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Posts Tagged ‘Jesus’

Eternal Liar

Posted in WONDER, tagged #suicide, Bible, christianity, Depression, GOD, Jesus, satan on January 26, 2025| 1 Comment »

The news cuts somewhere deep within us … for we were not created to die. The truth of God’s intent for us never included mental illness, depression, death.

Yet …

haven’t we all cried, sorrowed, grieved when we hear of the end of life of another?

Death entered our world when Satan told a lie in the garden, to the original souls of humanity.

And he still tells lies.

This past week we heard of the death of beautiful soul. One tortured by that which was never intended … despair, despondency, depression.

A young woman who God knit together in her mother’s womb … oh that mum, that dad … God hear our prayers for them!

A young woman with siblings, relatives, friends.

And they all cry, sorrow and grieve.

And we ache, deep in our souls … because this is not the way it is supposed to be.

And this deep ache …

it is proof that it’s a lie.

IT’S A LIE!

WHEN SATAN TELLS YOU

NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU

NO ONE LOVES YOU

NO ONE THINKS OF YOU …

OUR GRIEF IS PROOF

IT’S A LIE.

If you are ever so low you despair even of life. If you hear whispers that no one cares about you, no one loves you, no one thinks of you … I want you to know those whispers are from Satan himself. And, I want you to remember what grief feels like … because the sorrow of grief is proof that Satan lies. He has lied since the beginning of time.

Our grief is proof, that Satan lies … for our grief comes from caring, loving and thinking of the one who is gone from us.

Satan … “was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” John 8:44.

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First Love

Posted in WONDER, tagged Bible, christianity, GOD, Jesus, revelation on September 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Did you know that, in the US, Canada and some other nations, national First Love Day was just yesterday (September 18)? It is the day to celebrate the one who caused that first release of the love drug (said in Barry White deep voice) … oxytocin.

First love … just saying those two words may bring a face or name to mind immediately. The memories of the lovely, silly, warm feelings one felt, perhaps many, many years ago. The thought of a first love may also make one thankful that that person has stayed in the past.

In Revelation 2:4, the apostle John scolds the church in Ephesus:

“But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love.”

He is telling that church (and maybe even tells the christian church today … and we individuals within it) that they/we have forgotten the love, the passion that was felt when we first came to know of who Jesus is and how much we are loved.

And why is this such a big deal? I love one of the points made in the Matthew Henry Commentary,

“These lively affections will abate and cool if great care be not taken, and diligence used, to preserve them in constant exercise.”

Isn’t that like all forms of love? If we do not dote on the one to whom we say we love … if we do not study and listen closely to what they say, if we do not take (make) time to be with this love … well, do we really love them? And, if we were to jump into the ‘others’ shoes, would we feel loved, would we know we are loved if the other does is not attentive, is not making efforts to show love towards us?

John then continues on with a stern (and serious) warning,

“Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (v. 5)

Repent … just own how we have failed to love our God.

Perform the deeds we did at first … let the passion of the beginnings of love for God return.

BUT …
If we don’t do these things, something unbelievable, of upmost seriousness, is our consequence (as the church and as we who claim the name of Christ …

“I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place”

For the lampstand to be removed is to have the Light of Christ removed. This is so very serious.

Oh, how we need to call back our first love joy. How we need to return to that passion we once had for this one who brings light to our life.

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Why Do We Pray?

Posted in WONDER, tagged #obedience, Faith, GOD, Jesus, Prayer on May 27, 2024| 2 Comments »

Is there anything more boring than repetition? There is no feeling, no emotion, no uniqueness, no life in the parroting of what has always been done. In things of the church, in the life of the Christ follower, this redundancy can seem to be almost deadly.

although …

As a girl, my church had, for so many years, a call to worship hymn … every Sunday. If I heard Thou Art Worthy once, I heard it hundreds of times! As kids we mocked it, ignored it and allowed out eyes to roll sarcastically in our heads.

Yet now, forty odd years later, when that song is sung, tears fall from my eyes and my knees wiggle to bend, for the repetition as a teen caused an inner chamber of my heart to hold those words more closely than might have appeared at the time. Those words were written on my heart by the same repetitive, boring means that I mocked.

I love the story of Joan Chittister, who, as a Benedictine nun, was introducing a new group of nuns to the community. She asked them,

“why do we pray?”

The women responded similarly to how you or I might …

we pray to grow close to God
we pray to confess our sings
we pray to share our burdens
we pray to ask God to answer our prayers

After awhile, a nun dares to ask the question that they all have poised on the lips,

“why do we pray?”

To which Chittister responds,

“we pray because the bells ring.”

“Bell” by Serhii Korniievskyi

To be obedient to the bell, to the ritual of praying (just) because the bell rings, is to ensure that we do pray, that we are obedient beyond desire … for desire can be fleeting, for we can be fickle. To be obedient to the bell is to ensure that whatever mood, whatever circumstance,

we pray.

Perhaps it is time to set a new reminder on my phone.

“To pray only when it suits us is to want God on our terms. To pray only when it is convenient is to make the God-life a very low priority in a list of better opportunities. To pray only when it feels good is to court total emptiness when we most need to be filled. The hard fact is that nobody finds time for prayer.”
– Joan Chittister

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The Two Faces of Christmas

Posted in christmas, WONDER, tagged #santa, #thetwofacesofchristmas, christmas, Jesus on December 15, 2020| 1 Comment »

When I was growing up (back in the stone ages), there were two main faces of Christmas; the Christ child and Santa Claus.

Although I grew up with both faces, both individuals as part of this season, I did not grow up confused by the pair who I grew up connecting to Christmas.

Santa was a good, and gentle man, and the stories of him fed my dreams of a magical character who existed to reward my good behavior.

The Christ child was an innocent baby, who was born to eventually die, so that I would never have to deal with the consequences of my human sin.

One gave,

the other took away.

One was jolly,

the other gave joy.

One lived in the North Pole,

and the other lived in my heart.

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Two Parades

Posted in GOD, life, WONDER, tagged #twoparades, blood, Exodus 12, Good Friday, Hosanna, Jesus, lamb, Moses, Palm Sunday, parade, Passover, save, Triumpal Entry on March 25, 2018| 2 Comments »

Today is Palm Sunday, and in churches all over the world, talk of a parade was paramount.

Recorded in all four of the New Testament gospels, is the event of Jesus riding on a donkey, as he entered the city of Jerusalem (the City of Peace … ironic don’t you think, that a City, so very mired, today, in conflict was named a city of peace? … but, I digress).

Some in the crowd laid down their cloaks for his donkey to walk on (maybe this was the first red carpet event in history?), some in the crowd waved palm branches as he went by, and many called out, “Hosanna (meaning ‘save now’) to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9)

This all happened as the festival of Passover was beginning. Exodus 12 tells the story of the original Passover (Passover). The Israelites had been enslaved by Egypt, for many generations. God instructed Moses to have His people slaughter lambs, and cover their door frames with the blood. Then, in the night, the firstborn of every family would be killed, except for the households whose door frames are covered in the lambs blood, because the destroyer would ‘pass over’ those homes (this was the final of the ten plagues used to convince Pharaoh to let the people go).

Moses did as God asked, the Israelites obeyed, and the Passover story came to be. Even in the home of Pharaoh, the firstborn of every Egyptian household was slaughtered. But the people in the homes that were covered by the blood of the lamb, were spared, and Pharaoh set the Israelites free.

Later this week, on Good Friday, in churches all over the world, talk of a parade will be, again, paramount. Again there were crowds of people. Again there was shouting. This time, there was no “Hosanna”, there was no ‘save now’, being sung out. Instead the shouts were “crucify him.” This time it was all a parody, all a mockery of the earlier parade.

Each of the gospels mentions his walk to Golgotha (the place of the skulls), where Jesus was nailed to the cross that he and Simone of Cyrene carried there. That walk, that parade, was after being wrongly tried, convicted, flogged, and had a crown of thrones pushed onto (into) his head.

This parade was the parade of the lamb of God (the Son of God) to the slaughter. And his blood, shed for all of humanity, is what sets us free.

“And when your children ask you,
‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’
then tell them,
‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD,
who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt
and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'”
Exodus 12:26-27

Watch the Lamb

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Raised for Life

Posted in GOD, life, WONDER, tagged #deathcouldnotholdyou, #loveconquereddeath, #raisedforlife, #sonofgod, #whatawonderfulname, Easter, Jesus on April 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

“Death could not hold You, the veil tore before You
You silenced the boast, of sin and grave
The heavens are roaring, the praise of Your glory
For You are raised to life again”

The sun arose.

The dark of night was being extinguished by the light of the new day.

It was Sunday.

The Son arose.

The dark sin of death extinguished by the light of the world

In Hebrew, the name Jesus means god saves. Through his sacrifice of death and separation from his Father, then the resurrection on the third day, Jesus, the son of God, saves us even this day.

This is the day of celebration for he beat the power of death. Not just to show himself, risen, but so that we too could, through his sacrifice, overcome death.

Though we still live in a world of darkness, of sin, heartbreak and loneliness, we are never alone, and we have the power, strength and companionship of the the one who conquered sin and death.

This makes for a better eternity, it makes for a better today too.

death

“You didn’t want heaven without us
So Jesus, You brought heaven down
My sin was great, Your love was greater
What could separate us now

What a wonderful Name it is
What a wonderful Name it is
The Name of Jesus Christ my King”

Hillsong-What a Beautiful Name

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” … and then came baby Jesus”

Posted in WONDER, tagged #andthencamebabyjesus, #annlamont, #christinarossetti, #lightindarkness, #merrychristmas, #wendellberry, christmas, Jesus on December 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

“It gets darker and darker and then came baby Jesus.”

Ann Lamont shared the words, above, spoken in her presence by poet and author, Wendell Berry. It was a dark and stormy December day.

Today is a rather dark day, as the sound of rain falling interrupts the Christmas music playing in our house. Or is the music interrupting the rain falling?

In our world there is much darkness, much hatred, much too little peace … too little peace on Earth.

Darkness is the backdrop of our world and our lives, today, as it was that first Christmas, when love and light came to us in the form of baby. The innocence of a helpless, dependent baby, in the arms of his mother, who he came to save.

Delivered in the arms of a world, who he came to save, to redeem.

And, as a helpless babe, he was entrusted to a dark dark world. A world given the choice to love him, or reject him. To embrace him, or abandon him.

But, this celebration of Christmas is about how the light of that helpless babe still shines.

It shines in his birth foretold so long before fulfilled.

It shines in the Christmas story fulfilling the prophesy.

It shines in you and me, those of us who claim his redemption, who live illuminated by his love within us.

Merry Christmas is not a message for red cupped retailers, or turkey dinners or reindeers with lit noses.

Merry Christmas is the message of the word, become flesh, in the form of a baby, arms stretched open towards all of humanity, giving light to a dark world.

“CHRISTMAS hath darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answering music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.”

Christina Rossetti

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Cleaning House

Posted in WONDER, tagged christmas, christmas story, Jesus, joseph and mary, packing away christmas, symbols of christmas on January 9, 2014| 3 Comments »

Christmas-tree-box-packing-storage-621x660

Many speak of how ’empty’ their homes feel once Christmas is packed away for another year. I have to admit, cleaning away the decor of Christmas is something I usually am ready to do by about noontime on Christmas Day. This year I waited patiently until December 29th.

When the last of the boxes was placed on it’s shelf, and the final needles from the tree vacuumed up, I then moved on to cleaning up the food of the season. The best way to do that was to encourage my son to have a couple of his fourteen year old, male, friends over for a day of video gaming … food cleaned up!

Once Christmas got packed away I looked forward to the following morning, when I sat down in my cozy chair, with a steaming cup of brew, and admired the clutter-free house.

It is then that Christmas hit … as though for the first time of the season.

I sit in the quiet of the still dark room and pondered the season we just celebrated.

Mary was young … really young … young like my fourteen-year old son. Still a child by today’s standards, but a young woman in her day. Preparing for her upcoming marriage to Joseph, her plans were knocked off their axis when she was visited by a stranger, who announced what was to come … a baby.

No, not just a baby … the Savior. The long-awaited Messiah.

Her wedding plans altered … did she realize her plans for the rest of her life were altered as well?

Joseph was planning and preparing to wed his betrothed by creating a good name for himself in his community and by laboring to establish a home for them to share. The reputation he had worked so hard to create was now to be destroyed by the news Mary shared … she was pregnant, and he knew this child did not originate in the sparkle in his eyes. As a man of honor he would divorce her quietly (engagement in those days was a legal contract, as binding as marriage). Then, he too was visited by a heavenly stranger … the nest egg he was planning to use to start a life for two, would now be needed to support three.

Sigh!

What a drama, a thriller, a mystery!

How is it that, I do not fully grasp the weighty significance of the Christmas story until after it is over, until after all of it’s symbols are packed away?

Maybe it is because the symbols are human ones …

trees topped with angels and stars
nativity sets
advent candles
carols

Maybe our focus is so directed to the symbols of Christmas we miss the figures they represent and the story they should lead us to ponder. The story of sin-filled people, in need of and waiting for the arrival of their Savior … Messiah. The story of God sending that Savior in a most unexpected, unassuming way … the way every person enters this life … as a baby.

Unlike the baby Jesus of our Christmas nativities and carols, this one did not stay a baby. He grew and skinned his knees, and learned his lessons, and did his chores. He began his ministry and taught lessons, and performed miracles, and loved the unlovable. He was crucified, died, buried, rose again.

And I sat, my still-filled mug not even cooled, as the tears of understanding rolled down my cheeks …

This Christmas gift was never given with the intent of being packed away until next year … that is only for the symbols.

What God gave was never intended to only be a symbol.

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The Husband of Mary

Posted in christmas, WONDER, tagged angel in a dream, christmas, GOD, Jesus, Joseph, Joseph husband to Mary, Mary, Matthew 1, sarcrifice on December 19, 2013| 3 Comments »

I cannot imagine the insecurities of Joseph, the husband of Mary (Matthew 1:16). The man was not only the earthly father-figure of the Messiah, but he was also married to the Virgin Mary, who was chosen by God, to be the vessel through which God would come to Earth! That, is alot to live with under one roof!

Really, I do wonder about Joseph. I wonder what kind of a man he was. I wonder what he thought about his virgin fiance being with child. I wonder if he felt like he was father to Jesus. I wonder if he felt his role was understated. I wonder if he felt it difficult to correct Jesus, as a child (or did he need correction?). I wonder if he felt used, unjustly treated, minimalised.

The Bible really says little of Joseph, but I do not think that his role is minimal, after all he was chosen, by God, to be the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus as well as to do all that an earthly father does for his child. Joseph married his fiance (knowing that the child she was carrying was NOT his), worked to earn an income, helped to raise Jesus, and moved around whenever he had a dream telling him to.

Matthew 1:18-19 gives the main account of Joseph’s part in the birth of Jesus:

^“This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly …”

Being engaged to a pregnant woman during those biblical times was not a politically correct position to be in. He could have had her stoned (adultery), he could have left her publically, but he didn’t want her to ‘disgrace’ her (most of that time would think that it was she who disgraced him), so he planned to divorce her quietly.

Matthew 1:20

“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit “…”

Joseph is one of the small, elite group of people of the Bible who have been given a message through an angel of the Lord. He did not ask for it, he had already made the honorable decision about what to do with his Mary, before any angel entered his dream world. He is also of the line of David, a royal line that was part of the big picture plan of God.

Matthew 1:21-23

^“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”) …”

Joseph did not even get to choose the name of the child that his betrothed was to give birth too. Even that was not in his power or choosing … but, he did it!

Matthew 1:24

^“When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife …”

He married her! He did not divorce her quietly, but he took her to his home. This would increase suspicion that the child that Mary was carrying was his … he put himself in a position of public ridicule.

Matthew 1:25

“But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”

Hum, how do I expand on this point … ? So, Joseph … a young man … pregnancy takes nine months … Joseph takes her home as his wife around three-four months … so they would be married, without consummating their vows for about four months before the baby was born, and then another two weeks after the birth (before her ritual bath). So, married? Yes. Joseph experiencing marital physical closeness? No. Enough said!

Joseph was a man, chosen by God, because God knew that Joseph was an honorable man, who (obviously) sought to ensure the validity of God’s plan. And really, I doubt he was full of insecurities … I expect that he understood what it was to fully seek God’s will for his life.

What an amazing man he was!

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It’s Not Fair!

Posted in christmas, WONDER, tagged Angels, baby, chosen, Elizabeth, God chosen, importance, it's not fair, Jesus, Luke 1, Mary, Son of God, Travelling, virgin mary on December 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

God knows what He is doing, both now and always.

For instance, He knew what He was doing when Mary was chosen to be the mother of the Christ child … and not me.

Mary was “highly favored” (Luke 1:28), I on the other hand am … extra human in regards to my use of phrase like, “that’s not fair.”

If I were to have walked in the shoes of Mary, and been visited by an angel (that is big enough as it is) who told me that I, a virgin, was to be inseminated by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Son of God (and not even have the honor of choosing the name of my firstborn) I would not have replied, “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38).

Then off she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth … if it were me, my intent would have been to flee the realities that were going on, and to bury my head in the sand, as the great ostriches do to avoid their problems. But no, there is no avoiding reality from her first words, when Elizabeth’s pre-born boy decides to do cartwheels at the sound of her voice.

And the unfair things did not stop there! After Joseph got his angelic visit, and he hoped on board, they had to head travel to be counted in the census that Caesar decided was necessary. So off the pair trod, Mary VERY pregnant, and the two undoubtedly still confused.

Then, upon arrival at their destination of Bethlehem, there is not a room left for them to find refuge, and for their baby to be born.

At this point I would have been looking up at those shiny stars and saying, “really God? Really? This IS YOUR son, could we at least have a place to bring Him into this world?”

God knew what He is doing, then and now. He does not ask any more of us than we can handle, and being the mother to the Christ child would definitely be more than I could handle.

I remember being a young teenager and saying to my God-loving grandmother, that ‘other’ denomination puts too much emphasis on Mary (parroting words I had heard, rather than what my own heart and brain deemed to be true). My grandmother, uncharacteristically firm and pointed in her reply to her only granddaughter said, “and we do not emphasize her value enough! If God chose her to give birth and raise His Son, she must have been a very special young woman.”