“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”   Isaiah 9:6-7

In a few days, much of the world will celebrate Christmas.  For many this holiday has no meaning as they are either unaware of or opposed to faith in Christ.  For others who are vaguely aware of Christ’s incarnation, it is a time to focus on fellowship and gifts, but has no soul altering significance.  However, for those of us who have encountered God, accepted His invitation, and understand the background of Christ’s incarnation, there is depth to the celebration that comes from understanding.  We know and have experienced the love, joy, peace and hope that demands jubilation and worship.  As we move from Advent to Christmas day, we transition from introspection and meditation to worship. Hopefully it is joyful unbridled worship of our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace for who He is and what He has accomplished for us.

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“For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”  Isaiah 53:2-3

Backstories can add significant depth to the words of a song.  Similarly, factual biographies can help us understand historical figures.  In order to facilitate some introspection as we approach Christmas, the last two posts have discussed The Encounter with God as well as The Invitation that Christ offers.  To fully appreciate what it means to encounter God and invitation that Christ presents to us, we need to also consider the background of Christ’s incarnation and all that it entails.  To get a complete grasp, one must read the entire Bible.  However, one of the most concise summaries of Christ’s life was written before He was born.  God gave this particular account through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 53.  This depiction gives us insight into the Lord and Savior that: asks us to forfeit our entitlements to all that we hold dear in this life for the Glory of God; offers the promise of a reconciled and blessed eternity; and asks us to come to Him no matter how sordid our background so that we may enter into His rest. The goal is not to put a damper on the celebration, but rather to afford  a focused understanding of Christ’s sacrifice,we can draw near and worship Him more fully during the Christmas season.

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For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Philippians 2:9-11

Recently my wife and I attended church with my aunt and uncle. The service that they normally attend is more traditional and utilizes many hymns.  On this particular Sunday, we sang “Fairest Lord Jesus”.  It’s a beautiful hymn that both inspired praise and sent my mind racing in several directions about what it meant; whether those singing were engaged with message of the words; what does fair mean in this context; is the glory of Christ was still held above the glory of nature; and whether or not the nations, our nation, or even the body of Christ recognizes Christ as Lord.

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“For you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God”  Exodus 34:14

The context of Exodus 34 is that Moses is on Mount Sinai for the second time to receive God’s commandments.  While he was with Jehovah the first time, the Israelites got impatient and made a golden calf to worship.  After dealing with their sin and interceding on their behalf, he is once again with God.

It’s one thing to be described by another as jealous.  However, to not only declare yourself as jealous, but to also bear it as a name seems to be extreme.  Yet that is exactly what God does when He meets Moses for a second time.  For us to consider this as extreme, harsh or even a bit wrong would be an incorrect stance.

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“I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever.  Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever.  Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.  On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.   Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness.  They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness and will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.”  Psalm 145:1-7

As I was finishing a run recently, I was overcome with the urge to glorify God.  As I pondered His glory, I had to check my soul to make sure it wasn’t merely an emotional high.  After all, it was a beautiful day and I had just completed my first good run in a long time.  Thankfully, while the weather and my mood may have been contributing factors, upon reflection, they were minor ones as  I truly just needed to praise God.  However, my contemplation led me to consider how easy it is to glorify God when the sun is shining and things to seem to be going well, but what about the dark and cloudy days or when times are tough?

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Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.  Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody.  With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout joyfully before the King, the Lord.  Psalm 98:4-6

Praise when things are going well, when we are blessed by a great time of Christian fellowship and learning, or amid a large body of believers is usually fairly easy, but what about the dark days…the days of pain and suffering? As I’ve mentioned many times, music is important to me.  I love to listen to it, I love to sing it, and I love to dance to it.  What I love most is singing to praise God.  As much as I love it, there have been two periods in my life that required a bit of effort to sing praise.  The first was a longer period (several years) from the time it was determined that I was chronically ill until God began to instruct me regarding the value of trials and pain with respect to my soul.  During that time, songs like “Blessed Be” and “Untitled Hymn” became very important as I struggled understand and to come to peace with God’s plan for me.  The second period was the years from 2012 to 2015 in which we dealt in varying degrees with the various health issues of our fathers and their deaths. While I had previously learned about God goodness even in trials, the struggle was still difficult and there were many times that I had to will the praise out of my mouth.  Rather than succumbing to the urge to be silent, I knew that praise to God is especially critical in difficult times.  What makes it so critical is the message that it sends.

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“Praise the Lord, my soul.  Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.”  Psalm 104:1

My wife and I are currently on vacation staying in a seaside condo.  We determined a few years ago that we are “beach people”.  We like to see and visit other places, but our first love is a seaside beach.  Marie grew up by the ocean in New England.  I was inland; consequently, my only encounter with the ocean was an overnight stay in Daytona while on a college choir tour.  She was excited to get me to the ocean and once there I was hooked.  At dinner last night we were talking about that fact.   As we talked while eating seaside, Marie observed that it is quite possible that I love the ocean more than she does.  I agreed stating that trips to the ocean are as much or more about my soul than rest and relaxation.

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“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”  Revelation 22:1-4

Our four-year-old grandson stayed with us overnight last week so we got to spend a day together.  One of the things that he loves to do is play the game Mouse Trap.  While my wife and I both enjoyed the original game as children, we both find the current version rather tedious.  As Liam and I were playing a third round of the game, I began to feel a bit cranky and the hard floor we were sitting on wasn’t helping.  His elation and my crankiness caused me to consider the varying views that people have about heaven.  You can get a bit of an idea of someone’s spiritual maturity by their expectations for eternity.  Similar to the assumptions regarding what a loving God would include in our lives, many consider the wonder of heaven to be the eternal enjoyment of things that brought them pleasure in this life.  In that sense, what is reward for one person may be punishment for another.  Fortunately, that is not the case.  While I generally avoid conversations about heaven and the subject of eschatology because people tend to assume things that scripture doesn’t speak to as well as attempting to predict what God’s word tells us is unpredictable, I would like to touch on a few fairly clear characteristics of heaven.

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“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  And she cried out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?  For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.  And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.’  And Mary said:  ‘My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.  For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.  For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.  And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him.  He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed.  He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.’”  Luke 1:41-5

As one might guess, the title for these two posts carries a double meaning.  The words exchanged above are between pregnant women but they also carry much weight.  That weight comes in the character of the women as discussed in part one as well as the content, which is belief, God, and the acts of God.

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“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  And she cried out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?  For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.  And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.’  And Mary said:  ‘My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.  For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.  For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.  And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him.  He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed.  He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.’”  Luke 1:41-55

I have a wife, two daughters, a mother, a mother-in-law, five sisters-in-law, seven nieces, and three great nieces.  Add to that friends’ wives and daughters and the fact that the majority of the people that I have supervised were women, I have heard my fair share of conversations between and about pregnant women.  First it’s the joy (or surprise) of pregnancy, then the trials of pregnancy, than all of the things that are needed for the baby, then the labor symptoms and finally upon the baby’s arrival comes the vital information i.e. sex, name, weight and length (and pity the poor guy that doesn’t get all of the pertinent information).  However, never have I ever heard a conversation even remotely similar to the one between Elizabeth and Mary recorded for us in Luke 1.  While they may have gotten around to the details of pregnancy later in their visit, their first priority was to acknowledge the works of the Lord.

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