Questions for a Quiet Christmas #7

Today we move on to the next chapter in Isaiah, Chapter 43:

 But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
    Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Because you are precious in my eyes,
    and honored, and I love you,
I give men in return for you,
    peoples in exchange for your life.
5 Fear not, for I am with you;
    I will bring your offspring from the east,
    and from the west I will gather you.

God begins with the most basic reminder here: "I have created you." He infers that Israel as a nation had forgotten Him as their Creator individually, and as a people. The incarnation of Christ reminds us that we are created by God. Our first Question for today then is: Am I living like I have forgotten God created me? Are we as God's people living as if God created His church, not us? He then goes on to give two extreme opposite examples: water and fire. The Bible is full of illustrations where God delivers through water: the ark, the Red sea, the storms on the sea - God delivers from them all, when we are helpless. And there are trials by fire: the testing of gold and the fiery furnace. These bring up the question: Where do I turn in these times of trial? Do I remember my Creator? God then gives the bottom line in verse 4: you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you.  Because God creates us, individually and corporately, we should know we are loved and cared for. That brings up the question: Have I been living as if I believe God cares about me? The final verse, verse 5 reminds us that we are in the midst of the incarnation story: "Fear not" - stop being afraid. God has a plan which involves not just me, or our little group, but many more. God is going to gather His people from all over the world. He is the great big God over all creation. 

Questions for a Quiet Christmas #6

As we move further into Isaiah's prophecies about the coming Messiah, His Servant, we come to chapter 42, with a lot of phrases and descriptions often quoted in the New Testament: 

 Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged
    till he has established justice in the earth;
    and the coastlands wait for his law.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
    I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
    a light for the nations,
7     to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
    I tell you of them.”

This servant of the Lord is coming to bring justice. But How? He is not going to go around like some rebel-rouser yelling in the streets; He will be gentle.  He will be resisted in His work, yet he will not grow faint or be discouraged. We are the ones who become weak and discouraged and want to give up; it is in Him what we find strength to go on.  Then, in verse , God shifts from the third person to the second, giving His personal promise to His Servant: "You are called; I will be with you; I will give you as a covenant."  What does that mean - I will give You as a covenant for the people? God had made covenants with people before: with Abraham, the people of Israel, David. But now He was going to give His Servant as a covenant promise to The people - what people? the nations, the spiritually blind, the prisoners of sin.  Perhaps we get a glimpse in Jesus' words in the upper room with His disciples in Luke22: 20 “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." God gave His Son, His servant, Who gave His life for us. It is His righteousness, not ours, that makes us acceptable to God. True justice has been served not by some rebel, but by God's obedient Son, always doing what is right. 

Questions for a Quiet Christmas #5

We began our series of Quiet Christmas passages with those two basic questions in the background: "Do I love darkness more than light?" and "Am I a Child of God?" When we put the two together, we end up with: Am I hiding in the darkness? Am I living like a Child of God?  I'll try to remind us of those bigger picture questions every few days, to keep things in perspective. Today we go further into Isaiah 40:

6 A voice says, “Cry!”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
    when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
    surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
    but the word of our God will stand forever.

Summarized in a short sentence: Life is short. When we celebrate Advent, anticipate Christmas, and get all caught up in the memories and experiences of Christmases present and past, we are reminded of just how short life is, how fast each year goes by.  So the questions become: "What have I done with my life since last Advent? What am I doing with my life this Advent to make my life significant? What will I do until Advent comes next year to make every day of my life count? By no means is life an endless cycle of Advent seasons until the new Christmas movies come out in July; it is a series of days, months and years and lifetimes that are headed into eternity.  What stands stable? God, His Word, His plan and His purpose.  Are we allowing Him to affect our everyday lives from year to year? Are we allowing His light to shine ever brighter every day? Are we showing signs of life for the time we do have on this earth? 

Questions for a Quiet Christmas #4

We have seen that last couple of days that the prophet Isaiah raises, and answers, a lot of questions about the coming Messiah - both His first coming and the second.  The occurrences increase when we get to chapter 40:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
    that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
    double for all her sins.
3 A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

These words of course are applied in the Gospels to John the Baptist, the forerunner preparing the way in Israel for Christ to come - the one who brings both peace and forgiveness.  His task is like that of the road-maker - to set as straight a course as possible, as level as possible, and as smooth as possible for people to get to God, and God to get to people.  Here's a question for us to consider: What can I do to make the road smooth, straight and level to help people find their way to God? to be able to see Him on the horizon? With all the craziness we have seen this past year, one might think people in desperation would be searching diligently for truth, for God. Are we making the path clear?  What can we do so that the glory of the Lord shall be revealed?   What kind of comfort can we bring people? What kind of peace can they see in our hearts and lives? Do they see evidence of forgiveness in our lives - that we know that we are but forgiven sinners who also have learned to forgive? So many questions. Let's quietly consider them.

Questions for a Quiet Christmas #3

We noted yesterday that the most often quoted prophet from the Old Testament, called upon to answer the questions about the Messiah in the New Testament, is Isaiah. Another such passage is chapter 11:

 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and might,
    the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
    or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
    and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
    and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
    in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

The question for the Old Testament reader was: Who is this Root of Jesse, this descendant of David? We know now. One of the questions we asked yesterday was What does Peace really look like? Isaiah pictures it for us here in verses 6-9 with how wild animals will cohabit with domestic ones. Obviously, the fullness of this peace is yet to come.  But the questions only become deeper: Where does that peace come from? The answer is in verse 5, quoted in Ephesians 6 - Christ's Righteousness. What is it that makes Him the source of Peace? Because He embodies the wisdom, understanding, knowledge, might and fear of the Lord.  And then what does it mean that He is this signal for the peoples? I'll let you work on that one. But here's a clue: think of the signal as a beacon, a lighthouse, a guiding light. So many questions.... Take some time today to discuss them with God.

Questions for a Quiet Christmas #2

Of all the Old Testament Prophets, the one we find especially informative about the coming Messiah is Isaiah.  We begin with this classic passage in Isaiah 9: 

2 The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
    on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden,
    and the staff for his shoulder,
    the rod of his oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
    and every garment rolled in blood
    will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

For the Israelites of Isaiah's day and several centuries after, there were lots of questions: Who was this Child? When would He come?How can He take care of evil in High places? For us who are waiting for His second advent, His coming again, we have similar questions: When will He come? How will He deal with all the darkness and oppression  we see around us? But focusing on the promise of verses 6 and 7, two more pressing and personal questions should concern us as well: What does peace really look like? and What kind of citizen am I in His Kingdom? Those questions do not have to wait for His return. Those questions are real for our quiet Christmas now. These things are from this time forth and forevermore. Let us ask Him to allow His peace, and His authority to rule and reign in our lives today. 

Questions for a Quiet Christmas

As we prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christ's coming this year, most of us will have a lot less commotion than usual. We will have a much more Quiet Christmas.  That should give us more time to search the scriptures and search our hearts, to ask some questions. We begin our Quiet Christmas in John 1:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Two piercing questions come to mind for us to ask ourselves over the next few weeks.  Do I love darkness more than light in my own life? Am I willing to try to keep things hidden from others and from God, rather than allowing Him to expose them, cleanse them, change me? The second question we also want to take time to seriously consider is this: Am I a Child of God? The question is introduced here that will resound throughout John's gospel: "Have I been born of God?" - not physically, but spiritually born again, to join this Son and the Heavenly Father in a forever family that lives life together even now? We'll see a lot more questions the next few weeks, but may these two always be in the background: Am I hiding in the darkness? Am I living like a Child of God?