O Come All Ye Faithful

O come, let us adore Him.  This phrase is repeated several times throughout the song.  We sing it every year, but do we mean it or even know what it means?  It can take different meanings depending on its context.  I adore my wife Sarah.  You probably know that by now.  In this sense, I love and admire her, and I am devoted to her.  And while we can and should love, admire, and be devoted to Jesus, there is a separate meaning that is perhaps more appropriate for the way we ought to adore Him: to worship and honor as God.

So how do we go about doing that?  Worship might initially sound like the easier part of the equation.  Just show up at church and sing when it’s time to sing!  Although that is part of worship, that is not the whole of it.  Did you know that listening (or preaching) a message on God’s Word is worship?  Did you know that giving an offering is worship?  Did you know that reading your Bible is worship?  Did you know that living your life in a way that honors God on a daily basis is worship? Well, in case you didn’t know, each of those things is true.

Worship involves honoring, so the actual easiest way to answer this question is to figure out what it means to honor God. To honor someone is to give him proper respect due to who he is and/or due to the position he may hold.  So to honor God is to acknowledge His position in our lives.  God is supreme.  He is over all, because He was before all.  .  God is God, and we are not.  Therefore we ought to live in deference to His will.  When we honor God, we do so by living the life He created us to live, by behaving in the way He has called us to behave, by seeking Him first, by loving others before ourselves, and so forth.  We honor God by bringing Him glory, and we can only bring Him glory when we are following Him.

Romans 11:33-12:2:  “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!  “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world,but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

We honor by praising, by seeking, by following, by obeying, by giving, by blessing, by serving, and by living.  Do you honor God?  In what ways do you best honor God?  In what areas of your life do you find honoring God to be most difficult?  How can you be more intentional about bringing honor God (at home, at work, at school, at church)?

the Mighty God

            You probably shouldn’t tell my mom this, but I really liked a lot of the music she listened to in the car, especially around Christmas time.  If she finds out, she’ll never let me tease her about it again.  But I really did enjoy a lot of it, including Steve Green’s Christmas music.  One song in particular stands in my memory, so much so that it has cost me points on a Bible verse test in Bible college.  He did a song called, “Messiah Medley,” and in it, he sang words to verses, including Isaiah 9:6.  He repeats the last two names the Messiah would be called, and so did I.  Here's the song:

            Isaiah is talking about the Jewish Messiah that would be coming, and he is listing what He should be called.  Today, I want to focus on His being called the Mighty God.  Here in the midst of a list of titles is perhaps one of the most significant terms in all of the Old Testament.  I would venture to say that this list is read as a whole, with little thought given to the individual titles, but they are distinctly separate roles, and each one is important for understanding who Jesus was, and who He was predicted to be.

            Deuteronomy 6:4 is the beginning of the Shema, a key Scripture to the Jewish faith, and it is often used to explain why Jesus just couldn’t be God.  ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  God was defining Himself and distinguishing His true nature from the nature of the false gods in polytheistic societies.  He was one. He was the real deal, the end of the line, the one and only.  He didn’t outsource various jobs to other deities, because He was it.  And so God is one.  If God is one, how then could Jesus also be God?

            Well, there are various things we could discuss, including that the word for God in that text is “Elohim,” –im being the ending used for singular plurality in Hebrew.  It is one God, but contained within is some plurality (like the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit).  This is one God, yet He exists in 3 persons, as we know now.  In John 1, Jesus is identified as God (In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.)  To a Jewish person, this is heresy.  Jesus cannot be God, because God is one.  At best, He could be the Messiah, but that’s not the same as being God.  This is the pushback I have received from Jewish friends.

            But being the Messiah is the same as being God.  His name would be called the Mighty God!  In Isaiah 7, God would give us a sign when a virgin would conceive, and His name would mean God with us!  Isaiah wasn’t really being that mysterious with his prophecy.  He wasn’t beating around the bush.  He plainly states that when the Messiah comes, He would be God.  And Jesus did, and He was, and He still is.

Which name(s) from Isaiah 9:6 best describes who Jesus is to you right now?

 If you understand that He is the Mighty God, the Father from everlasting to everlasting, how does that change the way you celebrate Him, especially around Christmas?  Is there awe and reverence in your celebration?

Christmas is really about God coming to earth to rescue us.  How can you make that reality a better part of your Christmas celebration?

The Grinch: Gifts, Gifts, Gifts, and Maybe Christmas

We know the Grinch is the bad guy throughout most of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” but sometimes the bad guy is right in point he makes, if not in the way he goes about making it.  For some – and I would venture to say many – Christmas is becoming more and more about gifts.  I have to get the best gifts.  I have to be remembered for giving the best gifts.  I have to get the best deal on my gifts, so I can tweet that out and brag about it.  Gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts.  But it’s cool, because even though we spend an excessive amount of time on buying, giving, and swapping Christmas gifts, we take 5 minutes to read Luke 2 or let Linus do it when we watch the Peanuts Christmas Special.  So it’s not like we have totally written Jesus off; we’ve just marginalized Him.

Now, I’m not against gifts.  I, in fact, love to get gifts, and I love to give gifts.  Some would say that gift giving and receiving is my love language.  I believe that they are important and a valuable way to show love to each other.  I also think that if we’re not careful, gifts become an idol, knocking Jesus from His rightful place as the center of our Christmas attention.  An idol is anything that you place before God in such a way that it dictates the way you act.

I do think that presents take God’s place.  They become what we value.  Our attitude at the end of the Christmas day may hinge on what we did and did not get.  Our heart is stirred, either in joy or disappointment.  I’ve certainly been there, pouting because my gift(s) wasn’t what I expected or hoped for.  I’ve thought, “If you really knew me or cared about me, you wouldn’t have gotten me that.”  But no matter how bad that gift may have been (and it probably really wasn’t that bad), it really didn’t change anything.  My heart said the world was ending, when in reality, I had all I would ever need in that moment, and I do right now as I write this.

Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”

So where’s your treasure?  What moves you?  Gifts?  Or the God of this world born as a little Jewish baby with one purpose: to hang on a cross to pay your penalty?  What do you think this season is about?