Love Incomprehensible

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Isaiah 9:6

Lately, I have been pondering why exactly it is so exciting and awesome and worthy of praise that Jesus was born.  Well, there is the obvious and very true answer—that Jesus was born, dwelt among us, and died to pay the penalty for our sins so that we could have the hope of eternity, forever spent with the one true God.  But what does it really mean that Jesus “became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” as it says in John 1:14?

Jesus, the Son, who had been around since Creation, decided to debase himself to a level even lower than angels.  He left the comforts of heaven where He was “seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple,” as it says in Isaiah 6:1.  He left a world where He was praised and exalted, where the angels called to one another saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3).  There He was rightfully known and revered as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

As the pastor at a Christmas Eve service I went to yesterday said, “He gave up a wonderful life for a horrible life so that we could exchange our horrible life for a wonderful life.”

Jesus had it all and it gave it all up for us.

He came knowing:

• That He, though He was the Lord Almighty, would born as a helpless baby, relying on others to care for him
• That He would be mocked, ridiculed, and rejected (Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. Matthew 22:15)
• That He, His love, and His coming would be misunderstood (“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?  Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us?  Where then did this man get all these things?”  And they took offense at him.  Matthew 13:55-57)
• That He would be betrayed by His closest friends (“I tell you Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.” Luke 22:34)
• That He would experience loneliness (Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Matthew 4:1)
• That He would face hunger (After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Matthew 4:2)
• That He would be tempted by Satan (The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Matthew 4:3)
• That He would experience deep anguish (And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.  Luke 22:44)
• That He would face an excruciatingly painful death being nailed to the cross.
• That He would face a separation from God the Father with whom He had always had a perfect relationship. (About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46)

Jesus lowered himself to our level, knowing all of these things.  It blows my mind to think of how Jesus came to face all those things, knowing that the people He came to save would be the very ones that reject and crucify Him.  I think I’ll never understand the depth of God’s love for us.  Today, on Christmas, let’s remember together how deeply Jesus loves us in that He would give up everything to give us everything. Let's thank God for Jesus' birth. :) Merry Christmas!

Bleak Circumstances

"Submission frees us to embrace God's plan for our lifes, a plan He has put together with our very best interests in his heart and mind."  --Nancy Guthrie, The One Year Book of Hope, p. 315

For me, a lot of the times, I fail to submit to God because of a lack of faith in Him.  I too often look at the circumstances and say to God, "Do You see this?  It's so hard.  Are You sure You can do it?"

Today, my friend reminded me of a passage from Romans 4 that talks on the subject of faith:

Verses 18-21--Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."  Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

In reading this, a few things struck me:

1. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed--Even though circumstances looked bleak, Abraham trusted in God
2. and so became the father of many nations--Because of his hope in God and trust in God, he then became the father of many nations.
3. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--Abraham was not in denial saying that there were no bleak circumstances.  He acknowledged the bleak circumstances, but didn't let them waver his faith.
4. but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised--Instead of letting the bleak circumstances shake his faith, Abraham turned it into praise to God.  If anything, I think this verse means that he trusted in God even more in light of the circumstances and that his picture of God grew.  He trusted in God and was "fully persuaded" that God was able to do what He had promised.

In times of bleak circumstances, I think we can follow Abraham's example by doing four things:

1. Trust in God, despite the circumstances
2. Acknowledge the circumstances
3. View the circumstances as mediums through which God is going to display His power all the more
4. Give glory to God when circumstances are overcome, instead of minimizing the bleakness of the circumstances

In facing seemingly overwhelming circumstances, we can be discouraged or encouraged.  We can be discouraged thinking that God is not powerful enough to overcome anything, even though Jesus overcame death.  Or we can be encouraged knowing that God is faithful in keeping promises and that the circumstances will be means through which God will awe us with His power and show us that He truly is the Lord Almighty.

Psalm 73

Sometimes it may feel to me, just like it did to Asaph in Psalm 73, that it seems easier to not follow God when you see the unrighteous prospering.  It seems that they’re doing well, while we’re living lives in which following God seems very hard sometimes.  I finally understand what is meant by our temporary trials achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17).  The choice is ours:

1.      Live a life following God with some hard times, but with the knowledge that God works everything out to the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28) and also with the knowledge that in the end after we leave this earth, we’ll have no more tears or death or mourning or pain or crying (Revelation 21:4) and we’ll spend eternity in the presence of God.

2.      Life a life not following God with some hard times, seeing no rhyme or reason behind those hard times and spending eternity apart from God and everything that is good, loving, and joyful.  To me, that spells out hard times for eternity.