was coming back home.  Was there feasting, singing, and dancing?

The angels celebrated as new children of God were born.  They trembled with joy when they heard the sons of men call their God, “Abba.” 

How could such a thing happen?  A Holy God chose to take on flesh and make Himself lower than the angel’s estate.  The world witnessed humility being defined by incarnation.

They have seen it all, Lord.  They are witnesses to Your glory.  They are still active serving us because of Your love.  Is someone entertaining one today?  Are they singing to the one who is reading this – the one who is weak and afraid?  Are they fighting for another who reads these words and has dropped her hands in battle?  Don’t let me lose the wonder of worlds I can’t see but the worlds You still rule.  I am safe in the arms of Love no matter how chaotic it all appears.  You hold me fast, Good Father.  Amen

The concept was unbelievable. A timeless, omnipotent, powerful, holy God chose to confine Himself to live life as a human being. It was called an incarnation. 

God speaks, and planets appear out of nowhere. God pushes galaxies around with the tip of His finger. He breathes over a dead Earth, and everything brown turns to green. So, could this God cause Himself to grow inside a virgin’s womb and emerge, not only as the image of God, but God Himself?  Well, He did just that and this is what got Him crucified. 

The wonder of this historical narrative continues to play out. I have not only been made in God’s image, but I am also a container in whom the Spirit of God lives. All that power, wisdom, creativity, peace, and holiness lives in my spirit. Can others see evidence of that? Is His glory palpable? Am I bold enough, when prompted, to call upon the surpassing power of His greatness to work through me? Perhaps I am shy of it because I have forgotten that I can be, and am created to be, possessed by Spirit. 

Just as the god of this world possesses a demoniac, I am to be overtaken by the Spirit of God. Like Jesus, my works of faith will be both glorious and controversial.

Help me fully understand what Your incarnation means for me personally. It’s so loaded with implications I’ve not yet grasped. Amen

Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, “I can clean that if you want.” And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes away our sin. Max Lucado

Of all Jacob’s sons, Joseph gets the most attention. Yet it is not from the line of Joseph that Jesus was born. The purpose of Joseph’s life was to save Judah from famine because it was from his descendants that the Messiah would come. This flawed son of Jacob didn’t mess things up so badly that he was disqualified from the Covenant. God’s promises transcended this imperfect family.

Here’s the thing.  God exalts the likes of Judah. He blesses adulterers like King David. He forgives betrayers like Peter. He saves persecutors like Paul. Judah, at the end of his life, offered to give it up for the life of another brother. His father, Jacob, lived long enough to see Judah choose righteousness. God’s forgiveness was so radical that an entire past was put under His atoning blood.

Forgiveness and redemption are still relevant now in the very places you long to see the righteousness of God revealed in the lives of someone in your family. God’s heart is for your families. No one is exempt from His grace, not even the one who seems unreachable, that very one you are thinking about right now as you read this.

God’s desire to save was never more evident than in the life of a murderous zealot named Saul. He arose from the dirt on the Damascus Road and joined the Christians in Damascus, the very ones he had targeted to murder.

So, how long have you prayed for the salvation of a loved one?  Is “How long O lord?” on your tongue as you cry out to the Lord on their behalf? I know you are weary in waiting.  And your Father knows that you need new grace and courage to believe that all things are possible.  I am praying for you right now, but even more importantly, Jesus is praying for you in all the places where your faith is  so very fragile.

May God be gracious to us and bless us; may his face shine upon us. Psalm 67:2

I’ve had some rich conversations over the past two weeks. Some friends are in challenging places, and when it came time for me to respond to their stories, words were hard to find. I hope that compassion was communicated.

Perhaps you are in a crushing experience. You’re tired of fighting. You’ve held on to hope and clutched your dream. You’ve not let anyone too close for fear that your resolve would be challenged. You’ve controlled things quite artfully. No one knows that your iron will is fragile.

No one can predict the moment when someone will stop fighting. Resolve to make things work will crumble. The hardened exterior of sheer grit will melt away, and surrender to God’s providence will creep in. The humility of true surrender will mark a stunning turning point as you raise your hands toward heaven.  “I place all I am, all I have, and all I want into Your hands, God.”

Dreams are fragile things in a fallen world. Perfection here is impossible. The cancer of sin metastasizes and touches everything I want. While good things do happen and pleasurable seasons come for a time, everything perfect is meant to be a taste of things to come. My hope is deferred.  And ultimately, loss and grief will consume me if I don’t learn to invest all my dreams into the storehouses of heaven.  David said, “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” Psalm 39:7 Abdicating my dreams into the hands of a God who will give me all things brings me peace.

The cataclysmic moment of surrender is messy.  At first, there is despair as I acknowledge that my dream is broken. But then, misplaced hope gives way to rock-solid hope, culminating in the restoration of Eden. Everything I long for will one day be mine.

It is the week to think about being thankful. If things are going well, we welcome the topic. That’s because God’s goodness and our levels of gratitude are often defined by the nature of current events in our lives. If this is how I look at it, God offers lens correction.

His goodness is not measured by circumstances, it is measured by the cross.

Even in the worst of times, a child of God can send up a torrent of praise to a good, good Father. More about that tomorrow.

He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.   2 Corinthians 5:15

Do you know that some words are so powerful that we shy away from them?  It’s true. Our voices get soft to the point of whispering when we speak specific phrases for the first time.  Words that are associated with atrocities and tragedies, the stuff that hell unleashes on earth, are avoided until we have the strength to say them out loud.  When we do, mountains move.  We are changed in those split seconds.

I was thirty years old when my mother died of cancer.  When telling someone that she was gone, I would use every descriptor except the word ‘died.’  I would say that she passed away or that she went home to be with Jesus.  It wasn’t until a year later that I finally admitted, ‘My mother died.’  As soon as I said the words, I sank into a chair and sobbed.  My ability to grieve was no longer stuck.  My blank and stoic exterior melted. 

Yesterday, I was driving down a back road and was thanking Jesus for various things as they came to mind.  I said, “Thank you for dying for me.”  I realized that I said it way too easily.  They were spoken like a cliché.  Familiar from childhood.  Familiar from hymns and pulpits.  Familiar as well-worn nursery rhymes.  I was upset and began to ask myself, ‘Should this phrase not cause similar reactions as when I spoke about the death of my mother?’  

I went to bed thinking about the religious language that sits so comfortably inside us.  God wants to shake it loose from stoic mental crevices. His death is not just part of ancient history.  It is part of our personal history.  Was there not a moment when it became real?  Didn’t the love that propelled Him to the cross penetrate our hearts to the point of repentance and gratitude?  It still can.

Resurrect the language of the Gospel until it has full effect in us.  Amen

My heart churns within Me.  Hosea 11:8

It doesn’t naturally occur to me to think of God as having a churning heart.  His heart aches when He draws us with gentle cords of love only to find us unresponsive.  It’s when He offers everything but we are bored and distracted.  It’s when our worship fills His ears with collective mumbling.  

Have you ever loved someone more than they loved you?  Maybe it was your parents.  There is a standard narrative in some families.  The ones who cause trouble get all the love and attention, while the children who love to please are overlooked.  There are few things more painful than to live as a child with arms extended only to be refused.  

There have also been many broken engagements because one cared more than the other.  Only one of them loved with their whole heart.  The other couldn’t generate anything but casual friendship.   

And what about marriages where the love in one spouse has grown cold!  The other keeps loving, hoping, and dreaming of mutual love re-kindled.  

While we will manipulate to get the love we want, God will not.  He could, though.  He could scare us with a demonstration of His power and extort anything from us that He wanted.   But He woos gently and gives us the freedom to choose Him.  He gives everything He has and hopes we’ll respond with a love of the same kind ~ a love that abandons all other loves ~ just to have Him.  

Tearfully and joyfully, I love You with my life.  Amen

Several weeks ago, I wrote about something that had changed me deeply. Since then, everything has been different and perhaps you’ve sensed it in the writing. If you missed that devotional, here’s the link. It all started when I heard a pastor tell this story.

God called me to start a church within the last decade. We were blessed and were enjoying a congregation of several hundred people. I wanted our ministry to grow, so, every day, I asked God to bring revival. This became the cry of my heart above all other things. I built regular fasts into my schedule and made the focus of each one ~ needed revival for my young church. Two years later, with nothing having changed in the size and spiritual depth of my congregation, I stumbled over unanswered prayer. I asked the Lord during my next fast why He hadn’t answered this when He loves revival, and, I had been so diligent in praying. In the stillness, I heard His answer. “In the last two years of praying for revival, you haven’t once told me you love me.” I fell to my knees. From that day on, I focused on loving Jesus. Prayer was centered around worshipping Jesus. Without intention, my prayer closet traveled from my home to the platform. That was when the power of the Spirit ignited the church. Exponential growth occurred, but the growth has not been, nor is, what is celebrated. I don’t track the growth, focus on it, and manage it. I teach my people to live – loving Jesus, and we are single-minded. We are a people whose passion is the love of the Bridegroom. 

Daughters of Promise has been blessed. Its outreach has been built upon years of the slow drip of the Spirit touching one life after another. But with all ministries, the focus of leaders is usually on how to manage it, grow it, and maximize its outreach. It’s on the function and form of it. Over time, programs become templates. Routines can take over. There is a sense of well-being when God blesses. But after hearing this story in September, I realized I was missing the obvious. I was not spending more time loving Jesus than managing the ministry He gave me. I labored in prayer over every decision, often frozen in place, not knowing that if I focused on loving Him, intimacy would take care of the decision. I would know His mind on things ~ where to go and what to do next. My feet would intuitively step onto the right path. No effort.

So much of life can be about proven strategies. I’ll take this job because it’s a good stepping stone to the job I really want to have. I’ll accept this speaking engagement over another because it reaches more people. I’ll teach a Bible Study in the Fall because I have the gift of teaching. Spiritual common sense tricks me and gives me a false sense of knowing what Jesus wants from me. How can I possibly know if we aren’t close?

Over what do you obsess? Over how many things do you ask, ‘What should I do?’ Disengage. Get alone with the Bridegroom and tell Him what you love about Him. Study to know more so that you can love more. Take a walk. Look for the wonder of Him. Talk. Worship. Exclaim. Live with eyes full of tears. Beautiful tears. In the intimacy that grows, you will discover urges and knowings that only come from walking with the Lover of your soul. Questions about life and direction are erased.

P.S. It has taken me three days to write this. I wrote, deleted it, and then started over. Why the struggle? I couldn’t find the words to describe how revolutionary this is. Earlier this morning, my daughter, Jaime, came for a visit. She walked out on our sunporch and asked if I was okay. I had been reading, worshipping, and crying. Tears didn’t stop when she arrived. I explained that I was done in by the beauty of Jesus. We had a wonderful conversation, and she got it. She lives this way, too. So, I’m going to send this and ask the Holy Spirit to fill in the blanks and interpret what words have failed to say.

I love you and am praying for you. If only our hearts could live captivated – captivated as a way of life. How different everything would be.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  Romans 12:14

‘Bless those who persecute you’ can sound like a hollow command at a time when new levels of brutality have arisen.  But we must have faith in the justice of God.  He does not take persecution lightly.  His nature is not passive, even if longsuffering.  He does not love peace more than He loves truth.  He does not love reconciliation more than He angers over injustice.

Setting this scripture alongside imprecatory passages can be confusing.  Psalm 69:23-24 Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.

Paul loved this Psalm and quoted it several times in Romans.  Jesus also loved it and quoted it twice from the cross.  Putting those who hurt me into God’s hands is to be assured that justice will be served.  Either our enemies will come to the cross and repent (and Jesus will justify them through taking the wrath they should suffer upon Himself), or at the end of the age, God will fully pour His wrath and indignation upon them.  

These Psalms are the practical applications of God’s justice and mercy here on earth.  If I am more bent toward one than the other, I misrepresent the nature and character of God.  If I’m soft on sin and have no righteous anger, then mercy stands alone, and God’s holiness is in question.  If I live angry and cry out for justice, then the radical love Jesus showed on the cross is obscured.  

We are usually more bent toward one than the other.  God must work in us to make us like Him. 

Lord, you know my personal obstacles, and only You can break through my conflicted heart.  Amen