Advent Devotions: Hail, the Incarnate Deity!

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Advent Devotions: Hail, the Incarnate Deity!

We would give up everything we've ever written to have penned this one verse, a stanza that comes as close as is humanly possible to capturing the splendor of who Jesus is. 
Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ, by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola, p. 173-174

What is that one verse? that one stanza?  Authors Sweet & Viola are referring to the last stanza of the well-known carol, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.

In my opinion, however, it isn't just the last stanza that is all glorious with the splendor of Christ...it's the entire song. In fact, even the stanzas that were removed* from the older version are splendid indeed.  But I'm getting ahead of the story.

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3rd Week of Advent: EMMANUEL, Our God is WITH Us

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3rd Week of Advent: EMMANUEL, Our God is WITH Us

If ever we needed to know God is WITH us in every possible way, it's NOW, after another year of the unanswerable "why's" of life. We struggle to make sense of all the suffering, loss, confusion and conflict of this world-wide pandemic that isn’t over yet.

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The Mega-JOY of Emmanuel

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The Mega-JOY of Emmanuel

Joy is the flag that flies over the soul when the King is in residence!
Chuck Swindoll

Years ago, I was leading a small group of ladies through Paul's letter to the Galatians.  In chapter 5, we came to a familiar passage:

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,and self control. Galatians 5:22-23

Julie was in that small group that year, and Julie was from Great Britain.  I asked her about Chuck's metaphor.  She assured me that it was true.  When royalty is in residence at the palace, the flag flies. It's the signal to the "subjects" that their monarch is present.

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2nd Week of Advent: the Really Good News -- GOD with US!

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2nd Week of Advent: the Really Good News -- GOD with US!

"The Good News isn't just that Jesus died for our sins.  The Good News is EMMANUEL...GOD WITH US!"  So declared Deb at the end of our Bible Study.

As John and I drove home that evening, we reflected on her statement.  We recalled a conversation we had had years before when we were discussing what the heart of the gospel ("Good News") is.   The Good News isn't just that our sins are forgiven so we can go to heaven someday (and now we just do the best we can in the meantime).

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Advent Devotions: the WITH-ness of our God {from nearness to oneness}

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Advent Devotions: the WITH-ness of our God {from nearness to oneness}

Jesus Christ the Son of God became one with us, so that we could be one with Him! 

This glorious truth is at the heart of the Incarnation.  God became one of us!  One with us!  Why?  So that we could experience union with God.

And that takes us back to our 3 Greek prepositions for with:  (see previous post:  The WITH-ness of our God (prepositions):

  • para, meaning beside, nearby, in the immediate vicinity or proximity, alongside
  • meta, meaning with, in close association with, in companionship with
  • sun, meaning together in intimate union, inseparable from
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Advent Devotions: the WITH-ness of our God {His Presence in prepositions}

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Advent Devotions: the WITH-ness of our God {His Presence in prepositions}

Isn't it wonderful when someone wants to spend time with us?  Not just a token, obligatory, "showing up" to either fulfill an obligation, salve guilt, or ask for something...a real wanting to be with us.

As special as it is in human relationships, think how amazing it is when we realize that the Sovereign God of the universe has wanted to be with us!  Yes, US!  and according to the Bible words used, we see that in Jesus, our Emmanuel, He is with us on every level possible.

In the original language of the New Testament, there are three Greek words that can be translated with. 

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Living as Abba's Child (a Bible Study in 1 John)

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Living as Abba's Child (a Bible Study in 1 John)

Years ago, when a friend had lost her last remaining parent, she said to me, “Now I feel like an orphan!” I’ve thought about her statement over the years and come to realize that we believers usually live like spiritual orphans. We live as if we don’t have a Father Who tenderly loves and cares for us. We live as orphans in a scary world. But His heart is that we would live as His children in union with Him in His Son.

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Learning from Jesus…the Father’s Perfect Child (a Bible Study)

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Learning from Jesus…the Father’s Perfect Child (a Bible Study)

The parent-child metaphor is perhaps the most tender picture of our relationship with God as believers. This is so movingly expressed in the Scriptures by the Hebrew term for Father God "Abba," meaning "Daddy." In our last post, we explored the truth that in reality we are all adult-children deep down who still really need a Father in order to do an adult life right here and now.

Let's look at Jesus, the perfect Son of our Abba Father God, and do a little digging into the Scriptures. Let’s ask the Spirit to speak to our child-hearts.

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Feeling like a "Child Incognito" especially Now

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Feeling like a "Child Incognito" especially Now

Helpless! Not in control of anything … the virus devastating our country and the world, political discord abounding, our economy in jeopardy, even our daily life changing every day. The good news is that our adult lives in this crisis world was never meant to be lived on our own. We have a Father with whom we can be needy and vulnerable so that we can face what is before us. So join me as we revisit what is means to be …

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The Pilgrim Spirit of Faith

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The Pilgrim Spirit of Faith

We are so tied to the here and now, aren't we? But at the heart of the life of faith is belief in the unseen God and trust in His promises that this world is not all there is. People of faith are pilgrims, aliens.

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth...Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13,16

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We are Part of Something Bigger than Us!

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We are Part of Something Bigger than Us!

John Eldridge in his book The Sacred Romance says that deep inside of us is a longing for intimacy and adventure. Here in Hebrews 11, we definitely see both! The intimacy is with a God who spoke us into existence and now can be trusted to care for us every step of the way (we will see this again in Heb 12). And the adventure...oh my! We are part of something bigger than ourselves...and that's exciting! We are in the "race of faith" with a long line of "runners"...some famous, like Abraham and Moses; some infamous and unlikely, like Rahab and Samson; and some unknown, like those who were sawn in two (among other horrors)...people "of whom the world is not worthy," the writer to the Hebrews says (Hebrews 11:38).

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Getting a Grip in this Pandemic

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Getting a Grip in this Pandemic

This day in July 2020 is our reality. It is part of the journey God has ordained for each of us.

If we are believers in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, may we live it out from our union with Christ. He lives in us, and we have the mind of Christ. Let us live with His indwelling attitude.

First posted in May 2020. But I fear we need this reminder again:

Brothers and sisters, we all need to get a grip! Our God owes us nothing! Absolutely zip! As Americans, as His children, as ____________ (whatever you may think entitles you).

All is pure gift! Absolute grace! Amazingly unconditional love!

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Getting a Grip in this Pandemic . . . Pressing into 1 Peter 5

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Getting a Grip in this Pandemic . . . Pressing into 1 Peter 5

Brothers and sisters, we all need to get a grip! Our God owes us nothing! Absolutely zip! As Americans, as His children, as ____________ (you fill in the blank with whatever you may think you are entitled to).

All is pure gift! Absolute grace! Amazingly unconditional love!

And He certainly doesn’t consider us Americans (because we are Americans) to be exempt from sacrifice and suffering. He doesn’t say we can call all our own shots because we are the land of the free, in contrast to the rest of the world.

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Waiting Eagerly in this Pandemic . . . Pressing into Romans 8

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Waiting Eagerly in this Pandemic . . . Pressing into Romans 8

It seems that we are all waiting these days, doesn’t it? What are you waiting for, my friend, . . . maybe even waiting eagerly?

Stores and restaurants to open? Jobs to call you back in? Hospitals and nursing homes to allow visitors? Schools to reopen? Playgrounds? Pools? Churches? Beaches? State Parks?

I’m waiting eagerly. NO! I’m chomping at the bit, to be able to drive two states over to be with my military “babies.” I’m waiting to be able to grab hold of my “babies,” young and old, near (here in Dayton) and far (there in Illinois), and hug and squeeze them. And I’ll bet you have loved ones that you are dying to grab hold of and HUG too.

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Learning from Jesus…the Father’s Perfect Child (a Bible Study)

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Learning from Jesus…the Father’s Perfect Child (a Bible Study)

The parent-child metaphor is perhaps the most tender picture of our relationship with God as believers. This is so movingly expressed in the Scriptures by the Hebrew term for Father God "Abba," meaning "Daddy." In our last post, we explored the truth that in reality we are all adult-children deep down who still really need a Father in order to do an adult life right here and now.

Let's look at Jesus, the perfect Son of our Abba Father God, and do a little digging into the Scriptures. Let’s ask the Spirit to speak to our child-hearts.

Read More

Feeling like a "Child Incognito" especially Now

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Feeling like a "Child Incognito" especially Now

Helpless! Not in control of anything … the virus devastating our country and the world, our economy drastically in jeopardy, even our daily life changing every day. The good news is that our adult lives in this crisis world was never meant to be lived on our own. We have a Father with whom we can be needy and vulnerable so that we can face what is before us. So join me as we revisit what is means to be …

Read More

We Died to Sin in the Death of Christ . . . Count on it! (Part 3)

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We Died to Sin in the Death of Christ . . . Count on it! (Part 3)

Today is a Day of Reckoning...but not how you think! Usually we use that term to mean to give an accounting, a calculation, a settlement of accounts. In fact according to Wikipedia, it can mean a host of things from the final judgment day to heavy metal albums and Nintendo games.

But in the Bible sense, EVERY day is a Day of Reckoning. This word reckon in the Greek is often rendered consider. In other words, "count on something to be true". My reckoning doesn't MAKE it true. It already IS true, so I count on it and live from it. So each day is THE day to reckon to be true what God says is true...because it IS true…

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Reunion

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Reunion

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

So goes a traditional nighttime prayer taught by American moms to their children for generations. It may seem odd to us today that there would be the mention of death in a child's prayer.  But scientists say that sleep is the closest we come to death while still alive.  The Greeks even had a proverb,

Sleep and death are brothers.

However, in the first century, Jewish moms taught their children a different bedtime prayer...quoting Psalm 31:

Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Completion

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Completion

Tetelestai!* It is finished! The death of Christ on the Cross is the HINGE of human history...and nowbefore He breathes His last breath... a cry of victory,It is finished!

What's finished? It must be something BIG,...look at what happened when Jesus died:

At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead.

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Focus on the CROSS: the Last 7 Sayings of Christ with B.C. 2001

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Focus on the CROSS: the Last 7 Sayings of Christ with B.C. 2001

How to refocus on Christ and the Cross during these unsettling, fear-filled days of the COVID-19 pandemic? I usually post a review of all of our Lord’s beautiful final words before His death on the Cross during Holy Week.

But I decided this year to share this post at the beginning of each of the remaining weeks of Lent. It will take us back “beneath the Cross” via links to each saying and also via an amazing “cartoon” from days gone by — B.C. (Johnny Hart).

I love this post because it was such a serendipitous delight to find this clipping in my file a few years ago. So I can't help but share it year by year.

Would you meditate along with me ... and revisit Christ's seven sayings for the Cross this week? [See links below] It's truly "holy ground" as we reflect on the Cross, what our Lord went through, but mainly, what He accomplished there. What a perfect preparation for the joy, freedom, and release of the Resurrection.

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