Isaiah 9:2-7

Here is a set of verses that we hear often at Christmastime, from Isaiah 9:2-7

The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
3You shall multiply the nation,
You shall increase their gladness;
They will be glad in Your presence
As with the gladness of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
5For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
6For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

I know that many times I read these verses half-heartedly, thinking 'I already know this!' But to read them with intention to me means to put myself in the shoes of the people for whom this was originally given and it reminds me again what a word of HOPE this passage embodies.

Remember that Israel had been oppressed, embattled, enslaved and for generations had led very difficult lives. And now to be told that that oppression would not last forever, but would be lifted by a saviour in the form of a child.

This is where all the famliar attributes of the Messiah are listed: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God...Prince of Peace. Read those words slowly. Let them sink into your heart, because they are the heart of the Gospel. Jesus is all of those things to those who love Him.

In the midst of the crazy, hectic season of Christmas let us remember to rejoice for our salvation is at hand!

The Word

Since advent starts this Sunday, I thought we should start focusing on what Christmas means to us as Christians.

From John 1:1-5, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ....
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

It amazes me every year when I really start to think about what Jesus did. He IS GOD and He left heaven to come and live with us. To become one of us. He was tempted, yet was perfect. He lived a life that was full of love so that we would see the grace and love of His Father. He died to reconcile us to God. He is the Light, the Glory of the Father, wrapped in flesh.

Praise God today for sending His Light into the world to save us!

With Thanksgiving coming up here in America this week, I wanted to share one of my favorite psalms:

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.
Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.

Know that the LORD Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations. - Psalm 100

**This is a short psalm, but contains so many important items. The first stanza is an element of sheer, unashamed praise. Shouldn't we always start our day like that?

The second stanza is an acknowledgement of who God is and who we are in context of His reign: He is our Creator, our loving Shepherd and we are the sheep. Remembering our place in the universe keeps us humble.

The third stanza is more praise, but it reminds us that only He makes us worthy to stand in His presence and bless His name. Wow!

The psalm ends with a reminder that the Lord is good. We have been showered with blessings, even though our lives are hard. We have a loving God; always with us, willing to do so much to bring us back to Him.

Praise God this week for His many, many blessings!

Article on Worship

I found this article at Crosswalk that uses several popular songs to discuss 'seeing' Jesus. It's something wonderful to think that someday we will have the opportunity to really see Him in all His glory, like John did in the book of Revelation.
  I don't know about anyone else, but "I can only imagine."

Great blog I found

I stumbled upon a really great blog called Talkwisdom the other day. It is unapologetically Christian and may be a bit right-wing for some people, but I'm not shy about saying that I am a conservative Christian. Whether or not you agree with it, there is always something that will give you pause to consider. There is also a website with forums and such at talkwisdom.com that I can only assume is related to this blog. There I found a well-done post on Recognizing Truth from Error: something of which we who call ourselves 'mature Christians' should be constantly aware.

Daily Surrender

This month's faithbook challenge at DSP was to talk about what the concept of 'daily surrender' means. Here is what I created:



Created with the Beautiful Bride kit by Beth Nixon available at DSP

Intentional Love

I had the great privilege of being in the courthouse earlier this week to watch as some friends of our legally added two little girls to their family. I had not been to an adoption hearing before and was considerably moved when each parent was asked the question, "Will you love this child?" Maybe all of us as parents should be willing to stand before our friends and family and say, "Yes, I will love this child in the best way I know how. I will provide shelter and food and moral guidance. I will kiss the scraped knees and wear macaroni necklaces. I will love this child through colic, the terrible twos, the endless questions, the messy rooms, the teenage angst and will rejoice when this child becomes a contributing member of our society." There is something so intentional about saying the words out loud.

Granted, people vow before God to love their husbands and wives at their wedding and plenty of people break those vows. We baptize or dedicate our babies and make a vow before God to raise them properly and many times we fall down on that vow too. But there is something about making a vow that is powerful and I believe is part of the reason that we are instructed to speak about our faith so often in the Bible. Saying out loud, "Yes, I love the Lord. Yes, I believe Jesus died for me. Yes, I will give Him everything" is powerful, intentional love. We should all be ready ALWAYS to share that with everyone.