“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”  (Luke 1:35)

The birth of the baby Jesus and our spiritual birth have a common element.  The source of both is the Holy Spirit.

The conception of Jesus in Mary was brought about by the Holy Spirit.  The same Holy Spirit is the source of our spiritual birth.  Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.  No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” (John 3:3, 5)

Both Mary and Nicodemus asked the same question, “How can this be?”  Both Gabriel and Jesus gave the same answer.  It is by the Holy Spirit that these things happen.  As Jesus was born through the power of the Holy Spirit, so too was the Church, and so too, are we.

Ever since I was a young boy growing up in a small town in Iowa, I have experienced a special feeling of God’s presence on Christmas Eve.  It is a feeling of peace and love.  A calm descends; the earth is quiet from all the hurrying and scurrying of Christmas preparations.  It is the Holy Spirit.

When I was old enough to drive, I would often leave the house after our Christmas Eve traditions with family, and drive through the neighborhood of my former paper route.  I knew every family on that route, more than a hundred.  Some houses would be dark.  Others would be full of lights with people inside celebrating the coming of the baby Jesus.

The words of the song Silent Night gently echoed: “Silent night, Holy night. All is calm, All is bright.” 

As we move closer to the celebration of Christmas this year, let us remember the role of the Holy Spirit – the means by which the creator of all that exists became one of us through the Virgin Mary, and the means by which we can experience God’s presence and saving grace at this very moment.

Do you experience God’s presence through the Holy Spirit?  If not, find a quiet place and invite him in?

“People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.”  (Mark 1:5) 

How do we measure the power of a message? 

Given the overwhelming response John the Baptist received, his efforts in announcing the advent of Jesus’ public ministry must have indeed been powerful.  Since transportation in those days was accomplished primarily by walking, it is remarkable that John was receiving people from all over Judea.  Jerusalem would have been more than 35 miles from where John was baptizing, which is more than a day’s walk. The more remote areas of Judea would have taken even longer. 

What made this even more extraordinary was that John’s message was a tough message, calling people to change their ways and repent of their sins.  Even tax collectors and soldiers were going to John, to listen to him and confess their sins. 

Only by the power of the Holy Spirit, would John have been able to attract so many people from such distant areas, with such a challenging message.  We may recall the words of the angel Gabriel to John’s father, Zechariah, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.”  (Luke 1:15) 

In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy, John was preparing the people of Judea to receive the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.  “A voice of one calling in the desert; prepare the way of the Lord.” (Isaiah 40:3) He was preparing them through the confession and cleansing of their sins in the waters of baptism.

Like John, we too, are called to lead family, friends, colleagues and even strangers to open the door of their hearts to Jesus. It starts with how we live our lives.  Righteous conduct gives credibility to our words.  Sometimes, our role is just to plant seeds for God’s future cultivation.  Sometimes we have a more direct role such as with our families (spouse and children) for whom God gives us a direct responsibility.   Sometimes God places people in our lives for the purpose of introducing them to him. 

Like John, we too, have the power of the Holy Spirit who gives us the wisdom, courage, and opportunity to speak and build relationships with others for the purpose of leading them to Jesus.

As we move into this season of celebrating the birth of Jesus, are we acting with the same passion as John the Baptist in pointing people toward Jesus?

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John.”  (Luke 1:13)

Imagine praying for something for many years and then being visited by an angel telling you that God has heard your prayer! 

This is what happened to a Jewish priest by the name of Zechariah, as he went into the temple sanctuary to burn incense.  Why did God send an angel to tell Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, that they were going to have a son in their old age?  Why not just let events unfold?

Perhaps to prepare their hearts and minds for something extraordinary – that a woman, long past child bearing age would give birth to a son, and that this son would be John the Baptist, destined to prepare the way for the coming of God’s son on earth.

My wife and I have always related to this story in a small way ever since the birth of our son following an eleven year gap from the birth of three daughters earlier in our marriage.  It was by no means a miraculous birth, but we did get a sense that we should be open to having more children even though we had crossed the age 40 threshold.   

We took on Gabriel’s words to Zechariah as our own, “He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth.”  (Luke 1:14 NIV)  This was certainly true for our family and close friends.  We named our son Stephen after Stephen in Acts 7.  Our joy in his birth did not diminish our joy and love for our three daughters, but in fact enhanced our overall joy for our family as a whole and what God was doing in our lives – even adding a fourth daughter a couple of years later with special needs but lots of blessings.

For Zechariah and Elizabeth, God was indeed answering a long term prayer request for a son, but he was also accomplishing a purpose much larger than their initial request may have intended – the birth of John the Baptist, who would serve to proclaim the coming of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. 

Who can know the mind of God?  He often has a purpose in response to our prayers that reaches far beyond our intended request. Today, our first three daughters and son are all raising families of their own – bringing life to thirteen children who are being raised in Christian traditions and ways.  Who can imagine how God will use these parents and their children to further his will and purpose in the years to come? 

Oh, the wonder of falling into the will of the living God! 

Have you been waiting for God to answer a long held and faithful prayer like Zechariah and Elizabeth?

“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16 NIV)

All scripture in the Bible is from God, confirmed by his son, Jesus Christ, and validated over time by the Church fathers.  Scripture instructs us about life, existence, purpose, truth and all that is important. 

For many years I have made scripture a part of my daily prayer time with the Lord at the start of the day.  After experiencing a renewal of the Holy Spirit in my life more than forty years ago, I had an intense desire to read the Bible.  I started to read it from cover to cover as I commuted on the trains in and out of New York City each day.  As with many people who have experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the words seemed to leap off the page with meaning.

Psalm 119, the longest of the psalms, spends its entire length extolling all that God’s word is and does for us. 

• “Your decrees are my delight; they are my counselors.” (v. 24)
• “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” (v.105)
• “Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.” (v. 111)
• “Through all generations your truth endures.” (v. 90)
• “Lovers of your teaching have much peace.” (v. 165)

Proverbs says “Every word of God is flawless.” (James 30:5)   James exhorts us, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.” (James 1:22) The Gospel of John tells us that God’s word became flesh in the person of Jesus “and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14)  

God’s promise is indeed to dwell in us if we invite him in.  “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” (John 14:23)  Imagine that!  The God and creator of all that exists and his son want to make their dwelling in us!  It’s all in the Good Book.  Wherever we may be with God’s word, God says, Go deeper!

Jesus says he is standing outside the door of our hearts knocking, waiting for us to open the door. (Rev. 3:20)

Want to know more about Jesus?  Read scripture and you will learn who he is.  Invite him into your heart, and you will come to know him personally.

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt. 23:12)

In spite of Jesus’ admonition, many of us struggle with the desire to be recognized and honored.  While I may try to be humble, there is an unspoken desire in me for recognition that has been a weakness in my character for a good part of my life.

This can manifest itself in various ways — being disappointed when we don’t receive compliments, experiencing jealousy over another’s success, allowing ambition to crowd out other priorities in our lives. There was a time early in my career when I allowed the desire to move up the corporate ladder to short change other responsibilities in my life.  Fortunately, the Lord opened my eyes to this reality and gave me the grace to bring better balance to both family and work. 

Still, I quietly desire recognition for things I do.  St. Gregory of Nyssa said we should “openly despise the accolades of the world and reject all earthly glory.” He suggested seeking God’s will instead of our own as a true act of humility and self-denial.   

St. Paul has one of the best statements about seeking recognition.  He says, “Do nothing out of selfishness or vain glory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.”  He then goes on to make one of the more eloquent statements in all of scripture when he declares that our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.”  (Philippians 2:3, 6)

If Jesus, the Son of God, did not seek recognition for who he was, why should we? Confident in his relationship with the Father, he was content with the family who raised him, with his likely carpenter apprenticeship to his earthly father and the evolving revelation by his heavenly Father to teach, to witness and eventually to sacrifice his life in a tortuous death for the rest of us.

St. Peter in his first letter encourages us to “clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for: ‘God opposes the proud but bestows favor on the humble.’  So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” (1 Peter 5:5-6) 

A priest once told me that the recognition we receive from God in being loved and accepted by him is all the recognition we need. 

Do you seek recognition in the world’s eyes, or is being loved and accepted by God sufficient for you?  

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5

When Mary Magdalene and the other women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body after his crucifixion, they encountered two men described by Luke as angels who asked the above question.  

To their astonishment, these men told them that Jesus was alive!  He was not dead, though he had been put to death on the cross.  How incredulous the whole scene must have appeared to them.  Two days earlier, they saw Jesus die and taken down from the cross.  They saw his dead body embraced by his mother as she wept.  They saw his body placed in the tomb.   How could he be alive?

Our God is the author and creator of life.  He is not bound by our perceptions. 

How often do we look for the living among the dead?  How often do we search for Jesus where he is not present?   How often do we look for real meaning, purpose or happiness in life where they are not to be found – in that next job, promotion or the ever-changing notion of success; in a particular friend, group of friends or organization; in a sports team, sports hero or celebrity entertainer; in that new house, boat or car; in breaking 80 in golf, achieving a perfect 300 game in bowling or completing a full marathon in record time; in food, alcohol, drugs or other unique experience?

I know a friend who was looking for meaning and purpose in life and tried all kinds of things, even traveling to the Himalayas in India, searching for the “Living Master.”  He did not find him.  Only later, after attending a weekend retreat in his hometown conducted by a Christian outreach to the business community, did he find the true living master, Jesus, the Messiah. 

This friend found that Jesus had been waiting for him all along. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20) 

Jesus became alive and present to my friend, providing the meaning and purpose he had long sought.  Ever since, he has been operating a construction business, bringing God’s presence to his employees, customers and community in how he relates to others, does business with integrity and seeks excellence in all that he does.

Where do you look for purpose in life?  Is it Jesus?  He is present to you this very moment. 

“You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb…so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works.” (Psalm 139:13-14)

Whether we recognize it or not, we all have the glory of God in us.  We are gloriously made in the image of God.  Our human body, with all of its parts and a mind that combines instinct and rationality, is still not fully comprehended by medical science.  We are made up of millions of cells that work in unity to give us eyes to see, ears to hear, a mind to understand, along with coronary, respiratory and digestive systems to sustain our lives. 

We are the top of the pyramid of God’s creation.  Genesis tells us that we are made “to work and take care” of the garden of creation. (Gen. 2:15 NIV) Jesus says, “I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,” and “you will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.” (John 15:16; Acts 1:8)  The glory of our being combines with the glory of our mission. 

Yet, the psalmist warns us, “How long will you people mock my honor, love what is worthless, chase after lies?” (Psalm 4:3)  St. Paul chastised the people of his day for exchanging the glory of God for images of mortal man, and for exchanging the truth of God for a lie in how they lived. (Rom. 1:23, 25)

Do we recognize the glory of our being?  Do we see the glory of working and taking care of the people and circumstances God has entrusted to us? 

There have been times in my life when I have forgotten who I was and the important work God had given me.  Early in my career I sought the false gods of recognition and position without regard to what God’s will was for me and my family.  I didn’t recognize God’s glory in me as one of his created and I wasn’t asking him for guidance in what he wanted for me and the family he had given me.

By the grace of God, the example of my wife and the power of the Holy Spirit, God opened my eyes to see that I was wonderfully made in his image to work and take care of a piece of his creation that was all a part of something larger than myself. 

It is part of God’s plan, also called natural law, that most of us become co-creators with him.   We bring new life into this world, nurturing that life in the context of a family with a mother and a father, and teaching and demonstrating the truth of God’s word to the next generation. 

We are also called to work and take care of our thread in the larger fabric of creation, whatever it may be, so that both civilization and God’s kingdom are moved forward on earth as it is in heaven.  We are precious in the eyes of God. 

What are you doing with God’s glory in your life? 

“When they had fulfilled all of the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.” (Luke 2:39)

After the baby Jesus was presented in the temple, Luke reports that Mary and Joseph returned to their home in Nazareth.  How ordinary!  The Son of God is born of Mary and entrusted to Joseph and her.  With the exception of a few humble shepherds and the Magi, people gave them little notice. 

Joseph and Mary were practicing Jews who observed the laws and traditions of Judaism.  Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day and consecrated to God in the Temple in Jerusalem as was required for first born males of Jewish families. 

The Gospels give us few facts about Jesus’ childhood other than the incident when he was 12 and stayed behind in the temple during the family’s annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  The likelihood is that Jesus’ early life was very ordinary with Jesus growing up as a young Jewish boy, experiencing all of the things any Jewish boy would have experienced with family and neighbors.  They would observe family traditions and the practice of Judaism in a small village.  Jesus likely learned his father’s trade of being a carpenter, for scripture says, “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary…?” (Mark 6:3)

God inhabits the ordinary.  He did this with Jesus.  He inhabited the ordinary in preparation for the extraordinary.  He did this with the prophets that went before Jesus.  He does this with us.  We cannot expect to experience God in the extraordinary if we are not experiencing him in the ordinary. 

The ordinary includes our daily work and contact with co-workers.  It includes taking out the trash and helping our children with homework; standing in line at the checkout counter and the many choices we make each day, large and small. 

Jesus tells us in John 14;23, that if we love him, the Father and he will come and make their home in us. One of his last words to the disciples was that he will be with us always.  He is in us and with us as we choose to act on his presence.  As a result, instead of cursing the person who cuts us off on our way to work, we bless him.  We show patience to our children in helping them with their homework.  We listen to a co-worker who wants to share a problem.  We forbear in reacting negatively to an inattentive retail clerk.

Ninety-nine percent of life is ordinary.  If we are experiencing Jesus in the ordinary, we are experiencing the kingdom of God, which Jesus says is here and now.  When a need or crisis hits we can then experience Jesus in the extraordinary as we pray with a sick friend for healing, bring reconciling words to a troubled relationship or love to a forgotten stranger – anticipating that God will act in and through us.

Are you experiencing God in the ordinary events of your life, so that you can also experience him in the extraordinary?

“The Lord is my light and salvation; whom do I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom am I afraid?  But I believe I shall enjoy the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27: 1, 13)

This is a beautiful psalm, full of hope, joy and confidence, even in times of difficulty.  

Through this “light” (knowledge of God and our existence), “salvation” (God’s saving grace) and “refuge” (God’s protection), we will “see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  This is a promise for this life, here and now. 

Whatever the challenge – a demanding boss, a difficult colleague, an unreasonable customer, the loss of a job, a personal illness, the suffering or loss of a loved one, God’s saving grace is available to us in the present moment. 

Phillip Yancey in his book, What’s so Amazing about Grace? tells the story of a rock concert at Wembley Stadium in London in 1988, to celebrate the changes in South Africa.  For some reason the promoters scheduled opera singer, Jessye Norman as the closing act to sing, Amazing Grace.  For twelve hours various rock groups blasted the fans already high on booze and drugs. 

Yancey reports, “Finally the time comes for her to sing.  A single circle of light follows Norman, a majestic African-American woman wearing a flowing African dashiki, as she strolls on stage.  No backup band, no musical instruments, just Jessye.  The crowd stirs, restless. Few recognized the opera diva.  A voice yells for more [rock music]. Others take up the cry.  The scene is getting ugly.

“Alone, a capella, Norman begins to sing, very slowly:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

            That saved a wretch like me

            I once was lost but now am found—

            Was blind, but now I see.   

“A remarkable thing happens in Wembley Stadium that night.  Seventy thousand raucous fans fall silent before her aria of grace. By the time Norman reaches the second verse, ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved…, the soprano has the crowd in her hands. By the time she reaches the third verse, ‘Tis grace has brought me safe this far, And grace will lead me home,’ several thousand fans are singing along.

            When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

            Bright shining as the sun,

            We’ve no les days to sing God’s praise

            Than when we first begun.*

Jessye Norman later confessed she had no idea what power descended on Wembly Stadium that night.”  Yancey said, “I think I know.  The world thirsts for grace.  When grace descends, the world falls silent before it.” 

Might it not be “The goodness of the Lord in the land of the living?”

Do you see the goodness of the Lord, or is it obscured by the cares of daily life?

* View Jessye Norman on YouTube, Amazing Grace, Wembley Stadium, 1988

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.”  (2 Cor. 10:3-5 NIV)

St Paul is talking about truth having divine power.  Truth, the knowledge of God, his word and work, has divine power.  It demolishes lies, deception, and all manner of error.  Since truth is from God, it is eternal and never fades or dies, in contrast to lies and deception which may last for a while, but are eventually discovered and proven false.

Truth on the other hand may lie dormant for a time, but is always discovered and demolishes the stronghold of lies.  Examples in our world today include such questions as when life begins, and what constitutes marriage.  If we discovered biological cells on another planet, the headlines would declare “Life Exists on Another Planet.” Yet, a human egg fertilized with a human sperm is not?  Genesis and all of nature declare that marriage is between a “male and female” who become one to “be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it,” but the wisdom of this world through our highest court says it is not?  Is our culture exchanging the “truth of God for a lie,” as Paul discusses in Romans 1:25?

When Pilate was trying to determine who Jesus was and whether he was a king, Jesus said the reason he was born and came into the world was “to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate, like many of our leaders today, not recognizing the embodiment of truth standing right in front of him, asked, “What is truth?”  (John 18:37-38)

History testifies to the power and lasting nature of truth. The Roman Empire oppressed and persecuted Christians for almost 300 years.  Yet historian Will Durant eloquently observes:

“There is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned or oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known.  Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.” (Caesar and Christ, p. 652)

In recent memory we have seen regimes such as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union seek to oppress and outlaw the truth of God, but instead the power and eternal nature of truth brought each of them crashing down.

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching…you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (Jn. 8:32) May we never lose confidence in the power and eternal nature of truth against the lies of the world. 

Do you appreciate the power of truth?