What’s Really Appropriate for Christmas?

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.” —Isaiah 7:14

Christmas is almost here again, and people are pretty much doing one of three things: they’re looking forward to it, ignoring it, or dreading it. If you’re one of the ones looking forward to the holiday, you probably are one who has some very specific memories attached to Christmas from your own past. And it seems the day just can’t get here fast enough. (Just ask any 7 year old!)

It only takes a mild case of procrastination for one to ignore Christmas: “I’ll worry about Christmas when I get done with these other things.” And of course, you never get done with the other things in time. So this action eventually turns into dread.

For those dreading it, I suspect it may be financial. These are tough times. In my own family, we just spent some five months with my wife on sick leave and unable to work. It’s hard to do everything you want to do when all of the sudden the job ends or sickness intervenes. We all get caught off guard at times. And yet Christmas, and our own expectation of what we want to be able to do to celebrate and make it a special day, still rolls around every year, regardless of the finances available.

But some that may be dreading Christmas have a much deeper reason than just finances. You see, there’s been a story going around for a while now that Christmas is actually a celebration of JESUS. And for those who, for whatever reason, hate Christianity and anything to do with Jesus, the Christmas holiday becomes almost a horror. You have to hear that name. The songs of old talk about the ‘new born king’ who is laid ‘away in a manger’ bringing “Joy to the world’ are just too much.

Often, these are the people who push aside the “Christ” of Christmas and opt for some “Happy Holidays” instead. And in the past seventy years or so, our society has even developed a whole canon of ‘Happy Holidays’ music so that Christmas can be celebrated without all that Christ talk. So now we hear the music of White Christmas, of Rudolf saving Santa, of Frosty and his magic hat, of grandma in a hit & run accident with a reindeer, of chestnuts being cooked by a fire, of a kid who wants teeth as a gift, and of another kid who’s misbehaved so much that he expects nothing for Christmas. And there’s even a few that are so suggestive that I’m embarrassed to even write about them.

What on earth do these songs have to do with Christmas? Very Little. And Lots. They have very little to do with the gift of a savior given by God Himself; sending his one and only son to live and die and be raised again.

But they also have a lot to do with Christmas because the savior that was born came to a world that wasn’t Christian and didn’t really even realize how much they needed a savior. They didn’t know God. They didn’t even know that they didn’t know him… let alone care.

The gushy, warm feelings of imagining a peaceful land without war is about as close to heaven as many people can ever get. In fact, without Jesus, it is as close as any of us could ever get. But with Jesus in our lives, we can know the peace of God.

Besides, the influence of Jesus Christ on the world around us is still pretty pervasive. Courts and marketplaces may have walked away from many of our earlier Christian practices as a nation, but people the world over still know Christmas as a day of peace and hope, whether they know Jesus or not.

The first Bible passage I quoted, from Isaiah 7:14, is in the midst of God delivering Judah’s King Ahaz from an attack by a foreign army. God tells the king he’s going to deliver him from his enemies and he allows the king the privilege of a special sign as proof that God will keep his promise. Ahaz tells God “No.” He doesn’t want a sign. But the Lord gives him a sign anyway, so that everyone will understand that it was GOD ALMIGHTY who really rules and reigns. God’s sign describes a young woman (the Hebrew actually means a young woman who has never given birth yet) who will give birth and have a miraculous son. And it goes on to describe how the birth, and life, of that child will be a reminder of God’s care for his people.

In fact, whoever that little child was in Ahaz’s day, he didn’t grow very old before the enemies of Ahaz were no longer even nations! The child’s name was Immanuel. His name literally meant “God is with us!” Every time Ahaz (or anyone else) said this child’s name, they were reminded how much God was with them and how he had delivered them from their enemies. What a reminder! What a gift! What a gracious and loving God!

And yet, like so often in Scripture, God had a double meaning in that sign of the child. Yes, it referred to someone that Ahaz would have been able to see in his day (if not, then God would have been a liar). BUT God also was looking ahead to another day when another young woman, this one an actual virgin, would conceive and have a baby who would also be called Emmanuel… the very one that would save us from our sins.

And that second child, Emmanuel (in the Greek New Testament) or Immanuel (in the Hebrew of our Old Testament) was truly more than just a reminder that God was with us… He literally was GOD WITH US!

In the midst of our day in and day out stuff that happens, even when it seems so ungodly and even hostile or painful, God is still with us. When the finances are tight, when the neighbors cause trouble, when things aren’t going well at work, God is still with us.

And, like Matthew did with a verse in Isaiah written to a king about an invading army, God will take seemingly unimportant things from our pasts and our surroundings and open up spiritual truths to us… helping us to see that God really is here with us at all times and in all places if we’ll turn to him.

And so it is that the world feels the ‘warmth’ of the season and celebrates as best as it can with “Happy Christmas’ and ‘Feliz Navidad,” and yet doesn’t realize that there’s more to the story. But as they see that story and peace exhibit itself in our lives, then they too will want what we have… and they won’t just have to imagine.

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” —Matthew 1:23

SNOW DAY!!

The elusive “SNOW DAY” has descended upon us… What a GREAT time to remind ourselves about how thorough the forgiveness that God offers all who repent of their sins. – Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)

Lover or Prostitute?

On the 12th Day of Christmas, the night before the traditional celebration of the Wise Men coming…

… here’s a SERIOUS consideration… a story (not mine) that ought to make us think… and even take action to straighten things out in the Body of Christ.

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LOVER OR PROSTITUTE??
The Question that Changed My Life
-by David Ryser.

A number of years ago, I had the privilege of teaching at a school of ministry. My students were hungry for God, and I was constantly searching for ways to challenge them to fall more in love with Jesus and to become voices for revival in the Church. I came across a quote attributed most often to Rev. Sam Pascoe.
It is a short version of the history of Christianity, and it goes like this:

“️Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise.”

Some of the students were only 18 or 19 years old, and I wanted them to understand and appreciate the importance of the last line, so I clarified it by adding: “An enterprise. That’s a business.”

After a few moments, Martha, the youngest student in the class, raised her hand. I could not imagine what her question might be. I thought the little vignette was self-explanatory and that I had performed it brilliantly. Nevertheless, I acknowledged Martha’s raised hand, “Yes, Martha.”
She asked such a simple question:

“A business? But isn’t it supposed to be a body?”
I could not envision where this line of questioning was going, and the only response I could think of was “Yes.”
She continued:

“But when a body becomes a business, isn’t that a prostitute?”
The room went dead silent.
For several seconds no one moved or spoke.
We were stunned, afraid to make a sound because the presence of God had flooded into the room, and we knew we were on Holy ground.
God had taken over the class.
Martha’s question changed my life. For six months, I thought about her question at least once every day. “When a body becomes a business, isn’t that a prostitute?”
There is only one answer to her question.
The answer is “Yes.”

The American Church, tragically, is heavily populated by people who do not love God. How can we love Him? We don’t even know Him; and I mean REALLY know Him….
I stand by my statement that I believe that most American Christians do not know God–much less love Him.

The root of this condition originates in how we came to God.
Most of us came to Him because of what we were told He would do for us. We were promised that He would bless us in life and take us to heaven after death. We married Him for His money, and we don’t care if He lives or dies as long as we can get His stuff. We have made the Kingdom of God into a business, merchandising His anointing.
This should not be.

We are commanded to love God and are called to be the Bride of Christ–that’s pretty intimate stuff. We are supposed to be His lovers. How can we love someone we don’t even know? And even if we do know someone, is that a guarantee that we truly love them?
Are we lovers or prostitutes?
I was pondering Martha’s question again one day and considered the question:

“What’s the difference between a lover and a prostitute?”
I realized that both do many of the same things, but a lover does what she does because she loves. A prostitute pretends to love, but only as long as you pay.
Then I asked the question:

“What would happen if God stopped paying me?”
For the next several months, I allowed God to search me to uncover my motives for loving and serving Him.
Was I really a true lover of God?
What would happen if He stopped blessing me?
What if He never did another thing for me?
Would I still love Him?
Please understand, I believe in the promises and blessings of God. The issue here is not whether God blesses His children; the issue is the condition of my heart.
Why do I serve Him?
Are His blessings in my life the gifts of a loving Father, or are they a wage that I have earned or a bribe/payment to love Him? Do I love God without any conditions?
It took several months to work through these questions. Even now, I wonder if my desire to love God is always matched by my attitude and behavior. I still catch myself being disappointed with God and angry that He has not met some perceived need in my life. I suspect this is something which is never fully resolved, but I want more than anything else to be a true lover of God.

Think On These Things

Earlier this morning, I was scrolling through Facebook, and happened upon a post from one of the pastors I follow about a politician who didn’t do things the way this person thought they should have done them. And several others, again, mostly pastors, chimed in with their opinions about how horrible they thought that leader was and expanded the discussion to others of that leader’s political party as well.

And I ALMOST entered the fray. I started typing MY opinion but then I felt a check in my spirit… and was reminded of something the Lord had spoken to me (not audibly… but you know) a few months ago.

It too was a day that started with my personal affront to what someone else had posted on social media that morning. I had started to respond, like today, and really felt the Spirit of God saying to me that I needed to pause and think (AND PRAY) before I responded.

So I closed my laptop and opened my Bible. I didn’t have any specific sense of where in the Bible to go, so I just opened it… and I was on the page which had Philippians 3:19 through the end of the book (chapter 4:23). And I simply started reading. When I got to Philippians 4:8, I felt like someone had hit me. I read these words (from the New Living Translation):
“And now dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure , and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

I felt so embarrassed… and convicted. I have my opinions (which I am CERTAIN are correct!!!) and I am organized and logical (and trained as a teacher), so I want to help educate those with different opinions (and since I’m sure MY opinions and beliefs are RIGHT, then they must be wrong…). I want to lay out my case in order to help them “see the light” and come around to MY right beliefs and opinions.

But the truth is, NOBODY convinces ANYBODY of ANYTHING on social media. And the prevalent mood of most who see something contrary to their thoughts on social media quite often read those contrary posts as PERSONAL ATTACKS. And so, a good intentioned post can be taken as hateful comments or even hate speech.

And there I am, with Philippians 4:8 staring me in the face… challenging me to make sure the things I say (verbally or in print) pass the tests Paul listed in this verse.

The things that I’m to give my thoughts and attention to are things that are: true AND honorable AND right AND pure AND lovely AND admirable AND excellent AND worthy of praise.

We so often wonder what God’s will is, and here Paul point blank tells us what we are supposed to be focusing on and thinking about. And it doesn’t give me much wiggle room for badmouthing people in politics or in the extended church or in my local congregation or in my neighborhood.

AND…

As a Christian, I’m hoping and praying that the people who hear me speak or watch my actions OR READ MY ONLINE POSTS, will see and read and hear JESUS. And that affects my social media postings. If I spend my online social media time ripping apart others, then I’m letting people know that I believe verbally fighting and attacking others is the way I show what I truly believe. And NOBODY gets to see Jesus through me. Which means I have failed in my number one job as a Christian.

John Wesley once shared with the clergy leadership of the young Methodist movement that they had nothing to do except save souls. I’m coming to understand that includes Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all the other social media platforms. Not that every post or status has to be an altar call kind of statement, but they need to be positive and connected to real life as I live with Christ. Not potty humor, or negative stuff, or attacking others, or sexual comments… If everything I write or say was put together in a book, I hope and pray that readers of that book would be able to see Jesus throughout its pages.

Prayer from the Heart

I’ve used this little devotional Augustine Day By Day over the past 22 years… some years following it “day by day” while most years I just pull it out whenever the Spirit moves me. This was one of those days. 

You see, I’ve been sensing a deeper call to prayer. I mean, I’ve always prayed… pretty much the way I talk (and even write most of the time)… in a conversational style. I’ve never been a big one to pray long fancy, polished, prayers… In fact, I felt the call to pastoral ministry at an altar rail when I was 17… but the “joy” (most people spell that as “f-e-a-r”) of praying in front of people paralyzed me inside. I eventually did step into the pulpit at age 34… and was still scared of that public praying aspect of the job. I mean, I talk to God all the time… but I talk to Him like I talk to a friend… and sometimes it’s absolute silence… because I’m simply listening.

Anyway, in the May 6 entry of this devotional, the editor shares a quote from Augustine from a commentary Augustine wrote about Psalm 118. The closing verse (118:29) of the Psalm is exactly the same as the opening verse (118:1). They both read: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.” (NAS=New American Standard version)

As Augustine reflected on that verse (those verses?) and all that had been sandwiched in between that opening and closing verse, he drawn to consider the way we Christians try to pray. And, he was overwhelmed by the awareness that the out loud voice in prayer can be used to connect with God in true prayer but it sometimes can just as easily simply try to fool the humans nearby into thinking the one uttering the words is connecting in prayer with God when there is NO real communication going on at all.
Check out Augustine’s thoughts from the devotional…

“If the cry to the Lord uttered by those who pray is made with the sound of the bodily voice without the heart being turned to God, who can doubt that it is made in vain? But if it comes from the heart, even if the bodily voice is silent, it can be concealed from everyone else but not from God.”
“Therefore, when we pray–whether aloud as required or silently–to God, our cry must come from the heart.”

Augustine recognizes that the REAL prayer, is the prayer from the heart… and sometimes that’s also expressed out loud and others can listen in as one is praying from their heart and it happens to come out in their voice as well. But sometimes, the real, true prayer, the ‘heart prayer’ comes from such a deep place in the heart that it rises straight to God’s heart without anyone else even hearing a peep.

It reminds me of a story I once heard about a meal at which President Lyndon Johnson was in attendance. The president asked a friend to ‘share grace’ or ‘say the prayer.’ The man proceeded to pray and, after a few seconds, Johnson spoke out and said something to the effect of “Speak up, we can’t hear you!” And the praying friend calmly responded, “I wasn’t speaking to you, Mr. President,” and calmly returned to his praying.

I’m not arguing against vocalized prayer, but as that presidential friend reminded Johnson, and Augustine reminds the rest of us, we listeners who happen to be near enough to someone to hear them pray out loud or to hear them in prayer when there is just silence… we need to recognize that we cannot always hear the true prayer… but God can! And none of us ever fool him!

-Augustine in Commentary on Psalm 118 (29), 1 in Rotelle, John E., ed. 
Augustine Day By Day (Catholic Book Pub.Co., New York) 1986,
(entry for May 6 on p. 71).

This Old House

After stumbling across an old notebook/journal of mine yesterday, I started reading more of what I had captured in its pages back in 2016. The same day as yesterday’s notes, I had attended the evening service as well there at Cherry Run Camp Meeting. The evangelist, one of our own Western Pennsylvania United Methodists, Rev. Ellen Bullock, shared the scripture passage from Acts 27:21-26 where Paul and Luke and everybody on their ship are caught in a horrible winter storm and are about to be shipwrecked. And God sends an angel to deliver a message to Paul… and through him to the entire crew and passengers on this doomed ship.

Acts 27:21-26

²¹ After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. ²² But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. ²³ Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me ²⁴ and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ ²⁵ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. ²⁶ Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

Now, again, my notes are what I was hearing the Lord speak to me in the midst of her sermon… so I’m not so much giving you her sermon notes as I am giving you my thoughts and observations and even questions as I sat and listened and made my notes.

One of the first things I noticed was verse 23 where Paul says the angel came from “the God to whom I belong and whom I serve.” So what’s the one requirement for angelic help? That you (or I) belong to their Master!

At one point Ellen must have drawn a contemporary example because in my notes I wrote: “If Jesus were in America now, one of his parables he might use as he taught might be ‘This Old House’.”

And there were several observations of how owning an old house compares to spiritual reality for our lives as Jesus taught.

• The owner has a responsibility for his property. Do you live in a rental? Call the landlord for fixing things. Live in a parsonage? Call the Trustees. Own your own home? You get to take care of the issues on your own. If we “belong to” Christ, then it’s never just up to us… We call out to Him for help in fixing whatever needs attention!
• The owner has a right to make changes. You can tell when a house is up for sale or even has just been sold. There are modifications and reconstruction projects. And outside, you see LOTS of garbage… There are things that used to be part of the house that have been thrown away. If we now “belong to” Christ, then there will be changes in “this old house” as he remakes us and brings us into line with what HE wants. And there will be things that are discarded in order to make us into the person (or house?) he wants us to be.
• You give up the right to stay the same when you get a new owner. If we truly do “belong to” Christ now, then our right to keep everything the way it was before we came to Christ is gone. Jesus, our new owner, can rearrange and reconstruct anything in our lives he wants.
• With Jesus as owner, there can be no Time Share. In practical terminology, you can’t live like a Christian on Sunday and consider Monday through Saturday are yours to do whatever you desire. If Jesus is owner of “this old house,” then it is his every day of the week, all 24 hours of each and every day.
• When we “sell out” to Jesus, we surrender the right to keep a room in our hearts as ‘OFF LIMITS – ONLY I CAN ENTER!’ When we “sell out” to Christ, everything becomes HIS! We don’t get to keep back any secret rooms or hidden closets.
• If our lives, and our hearts, are viewed in this parable as “this old house,” then it’s important to remember that we are ALL ‘fixer-uppers.’

I’m not one who knows a lot on how to fix up a fixer-upper, but, in light of this parable approach, I don’t need to know how to fix everything on my own. Rather, I need to keep the “owner” (Jesus) informed and talk about everything with him. He is the one who brings about whatever changes he wants.

Jesus Is Lord?

This “stay-at-home” order has me out of my normal groove… So here I am at my home office and I went to look for some notes (that are probably at the church office) and stumbled across some notes I took while listening to another preacher give a sermon at Cherry Run Camp Meeting back in 2016. John Oswalt is one of my favorite preachers to listen to… He is an actual Bible scholar and helped to translate the Old Testament in both the New International Version (NIV) and years later, the New Living Translation (NLT). I love hearing him preach!

Back to today… I came across my notes that I had jotted down while listening that summer day almost four years ago. Based on 1 Corinthians 12:1-3, I’m going to give you a rundown of what the Lord was speaking to me this morning through those notes from then.

FIRST CORINTHIANS 12:1-3

¹ “Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. ² You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. ³ So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.” –NLT

Picking up on that verse three phrase “… Jesus is Lord …” Oswalt explained that anyone of the Jewish background, whether in the city of Corinth or somewhere else in the Roman Empire, were inheritors of the tradition that came down from Moses himself (based on Exodus 3) where the name of God, in transcribed Hebrew, was “YHWH.” This was God’s personal name, and the English translation says it meant “I am that I am” (or “I was that I was” or “I will be that I will be” … there is no tense with God’s name… that’s why we so often in Christian liturgy talk about the God who “was and is and is to come”).

Oswalt explained that every time a good, faithful Jew of Jesus’ day wen to read that passage, or any passage with the “YHWH” they IMMEDIATELY said “LORD” instead… to ensure they never “took the name of the Lord in vain.”

So when we read about people like these Corinthians saying “Jesus is Lord” it truly freaks out the faithful Jews! Because the phrase “Jesus is Lord” is equal to saying “Jesus is God!!!!”

That piece of explanation helps explain why “Jesus is Lord” was such a bombshell in Bible times… but it also presents a new thing for us in our day and age to be thinking and praying about: If Jesus IS our Lord (and God!), then shouldn’t that mean He is Lord of all of our life?

I don’t remember how he preached this next section, but in my notes, I made a table of sorts…

If Jesus IS our Lord, then He should also be Lord of…

• OUR LIPS – Is He Lord of all that comes from our mouths? If so, there should be no foulness or filth or cruelty coming through our lips.
• OUR BODIES – Do our actions show that He is Lord of our bodies? Our sexuality? Our modesty? Our eating? The fitness of our body?
• OUR ENTERTAINMENT – Does our watching, listening, and reading show that He is Lord of what entertains us? Murders, destruction, hatred, immorality, sexual fornication… What is the focus of our TV? Our movies? Our books? Our music? Our video games? Our online time?
• OUR HOME – If He is Lord of our home, then there should be godly behavior even between family members. Gratitude, respect, kindness, patience, our conversations, …
• OUR BUSINESS – Is He Lord of our money? Is our business and work known by the godly behaviors Jesus taught such as integrity, compassion, and stewardship?
• OUR PLANS – We used to use the Latin phrase “D.V.” or “Deo volente” when talking about the future. That phrase means “God willing…” A recognition that we need to set our priorities after learning what God’s priorities are. Nowadays, in our families, our businesses, and even in our churches, we too often set our plans and then ask God to bless them.
• OUR FEARS – If He IS our Lord, then we go to Him when faced with the fear of what could happen or the fear of our loss of control, our health, or even world events…

As we continue to walk through (or stay-at-home through) these troubling times of fear and worry, ARE WE STILL DEMONSTRATING THAT JESUS IS LORD?

Keeping Christ In Christmas

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”                                                        —Isaiah 7:14

Christmas is almost here again, and people are pretty much doing one of three things: they’re looking forward to it, ignoring it, or dreading it. If you’re one of the ones looking forward to the holiday, you probably are one who has some very specific memories attached to Christmas from your own past. And it seems the day just can’t get here fast enough. (Just ask any 7 year old!)

It only takes a mild case of procrastination for one to ignore Christmas: “I’ll worry about Christmas when I get done with these other things.” And of course, you never get done with the other things in time. So this action eventually turns into dread.

For those dreading it, I suspect it may be financial. These are tough times. In my own family, we just spent some five months with my wife on sick leave and unable to work. It’s hard to do everything you want to do when all of the sudden the job ends or sickness intervenes. We all get caught off guard at times. And yet Christmas, and our own expectation of what we want to be able to do to celebrate and make it a special day, still rolls around every year, regardless of the finances available.

But some that may be dreading Christmas have a much deeper reason than just finances. You see, there’s been a story going around for a while now that Christmas is actually a celebration of JESUS. And for those who, for whatever reason, hate Christianity and anything to do with Jesus, the Christmas holiday becomes almost a horror. You have to hear that name. The songs of old talk about the ‘new born king’ who is laid ‘away in a manger’ bringing “Joy to the world’ are just too much.

Often, these are the people who push aside the “Christ” of Christmas and opt for some “Happy Holidays” instead. And in the past seventy years or so, our society has even developed a whole canon of ‘Happy Holidays’ music so that Christmas  can be celebrated without all that Christ talk. So now we hear the music of White Christmas, of Rudolf saving Santa, of Frosty and his magic hat, of grandma in a hit & run accident with a reindeer, of chestnuts being cooked by a fire, of a kid who wants teeth as a gift, and of another kid who’s misbehaved so much that he expects nothing for Christmas. And there’s even a few that are so suggestive that I’m embarrassed to even write about them.

What on earth do these songs have to do with Christmas? Very Little. And Lots. They have very little to do with the gift of a savior given by God Himself; sending his one and only son to live and die and be raised again.

But they also have a lot to do with Christmas because the savior that was born came to a world that wasn’t Christian and didn’t really even realize how much they needed a savior. They didn’t know God. They didn’t even know that they didn’t know him… let alone care.

The gushy warm feelings of imagining a peaceful land without war is about as close to heaven as many people can ever get. In fact, without Jesus, it is as close as any of us could ever get.

The influence of Jesus Christ on the world around us is still pretty pervasive. Courts and marketplaces may have walked away from much of our earlier practices as a nation which tried to mandate Christian behavior, but people the world over still know Christmas as a day of peace and hope, whether they know Jesus or not.

The first Bible passage I quoted, from Isaiah 7:14, is in the midst of God delivering Judah’s King Ahaz from an attack by foreign armies. God tells the king he’s being delivered because God has decided to do so. And  he allows the king the privilege of a special sign as proof that God will keep his promise. Ahaz tells God “No” he doesn’t want a sign and the Lord gives him a sign anyway. He describes a young woman who will give birth and have a miraculous son. And goes on to describe how the birth, and life, of that child will be a reminder of God’s care for his people.

In fact, whoever that little child was in Ahaz’s day, he didn’t grow very old before the enemies of Ahaz were no longer even nations!  His name was Immanuel… His name literally meant God is with us!  Every time Ahaz (or anyone else) said this child’s name, they were reminded how much God was with them and how he had delivered them from their enemies. What a reminder! What a gift! What a gracious and loving God!

And yet, like so often in Scripture, God had a double meaning in that sign of the child. Yes, it referred to someone that Ahaz would have been able to see in his day (if not, then God would have been a liar). BUT God also was looking ahead to another day when another young woman, this one an actual virgin, would conceive and have a baby who would also be called Emmanuel… the very one that would save us from our sins.

And that second child, Emmanuel (in Greek) or Immanuel (in Hebrew) was truly more than just a reminder that God was with us… He literally was GOD WITH US!

In the midst of our day in and day out stuff that happens, even when it seems so ungodly and even hostile or painful, God is still with us. When the finances are tight, when the neighbors cause trouble, when things aren’t going well at work, God is still with us.

And, like Matthew did with a verse in Isaiah written to a king about an invading army, God will take seemingly unimportant things from our pasts and our surroundings and open up spiritual realities to us… helping us to see that God really is here with us at all times and in all places if we’ll turn to him.

And so the world feels the ‘warmth’ of the season and celebrates as best as it can with ‘Happy Christmas’ and ‘Feliz Navidad’ and doesn’t realize that there’s more to the story… but as they see that story and peace exhibit itself in our lives, then they too will want what we have… and they won’t just have to imagine.

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”     —Matthew 1:23

Go Home?

Once upon a time, a man decided he needed to get right with God… so he decides he’s going to read from the Bible everyday. But he doesn’t know much about the Bible… and has NO experience in looking for direction from the Bible.

Eventually he decides he will simply let the Bible decide what he ought to read. He will open his Bible randomly to a page and, with his eyes closed, he will drop his index finger onto the page where the Bible has opened… and this, he will have a message of direction from God through the Bible.

The very first verse he happened to turn to was Psalm 137:9 which says “Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.”[1]

This guy isn’t sure how that applies to him, so he closes his eyes and tries again. This time the Bible fell open to Luke 10:37 where Jesus said: “Go, and do likewise.”[2]

The man was quite upset and he did not know how he could ever obey that, so he decided to turn to one more place. Again he opened the Bible at random and to his horror his finger fell upon John 13:27 where Jesus says: “What you are about to do, do quickly.”[3]

This method of randomly opening the Bible and claiming it is GOD speaking directly to you… can really send a mixed or erroneous message… because there’s no context. Those three Biblical statements are Scripture… they are real and they are only a PIECE of a point or a message God has preserved through the written Word. But if you only take a piece of Scripture… you can very easily make the Bible say whatever you want it to say.

That happened again this past week at a celebration of a man named John MacArthur serving 50 years as a pastor. The emcee of the event decided to play a game. He would say a phrase… and MacArthur was supposed to respond in a short, pithy response… just a word or two.

The emcee said “Beth Moore…”

MacArthur, after taking a good 30 seconds or so to think about his answer replied simply: “Go home.”

In case you aren’t sure who Beth Moore is, she “is a prominent evangelical Bible teacher, author and founder of Living Proof Ministries.”[4] She is an excellent teacher, and best I can tell, she is on the mark theologically too. What she says, lines up with Scripture.

Well, back to MacArthur. He commented a minute or so later: “There is no case that can be made biblically for a woman preacher. Period. Paragraph. End of discussion.”

Later he added, “Just because you have the skill to sell jewelry on the TV sales channel doesn’t mean you should be preaching. There are people who have certain hawking skills, natural abilities to sell, they have energy and personality and all of that. That doesn’t qualify you to preach.”

The audience laughed and cheered with each of these pronouncements.

The idea that MacArthur and so many others are pushing here, is to “take literally” the Biblical passages where Paul says that women should be silent in church and not permitted to teach or have authority over a man.

Before we go very far…

Those words ARE in Scripture. But they’re being quoted without all the context… sort of like our deluded Bible reader in my story I started with.

One of the primary scriptures folks refer to when making claims like MacArthur did is First Timothy 2:8-15. I’m going walk and talk my way through those verses…

 ⁸ Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. 

OK… Verse 8 tells the men their focus in the Body of Christ, in the Church, is praying (to Whom? GOD!) And a warning that when you start getting angry in a church setting or start disputing and arguing in a church setting, then you’ve lost your focus. You’re like a train that is derailing… a nasty wreck is immanent. He says get back to focusing on the holiness and on reaching God in prayer. All that other male ego stuff just doesn’t belong in the church. Watch out for the one who always has to argue and watch pout for the one who always has to have the last word andwatch out for the one who looks for ways to bring division into the church.

The thing is, it’s not just MEN who get angry and start disputes and arguments and bullying others in the church is it? So why does Paul address it to men?

Here’s what I think is the reason. Paul, like he does in so many of his letters, is writing responses to questions that people wrote to him. And I THINK that Timothy, in the church he’s trying to pastor, is having trouble with some men who are feeding their anger and causing disputes… arguments and verbal sparring… and Paul specifically, for that situation, tells Timothy how to solve that situation with those specific people.

AND THEN in verses 9 and 10, he speaks to whatever questions Timothy has asked about the problems he’s having with some of the women in Timothy’s congregation…

⁹ I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, ¹⁰ but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

Again, we don’t have the original letter that Paul received with the questions that he’s now responding to, but it’s pretty clear to me that there were women showing up who were dressed immodestly, trying to draw attention to themselves, when they should have been trying to draw closer to God… not draw the attention of the other people in the worship service.

Apparently, Timothy must have asked about women in leadership… and I think he must have been taking heat from some of the men who just want things to calm down… Maybe they’re tired of some of the women who were interrupting worship to ask questions or they’re up and down and back and forth… We don’t really know for sure… but we know they were being disruptive and we know that Paul felt the need to say they needed to be more modest and draw less attention. Part of his answer is that these women need to be quiet and just ask their questions later after worship.

But I think most of this next paragraph is for the guys who were complaining about the women in leadership positions… Let me keep reading and I’ll explain why…

¹¹ A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. ¹² I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. ¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve. ¹⁴ And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. ¹⁵ But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

But I don’t think this can be a literal principle for every woman everywhere for all of human history. Some is specifically for THOSE women in that ONE congregation in that one moment of history… But it also sounds like Paul’s rehearsing the arguments put out by those arguing and disruptive men from back in verse 8.

Follow verses 11-15…

A woman:

• Should learn in quietness
• Should be submissive (to a man it seems)
• Cannot be permitted to teach men
• Cannot be permitted to be in authority over men
• Must be silent.
• WHY? Because Eve was created from the man and Eve’s the one who was deceived by the snake.

Up until now, from verses 11-14, it looks like Paul’s just nailing reason after reason that women ought to shut up and sit down… at least when the men are around.

HOWEVER…

Check out verse 15…

Understand, verse 15 is NOT a new thought. It is NOT a new paragraph. Rather, verse 15 sums up the paragraph we’ve been reading that started in verse 11… where Paul has been giving the reasons to silence those women. And the final reason that supports that argument?

¹⁵ But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

The final reason to shut those women up and keep them out of the teaching positions and authority positions and preaching positions is: a women can be silenced because the way she has hope of getting saved is by having a baby… IF she’s good enough.

W H A T ? ? ? ! ! !

I believe wholeheartedly that we have either misread this silencing of women or else our theology is all wrong. For verses 11-14 to be taken literally as Paul’s reasons to silence women, then verse 15 has to be taken literally saying that no woman ever can get saved unless they have a baby… it says childbirth!! Not only is the pulpit forbidden to a woman, but so is the ALTAR! None of this believing in Jesus as Savior and Lord!

Rather, in the same way that an argument of logic will quote the oppositions’ foolish reasons to do something, so I believe Paul lists these STUPID arguments that say that a woman must be silenced and then takes those arguments to their ultimate end… I think he is taking the mens’ arguments against the women in their congregation to its furthest reaches by proving how ILLOGICAL their beliefs really are. To claim that a woman cannot be used by God is to diminish God… What kind of weak, helpless god do we have anyway?? The ONLY way a woman can be used by God is by having babies…

Paul highlights the stupidity and ignorance of that claim.

Silence the women??? Women can’t serve God??? What, is God not big enough or powerful enough to use a woman???

• It was GOD… who used Miriam, right alongside of Moses, prophetically explaining in poetry and in song the meaning of the exodus from slavery in Egypt…[5]
• It was GOD… who used Deborah, who ran Israel and all of its 12 tribes… and she was speaking and exhorting and teaching and prophesying.[6]
• It was GOD… who invited both the Israelite men and the Israelite women to take the same religious vows to become Nazarites…[7]
• It was GOD… who went ahead of Esther, who saved the nation as a leader whom GOD had put in place in power “for such a time as this” to save the Jewish nation and was responsible for the prevention of the slaughter of her people, the Jews…[8]
• It was GOD… that sent King Josiah of Judah to the prophetess Huldah, to seek out godly counsel for returning his nation and his people to God……[9]
• It was GOD… who handpicked a young uunwed teenage girl named Mary, who literally carried the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the GOOD NEWS, and God even her used to share a prophetic song about her Son and what He would do…[10]
• It was GOD… that led Paul and his band to Lydia, who was the first person in what we now call Europe to be saved and baptized… not by childbirth, but by believing in Jesus Christ, and being baptized by water and the Spirit…[11]
• It was GOD… who used Priscilla, to correct and teach the male, missionary evangelist, named Apollos, who had been sharing the gospel but had some of the details a bit off…[12]
• It was GOD… that led and directed Mary Magdellan, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and also the mother of Zebedee’s sons… to be there with Jesus every step of his ministry, caring for the ministry needs, taking care of finances, and caring for Jesus himself, and followed all the way to the cross, even when every male disciple but one had all run away in fear…[13]
• It was GOD… who led those same two Marys who followed the burying of Jesus’ body in the tomb…[14]
• And it was GOD… that used those same women on that very first Easter morning, when every single male follower of Christ was in hiding… God used those women to serve as the very first preachers of the GOOD NEWS that that HE IS RISEN![15]
• And when Jesus ascended to Heaven, Luke tells us in the book of Acts that the male disciples “all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers…”[16]
• And, as we look ahead from the times of the Bible to our days, we read that it is God who “will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophecy… Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days…”[17]

And, just to be clear about what Paul was really saying about women in the church… He gave us  the verse we are using as this month’s memory verse:

GALATIANS 3:28 (NIV)

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

It is time for the Church of Jesus Christ to STOP being sexist, expecting that it is only the men who can be called and used by God. What a pathetic god you must believe in if God can’t even use his own creatures…

It is time for the Church of Jesus Christ to STOP being condescending, lording our maleness over the women that God Almighty gave us in the church for the betterment and blessing of the Church, according to God’s own will!

It is GOD who calls people, both men and women…

If you are one that has been part of the putting down of women, or the bullying of women, or even the discouraging of women in the church, REPENT! If God called them, and you are the one who keeps them back, it is GOD you are fighting against! You. Will. Lose. REPENT!

If you are a woman, or a man, who believes God is calling you into ministry… whether that be as a preacher, or the head of a ministry project or a ministry committee, come and bow yourself before God… Surrender yourself to God’s will and God’s way… say YES!

You can even come to the altar rail to pray… If you want, I’ll pray with you as well…

It is time for people, both men and women, to speak out in defense of our Christian sisters and what the Bible says about their freedom to teach, to preach, and to lead.

It is time for Christian male leaders who regularly debilitate, denigrate, and dismiss Christian women doing Kingdom work to be confronted and removed as nothing more than stumbling blocks that are hindering the ministry of the Church.

If you are a woman who doesn’t know Jesus as your Savior, the Bible does NOT mean you have to go have a baby in order to be saved… We read in Acts 16 that to be saved, you simply need to “Believe in the Lord Jesus…”[18] You are welcome to come forward and talk with me and we’ll pray together.

Men, who don’t know Jesus as Savior… you are also invited to come and meet him.

The answer to a woman who is walking out the call of God in her life is not that she “Go Home” like this pompous radio preacher who mocks and scoffs one of Jesus Christ’s handpicked servants. But rather, we are to encourage those who hear God calling… to whatever ministry they’re being called to… whether they are male or female.

[1] Psalm 137:9 (NIV).

[2] Luke 10:27 (NIV).

[3] John 13:27 (NIV).

[4] http://thewartburgwatch.com/2019/10/21/john-macarthur-demonstrates-why-its-time-for-him-to-stay-home/

[5] Exodus 15:20-21.

[6] Chapters 4 and 5 of the book of Judges.

[7] Numbers 6:2.

[8] Check out the progression of events throughout the book of Esther, particularly the famous reply of Mordecai in Esther 4:12-14.

[9] 2 Kings 22:8-20 and following.

[10] “The Magnificant,” from Luke 1:46-55.

[11] Acts 16:11-15.

[12] Acts 18:18-26.

[13] Matthew 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41; Luke 8:3; Luke 23:27, 49, 55-56; John 19:25.

[14] Matthew 27:57-61; Mark 15:47.

[15] Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20.

[16] Acts 1:12-14.

[17] Joel 2:28-29.

[18] Acts 16:30-31.

Praying Hyde

I recently read a story from the life of John Hyde (1865-1912), a missionary to India in the end of the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s. Hyde was somewhat famous because of his effective and powerful praying. In fact, history has nicknamed him as ‘Praying Hyde.’

Hyde once shared how one of the most amazing and profound lessons the Lord ever taught him about prayer actually occurred when he was praying for one of India’s native pastors who was both experiencing problems and was known to help create a few problems as well.

Hyde said he started praying something like this: “O God, Thou knowest this brother, how …”

Apparently, his next intended word was “cold,” with a description to follow about the problems of this man. However as he went to say “cold,” he felt a check in his spirit and just couldn’t go on. He reported that it was like a voice whispering sharply to him. “He that touches him touches the apple of my eye.” A great horror swept over Hyde, and he felt he had been guilty before God of “accusing the brethren.”

Falling to his knees, Hyde confessed his own sin, and he remembered the words of Paul, that we should think on things that are lovely and good. “Father,” cried Hyde, “show me what things are lovely and are of good report in my brother’s life.”

Like a flash, Hyde remembered the many sacrifices this pastor had made for the Lord, how he had given up all for Christ, how he had suffered deeply for Christ. He thought of the many years of difficult labor this man invested in the kingdom and the wisdom with which he had resolved congregational conflict. Hyde remembered the man’s devotion to his wife and family, and how he had provided a model to the church of godly husbanding.

John Hyde spent his prayer time that day praising the Lord for this brother’s faithfulness.

Shortly afterward, Hyde journeyed into the plains to see this pastor, and he learned that the man had just received a great spiritual uplift, as if a personal revival had refreshed his heart like a springtime breeze.

It turns out that while Hyde had been praising, God had been blessing.

(FROM: Morgan, Robert J. Preacher’s Sourcebook of Creative Sermon Illustrations (Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville, 2007), 166.)

This great missionary known as “Praying Hyde” learned that the positive prayers of praise and blessing others are far more effective than griping and complaining in your prayers. And since God looks at us all together as part of the same team, you know… the Body of Christ… when you or I are complaining or badmouthing another Christian, we are hurting our own team… we are bringing curses upon ourselves. It’s like our arm punching ourselves in the face! No good can come from that kind of behavior! That’s NOT how we are to behave as the Body of Christ!

We read in the book of James:

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.

–James 3:9-10 (NIV)

How many of us need to be on our knees repenting of such sinful behavior of speaking against our fellow Christians instead of praying for them? And THEN we need to be praying for their good, for their blessings, for their spiritual strength, for their finances and ministries and their families!