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The one thing I ask of the Lord— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. Psalms 27:4
Growing up, my uncle had a ‘cabin’ on a lake a couple hours north of where we lived. I use the word ‘cabin’ in quotes because what my uncle referred to as the cabin was not what I would think of a cabin.
It wasn’t some rustic building with few amenities on a small, obscure lake. His cabin had five bedrooms, a game room, a deck overlooking a huge, popular lake and a boathouse for the two boats he had. His ‘cabin’ was a mansion! We loved going there to visit because it was so beautiful and fun!
David writes of his love to visit the Lord’s house, In David’s day, the ‘Lord’s House’ was a building made of stone with altars and gold columns. It was big. I was impressive. It was the place where He could go and have communion with God.
Today, when we talk about going to ‘the Lord’s house’ we are referring to a church. A building where we go to worship God corporately, in community.
While this was true in Old Testament times, Paul teaches something different, something exciting, something new and profound. Paul teaches us that God no longer lives in a building of brick and wood. Because of Jesus, God has taken up residence in a building of flesh and blood!
When you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior God takes up residence in you through His Holy Spirit. You are His house. You are His Temple. You are His dwelling place. You carry him with you, or should I say, He carries you?
When I listen to negative talk about me, whether that comes from others or myself, I receive negative talk about God. I’m His house! Don’t knock my dad’s house.
Meeting together for worship as a body of believers is crucial to for each member of the body to grow and encourage each other, but don’t forget true worship comes from within, through God’s Holy Spirit living in you.
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20
What a night that must have been for this group of shepherds. They went from what was going to be an uneventful night in the fields to an encounter with angels; from looking over a bunch of sheep to gawking at an infant with divine implications; from being virtually unknown to being the talk of the town.
We don’t know how long they were gone. But from the story in Luke we can surmise at least three things. First of all, they hung around long enough for everyone to hear their story. We are told that everyone was amazed at what this group of men told them about the babe in the manger. Once you have an encounter with God you can’t keep quiet.
You may have experienced this. A friend, or family member finds Jesus and is delivered from a life of addiction, fear, worry or whatever. Then they find Jesus and all they ever talk about is Jesus. Every conversation is an opportunity to tell about what they are learning from Jesus. You may even be amazed at how they can turn every life experience into at God-experience. Once you have a true encounter with the Messiah you can’t keep quiet.
The second thing we can see is that they went back to what they were doing. To the best of our knowledge none of them wrote a book and went on a speaking circuit. None of them formed first church of the hillside to focus on the very spot where the angels appeared. They went back into the hills to do what they did best…shepherd sheep. Sometimes God calls us to move on from what we are doing to do something new, something exciting, something noteworthy. And sometimes he calls us to go back to the hills and shepherd sheep.
The third thing I see is that they went back changed. On the outside they were still a bunch of men guarding and guiding sheep. On the inside they were worshippers of the almighty God. On the outside they called out to the sheep to move on to a new field. On the inside they were praising God for Messiah.
I’d love to have sat around the campfires of those men in the future. I’m guessing the conversation no longer centered around the woes and evils of the Roman Empire. I’m guessing they spend more time in prayer and remembering the words of the prophets than they did gossiping about the latest news from town. When you meet the Messiah you live life changed.
May you have a fresh encounter with Messiah this Christmas. Whether you’ve been walking with him for years or are new to the family advent is a time to refresh our love for him.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:10-11
It’s interesting how many times God starts out his messages to mankind with ‘Do Not Be Afraid’ in some form or other. His first thoughts of us are comfort.
It was, no doubt, a dark, cold night on the hillsides outside Bethlehem. For the shepherds it was just another night of taking turns watching for predators, hearing the rustling and snoring of sheep and gathering around the fire to keep warm.
These men were at the bottom of the sociological food chain, so to speak. Nothing much happened in their lives that would elicit any kind of respect from the townspeople. They had nothing to offer and no real hope of doing anything significant in their lives.
Not only was the hillside they sat on dark, life was dark. The Roman oppression seemed to be growing. Taxes and other demands from the Caesar in Rome were causing more turmoil among the Jews, and some had died trying to free the land of the Romans.
Life was hard. Life was hopeless. So much so that it seemed God himself had abandoned them. It had been 400 years since a prophet came forward with ‘Thus saith the Lord’. Would they ever be free again? Would God ever speak again or had they rejected him for too long? Does he even exist?
And what about Messiah? Will he ever come to free his people as the prophets of old foretold? So many questions. So few answers. So little hope. Hope seemed to be like the slowly dying campfire they sat around that night.
Suddenly a bright light exploded in the sky above them. Ever had a bright light shine in your eyes when you sat in darkness? I’m guessing you can multiply that by 1000’s. Eyes squinting to make out a form. Fear over what was out there. Then wonder as their eyes adjusted to the light and they made out the form of an angel…not just one be many angels.
‘Don’t be afraid?’ Right, because this happens all the time. Then the message. Rather than fear over the darkness, celebrate joy of a new light. Messiah has come.
I wonder if the words of Isaiah and others came to mind when they heard the name ‘Messiah’. The one come to deliver. The one come to heal. The one come to free you. That is good news.
Proverbs 13:12 says, ”Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.“ It’s easy to lose hope when promises and dreams are delayed and out of our control. But when those hopes are realized they become for us a tree of life, a tree of refreshing, great joy for those who put their hope in God.
This Christmas, in whatever dark place you find yourself, rejoice in the hope of the babe in the manger.
”Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.“ Psalms 51:12
We’ve been talking about joy-killers this week. Those things in our lives that can take away, or appear to take away the joy promised to us through the birth of Jesus.
Joy-killers can be a result of the actions of others, or natural things that happen in life such as life transitions, grief over the loss of a loved one, natural disasters, etc.
While actions against us, or those actions we perceive are against us, can rob us of joy, I think one of the hardest joy-killers to deal with are the self-inflicted ones. It’s relatively easy to point the finger at others and play the victim. It’s easy to blame Mother Nature and say, ‘Woe is me’. But what about those times when you look in the mirror and realize the person you see is both the perpetrator and the victim? Then what?
That was the decision King David faced. His enemies were largely defeated. He was popular among the people. And God had a nickname for him, ‘A man after my own heart.’ Imagine that! The God of all creation looking down on you and seeing someone so in tune with His heart that he calls him out. God says, ‘HUGE SHOUT OUT to my buddy Dave. He’s got it all together. He knows what I like and he does it!’
Pretty cool, right? Not so fast. David had a heart for God but he also had a heart for pleasure and sometimes pleasure took the place of God.
Can you relate? Oh, maybe you didn’t have an affair and murder one of your friends like David did. Maybe you didn’t see your daughter raped and ignore it. But what about the other ways we choose satisfaction over surrender?
Those times we gossip. The times we lie and then lie to cover up that lie, and then lie again…well, you know the picture. The times we harbor wrongs committed. The times we hang on to judgmental attitudes.
Surrender brings joy, satisfaction (in the human sense) destroys joy. I love David’s honesty in Psalms 51:12, ”Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.“
David knew his limitations. David knew how easy it is to sacrifice surrender for satisfaction. But David also knew the joy that comes from total surrender to God’s ways. Easy? Definitely not. Worth it? Beyond description. Available? That’s grace.
The joy of Christmas is much more than a babe in a manger. It’s being totally surrendered to God through the power of the Holy Spirit, because of the babe in the manger.
”So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.“ John 16:22
Joy killers. They can sneak up on you and catch you unaware. Joy killers rob you of your joy. They whisper lies in your ear about your inability to succeed. They remind you of your failings. They accuse you of your weaknesses. They refuse to let you forget the hurt of being deceived and rejected. They poison you with bitterness for wrongs committed and unforgiven actions.
If you have something of value, you go to great expense to protect it. You put on locks. You build walls. You have your own set of alarms that remind you, ‘Never again.’
Jesus knows all about joy killers. He wrestled with them all through his time on earth. He was misrepresented. He was misunderstood. He was labeled. He was rejected by the very people he came to rescue.
One of the greatest joy killers can be the transitions in life and accompanying feelings of the unknown. The unknown is a huge joy killer. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, angels announced his birth and great joy with his arrival. 30+ years later, Jesus told his disciple he would be leaving them for a time.
For over three years they had experienced the joy of his presence. They celebrated the miracles with him. They endured the storms with him. They were accosted physically and spiritually with him. Now he’d be gone and the joy killer of the future hit them hard.
Jesus saw the sorrow in their eyes. Jesus understood their fear. In the midst of their fear, in the midst of their sorrow, Jesus reassured them that this time of sorrow would be temporary. In the midst of their sorrow they had a guarantee that would go with them throughout life. The joy they had when they were with Jesus would return.
Sorrow is temporary. Fear is temporary. Joy is eternal. No matter what things in life attack you, when you draw close to God you can experience joy in the midst of sorrow. Joy in the midst of fear. Joy in the midst of worry. Joy in the midst of hurt. Joy in the midst of rejection. Joy in the midst of grief.
Don’t allow the lies of the enemy keep you from experiencing great joy through the giver of joy, Jesus.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 