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“Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the LORD. Zechariah 2:10
Rejoice! He has come to live among us. That babe in a manger, whose birth we celebrate with decorated trees and brightly colored packages. That babe in the manger who shows us how to live in the midst of trials and tribulation. That babe in the manger who heals us with the gentle touch of his hand. That babe in the manger that came for no other reason than to die so that we might live.
Have you ever thought about this? If you were the only one who needed a savior, he’d have still come for you. He didn’t come to save ‘masses’ of people, he came for you. He came to provide a way for you to find freedom from the burden of your own stupid choices. He came to provide comfort for you in the midst of the evil and abusive acts of others. He came to empower you to live victoriously over addictions. He came to lift you up when you fail. He came for you!
Notice something else. He came to live among us. There are many fine organizations around the world that provide opportunities for people to assist those who are down and out. You can pick from any number of places to help the homeless, to help feed the starving, to offer medical, physical and spiritual assistance to those who are desperately in need.
That’s not the same as living ‘among us’. Jesus didn’t come to visit the homeless. He came to be one of the homeless. He didn’t come to offer a hand to the leper, the addict, the social outcast, the poor or the starving. He came to live ‘among’ them. It’s not a temporary position. He holds the hand of the severely sick child, whispers in the ear of the elderly person whose foot is on the threshold of eternity; has his arm gently on the shoulder of the parent who has lost a child…or the child (of any age) who just lost mom or dad.
He never leaves you. Why should he? He lives with you. Your home is his home. He doesn’t have the cubicle next to you at the office…he’s got the desk in your corner. There is no place he has not been with you. There is no feeling that you have had that he isn’t aware of. He’s seen every tear, heard every laugh, felt every fear. He is among you. That’s grace. Grace sent Jesus from heaven to earth to live among you in every situation. Rejoice!
PRAYER: Dear Jesus. Thank you for coming to earth for me. Thank you for showing me the way of life and forgiveness. Thank you for loving me and providing a way for me to escape my past and live for you. Most of all, I thank you for the promise that you don’t just live ‘with me’, you live ‘among me’ so that you see and feel everything I feel. Empower me with your Spirit to sense your presence in every place I go, word I speak and action I take. In your name I pray, Amen.
Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Galatians 6:7 (NLT)
Have you ever had the chance to visit a greenhouse in the early spring? While most of us are just beginning to think about getting out to do the yard work, greenhouses and nurseries are busy preparing and planting the flowers and plants you will use to beautify your yards and gardens.
They are making sure the soil mixture is just right, adjusting the heat and moisture levels, and making sure that enough light is available for optimum growing of the plants. Not only that, but they make sure that the plants they are preparing will grow well in your area. It’s not important if they grow well in the regulated environment of the greenhouse. Each gardener must ask the question, “How will this plant do in the real world?”
One more thing the gardener makes sure of before they offer their plants to you. They make sure there are no weeds among the plants. Weeds are tricky little things because sometimes they look just like the real plant. An untrained eye can easily pull up a flower thinking it’s a weed or leave a weed intact thinking it’s a flower!
A trained gardener is never surprised by what comes up in the pot they’ve planted. The seed they place in the soil produces the exact plant they intended it to be. No turnips from marigold seeds. No rose bushes from pumpkin seeds. No oak trees from pine cones.
Life is the same way. In a sense we are gardeners and the world around us is the greenhouse. We plant seeds by the words we speak. We nourish plants by the actions we take and the attitudes we carry. When we plant understanding and acceptance, we gain understanding and acceptance in our own lives. When we plant love and mercy in the lives of others we receive love and mercy in return. When we cultivate our relationships with grace and forgiveness, we harvest grace and forgiveness in return.
What seeds are you planting in the lives of those around you? The Bible tells us that the things we instill in others by our actions and words are the exact things we will harvest. It’s true that sometimes we won’t see the results as soon as we’d like, but sometimes we need to prepare the soil by getting rid of the weeds and rocks and nourish it before the seed will actually take root.
Remember, we are responsible for preparing the soil and planting and nourishing the seed. It’s God who is ultimately responsible for the actual growth of the plant. The seeds you place in the lives of those around you will produce exactly what you plant, nothing more. Nothing less.
PRAYER: Father God, master gardener. I realize that you have made me exactly as you want me to be. I praise you for the wonder of my being and the privilege I have to be yours. I pray that I might be able to plant seeds in the lives of others that will bring forth the kind of harvest that is pleasing to you. Help me to sow seeds of love, grace, mercy and forgiveness in the lives of those around me today. In Jesus name, Amen.
Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39
I saw a billboard once advertising a company that boasted that ‘We buy Ugly houses’. The company apparently bought up houses that weren’t in the best of shape and then either fixed them up or resold them.
In essence they took something that no one wanted and made it into something more presentable. They took the unusable and made it useable. They took something of little or no value and make it valuable. I think about that whenever I’m driving through the country side and see old, abandoned farm houses. Places that were once the pride and joy of the owners. Places that saw babies born and grandparents die. Places of celebration and sadness. But whatever the situation, those old ugly homes once had great value and sentiment.
This verse in Romans has always been one of my favorites for in it hold a promise that, at least in Jesus eyes, I’ll never become like one of those old, dilapidated eyesores that once were called ‘home’.
It’s easy to love a new home with fresh paint and warm carpet and shiny windows. It’s not so easy to love an old house that’s strewn with garbage and has holes in the walls, broken windows and signs of little four-legged inhabitants.
In the same way people are easy to love when they are kind, respectful, and show evidence of having had a shower sometime in the recent past. People who are talkative, intelligent and humble are a joy to be around. We all gravitate towards people who make feel comfortable and of great value.
But what about the ugly people? I’m not talking just about physical appearance. I’m talking about inner beauty as well. What about the person that cuts you off in traffic or the one that insists on driving 10 MPH below the posted speed limit? What about the wait-staff at the local restaurant who makes you feel like you are a huge disruption to their day? What about the foul-mouthed co-worker who knows how their language offends you and finds every opportunity to let you hear an earful whenever you are near.
Does Jesus love them? Yep. He does. Not only does he love them. He loves me too. He loves me when I’m angry. He loves me when I’m having a bad day and perfectly willing to share my disposition with all those around me. He loves me when I’m so sure that I’m right that I make you feel like an idiot for disagreeing.
A buyer of an ‘ugly house’ doesn’t see an eyesore, he sees an opportunity to make something useful out of something worthless; something charming out of something repulsive; of making a building into a home.
Jesus does the same for each of us. Jesus looks past our ugliness and sees a treasure, a diamond in the rough. He doesn’t care how you got into the situation you are in. He isn’t interested in your history as much as he is your future. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing you can do to change it.
PRAYER: Jesus, I thank you for your love. I thank you that even though I can be really ugly at times you love me and see me as a chosen vessel in your sight. You see me as a palace when everyone else sees me as an old, useless building. Forgive me for my ugliness. Empower me with your spirit to be one who shows your love through all I say and do. In your name I pray, Amen.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
When the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica he was writing to a people who had all but given up hope. It seemed to them that the anti-Christian forces were overtaking them and soon they would be defeated. The truth of the gospel had become a mockery to everyone, so it seemed.
Paul’s words here are actually a prayer. He prays that those who are feeling hopeless in the midst of trial and despair would be comforted and strengthened by God’s grace. There is it again. That word GRACE. Grace is the building block on which everything we say and do is built. Grace says that even though we are powerless to do anything to deserve hope, we are granted hope because of Jesus.
Grace says that even though our efforts to live for Christ are thwarted by evil in the social and political realm, we have hope and comfort because of God’s love for us. Grace isn’t dependent on government or legal systems or financial stability. Hope is grounded in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. No human system or spiritual darkness will change that.
Grace says that even though it seems like everything is stacked against me, the good that I do will not go unnoticed. My efforts for Christ may be ignored or misunderstood by others. My commitment to live by God’s standards and not worldly standards may be labeled old fashioned or intolerant by forces of darkness, but my Father in Heaven sees my heart and my actions and gives me comfort.
Don’t let the forces of evil discourage you. Don’t allow Satan, the great deceiver, to trick you into thinking that things are out of control. Things are out of our control, but they have never been in our control. Everything that is going on around us is under the control of a Loving, Sovereign, Grace-full God. Put your hope and comfort in Him. Let the truth of God’s word empower you as you continue to do and say good things in his name.
The world system wants you to believe there is hope in politics, money or religion. The only hope we have is through grace given us in Jesus Christ.
PRAYER: Father God, I confess to you that I look around me and don’t always find a lot to be hope-full about. The political world scares me. The financial and legal system are a shambles. Religions that don’t acknowledge you as the Creator/Sustainer of the world seem to be overtaking us Christ-followers. I ask that you would empower me by your Spirit to remember that my hope is built on Grace through Jesus Christ. May I go about my day doing and saying good things to glorify you, Amen.
