Nativity Means War!

That peaceful, placid manger scene is really nice, but it tends to obscure one crucial fact from our minds during our celebration of the advent: The birth of Christ was a declaration of war!

Mary seems to have recognized this fact - look at the song she sings after learning she would bear the Messiah (found in Luke 1):

Mary's Song

⁴⁶And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, ⁴⁸for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me–
holy is his name. ⁵⁰His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation. ⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. ⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble. ⁵³He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty. ⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful ⁵⁵to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.”

Scattering the proud and bringing down the haughty - those are fighting words! I won't quote it in entirety here, but for further proof of the perspective that sees the birth of Christ as an act of war, read Revelation 12.

In Christ God is declaring war on sin and on the Satan. He is, in the most fundamental way, acting as a freedom fighter - launching an attack through which he will save a people from enslavement to sin. God was (is!) fighting on our behalf. The angels that sang to the shepherds were announcing this divine invasion. The King, born that night in the City of David (himself a man of war) , would grow up to be the Savior of the world, the Shepherd King. (Did you think "the heavenly host" was just a choir?) So while we may sing "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger," and while it may have been a serene evening, the heavens and earth resounded with the news that the King had finally come to make all things new.

Spurgeon on Heart-rending

A thought from Charles Spurgeon via Alistair Begg:

"The tearing of garments and other outward signs of religious emotion are easily displayed and are frequently hypocritical; but to feel true repentance is far more difficult, and consequently far less common. Men will pay attention to the most minute ceremonial regulations—for those things are pleasing to the flesh. But true faith is too humbling, too heart-searching, too thorough for the tastes of people of the flesh; they prefer something more ostentatious, flimsy, and worldly. Outward observances are temporarily comfortable; eye and ear are pleased; self-conceit is fed, and self-righteousness is puffed up: But they are ultimately delusive, for in the face of death, and at the day of judgment, the soul needs something more substantial than ceremonies and rituals to lean upon. Apart from vital godliness all religion is utterly vain; offered without a sincere heart, every form of worship is a solemn sham and an impudent mockery of the majesty of heaven. Heart-rending is divinely worked and solemnly felt."

Francis Schaeffer on What Matters

"Here is what really matters - to love the Lord our God, to love His Son, and to know Him personally as our Savior. And if we love Him, to do the things that please Him; to simultaneously show forth his character of love and holiness in our lives; to be faithful to His truth; to walk day by day with the living Christ; to live a life of prayer...

"But it does not stop here... We must acknowledge and then act upon the fact that if Christ is our Savior, He is also our Lord in all of life. He is our Lord not just in religious things and not just in cultural things such as the arts and music, but in our intellectual lives, and in business, and in our relation to society, and in our attitude toward the moral breakdown of our culture."

-- Francis Schaeffer, in his final book, as quoted by Lane Dennis in the introduction to Reflections on Francis Schaeffer.

Piper on Desiring God

I began reading through John Piper's new book, When I Don't Desire God, and not surprisingly I highly recommend it. In this book Piper seeks to help readers fight for joy when their desire for God seems to wane.

"It is helpful to be reminded that our desires - no matter how small - have been awakened by the spiritual taste we once had of the presence of God. They are an evidence that we have tasted."

Piper goes on to tell us that desire for God will never abate, but that in the age to come it will be ever fulfilled and heightened as we experience God (and each other) unencumbered by sins and that which distracts us from exulting in Christ:

"In the age to come, desire for more of God will never be experienced with impatience or ingratitude or frustration. All desire in the age to come will be the sweetest anticipation, rooted ever more deeply in the enlarging memories of joy and in the ever gathering pleasures of gratitude." (both quote from page 28).

What is your desire of/for God? What do you do when other desires compete with what you know is good and right and perfect; when the concerns of the world choke out pleasure in and desire for God?

Content-ment

I've been thinking about the concept of contentment. In Philippians 4, Paul tells us that he has "learned to be content in whatever the circumstances," whether he is in need or has plenty. In fact, this is the context in which he more famously says in verse 13, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

What comes to your mind when you think of contentment? I think for many of us we tend to think of vague feelings of rest and relaxation, a nebulous feeling of warmth. Yet Paul says he can be content in need.

What occurred to me recently may be obvious to you - namely, the similarity between the adjective "content" (con-tent, as in "I'm feeling content") and the noun "content" (cahn-tent, as in the "content of a book"). Contentment necessarily requires content. In other words it isn't really a nebulous feeling, but directly depends on our understanding. That's partly why Paul says he "learned to be content." He came to recognize the truth that Christ is sufficient for all things, that his hope is in eternity, and that God is sovereign and works all things for good for those who love him.

When we really understand and meditate on the "content" of the Gospel we will learn to be content irregardless of our circumstances. We will, as Paul says in Colossians 3, set our minds and hearts on things above, not on earthly things. True contentment is rooted in our understanding of and relationship with the God who Is, who does not change, and has pledged His steadfast love to us in Christ. That is why Paul shares his confidence with the Philippians in verse 19: "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

Are you content? Where is your hope?

The Longest Psalm

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and its subject is the goodness of God's Law. I want to draw some attention to one section, verses 57-64. In particular, look at verse 64:

"The earth is filled with your love, O LORD ;
teach me your decrees."

It's interesting to me that the writer's response to the vastness of God's love is a desire to obey His Word. In our day it is not uncommon to see the idea of love equated with unbridled libertarian freedom, even in Christian teaching and practice. What I mean is that we think that love automatically leads to permissiveness, to the belief that I can do anything I want to. Yet here the Psalmist, upon reflecting on the love of God, years to obey Him.

Of course it makes sense that you want to please one whom you love and who loves you. Jesus says just as much in John 14:21: "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

Love for God, then, is not just a warm and fuzzy feeling we get from time to time when the music is just right. Real love for God produces an earnest desire to live in such a way as to please Him in every way. The proper response to God's unfathomable love for us is obedience to Him. As the Psalmist expresses, this begins with a desire for His Word.

How do you respond to God's love? Does your life reflect God's love in this way?

Tozer on "Temple Cleansing"

AW Tozer was a well-known preacher and writer who died in the 1950s (I think... anyway it was decades ago). It is amazing how prescient his writing is regarding the Church (and us as individual believers) in our day:

Temple Cleansers

"The critical need in this hour of the church's history is not what it is so often said to be: soul-winning, foreign missions, miracles. These are effects, not causes. The most pressing need just now is that we who call ourselves Christians should frankly acknowledge to each other and to God that we are astray; that we should confess that we are worldly, that our moral standards are low and we are spiritually cold. We need to cease our multitude of unscriptural activities, stop running when and where we have not been sent, and cease trying to sanctify carnal projects by professing that we are promoting them in the name of the Lord and for the glory of God. We need to return to the message, methods and objectives of the New Testament. We need boldly and indignantly to cleanse the temple of all that sell cattle in the holy place, and overthrow the tables of the money-changers. And this must be done in our own lives first and then in the churches of which we are a part."

Worth repeating

A well known quote, but one that bears reflection:

"He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

--Jim Elliot