Devotions: A thought

I know this isn't some radical new thought, but it has gotten my attention this last week. 

This world exists in tension, between heaven and hell, faith and fear, trust and doubt, relationship with God or denial of Him. 

I have been listening to the radio lately, and no, not the Christian radio station. There are a few songs on the radio that speak to the sad and deep longing in the soul, but also to the desires of humanity to be able to do what they want. And those songs are haunting, and beautiful, and touch something inside of me. Life is the tension between what the world offers and what we have through salvation in Jesus Christ. Immediate desires versus our eternal lives in community with the Creator of the universe. What would make us think that the same God that created the world and all that we desire within it would make a heaven any less awesome? 

Our salvation is not the end of the story. We aren't Disney Princesses where the curtain falls at the happily ever after. Salvation is our Happily Ever After moment, it guarantees our place in heaven with him. But after that moment, there are struggles and fights, failings, faults, sins. The world is tempting, it's allures are designed to distract us. I do think however that we need to acknowledge our fears and failings, our doubts, our desires for the things in the world, the beauty that is around us. Maybe Christian music spends too much time taking about salvation and not enough time in minor keys, and mournful chords. We are allowed to be honest with God. He knows that we live in this tension and he has sent us The Holy Spirit, not to solve our problems, but to be our comforter, because we feel pain, and our encourager because we feel desire, fear, and doubt. 

As I said, this isn't a new idea or thought, but we should strive to remember that life happens between salvation and righteousness. And even though it's messy, it's worth the struggle. 

Christmas

There is a song by Pentatonix called "That's Christmas to Me" which has gotten me thinking. What defines Christmas for me? So in a nutshell - here you go!

1. Jesus: From setting up the nativity scene (which got changed around every couple hours when I was little) to Christmas eve service with the candlelight Silent Night and remembering the importance of His birth, Christmas has been centered on my families faith in Jesus and his impact on our lives. 

2. Family: Traditions abound! 

                  We always picked our tree from a u-cut tree place the weekend after Thanksgiving. We would go out, bundled, usually in the rain (yay Western Washington!) and the five of us (and the dog) would go pick out a tree. We never took very long, we are a pretty decisive family, but the trip out, the tree shaker, and the apple cider along with the candy cane on the way out of the tree farm was the first excitement of the season! (The tree farm we went to also had signs on the way in and out - they always said the same thing but we three kids all read them in a chorus each year anyway). 

                   The storage for our Christmas decorations was accessed through my bedroom growing up, and I always had to clear away my stuff, pull open the door and crawl in on hands and knees to pull out the boxes and boxes of decorations. That began our day of playing Christmas music, setting up of outdoor lights and decorating the tree. 

                    Mom always took us three girls out to buy our presents for Dad. That included lunch out and a whole day wandering the mall, counting how many people each of us knew and seeing who won our makeshift Christmas popularity contest. 

                    Dad would then take each of us girls out on a Daddy daughter date. This is a tradition I kept even into  my first year of marriage. I appreciated that one on one time shopping for mom and the Baskin Robbins 2 scoop hot fudge sundae with at least one scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry. 

                    Christmas cookies. This one has evolved over the years. When I was younger, we used to go to my Grammie's house and decorate sugar cookies, ending up with dozens of cookies with varying degrees of artistic talent stored in our freezer for Christmas treats. Then, it turned into a more varied endeavor starting when my Grandma would come over for a few days and we would spend it making ginger cookies, spritz, snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies with red and green chips etc. Now, my Mom, my Aunt, and my sisters and I make our own collection of cookies together every year, a tradition that I cherish for the crazy antics that we all get into, and the delicious results of our labor. And for the fact that I get four to six different kinds of cookies while only having to make one of them (I make the Krumkake). 

                    Christmas Eve was spent together as a family, going to church, dressing up, and then anxiously awaiting the next morning. 

                    Christmas morning is Hot Chocolate, Santa presents, Stockings, watching the dog check out each and every present, wrapping paper balls thrown at Dad (the keeper of the trash bag) and mounds of presents laid out. This was followed by breakfast, showers, and then the re-laying out of presents on made beds so that everyone who came over in the afternoon could examine and ooh and aah over our haul. 

                     Christmas afternoon included pool, lots of food, laughter and family. By seven o'clock we were usually conked out on the couch watching someone's Christmas present movie and thoroughly sated. 

                     These past few years have changed our traditions as we are all getting married and have our own houses. I can't wait to see what new traditions we make for ourselves!

3. The Christmas Excitement: Christmas eve has never been a particularly easy to sleep night. All growing up my sister and I had adjacent rooms in the basement, and often we would talk through the wall to each other before giving up and getting up, spending time playing cards or talking. We would sometimes fall asleep around midnight, but then by about two thirty in the morning I would find myself awake again. I was always so excited I couldn't sleep. But I would BEG to sleep. I would pray, on my knees, asking God to help me sleep so it could be Christmas morning already! I even remember one year grabbing my cd player and listening to music hoping that it would help turn off my mind. 

Christmas is God, Family, and Excitement. It is a time of year where joy fills the air, generosity is more important than what you receive and everyone takes time to spend time with each other. Now that we have all grown up it is harder and harder to make time to spend with each other. Christmas gives us multiple opportunities and we take advantage of every one. 

Jesus is the reason for Christmas. His birth is the reason that we can be with God, but I'm glad that his birth gives us a reason to celebrate, and to spend time in joyous giving and receiving, in laughter and ridiculous antics, in relationship not only with our God, but with each other. 

Devotions: A Look at Hope

How many times have you seen the words "Jesus is the reason for the season". It's ironic how cliche Christianity can get, words and phrases repeated that mean everything and yet nothing at the same time. Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season, but why? Not because we want people to take their focus from presents, or to think about the true meaning of Christmas (although that would be wonderful) but because this is a celebration of our salvation, the hope that should drive our lives - EVERY part of our lives. Jesus isn't just the reason for Christmas, he should be the reason we get up in the morning, tie our shoes, go about our days. Jesus represents the hope of an eternity with our Lord, Jesus represents the hope of a future, the hope of a life spent with Him.

So in reality, the saying should go "Jesus is the reason for my life" but that doesn't rhyme. But life isn't always pretty, it doesn't always rhyme, it doesn't always wrap itself up into a nice little bow. Think about the story of our saviors birth - born to a teenage, unwed virgin whose fiance needed to be convinced via divine intervention (angel) that he should even stay engaged to her. She has a baby in a city she's never been to, in a stable. Jesus is born after a journey that must have been extraordinarily painful for her, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Mary's life doesn't wrap up neatly. She probably didn't ever have that calm and profound moment that is pictured in every nativity scene ever made. But the birth of Jesus represents something for Mary, for Joseph, and for their entire nation of Israel - Hope.

Christmas is the season of hope. And Jesus is our hope, our only hope:

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:1-5

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

Without Jesus we wouldn't even know how to hope, or what to hope for. Israel was the only nation chosen by God and what did they hope for? The Messiah. Well, he had come, he has risen, and he is seated at the right hand of his father! Jesus is now our hope and our everything. Through Him we can come to the father, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, we have purpose and peace and salvation. We can live eternally in the presence of the Lord because of Jesus.

Jesus is hope. Hope for a better tomorrow, that life isn't meaningless, that we have purpose, that we were created for a reason and that reason is to be in relationship with a God who doesn't need us, but who loves us because that is who He is. Hope.

This Christmas, take the time to think about Jesus, and what that Hope means in your life.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."  Romans 15:13

Devotions: Life of Moses Exodus 35:1-40:38

"Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up." Exodus 40:36-37

I feel like the story of the Israelites through Exodus could so easily be the story of any persons life. You spend time in constant circles of doubt, confidence in your own strength, failure, trust in God, and then spiritual mountaintop experiences followed by drinking the ash of your idols. Life is a journey, and God wants to be our navigator.

Like Moses, I've told God that I don't have the skills that He needs to accomplish what he desires.
Like the Israelites, I have failed to trust God's promises even if he has recently proven himself in my life.
Like the Elders and Aaron, I have led others astray by compromise within my own life.
Like Moses, I have leaned on God and asked for forgiveness.
Like the Israelites I have shown genuine repentance.

And mercifully, like the tabernacle, I have God in the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of me, with me. God is so good, so loving, so merciful and kind, but he is also the holy and righteous God, the ruler of creation and the only righteous judge. Israel had a bumpy journey through the first year, rescued from Egypt, taken into the arms of a jealous God whom they had very little experience with. Making promises they could not keep, and then failing in them. But they came to the realization that they could not make this journey without the Lord. They repented, they asked God to forgive them and dwell among them again. And when He did, they followed Him. Literally, they followed Him. When the cloud was taken up, they followed after it, when the cloud stayed put, they stayed put.

I don't have a physical cloud to follow. I can't point towards the sky and say, "God want's me to go that way" but I do have his word, and I have his spirit. I have direction and I have a way of learning his desires and will for my life. I have set out on my own, I have created idols, I have told God that he doesn't know what is best for my life, but that doesn't work out. God is a jealous God. He is jealous of the love of his creation. He deserves our undivided attention, our ability to put the world away and focus on Him. He wants to lead us to the promised land. Yes, it takes a lifetime to get there, but he knows the way. He knows how best to keep us out of danger, away from the wild animals, away from the nations that would destroy us. He knows how best to bless our lives, or how best to protect us - whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually.

Thank you Lord for giving us your word. For mirroring even in this old story, both your plan for the world through your son and the journey that you want to take us on. Lord, you alone are worthy of all of our praise and our admiration. Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit to dwell among us. May I only ever depart when you are leading, and be content to stay put when you tell me to wait.