Brandon C. Jones's Blog, page 19

Three Steps to Reading Your Bible Every Day

Earlier this year Lifeway Research polled two thousand Americans who read their Bible at least monthly and found that on average they personally own three or four copies of Holy Scripture. But when it comes to reading any of those copies, the vast majority of respondents said they do not read the Bible every day. Unless they are housing an original Gutenberg Bible, what good is it to have so many Bibles lying around? My guess is they like the idea of reading their Bibles, but life somehow gets in the way.
Let me tell you a secret. I struggle reading the Bible every day too, and I own quite a few copies: hard copies, electronic copies, audio-book copies, you name it. With so many of us toting around so many copies of the Bible, why is it so hard to read it every day? The main reasons are lack of planning, lack of routine, and lack of focus.
Step One: Use a Realistic Plan
Get a version that is not difficult to read. If you can read English, and since you are reading this blog you probably can, then you are in luck. There are dozens of readable English translations of the Bible, including the NIV, ESV, NLT, and NET. If you prefer using an ebook reader or reading from your computer screen, you can access any of these translations for free through downloading a free Bible app or by visiting http://www.biblegateway.com.
Once you have a readable version you then need a plan for how much or how little to read at a time. Somehow, reading the Bible cover to cover in one year has become an ideal for Christians in America, and I think this lofty ideal is one reason why so few Christians read the Bible daily. It is rarely wise to jump from not doing something hardly at all to doing that same thing strenuously. You. Will. Burn. Out. Fast. Just as people set unrealistic fitness goals at the start of each new year, only to abandon them by mid-January, people do the same with their biblical reading. Feeling guilty for not being a “good enough” Christian, people often decide not to bother reading the Bible at all. That’s a shame, considering God never commands us to read through the Bible once a year.
God commands us plenty of times to treasure Scripture and value it. The purpose of reading Scripture is to savor God’s scrumptious and nutritious food for your soul bite by bite. Think quality, not quantity. Just like a couch to 5K marathon program prepares you for your long run by getting you used to shorter runs at the beginning, why not start reading Scripture by reading through one short New Testament book all the way through? Jude, Philemon, and 3 John are the shortest ones. Read through your chosen book tomorrow. Read through it again the next day. Read through it again each day for a week. While reading it, mark sentences that stick out and follow-up on them after your week is over to see if they now make better sense.
Once you’ve read a few New Testament books this way, pick a Gospel in the New Testament and read through it one chapter a day until you’ve read it all the way through. Next, read the same Gospel again. This time jot brief notes about passages that were memorable. Highlight passages that hold promises and take a full minute to focus on that single sentence or phrase. Meditate on small bits of God’s Word. Pray them out loud. Write them out and put them on your computer. Tape them on your bathroom mirror. Share them with your children before they go to school and after they return. Tell your spouse about them (cf. Deut 6:6-9). Once you have read through a Gospel a few times, pick one of the longer New Testament letters and follow suit.
Once you’ve successfully handled some New Testament books, add one Psalm to each of your reading sessions. Read that same Psalm over and over again for at least a week. Some Psalms, like Psalm 119, are lengthy, so break them up into smaller chunks for daily reading.
Never worry about how much of the Bible you are reading in a month or even a year. Instead, focus on what God is telling you; taste that he is good; praise him that his word endures forever.
Without a realistic plan in place, you will set yourself up for failure when it comes to reading Scripture.
Step Two: Set a Workable Routine
A plan is worthless unless you implement it. Some of us are morning people, while others are night owls. The good news for both groups is that there is no holiest time to read Scripture during your day. I know you morning people are already thinking about advantages of reading the Bible in the morning, and you go right ahead. There areadvantages to reading the Bible and praying in the morning. But there are also advantages in reading the Bible and praying in the evening, especially if it enables you to do it together with someone or allows you to have more time to do it. 
Remember, there is no advantage to abandoning your Bible reading altogether. Make it a pre-determined decision that there is a part of each day set aside for prayer and Bible reading. Do not deliberate whether or not you will do it tomorrow on the day before. Instead, commit to doing it, and do not leave the matter up to a decision. (Some bonus advice, this method works well for church attendance too. Don’t leave it up for deliberation every Saturday night if and where you will go to church the next day. Commit to going and don’t sabotage it with poor behavior the night before or a busy schedule the next day.)
You need not block off hours for Bible reading in your day, just consider having your Bible as your companion with your morning coffee instead of the local television news or Web browsing. Likewise, in the evening consider having your Bible as your companion in the half-hour before bedtime instead of the local television news, late-night talk shows, or Web browsing. We are not talking about seismic shifts in your daily schedule.
It all comes down to what you value, and nobody likes to think in those terms. We make time in our daily schedules for things we crave and things we value. Too often people feel bad that they do not give hours of the day to spiritual disciplines, so they end up giving zero minutes of their day instead. Do not make what is perfect become the enemy of what is good. Work something sustainable into your daily routine like Bible-reading and prayer for just 20-30 minutes. That is the length of one sitcom or daytime judge show.
Whatever routine you settle on be flexible with it. If you have a busy morning, shift your quiet time to the evening and vice versa. If you have a day on the road that bumps you out of your normal routine, don’t sweat it. Just go back to your normal routine when you return. If you follow the Bible-reading plan above you need not worry about “catching up” daily readings that you will miss here and there. Likewise, if prayer comes hard to you, pray the Psalm you are reading. You can also start reading prayers of others like Spurgeon’s daily devotional reading, Morning and Evening, and pattern your prayers after them.
Step Three: Don’t Sabotage Your Focus
Technology puts constant noise in our lives. Noise not only comes from the ever-running televisions or radios in the backgrounds at work or at home, it also comes by way of ubiquitous electronic screens, phones, games, toys, that are always available to stimulate us. Our culture has in a way rewired our brains to where we expect to read only things that are brief. This blog post is already way too long, right? You might have even scrolled through it first to determine if it was worthy enough of a few minutes of your time before you moved on to the next thing.
In contrast, the Bible is an ancient book that requires focus. Don’t sabotage the time you set aside to read it by having your phone handy and noise all around. Shut your phone off; the world will still be okay after you turn it back on. Find a space in your house that is quiet. Take some deep breaths and stretch a little before reading and prayer.
You may need to re-read sentences and paragraphs to figure out what biblical authors are saying. You may also need to become familiar with tools to help you understand passages. Study Bibles are good helps. Books about how best to read the Bible, like Fee and Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, are easy to read and full of great information.
There is no shortage of resources to aid you to understand and savor Scripture, but your most valuable resource is your local church. If your church offers regular opportunities to join brothers and sisters in small-group or Sunday School/Adult Bible Fellowship settings to look at Scripture together, you would be foolish for staying at home while they meet. Likewise, your church leaders would check their pulses or suspect a practical joke was being played on them if people actually approached them for advice on how to read and study Scripture.
With all of these resources surrounding you, what is keeping you back from making 2013 the year you finally develop the discipline of reading your Bible? Start with a plan, set a routine, and don’t sabotage your focus.
“Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” – James 1:21 (NIV)

I will be God for Sinners, even Ray Lewis

The NFL playoffs are upon us in America and there is much talk about the final games for the longtime Baltimore Ravens linebacker, Ray Lewis. Several years ago Lewis was in the news for more than his football talent when he was involved with a criminal investigation after a double-homicide. Lewis’s past behavior also includes fathering six children with four women.
After last Saturday’s Ravens playoff victory, the final home game of Lewis’s career, the television broadcast cut to a celebrating Lewis who took off his football jersey to send a message to all the viewers. His undershirt displayed two words: “Psalms 91.” I was surprised to see it and made a mental note to myself that Ray was one of “those people” who wrongly use the word Psalms (and probably Revelations too). But I also immediately thought of his troubled past and dismissed him.
I was not alone in my response. When I read this piece by Jon Acuff I discovered that his reaction to Lewis’s display was nearly identical to mine. Acuff then made a convicting point: our shared reaction to Ray Lewis’s gesture reveals that we do not really believe in grace. If we did, then we would realize that God loves Ray Lewis too. Grace, by definition, is unfair and offensive. After some research I found that since the infamous homicide investigation, Lewis has cleaned up his life, started several charities, and has been outspoken about his faith for several years.
God has also been outspoken for centuries about graciously identifying himself with sinners just like Ray Lewis. When God appeared to Moses he described himself as the God who will be there, or the “I am.” He told Moses, “I am what I am,” meaning he will always be God for his people, proving it to everyone by delivering them out of slavery in Egypt. God is willing to be God for sinners, even Ray Lewis, even you and me. Moreover, God will protect his people and be on-call for them whenever he is needed, at least that’s what Psalm 91 says:
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
    nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
    no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
    they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
   You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
   He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
   With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

The Final Joke

2013 is here and full of unknown possibilities. When a year ends, it ends properly by giving us a new beginning the very second the ball has dropped. At the end of each year we rehearse for the coming of the kingdom. Whenever Christ returns to earth he will not eradicate everyone and everything. Rather, a new beginning will come with him that will last for eternity.
Some people think our world thrives on cycles of life and extinction. One day we will all get our turn at extinction just as we got a turn at life. Some people have better lives than others, but death will be the same for us all—so they say—it’s all just nothingness. For some people nothingness seems sweet or at least a neutral thing, as the Epicureans used to put on their tombstones: “I was not. I was. I am not. I care not.” I rarely come across people who, after boldly concluding that death marks the extinguishing of conscious existence, admit that the coming void seems to be sour rather than sweet. Jesus once told a story about a man who died and awoke to torment and cared greatly for his comfort and the fate of his family.
Later, Jesus called himself the Resurrection and the Life. He once asked a dear friend if she believed all that. She said yes, but many others thought him to be a joker, making up stuff about life and death in order for weak-minded people to follow him. When a new year comes and I think of Christ’s claims on earth, especially his promise of a quick return to establish his kingdom, I wonder if I take him to be joking too? Were I to believe what he says, wouldn’t I, like the man who died, be greatly concerned about the plight of others? Wouldn’t I get the point of Jesus’ numerous warnings about how to behave once the master of the house goes away because he may return at any hour? Wouldn’t I allow perennial signs of Christ’s return, such as wars, natural disasters, and people behaving badly to prompt me to follow his example of love, mercy, and grace?
When the Magi saw a mysterious star in the Western sky they moved and took costly gifts with them in case their hunch was right. Upon coming to Jerusalem they encountered a number of scribes who had much knowledge and also saw the same star, but they did not move. They stayed. Kierkegaard asks, “Who had the more truth? The three kings who followed a rumor, or the scribes who remained sitting with all their knowledge?” He goes on to say, “what an atrocious self-contradiction that the scribes should have the knowledge and yet remain still. This is as bad as if a person knows all about Christ and his teachings, and his own life expresses the opposite. We are tempted to suppose that such a person wishes to fool us, unless we admit that he is only fooling himself.”
We do fool ourselves, and we have much more than a hunch and a star to go on. Despite all the prophetic descriptions of what eternal life will be, it all seems so fantastic it is hard to accept. We are content with knowledge about it, but we do not move. Maybe when things become dire in our lives we will start caring enough about Christ’s return to prepare ourselves for it. But will we? The dead man in Jesus’ story was convinced that if a person were to come back from the dead people would believe what he had to say. But he was wrong. Even in the middle of judgment, people are slow to accept the idea of a new beginning.
Before Jesus famously talks about people being swept up in horrible judgment (or what other interpreters think will be delightful rapture), he tells us to “remember Lot’s wife!” When God sent angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah they first warned Lot and his family. Lot believed the angels, so he “went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, ‘Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!’ But his sons-in-law thought he was joking” (Gen 19:14, NIV). Those young men perished in the fire. Meanwhile Lot, his wife, and their daughters fled, obeying the angels who told them to go as far as the mountains. The angels warned them, “Don’t look back,” but Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Not only should we remember Lot’s wife, but let us also not forget Lot’s sons-in-law, especially when we join them and live as if we do not really believe judgment will ever come. Do we think all this talk of Christ’s return and new beginnings is some joke? If so, we will only be fooling ourselves.

Top Five Posts of 2012

Well, 2013 is just around the corner. Here are the five most popular posts from 2012:


5. Will the Real Good Samaritan Please Stand Up?

4. Praying Your Heart.

3. Ephesians 1-3, the Prequel.

2. Jesus Came to Abolish Religion, for the Rapper Told Me So.

and 1. My Book, Waters of Promise, Is Now Available.

Have a Happy New Year!

The Spirit of Christmas and the Spirit of Christ

What’s your favorite Christmas movie? If you need some help, here is a listof over 250 Christmas movies—not counting movies that are merely “related to Christmas.” Some of you might be heartened or outraged that both Die Hard and Die Hard 2 are listed as actual Christmas films instead of merely films related to Christmas.
Beloved Christmas movies are mostly generational things. Both my Dad and Father-in-law enjoyed A Christmas Story, while I like it okay, I guess. I grew up enjoying National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation(the cable television version, of course), and in my adulthood my favorite movie to watch with my kids is Elf. For you movie nerds, the actor who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story makes a cameo appearance in Elf, for what that’s worth. I am sorry to say that I have never seen It’s a Wonderful Life all the way through, but the SNL spoof This, You Call a Wonderful Life? is one of my favorites. Some Christmas movies seem ill fated at best, like the time in my childhood when our family watched Ernest Saves Christmas in the theaters, which was way less enjoyable than going to camp with Ernest.

All you need for a Christmas movie is some unstated, or poorly stated, notion of “Christmas spirit,” whatever that is. It usually has something to do with being nice for at least one day a year to get what you always wanted anyways. Will Willimon explains what these movies in one way or another aim to tell us, when he writes, “We enjoy thinking of ourselves as basically generous, benevolent, giving people. That’s one reason why everyone, even the nominally religious, loves Christmas. Christmas is a season to celebrate our alleged generosity. The newspaper keeps us posted on how many needy families we have adopted. The Salvation Army kettles enable us to be generous while buying groceries (for ourselves) and gifts (for our families). . . . We prefer to think of ourselves as givers—powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence and gifts to benefit the less fortunate. Which is a direct contradiction of the biblical account of the first Christmas. There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were but as the receivers we are.”
Somehow the Christmas spirit became synonymous with the human spirit, leaving Christ, grace, and receiving out in the cold each winter in America. Trees full of presents on days full of families and things offer little reflection on how we are sinners in need of a Savior.
About fifty years ago the author John Steinbeck wrote to his friend, politician Adlai Stevenson, about “two kinds of Christmases,” one kind in which there are few things and much reverence and another kind in which there are many things and no reverence. He writes, “Well, it seems to me that America now is like that second kind of Christmas. Having too many THINGS they spend their hours and money on the couch searching for a soul. A strange species we are. We can stand anything God and nature can throw at us save only plenty.” If America was like that in the late 1950s I can only imagine what Steinbeck would say about us now.
What kind of Christmas did you celebrate this year? What kind of Christmas will you celebrate next year?
Although Les Misérables, which means “the Wretched Poor,” is not listed among Christmas movies, a film version of the musical based on Victor Hugo’s story about law, grace, and salvation was released on Christmas day this year. For those unfamiliar with the story, it is about a man who served years of hard labor in prison for a petty crime, stealing bread when he and loved ones were desperately hungry. Upon parole he was mistreated and labeled as a no-good convict, but a churchman welcomed him into his home, served him a meal, and treated the convict like a distinguished gentleman. In return the paroled convict stole valuable silver from the church and was caught, doomed to go back to prison for the rest of his life. But the churchman goes along with the convict’s lie he told the authorities that all the silver was a gift, effectively saving the convict from doom in prison. The churchman tells the man to give his life now to God, since it has been bought back. The convict breaks parole to take on a new identity, rising up the business and political ranks in order to do good by sharing with others what he has. Of course, his old life and status as a fugitive continually haunt him, and the story adds layers of law, grace, redemption, and love through several characters and plot twists. By the end, outrageous grace proves to be more revolutionary than barricades, gunpowder, and rage.
Major themes in the musical version are the shattered dreams of hopelessness in a fallen world; the jarring question, “who am I?”; and the idea that showing love to others shows them God’s face. Every time I think of the story I have the urge to do something, not in a giving way that allows me to be ever powerful and capable as I throw some change in a red bucket. Rather, I hear the calling to behave in a sacrificing way in which I give myself to and for others, knowing that I too am just a forgiven convict.
I often fall short and look to God to receive again and again in hopes that his love will flow through me to others. And that’s the true spirit of Christmas, if we can say there is such a thing. Better yet, let’s just say that’s the Spirit of Christ, which unquestionably is someone and won’t melt along with the snow by next spring. And with Christ there is no need for cheesy movies to pat us on the back for being so good this time of year. As John Wesley liked to say, “Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace.”

Unfailing Love

Love drives people to do strange things. Paul explains that rarely would anyone ever die for a righteous person, though someone might contemplate dying for a good person. But out of love Christ died for us, even though we were neither righteous nor good. We were sinners.
We are all as sinful as the people who crucified him. Christ loved them too, asking the Father to forgive them. At Calvary he loved the thieves on his left and right, one of which hurled insults at him like so many others did on that grim Friday afternoon outside Jerusalem. He loved his devoted followers that scattered the night before he died. One of them, Peter, pledged to die before letting Jesus be handed over to any authorities. Within hours of that happening this same Peter had denied a few times before strangers and kids that he even knew who Jesus was. The last kiss Jesus received was that of his follower-turned-traitor, Judas Iscariot, whom Jesus called a friend the very moment he was seized and arrested.
One of the chief persecutors of Christ’s early church was a man named Saul, who proudly executed people many of Christ's first followers. But Jesus loved him too. Saul believed in Christ and changed his name to Paul, meaning “small, humble.” Paul lived up to his name by describing himself as the chief of sinners and the “leastest” of all the people Christ sent to spread his gospel.
Jesus’ love for sinners did not stop with Paul. It continued for centuries, spreading from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth. If anything, winter in the northern plains of the Dakotas reminds us that we live in one of those parts. And God loves us here too. He loves people who hunt. He loves people who have regrets. He loves people who drink watery coffee in the afternoon. He loves people who lose their temper and say things they should not. He loves people who farm. He loves people who drink milk straight out of the carton, despite knowing they should have used a cup. He loves people who sew. He loves people who carry guilt (for them he offers a much lighter burden). He loves people who are part of his church. He loves people who were part of his church, but for one reason or another are not anymore. He loves people who at hearing the word “church” turn red-faced and go on and on about all the hypocrites you’ll find there who just want people’s money. He loves all the hypocrites too. He even loves you.
There’s a reason for all that love: God is love. And he does not just say he loves us like some schoolboy who sends flowery notes to a handful of girls all at once. No, he showed us his love by coming to take on our flesh and blood and die for us. If you know him, then you know his love. If you know his love, then you will love the same way he does. And that means you will love all of the same people he loves until he comes again. Love never fails.

Joy to the World

The most-published Christmas hymn in North America is Joy to the World, which was written by Isaac Watts nearly three hundred years ago. Watts would have been surprised that out of the hundreds of hymns he wrote in his lifetime that this one would be his most popular because of Christmas. He modeled it after Psalm 98 in which the Lord is praised for doing marvelous things, and in Joy to the World praises come at Christ’s triumphant return.
Despite being about Christ’s return, Watts’s hymn has become synonymous with Christmas for good reason. In true Advent fashion Joy to the World does not separate Christ’s birth in Bethlehem from everything else about him. Christmas is joyful because of who Christ is and what he does. He is full of grace and truth, showing us the Father. He made himself a ransom for many by dying on a cross. He triumphed over sin, death, and the Devil by rising again from the grave. Through him God’s blessings flow far as sin’s curse is found, and someday he will return to set things aright and reverse the curse once and for all.
On that day, as Psalm 98 and Isaac Watts remind us, heaven and nature will welcome him. People will sing, bursting into jubilant song with music. Even the sea and land will resound and sing in praise on that day in their own way. He will rule the world with truth and grace. Righteousness and justice will prevail.
God’s people will receive their king with joy, having prepared room in their hearts for his grace. But there will be no joy for those facing judgment. Sin shrinks our joy such that we anticipate passing things with joy, like an upcoming vacation, but have no joy left for God. We rejoice over a hearty meal, but cannot sing praises out loud with a smile to our almighty maker and redeemer. We rejoice in an unexpected break from winter on a warm day, but cannot give God gratitude for his gift of life or receive his gift of new life by grace through faith in Christ. We rejoice in our team’s victories, but we take no pride in God’s defeat of evil. It is not interesting enough to talk about. We certainly do not bother commemorating his championship by letting Christ’s reign break into our fallen world today by loving others as he has loved us. We will hunger again, seasons will change, and the things we support will not win forever. Unless we rejoice in Christ we won’t rejoice in anything for very long.

Thanks be to God that he is not stingy with lasting joy. He shares it with heaven, earth, and us too. He shares by nature, so he tells us to share his love by remaining in him. Once we trust him, we remain in his love by following his example. For “if you keep my [Jesus’] commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:10-11, NIV).
If you want a joy that never passes, a joy that will be full, then trust in Jesus. His joy is enough, and he shares it with you. The Lord is come! Let earth receive her king!

Ruling Peace

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 NIV).
One of Jesus’ titles is that people will call him the Prince of Peace, meaning that he is responsible for peace. Where there is peace, it has been entrusted to Jesus.
Peace does not mean as much today as it did centuries ago. We have narrowed the meaning of peace to refer only to the absence of things. Peace is freedom from conflict. Peace is freedom from noise. Peace is freedom from stress or worry. When Isaiah wrote about a coming child whom God would entrust with peace, Isaiah had much more in mind than serenity and the lack of warfare. In Isaiah’s time, peace was synonymous with wholeness. Wherever there was completion, fulfillment, well-being, health, and prosperity, there was peace.
Isaiah was also familiar with our definitions of peace, because you cannot even contemplate wholeness without first becoming free from conflicts without and within. We fight. We hold grudges. We sneer. We loathe. We worry. We stress. We fear. And we fear with good reason. Our fallen world is marked by sin, death, and forces of evil all around. Much stands between us and even thinking about peace, including something dark within ourselves.
Isaiah cried to God after seeing the glory in heaven, saying, “‘Woe to me!’ . . . ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips’” (Isa 6:5). America is no better than Israel was, and we are no better than Isaiah.
God heard Isaiah, and he revealed to him a coming servant who would bring peace at last. The root of our fears is sin and its curse of death. Despite diplomatic efforts, pharmaceutical developments, and self-help fads, true peace will only come at sin’s expense. And we sinners cannot get rid of sin ourselves. We need God’s help, and God has responded by triumphing over sin through Jesus Christ.
God entrusted peace to Christ, because he was able and willing to save us. Just like peace used to mean more than the absence of conflict, salvation used to mean more than the avoidance of hell. Salvation includes healing, making true peace possible.
During Advent we wait for peace, knowing that God has entrusted it to Christ. One day he will come again and bring with him peace in his kingdom that will have no end. In the meantime he has called us to live peaceably with all people. In case you were wondering, “all people” include family members, friends, neighbors, and especially enemies.
Since Christ has entrusted peace to us, his church, how peaceful are you this season? “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace” (Num 6:24-26)

Here Comes Hope

Times Square in New York as well as thousands of other places will fill with people on December 31st to welcome a new year full of hopes and resolutions. But this upcoming Sunday God’s people will celebrate a much older new year’s tradition with the start of the Advent season, marking the beginning of each year for Christ’s church. Most people know what an adventure is, but fewer people—even those who are part of God’s people—regularly talk about Advent. Dating back to at least the seventh century, Christians set aside a month to prepare for the annual celebration of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.
Over time the name “Advent” was attached to this season because the word literally means “arrival,” and as Christians ponder the arrival of Jesus in the first century they are also drawn to meditate on his future arrival in which he will establish his kingdom in full by bringing heaven to earth (Rev 21-22). Despite all the American traditions of the Christmas season that prompt decorations, treats, carols, television specials, and presents, the meaning of Christ’s birth can only be appreciated in light of his obedient life, death, resurrection, ascension, and future return to earth. One helpful way of considering the meaning of Christ’s birth is to focus on hope, peace, joy, and love as expressed by God taking on human flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14). If we were able to find any of these things by ourselves, without Christ, then his birth would not mean much.
But because of sin and its curse of death we need a Savior. We need Christ. And Advent is the season in which we prepare for his arrival by remembering our inability to save ourselves. One theologian who was imprisoned during Advent in the 1940s remarked that it was fitting to be behind bars during this time, since Advent reminds us that we are sentenced to death and our only hope lies on the other side of that prison door. Imprisoned and lonely, we hope for someone to come and deliver us, and we Christians have good reason to hope because God has sent his Son to triumph over sin, death, and the Devil, nailing that which condemns all of us to his cross (Col 2:13-15).
Christ’s birth, death, resurrection, and ascension all point to his promise to return here and raise us up as well, at least those of us who believe in him. It is hope because there are good reasons to believe in this liberating news. It is also hope because we do not see it or have it yet, so we must patiently wait for it. As any child can tell you Advent is a time of waiting. December lags every hour of every day as we wait for Christmas to come, which is good. The gift of Christmas is well worth waiting for. Likewise, the gift of Christ’s kingdom is well worth waiting for throughout our entire lives. For we do not know when he will come again.
Jesus says there is a right way and a wrong way to wait for his return: “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:34-36, NIV). Be careful indeed, because he prefaces his warning by saying, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Luke 21:33, NIV).
On midnight on December 31st the year 2012 will become the past and many things we cherish about Christmastime will pass with it until the next year. But the hope of Advent remains, and it is a hope worth waiting for.
Next week we will look at the peace God shares with us through Christ.

How to talk about the Trinity without mentioning clovers, eggs, or water

As Christians we believe that the God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ is by nature triune. God the Father is divine, God the Son is divine, and God the Spirit is divine. Yet there are not three gods, but only one God.
When good Christians, who believed in Scripture’s authority and the Spirit’s workings through the church, pondered Jesus’ relationship to God the Father, they came up with different explanations. Upon further reflection, the church rejected most explanations for good reasons (even though many of the rejected explanations are still around today in some form whenever we talk about clovers, eggs, or water while discussing the Trinity).What the church eventually agreed on regarding the Trinity is not a neat and tidy definition of who God is, for that would be impossible for us to describe—even with the aid of revelation. Rather, the church set boundaries for what Scripture reveals God to be, and it marked those boundaries in clear places that let everyone know whose views were within the fence and whose views remained outside.
Now the struggle in many churches is no longer to explain why some views of God are wrong and should be rejected. In some ways our task today is even greater—explaining the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity well. One helpful approach begins with a familiar phrase about God—that he is love.
1. God is love.
2. Love is shared.
3. If God IS love, rather than merely someone who can and does love others, then God gives and receives love without any others.
4. God the Father, the fount and source of divinity, begets God the Son and loves him.5. The love shared between God the Father and God the Son is so fierce a bond that the bond itself is also its own giver and receiver of love, the Holy Spirit that proceeds from the Father through the Son.
6. Although we can distinguish between the causes of God the Son and God the Spirit, we are not describing what God does, but who God is. Thus, God the Son and God the Spirit exist eternally and are no less divine than God the Father.
7. Although God the Father is not God the Son and neither of them is God the Spirit, God’s actions toward creatures are so perfectly harmonious that from our perspective they look singly, originating from the Father, through the Son, and completed in the Spirit.
Of course, you do not have to believe the Christian doctrine of the Trinity to believe that God is love. But once you go further than mere theism and believe in the God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ, you need to explain how Jesus reveals God. After much deliberation, the church settled on the mysterious doctrine of the Trinity as the most proper explanation. What a wonderful doctrine it is, telling us that by his very nature God is love. God shares. God gives. God receives. God overflows. What a glorious God we serve!