Perseverance, as the New Year starts

When I read through the Bible for the first time many years ago, I discovered one thing: There’s no middle ground in there. Either you’re for God, or you’re not.

For example:

Decision time

Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their three wives rode out the Great Flood on the ark (Genesis 6). No one else did, because everyone thought it was goofy of Noah to build a huge boat on dry land. God had the last word, though.

Lot and his family were ordered by God’s messengers to leave wicked Sodom, before God destroyed it. Lot’s wife didn’t want to give up sinful pleasures, so she turned around as God was raining sulfur and fire from heaven on the city.

But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Genesis 19:26

When God says leave a sinful lifestyle, He means it.

Here’s a prophecy God gave Moses before Israel entered the Promised Land:

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.”

Moses, in Deuteronomy 30:15-18

This is a constant theme throughout the Old Testament.

Blessings

David, a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), paid a big price for his adultery with Bathsheba. Their firstborn died (2 Samuel 11-12).

Stories like this encourage us, because even a great man of God like David had his faults. We can relate to him. God forgave him that sin (after the initial punishment), and blessed his life and legacy greatly.
Eventually, Israel split apart and was ruled by kings, most of whom did not follow God. Every so often, one did.

He (Hezekiah) did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his ancestor David had done. He removed the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the sacred pole.

2 Kings 18: 3-4

Then God gave this message to Asa, another king:

“… The Lord is with you, while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you. …”

2 Chronicles 15:2

God gives us free will. There are consequences for our decisions.

Knowing God

Because Nehemiah knew God intimately, he knew when he was being deceived:

One day when I went into the house of Shemaiah … he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, tonight they are coming to kill you.” But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Would a man like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” Then I perceived and saw that God had not sent him at all, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

Nehemiah, in Nehemiah 6:10-12

Who did Job think he was, that he could tell God what to do?

“Or who shut in the sea with doors

when it burst out from the womb? –

when I made the clouds its garment,

and thick darkness its swaddling band,

and prescribed bounds for it,

and set bars and doors,

and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stopped?’ …”

God, in Job:38:8-11

Consequences

Words and deeds together determine the direction of our lives, because they show where our heart is:

Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,

who will only despise the wisdom of your words.

Proverbs 23:9

For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Ecclesiastes 12:14

Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Isaiah 30:20-21

They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,

saying, Peace, peace,

when there is no peace.

They acted shamefully, they committed abomination;

yet they were not at all ashamed,

they did not know how to blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall,

at the time when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 8:11-12

Faith

God is a loving and forgiving God. What is our response?

My soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is;

so I say, “Gone is my glory,

and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.” …

But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:17-18, 21-23

For all the peoples walk,

each in the name of its god,

but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God

forever and ever.

Micah 4:5

Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

Malachi 3:18

Jesus talk

When Jesus entered the scene in the flesh, He took these themes to a new level.

“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Jesus, in Matthew 6:24

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mind, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. …”

Jesus, in Matthew 23:23

Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. …”

Jesus, in Luke 9:23-24

Jesus said to him (Thomas), “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

John 14:6-7

Change

The apostle Paul (previously Saul) went from one extreme to the other, from hating Christians to loving all people:

For several days he (Saul) was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

Acts 9:19-22

For in him (Jesus) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Paul, in Colossians 1:19-20

What is faith?

And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

To the end …

The apostle John understood what it meant to follow Jesus.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:5

Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches – comes not from the Father but from the world.

1 John 2:15-16

John recorded a vision from God about how the world would end, and the final judgments of those who did not follow God, and those who did:

“I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

Revelation 3:15-16

Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it; … and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. … anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:11,12,15

“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

The spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
And let everyone who hears say, “Come.”

And let everyone who is thirsty come.

Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

Revelation 22:16-17

We will be judged for eternity, yes, but we also are judged here on Earth. There are consequences, good or bad, for what we say and how we live.

Do we love God and serve Him, or do we not? The choice is ours. There is no third option.

Deception attacks the spirit of Christmas

What is the Christmas spirit, anyway?

The obvious answer is the warm-and-fuzzy one. Presents under the tree, family get-togethers, an extra gift or two to your favorite charities, singing Christmas carols, a candlelight Christmas Eve service, baby Jesus in the manger …

That’s part of it. Joseph was ordered to visit his family in his hometown of Bethlehem to register for the census, so family is definitely included in the Christmas story. Since Jesus was the best gift of all to us, we respond by giving gifts to other people. A “multitude of the heavenly host” praised God that holy night, so singing carols is part of it, too.

But if the Christmas spirit is a warm fuzzy feeling, I often don’t feel it. Especially this year.

Covid continues to overshadow almost all other new stories. I know more people who have covid now, or who just got over it, than I have at any time since the pandemic began almost two years ago. It’s hard to feel warm and fuzzy when so many people are sick – and vaccines are widely available.

Covid isn’t the defining issue of Christmas, of course, even if it dominates the December headlines.

A war story

No, the Christmas spirit is much deeper than that.

I see the Christmas spirit not only in Luke 2, but in Revelation 12. Luke describes the census, the shepherds in the fields, and Jesus in the manger. Revelation, the last book of the Bible, describes the Christmas story in the spirit world.

A woman gave birth to a son, “a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron” (Revelation 12:5). Waiting to devour her son was a red dragon, “that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world …” (Revelation 12:9)

But God took the son away from the dragon and protected him at his throne, and the woman “fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God …” (Revelation 12:6)

What happened next?

And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down … to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Revelation 12:7-9

Christmas is a war story. It’s God saying, “I’ve had enough of sin, of Satan deceiving My people.”

Satan, “that ancient serpent,” was given Earth to rule for a period of time. At Christmas, God decided to enter the scene – personally. He came to Earth as a baby, fully human, in the care of Mary and Joseph.

A huge spiritual battle was just beginning.

The serpent (dragon) went after the woman, but God protected her. He no longer had access to the baby, since the baby was sheltered by God’s throne and the serpent was thrown out of heaven. So, Satan attacked the only people he could: us.

Then the dragon was angry with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.

Revelation 12:17

That’s why the Christmas spirit is so hard to find these days. We are in the middle of a war with Satan himself.

Winning the war

Satan’s weapon of choice is deception. He showed his hand in the garden of Eden, when as a serpent he deceived Adam and Eve into disobeying God by the simple act of eating a piece of fruit (Genesis 3:1-7).

We are deceived so easily, even those of us who know God and who should know better. We get caught up in the tinsel and lights, and miss the main point.

Perhaps that’s why “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is one of my favorite holiday cartoon stories. We are all about how mean the Grinch was, how he stole all the presents (and other stuff) in Whoville.

We don’t talk much about the end of the story. The people of Whoville were prepared to celebrate Christmas anyway, even without presents or the meat for their big feast.

They understood the true Christmas spirit, even if it wasn’t spelled out in the story.

The Grinch got confused, but then God enlarged his heart (is there any other explanation for that?).

The Grinch understood what he’d done, repented, and returned everything he stole. The people of Whoville forgave him immediately, and even let him join in their festivities.

That’s the Christmas spirit.

It’s a war story, with repentance and forgiveness the outcomes.

That’s why Christmas is meaningless without Easter.

In the manger, God declared war on sin. On the cross, Jesus won that war over sin.

As humans, all we have to do is understand this, ask forgiveness for our part in this sinful world, and repent (change our ways).

Then, like the Grinch, we must do our part to restore joy, peace and harmony to a broken world.

It’s hard, because that ancient serpent isn’t going to stand idly by and let us do that. He has plenty of deceptive tricks to try to keep us from serving God.

Heaven is pure God. Hell is pure Satan. Earth is the war between them, with our hearts as the battleground.

Who will win the war?

God will, because He has already cast Satan out of heaven, then won the ultimate victory over our sin on the cross.

Claiming the victory

But God won’t force that victory on any of us. We much choose for ourselves which side we are on.

Even God’s people in the Old Testament understood the nature of God, how there’s a spiritual battle going on and that as humans we must pick a side.

“Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua, in Joshua 24:15

That’s not a warm-and-fuzzy story. Choose this day …

The Christmas spirit will win in the end. Are you in?

It was a silent night. And then …

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

Luke 2:8

Just an ordinary night. Nothing special.

Silent Night has not been one of my favorite Christmas songs. When I read about that night in the Gospel of Luke, I’m drawn to the multitude of heavenly host praising God – which terrified the shepherds and was not silent at all.

But one of my church’s pastors, Clay Wright, this week explained what that night was really like.

God had not spoken through a prophet or anyone else in 400 years. That’s a long time to remain silent.

Shepherds, not high-class folk by any means – smelly, dirty, third-shift workers hanging out with sheep in the middle of the night – were doing their job, just as they did every night.

It was dark. It was very much a silent night. Just like every other night those shepherds had worked.

In the middle of the nondescript darkness, with no warning, God showed up.

To an ignored, often-forgotten group of people who would never hold office in society or in church.

Luke describes the scene matter-of-factly, not getting dramatic at all. There’s no transition. The shepherds were watching their sheep. Then an angel entered the scene. As though that’s a normal occurrence.

It wasn’t.

Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

Luke 2:9

The angel had a message for the shepherds: the Messiah, the savior of the world, was born a few minutes ago. Then, the heavenly host filled the night sky and glorified God.

Then left. As quickly as they came.

When God makes a sudden entrance, His people must respond. The shepherds certainly did.

“Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”

Luke 2:15

They didn’t wait til morning to seek Jesus. They went “with haste” (verse 16). Joseph, Mary and “all who heard it” were amazed at the shepherds’ story.

From Mary’s perspective, I imagine the shepherds confirmed what the angel Gabriel had told her earlier, that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit and bear “the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:30-32). (But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19)

Does God show up in the mundane, everyday activities of life? Even if we aren’t looking for Him, or expecting Him?

I don’t mean things like protecting us from harm, or increasing our bank account, or giving us a good job, or healing us from sickness or disease. As wonderful as those things are, they are about us.

The shepherds saw a miracle. Unexpected. Unimaginable. No other explanation other than God Himself showed up.

This is the Jesus we worship at Christmas. Placed in a manger – a place where the food we eat eats, as Clay said.

Yes, He fulfilled Scripture by his birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). But Israel was expecting a king, not a baby.

Are we ready for this Jesus? Or do we settle for the “safe” Jesus, the warm and fuzzy baby who is helpless in his mother’s arms?

I can’t pinpoint a miracle like this in my life, other than my conversion experience.

I meet with God frequently. In morning quiet times, He gives me insight as I read His word. I trust that He is planting seeds when I volunteer with children, which I do in several places. He does keep me safe as I drive around Northeast Ohio.

Are those miracles? Or are they little more than the consequences of the way I live my life?

Instead, I see Christians praying for protection from COVID, then engaging in unsafe practices that don’t allow God to honor that prayer, then asking for more prayers when loved ones get sick or even die. I could give examples.

How is God supposed to show up when we live like that?

I wish I had a better answer.

Our church sponsors several missionaries. We saw a video this summer from one of them who serves in the Middle East. In the video, three Palestinians described how they were raised to hate Jews. But when they were exposed to the Bible – to the living God – they discovered that God Himself is Jewish.

These three Palestinians now love Israel, and love the people of Israel – because they know that God loves them.

Explain that.

Only God.

This is the miracle of Christmas, of God unexpectedly showing up in our lives to glorify Himself.

I’m helping to lead an in-depth study of Matthew this year. We recently read the part where Jesus cast demons out of two crazy men who lived in tombs, and sent those demons into a huge herd of pigs, killing them.

What if God showed up in the United States like that?

Would our response be the same as the townspeople who saw that event? They asked Jesus to leave.

Am I ready for God to shake me up?

I’m comfortable now. Nice house, nice pension, good health, food in the refrigerator, freedom to move about …

Again, it’s not about me. I’m struggling to understand my own point.

Perhaps the answer is as simple as following the example of a man Jesus pointed to later in Luke, whose sole testimony was getting on his knees and crying out, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”

I am struggling to see God this Christmas season.

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
‘Round yon virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Lord, help me to see what the shepherds saw.

Help me to see You.