Sorrow and Joy - Part Two

What about Jesus’ joy? Was He acquainted with any joy in the midst of all His sorrows? Scripture doesn’t explicitly tell us but we do have some fairly strong clues. People flocked to Jesus. They marveled at His authority and at the hopefulness of His words. They were drawn to His love and compassion. Kids absolutely loved to be around Jesus. That alone is very telling. This was no depressed man. He was a man of peace, hope, love, faith and joy. But how? He was rejected and acquainted with sorrows. He bore our grief and our sins. How did he have joy in the midst of all that? One simple reason. The Father said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Jesus did take our sins, He did bear our sorrows, He was rejected by men but He was chosen and precious in the Father’s sight (I Peter 2:4). He had the Father’s favor and that was His joy. The Father would raise Him from the dead and set Him upon the throne and at His name every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Lord. Praise God for His plan of perfect redemption in His Son for the joy of all who believe. Our Savior is a Savior of joy and for joy.

Sorrow and Joy

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ESV.

When did Jesus’ sorrows begin? I find it very interesting that in Luke 1, Luke tells us that the baby John in Elizabeth’s womb had joy, that Elizabeth and Mary had joy, all because of Jesus. Jesus is not reported as having joy. He left the glory of heaven and became a man, humbling himself to his creation and became a bond servant.

Maybe his sorrows began when Joseph and Mary returned to Nazareth. This was their home town. They all knew that Mary had become pregnant while betrothed to Joseph and that the baby was not Joseph’s. They knew that Joseph married Mary anyway. How did this hometown treat the “illegitimate” son? Despised and acquainted with grief.

I wonder what Jesus felt when he found out that every baby in Bethlehem, two years old and under, was slaughtered by Herod just because He had been there as a baby? Sorrows. At twelve he expressed that he must be concerned about His Father’s things. That would include the road to the cross – one from whom men hide their faces. During his traveling and ministering he went back home. He read Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ESV. Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The hometown crowd couldn’t resist. Their reply – “Is not this Joseph’s son?” I understand that as a slam – “We remember who you are, illegitimate son.” His siblings rejected him, his disciples abandoned Him and the people who yelled, “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” later yelled, “Crucify Him.” We esteemed him not.

Where is the joy? His sorrow guaranteed our joy. He chose sorrow so we could choose joy. He died for us that we might live. He endured the shame for the joy set before Him. Jesus was despised that we might find favor. Jesus was rejected all his life that we might be received for all eternity. There is no reason followers of Jesus Christ should not have joy in every circumstance. Our joy has been bought and paid for, guaranteed by Jesus Christ. He is our gift, He is our joy – Merry Christmas.

Fear or Faith - Part Three of Three

Mary might have been performing her daily duties, perhaps even imagining her upcoming marriage or even thinking of her fiancé, Joseph. Suddenly, Gabriel appeared to her with greetings and unbelievable news from the Lord. Luke 1:30-31 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ESV. Gabriel’s message was clear but would Mary she embrace the fear – the fear of having to tell Joseph she was pregnant because of God’s plan, the fear of rejection and possible divorce, would she embrace fear or would she believe in what God said? Mary believed in the message of Gabriel. She said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” She trusted the Lord and yielded to God as His servant. She experienced the favor of God, blessings and honor through her faith. Faith is the only path to experiencing God’s favor and grace. Listen to Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ESV. Faith is the only avenue to experiencing the favor of God and God has given us the greatest reason to believe – Jesus Christ.

Fear or Faith - Part Two of Three

Joseph was betrothed to Mary. But the young woman who was the perfect choice for Joseph was pregnant. How could he have missed a flaw such as this in Mary? His wife to be was clearly unfaithful and now he felt he had no option but to divorce her. He was a righteous man; he would try to divorce her in the best way possible. I am sure he couldn't believe it was happening to him. Joseph had a plan and was ready to carry out the divorce when Gabriel showed up. Matt. 1:20-21 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ESV. Joseph had many reasons to be afraid. What would people say? What would happen to them in the future? How would he find a job with this new reputation? Would Joseph be paralyzed by his fear or would he believe what God had said? Joseph believed. He chose faith and took Mary to be his wife, disregarding the shame, controversy and potential rejection of family and friends. He chose to trust the Lord. In his faith he experienced the provision and protection of God. God provided for them and protected them every step of the way. When they needed a place to stay, God provided. When they needed money to travel to Egypt God provided. When Herod and his son were a threat, God protected them. By faith we can enter the will of God and that is the place where you will experience the protection and provision of God. There is no safer place to be than in the will of God by faith, even in the worst of suffering and even death, there is no better place than the center of God’s will. And faith is the only way to get there.

Fear or Faith - Part One of Three

The shepherds were keeping watch over their sheep on the hillside of Jerusalem. The night was cool and the sheep were safe. I can just imagine the shepherds sitting around a fire talking about this and that. I have been around a lot of fires like that. A bunch of men hanging around in the outdoors with a big fire roaring is clearly a man moment. That moment came to an abrupt stop when the angel lit up the sky. Luke 2:9-11 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ESV. The shepherds could stagnate in their fears or they could cast aside their fears and believe what the angel told them. Fear or faith – the opportunity presented in the beginnings of Christmas. The shepherds chose to believe the words of the angel and they were able to see the baby Jesus face to face. All that they heard about they also saw. Faith is the only way to see the unseen. The only way to know God and to see God is by faith and those who live in life by faith will some day see Jesus Christ face to face in an even better way than the shepherds. Revelation 22:1-5 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. ESV. Fear or faith – an opportunity and a choice. The opportunity is present. The choice is ours.

Freedom

Seems like lately I am hearing an increasing conversation about liberty, talk about being under grace and not under the law in regard to what we can and cannot do. That type of conversation never creates a problem for me until we forget that Christian liberty and grace enable us for the pursuit of God and His holiness. We need to remember that the law required less than grace. That is what Jesus demonstrated with his sermon on the mount. True grace always yields more righteousness than the law could ever produce. When a person is only under the law then, at best, they do whatever they can do to maintain their feeling of lawfulness, often finding and using all loopholes to accomplish their own desires. When a person is under grace, the standards of holiness are found in Jesus Christ and His grace calls us into that holiness. Instead of wrestling so much over what we can and cannot do with our “freedoms,” perhaps wisdom would dictate expending more of our efforts in our real freedom, the freedom we have to pursue Christ and Christ alone, being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, bathed in His righteousness. “Grace instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:11-14).

Christmas Cards

We are receiving many Christmas cards from friends these days. We love getting these Christmas cards. Thanks for sending them. They cover our entire fridge for the next year. They make wonderful prayer reminders. It also is so fun to see how your children have grown and changed. We miss our friends that we are not able to see regularly and love hearing from you. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Inside Information

Some bits of information are so valuable that they cannot be kept secret. For all those who might need this information in the future, I present some hard earned truth. When you baptize someone that is particularly challenging to baptize (for whatever reason), bring an extra pair of whatever you wear under the baptismal robe and waders. Waders fill up with water when they are submerged below the water line and everything you have on under the waders gets soaked. I will not go into any further details since the information needed has been presented. Let's just say that if you choose to learn this the hard way, like me, it will create some good laughs. Nothing like being a pastor.

Baptism and Perseverence

Sunday I baptized an 85 year old man. It was incredible. This is the second man I have baptized over eighty years old. What a testimony to the grace and mercy of God. God rescued this man, saved him and is transforming him to the image of Christ. It has been wonderful to see the transformation take place. God is so gracious. This man was has been struggling with health issues, was pretty weak and unstable. Nothing, however, was going to stop him from obeying his Lord. He was determined to be baptized. After being baptized at the beginning of our service he walked the aisle at the end of the service to tell the entire church that he was joining our church family. What joy we all felt seeing God's work in this man. This man's wife has been praying for him for years and she experienced the fruit of her labors and the grace of her Lord. May I never give up on anyone. I must persevere with the gospel message.

Report on the Game

For those who care - the hockey game was incredible. The game was much faster paced than I thought it would be. We all had a great time and saw a great game. I think I was most impressed with the goalies. They have to be in amazing shape to play that position. I was impressed and can honestly say that I enjoyed the hockey game.

Trout and Ministry

On Tuesday of this week two men from our church, my son Caden and I traveled three hours south to meet my in-laws for a special project. We stocked 550 trout in a creek on a boys and girls ranch. During the spring we take several men and go to the ranch and teach the kids how to flyfish. We use fly fishing share the gospel with the kids and share the love of Christ. It has proved to be a great ministry over the last several years. This is our third year to be there and we are excited about the relationships that have developed. Please pray for the kids we will be serving this spring.

May you be encouraged by this fishing story - Reading the water means to understand a river and the trout’s’ behavior in the river. Where will they be feeding and what are they feeding on? What parts of the river hold trout? If you do not know how to read the water, you can be imitating food well and catching no fish because you must be fishing where the fish are. Fly fishing for trout is not a throw it in and let them come to me type of fishing. If you do not fish where the fish are you will not catch anything. The difference between being busy with an activity and truly fishing is reading the water. We need to be imitators of Jesus Christ who “read the water” of the world. It is much easier to imitate in the church than in the world, but if we are not where the fish are we will catch nothing. We must be a people who go where the lost are and imitate our Father among them. Either we will be busy or we will be fishing. When I go fishing it is all business. If I invite you to go fishing with me do not mistake it for invite to a vacation. It is not a vacation it is an obsession. I will even skip meals to stay on the water hunting another fish. In the church we must not look like we are on vacation when it comes to evangelism when it should look like a passion. This is no vacation. We are to be fishers of men.

Hockey Game

Believe it or not, I have never been to a hockey game. That will all change tomorrow. I am going with some friends and my boys. We are looking forward to it. I will let you know how it goes. I actually thought the puck was smaller?

Advent

Advent is a celebration of our Savior’s first coming that encourages hope and expectation of our Savior’s return. The time of Advent is the 4 weeks before Christmas. It starts 4 weeks before Dec. 25 with the Sunday that is next to Nov. 30. Advent is a great way to create your own family traditions of worship during the Christmas season. Although there are many books available for celebrating Advent, there are three superb books by Arnold Ytreeide—Jotham’s Journey, Bartholomew’s Passage, , and Tabitha’s Travels. The plots are intriguing and filled with beneficial spiritual insights. Ytreeide's books are narrations of stories set in the times of Roman occupation of Israel, detailing the days surrounding the birth of Messiah. The readings for each day in Advent are comprised of a suspenseful historical fiction section, a Bible study section, and directed prayer. Instructions for making an Advent wreath are included. Jotham’s Journey is the first in the series. It begins when ten-year-old Jotham runs "away from his father's tents in a moment of anger…As he journeys through Palestine in search of his nomadic home, Jotham is helped by a fool, a priest, a zealot and a wise man. Chased by a gang of thieves, thrown from one `foster parent" to another, Jotham slowly discovers the miracle of the first Christmas, and some miraculous things about his own life and his own family..." A fantastic book! Bartholomew’s Passage is the next book in this spellbinding series. "Follow Bartholomew as Roman soldiers destroy his village and disperse his family, through his enslavement to a tyrannical master and his escape with his new friend Nathan, to his reunion with his family and a wonderful climax in Bethlehem. Along the way Bartholomew makes a new pal." Tabitha’s Travels is the final book of the Ytreeide Advent trilogy. "Curious, competent, and courageous Tabitha is the daughter of Eliakim, a shepherd who is taking his family on caravan to his birthplace. Along the way she meets and becomes friends with Jotham and Bartholomew, watches as Romans take her father prisoner, spends time with Zechariah and Elizabeth, rescues her father, helps Mary and Joseph just before Christ's birth, and ends her travels with the wonderful climax at the stable in Bethlehem." May you have a blessed time of Advent and a Merry Christmas!