The Victory of Christmas

When we talk about the birth of Jesus at Christmas time we usually focus on the stories in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2. Revelation 12:1-12 shows us another picture of the birth of Jesus. There are no mangers or wise men here, however. Here we see the Dragon, who is later revealed to be Satan, waiting for the birth of Jesus in order to devour the baby. Immediately after the birth of this baby, a war breaks out in heaven and the Dragon is defeated.

In Revelation, it is the birth of Jesus that signals the defeat of Satan.

Not the crucifixion.

Not the resurrection.

The birth of a baby. A tiny helpless baby.

Revelation shows us Satan waiting to devour the baby Jesus because he must know what the birth of this baby means. The birth of Jesus means that God is coming to earth in the form of a human. Of course this changes everything.

God is finally beginning to make things right in the world and it begins with a baby. That is the power of Christmas: God is changing the world and it happens because of the birth of a baby.

As soon as this baby was born, everything changed. God is no longer distant. God is with us. God knows what it is like to be a human.

Everything is changing because of this baby and we wait for everything to finally be made right.

The victory has been won in the birth of this baby.

The Importance of the Holy Spirit

In my last post I discussed the absence of the Holy Spirit in our churches and some reasons for why I think that is. Now I think it is important to explore the Holy Spirit and why the Spirit should be an important part of our lives as Christians.

So what exactly is the Holy Spirit? As I mentioned previously we do not really understand the Spirit and that freaks us out. That is what makes this hard. The Spirit is not easy to define and this doesn’t sit well within our modern mindset. We like answers, but we don’t always get them when it comes to the Spirit.

What do we know about the Spirit, then? Here are a few things Scripture tells about the Spirit:

• The Spirit reminds us of the things Jesus said and taught (John 14:26).
• The Spirit is our Comforter and Advocate (John 14-15).
• The Spirit transforms us (2 Corinthians 3:18).
• The Spirit helps us pray (Rom 8:26-27).
• The Spirit helps us understand the gifts God has given us (1 Corinthians 2:12).

This list is by no means exhaustive. But it should be apparent that the Holy Spirit is meant to play an important role in the life of Christians. If you read through the book of Acts, which tells the story of the earliest Christians, you will notice how prominently the Spirit features there. This is telling. The earliest Christians were guided and lead by the Spirit.

In Acts 15 a group of Christian leaders gathered together to figure out the solution to a major problem and when they decided on a solution they sent a letter out to some of the churches. The letter starts out, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” These Christians seem to have come to a conclusion with the help of the Holy Spirit. Reading through Acts you get the feeling that the Holy Spirit was actually a member of the earliest Christian communities.

Yet we tend to ignore the Spirit.

Doesn’t it seem like we are missing out on something?

I’m not an expert in the area of the Holy Spirit by any means, but it seems to me that the Spirit was meant to be a vital part of the Christian life. Jesus promised to send the Spirit to help guide his disciples. I don’t think we were meant to live as Christians without the help of the Spirit. We just aren’t strong enough to do it on our own. The Spirit helps us and transforms us. The list of the fruit of the Spirit in Paul’s letter to the Galatians are the qualities that start to appear in us as the Spirit does its work in us. Why would we not want all of this power we could get?

So what do we do? Once again, I’m no expert so these are just my suggestions. If you have other suggestions please post them in the comment section.

I think a big part of this is opening our eyes to notice what the Spirit is already doing in our lives. I think often when we talk about God or Jesus we are actually talking about the Spirit. Of course, all of the members of the Trinity are connected but I think it is important to experience the Spirit as a distinct member of the Trinity. Pray that you will be aware of the Spirit working in your life and that you will be aware of the Spirit leading you and transforming you.

Try praying to the Holy Spirit. I’ve started attempting to mention the Spirit each time I pray and it seems to have helped me become more aware of what the Spirit is doing.

Read the passages in Scripture that speak about the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures listed above are good places to start. You could also meditate on the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22.

Talk about the Holy Spirit. Bring it up when the opportunity arises. This is another way to help remind us of the Spirit and the way it moves in our lives.

Practice spiritual disciplines. There are many spiritual disciplines designed to lead us into closer communion not just with the Spirit but with the entire Trinity. If you need a good resource I recommend Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun.

Those are just a few suggestions that have helped me. Hopefully they will help you become more aware of the Spirit. God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us in our journeys. Why would we want to ignore this gift? I pray that Christians are beginning to be reminded of the importance of the Holy Spirit and that the Church will recognize this great power that is accessible to us.

Where is the Holy Spirit?

There is something I have noticed recently that has really concerned me. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned very often in churches or Christian circles. At least not in the churches I have been a part of.

Sermons don’t mention the Holy Spirit very often.

Our praise songs mention God and Jesus with regularity, but not the Spirit.

We pray to God in Jesus’ name, but we rarely mention the Spirit when we pray.

I remember a handmade sign on a door to a children’s classroom at the church where I grew up. There were 3 clouds with 1 word on each of them. The three words were: God, Jesus, Bible. Who knows how many children grew up assuming that the Trinity was God, Jesus and the Bible.

I realize that all of this is a generalization and that some churches and faith traditions do speak often of the Spirit. But in general it seems that the Spirit is absent from most of our church services. The Spirit is absent from most of our lives.

The question we have to ask is “Why?”

The Holy Spirit is a main character in the New Testament. A quick search on Accordance revealed that the Spirit is mentioned over 85 times in the New Testament (This was not a scientific search at all. I simply searched for the greek words hagios and pneuma within three words of each other in the Greek text. Therefore, this count doesn’t take into account the instances where the Spirit is referred to without the modifier Holy. It also doesn’t account for instances where the Spirit is referred to by a pronoun. There is also the section in the Gospel of John where Jesus refers to the Spirit as the Helper or Advocate. So the number is probably much higher than 85, but this estimate does show us how important the Spirit was). The Spirit was tremendously important to the earliest Christians. Yet we don’t speak of the Holy Spirit very often in our churches. I have a few theories about why this might be:

1. The Holy Spirit freaks us out. We understand the Father. We can definitely relate to the human Jesus. But we can’t get our heads around the Spirit. We can paint pictures of Jesus but it is hard to capture the Spirit in works of art. We don’t understand how the Spirit really works and this doesn’t sit well in our modern scientific world where we want answers and explanations for everything. The Holy Spirit is very mysterious and I think that this freaks us out.

2. We don’t want the Holy Spirit with us all the time. I think if we are honest with ourselves we really don’t like the idea of the Spirit being with us all day every day. We like our privacy. And the Spirit doesn’t allow for any privacy.

3. We don’t feel like we need the Holy Spirit. The dominant narrative in Western Christianity has been one of salvation from Hell. If all that our relationship with God consists of is believing in Jesus and his sacrifice so that we won’t go to Hell when we die then we have no need for the Spirit. If our focus is only on the afterlife then the Spirit will not seem important to us. The Spirit guides us and transforms us, but if we are only waiting around to go to Heaven then the Spirit won’t seem very useful to us.

These are just a few theories that have come to me. If you know of other reasons why we tend to ignore the Spirit I would love to hear it in the comment section. Overall, I think when we forget the third person of the Trinity it becomes damaging to our Christianity. We need more of the Holy Spirit and its guidance. I plan to have another post in a few days about the importance of the Spirit so be on the lookout for that. For the time being take some time to think about the Spirit and how it should be involved in our lives as Christians.

My Journey Toward No Longer Making Assumptions

I just finished reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan last week. Something he wrote struck me. Chan was talking about the parable of the sower and how we shouldn’t just naturally assume that we are the good soil.

I realized right off that I have always assumed this way. I read this parable and I automatically think of myself as the good soil that Jesus speaks of. And this isn’t the only parable I do this with. With any parable or story that I read I tend to identify with the “good character.”

When I read the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) I want to identify with the son who disowns his father and runs off to a foreign land but then realizes his mistake and returns home. But many times I resemble the older brother who gets angry with the forgiveness and generosity of the father.

Likewise, when I read the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20) I like to think that I am one of the workers who worked only a few hours but received a generous reward from the vineyard owner. But I think if I really found myself in that situation I would actually be on the side of the workers who are greatly upset with the owner for his generosity.

I read the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18) and I want to believe that I am like the tax collector who realizes his sin and asks God for mercy. The Pharisee compares himself to the tax collector and thanks God that he is not a sinner like him. I compare myself to that Pharisee and I thank God that I am not like him. Which makes me exactly like him.

When I read the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) I compare myself to the Samaritan who helps the man who was robbed. But maybe I am more often like the priest and the Levite and I turn a blind eye to the hurting people all around me everyday. Or maybe I am more like the man who is beaten and lying on the side of the road in need of help.

The question I must answer is “Why do I do this?”

Perhaps it is my own pride that makes me want to believe that I really am good or that I am doing what God wants me to be doing.

Perhaps it is human nature to believe that we are doing the best we can. To identify with what we want to be or what we believe God wants us to be.

Perhaps it is sin that is still present in me that deceives me and makes me forget what I really am sometimes. Because the truth is that I do not always act like I am the good soil in Jesus’ parable. Sometimes I am more like the seed sown on the rocky soil that receives the word with joy but has no root. Other times I am like the thorny soil and the cares of the world choke out the word. Hopefully sometimes I do resemble the good soil that produces the crop. But if I am being completely honest this doesn’t happen as often as I would like to think it does.

For whatever reason I always want to assume the best about myself, but maybe I can learn something by being honest with myself and with God. Perhaps if I can learn to inspect my life as I read these parables I can become more like what I need to be.

Resurrection

Easter is the most important day of the year for a Christian. The resurrection of Jesus proves to us that sin and death have been defeated. The empty tomb shows us that the kingdom of God is breaking into our world in a real way. This is cause for great celebration.

But I’m afraid that all too often we have reduced Easter to chocolate bunnies and hunting for bright plastic eggs.

In fact, Christmas has become the most important day of the year for most Christians. We get together with friends and family and exchange gifts. We start planning months in advance to get ready for Christmas. Christmas is a huge deal. Just look at the amount of money we spend at Christmas

Christmas is very important. I’m not trying to say that it isn’t. God coming to earth as a flesh and blood human being is incredibly important and demonstrates God’s love and commitment to God’s creation.

But think about Easter. Jesus rose from the dead! Jesus was beaten and was crucified and he was dead. But then three days later he was alive again! That doesn’t happen every day. Sin and death are defeated all because of the resurrection of the Son of God.

Maybe like with the crucifixion we are so used to hearing about the resurrection of Jesus that it has lost some of its power. In fact, it seems to me that most Christians focus more on the crucifixion than the resurrection. I’m not sure why this is.

Just like I said about Christmas, I’m not trying to downplay the crucifixion. As I stated in my last post the crucifixion was a central part of God’s plan. Jesus’ death somehow brings life to us. But for some reason we focus only on the crucifixion and the fact that this allows our sins to be forgiven. Maybe it is our own guilt which causes us to focus so much on our own sin and our need for forgiveness.

Listen to the talk that goes on at church. We talk about the crucifixion most every Sunday but the resurrection is not mentioned nearly as often. Even at Easter the talk will probably be more about the crucifixion and the forgiveness of our sins than about the resurrection and what the resurrection means.

It’s the same thing with the songs we sing. Both the songs we sing at church and most contemporary Christian music speaks of the crucifixion and forgiveness of sins, but the resurrection isn’t mentioned nearly as often.

Forgiveness of sins is important, but it is not the end of the story. Our sins are forgiven so that we can be transformed and be in a relationship with God and work with God. The crucifixion and the forgiveness of our sins are part of the journey. They are not the final destination.

The crucifixion would not matter at all if it weren’t for the resurrection. The incarnation wouldn’t amount to much either if the resurrection didn’t happen. The resurrection changes everything. It changes nature itself and how the world works.

The resurrection helps us to make sense of everything that happened before it.

The resurrection proves that the crucifixion was part of God’s plan.

The resurrection proves that God is not done working in our world.

The resurrection proves that God’s kingdom is breaking into our world in a real, tangible way. That the eschaton, a whole new way of doing things has begun.

The resurrection proves that sin and death hold no power over us any longer.

The resurrection is the single most important moment in all of human history.

And we celebrate it by hunting for eggs? We strip the resurrection of its power without even thinking about it. I pray that this Easter we will remember the power of the resurrection and will praise God for this.

The Offensiveness of a Crucified Messiah

Good Friday has me reflecting on the crucifixion of Jesus. I was thinking of how common the crucifixion has become for us. We hear about Christ being crucified so often that it has become commonplace to us.

But for people in the first century this was not the case. The idea of the Messiah, God’s chosen representative, suffering and dying at the hands of the Roman oppressors was incredibly offensive. The idea of the Messiah being crucified was anything but commonplace in the first century.

There are many passages in the New Testament that speak of how hard it was for people to understand a Messiah who died. 1 Cor 1:18-25 exemplifies this well:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

To come to grips with this idea of the supposed Messiah suffering and dying some people came up with philosophies such as Docetism or Gnosticism. These ideas claimed that the divine Jesus only seemed to have a physical body or that the divine being left the earthly Jesus during the crucifixion. These philosophies were created in part to deal with the idea of the Messiah being crucified.

The Messiah was not supposed to be crucified. A crucified Messiah is a failed Messiah. That was not how it was supposed to be. A crucified Messiah could not be a part of God’s plan.

But somehow God did use a Messiah who was crucified. A suffering Messiah who sacrificed himself for the good of the world was actually central to God’s plan.This Messiah who was crucified showed us that the kingdom of God will be ushered in not in some display of earthly power or might, but it will be ushered in with a man beaten, bloody and naked on a Roman cross dying even for his enemies. This crucified Messiah who had suffered greatly displayed God’s love for the world.

The crucifixion of Jesus is just another reminder that God works in ways that we don’t understand or expect. The crucifixion is about God shattering all of our preconceived notions about how God is supposed to work. God has a plan and is working toward it. Praise God that the crucifixion and the subsequent resurrection of Jesus testify to this.

My Journey Toward a New Understanding Of God’s Will

All of the thinking I have done about my life and what direction to take has me thinking about God’s will for my life. This is a big subject to tackle and I am still wrestling with it. I guess the problem is that I had always assumed that God had my whole life planned out for me and it was my job to decipher what God wanted me to do.

Maybe you know the feeling. Like God has this one person that you have to marry or you will be miserable for the rest of your life.

Or God has your career picked out for you and you have to figure out what it is or you will never be doing what God really wants you to do.

The list could go on and on. I used to spend a lot of time praying to discover God’s will for my life, painfully looking at every decision and terrified that if I made the wrong decision that my life would never be pleasing to God. Or at least it wouldn’t be as pleasing as it could be.

What if that’s not the way it should be? Now I do think it is good to pray about decisions and make sure that what we are doing is going to bring glory to God. But what if our lives are not some sort of math equation to be solved or some treasure map to follow.

Maybe God’s will is much simpler than all of this.

What if what God really wants is a people who follow him?

What if God’s will is as simple as the fact that he wants a people that follow him and who will work for his kingdom?

What if God doesn’t have your life all micromanaged out to the smallest detail?

What if you could be doing God’s will in one of a hundred different careers?

What if you there were several different people you could marry and be completely happy with?

How would all of this make you feel?

I’ve been trying to think of anywhere in Scripture where it says that God has everything planned out for us. I know that someone will probably bring up Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This sure sounds like God has everything planned out for us. Until we look at the verse in context and realize that God is talking to the exiles from Jerusalem who have been taken to Babylon after the siege in 586 BC. These verses speak to a very specific group of people that God promises to be faithful to. This isn’t God saying that he has everything planned out for every one of us.

(I know that there are other verses which speak of God’s will but it would take much too long to examine them all here. If there is a verse that stands out to you feel free to bring it up in the comment section and we can discuss it there).

My view on God’s will for my life has changed after all of this recent thinking about my life. I do believe that God does call certain people and have special tasks for them. But I don’t think that this happens for everyone. I also think that you can blatantly disobey God and disregard his will for your life, but once again I think God’s will is more broadly defined than we sometimes think.

God has this huge kingdom that is breaking into our world. God is working to make things right in our world. God’s will is that we would join with him in this work.

Maybe it doesn’t matter exactly how or what you do as you work in God’s kingdom, just so long as you are working with him.

Maybe that’s all God’s will for you is. That leaves things wide open. That’s real freedom.

Or maybe I am completely wrong. But I really think I might be on to something here.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

My Journey Toward Asking a Different Set of Questions

I posted the other day about the funeral we were going to attend today and all of the questions that come along with attending a funeral for a 15 month old child.  It occurred to me as I was driving to the funeral today that perhaps I should be asking a different sort of question, such as:

How could I help comfort this family during their time of loss?

What could I do to make this time even a little easier on the family?

How was God glorified through the life of this child even though it was much too short?

How is God working in this?

Our Western mindset always searches for answers to the “Why” questions like the ones I posted previously because knowledge is power and we want to understand everything. We want to have all the answers. We want to have it all figured out.

Perhaps the answers to those sorts of questions do not come easily because our brains are not equipped to fully understand the answers to those questions. God is much bigger than we are and there is no way that we can fully understand all of God’s ways or how everything works. Of course, that is not to say that those questions are not important or that we should stop asking those types of questions. We must continue to struggle with answering those questions.

But those “Why” questions are not the most important questions we should be asking. These other questions are much more important because they help us to realize that we should be thinking about the family and thinking about God’s ultimate plan.

The “Why” questions focus on us and giving us peace within ourselves as we try to figure everything out.

The “Why” questions are very self-centered.

These other questions are more outward focused. They seek to help the family who is in the midst of suffering.

They seek to find how God is moving even through these painful events.

They seek to see how even in this time of terrible sorrow that God is working to make things right.

The “Why” questions are important and useful, but they are not the only questions that we should be seeking answers to during times like this. A different set of questions helps us to realize that we are not the only ones affected by a tragedy such as this.

If you think of any other questions which are more useful to ask during times of suffering or loss, please post them in the comments. Also, please offer a prayer for the Tidwell family today.

The Message of Philippians

My lovely wife last night rightly pointed out that I have been very negative in my last few blog posts, so I decided to take a break from criticizing Christendom. Hopefully this will be a more positive post.

I am co-leading a small group with a good friend and last night was our first meeting. We are going deeper into a new sermon series at our church which looks at the book of Philippians and trying to find joy in a turbulent world.