This is how God works. He comes near to us in all of our distress, taking what the world rejects and dignifying us with eternal significance. It is not our doing in anyway. It is all of grace. - @daneortlund
Mine - Our world needs the Prince of Peace! You and I need Him as we live each day, trying to meet each challenge without anxiety and being confused. His ways are the best approach to all of life. As Isaiah 9 says, the Lord of the Armies will take care of every detail. He is watching and He does not miss anything. History is moving toward the climax of His glory when every knee will bow to Him without exception.
"The Bible. Know it in your head. Stow it in your heart. Show it in your life. Sow it in the world." ~ J. Vernon McGee
Pastor Brian Clark - “All hope is not lost. The world is not falling apart. There's no reason for such anxiety and so much fear and so much hopelessness. Hey, God’s got this...God’s got this! Everything is under control! It's going to be alright...and our future is glorious! The culture is coming unraveled, and what they don't need is more of the same. What they need is light in the darkness. What they need is to be told that the One who had been foretold for thousands of years has come to be the Savior of the world. And that through His death, burial and resurrection, He has conquered sin and death once and for all. And He’s coming back, and He will usher in His kingdom, and He will sit on the throne, and He will bring Shalom to the world forever! And it's offered freely to those who choose to believe, and to receive it...for sure...no matter what! It seems to me, if that's true, you have every reason for peace...no matter what...this Christmas season. Merry Christmas!” Sermon Excerpt, 12/19/2021 Lincoln Berean Church
O Lord, in this fallen world we look around us at the mess we have made, from war crimes to shootings to climate crisis, and we have no capacity of ourselves to repair or restore. In this night, and in this damaged medium, we look to your promise, to your light, and cry Maranatha. Fleming Rutledge
The incarnation means he became like us.
The resurrection means we’ll become like him.
—@DanDeWitt
“The disappointment, brokenness, suffering, and pain that characterize life in this present world is held in dynamic tension with the promise of future glory that is yet to come. In that Advent tension, the church lives its life.”
― Fleming Rutledge, Advent
When the angels said to the shepherds, “Don’t be afraid,” they coupled that with, “you will find a baby in a manger,” who is “Savior, the Messiah, the Lord” (Lk. 2:10-12). Not fearing is always wedded to finding more of Jesus. Only Jesus' perfect love drives out our fears. - Scotty Smith
Bonhoeffer FTW 🙌🏼🔥:
“For the great & powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger & the cross of Jesus Christ… 1/3
“No powerful person dares to approach the manger, & this even includes King Herod. For this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly. Here the rich come to nothing… 2/3
“…because God is with the poor & hungry, but the rich & satisfied he sends away empty.
“Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope; they are judged."
- Bonhoeffer, God is in the Manger
Nothing is impossible with God, even the God sized tasks that He asks us to step into. God is gracious as Mary is trusting and believing and taking steps forward to show her that He will lead the way and reminding her that nothing is impossible for Him. In fact, He's going to give her another point of encouragement; that her relative Elizabeth, who it seems to be impossible that she could get pregnant is going to have a son. What a gift as she walks through this pregnancy, as well. What a gracious God. Now she could have responded in a lot of ways at this point, couldn't she? What's she going to say to the angel? What’s she going to say to God? “Hey, I'm out of here. I kind of had my own plans. I don't want to follow your plan. God, sorry, we’re kind of breaking up. Gotta go.” What’s she gonna answer? Verse 38,
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Vs. 38) Josh Luse
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?
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Now as she's saying this and she's answering this, it's important for us to contrast two stories that are happening. We don't have time this morning, but let me give you a summary. If we were to go back to the beginning of chapter 1, we'd meet another set of people: Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. Zechariah was an old man. They had gone through the years never able to have children. This old couple and his wife had been barren, kind of remind you of any other Old Testament stories? And he was a priest, a wise man, who had known all these things of God. And Gabriel, too, shows up to Zechariah in the temple and gives him a message that his wife is going to be pregnant—become pregnant—and she too will have a son. Now remember what Sarah back in the Old Testament did when she heard that news? She laughed. Zechariah pretty close to it—in complete unbelief said, “There's no way. Give me some kind of sign.” In fact, in his own words in chapter 1, verse 18, he said: and Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
“I don't believe it. Give me some kind of sign.” From that point on Zechariah is struck, and he cannot speak. So as he goes out of the temple, he cannot explain what was going to happen. In fact, he's not going to be able to talk until his son finally is born—John the Baptist, who would go preparing the way for the Savior. Now Zechariah has disbelief. He is the one that's sitting there not believing it. But Mary, she's not saying, “I don't believe it.” She's saying, “How are you going to do this?” Mary is filled with wonder; she's trying to wrap her mind around what God is doing. And there is such a difference in the response found between these two. She's believing. She could have said a lot of things at this point, couldn't she? “I'm too young. I'm too poor. I don't have the experience. What if I break the baby?” Right? If I'm Gabriel and I'm thinking of God sharing with me what I'm supposed to go tell Mary, I think I would say, “Okay, well, wait, so Your whole plan is to give this baby to a teenage mom who hasn't had a baby yet?” I want to be Gabriel following her around the whole time, like, “Don't drop the baby, don't drop the baby. That's like the whole world right there that you're carrying!” But God has a God sized plan. God is going to continue to work out His plan and He's doing it through this virgin birth. Josh Luse
So why in the world would we sing now at Christmas, in the midst of the dark world that we find ourselves in? Why? We're not warming up for an audition to sing before 1000’s. We already have the audience captive of the One who is worthy. The One who created all that we know, all the world. The One that holds it together in His hands and sustains it. The One who is worthy of all of our praise sits and longs to hear songs from us, no matter how out of tune they might be. He loves to hear a joyful noise. I guess if there were no reason to sing, we would not sing. But Christmas reminds us that in Jesus, we have every reason to sing. So Church, may we be a people that are known for our singing. May you be a person that hums throughout the day because you have a song in your heart. Maybe you've stopped whistling; maybe it's time to start back up. May you are a person that sings at the top of your lungs in the car, because of the God that you love so much. May you be a person that sings at home in the shower, wherever, lift your voices in praise to the God that is worthy; maybe even pull out that old instrument from high school and dust it off. Because, Church, in Jesus and because of Jesus, we have every reason to sing. Josh Luse
The Advent season is a season of waiting, but our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "God is in the Manger"
"The world will figure out what we really believe, by watching what we actually do." - Bob Goff
He comes to make His blessings flow. Far as the curse is found - Isaac Watts
When the eternally existing Son of God, the Prince of heaven, adored by the angels, came to right all wrongs 2,000 years ago, he came not as a general wearing armor or a politician wearing a power tie or a judge wearing a black robe.
He came as a baby wearing swaddling cloths. - Dane Ortlund
“God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him!” - Psalm 68:1
"The older brother in the parable treasured his own sense of 'being right' more than he did things in his family being *made* right. Jesus, on the other hand, set aside the comforts of his heavenly home to reach us in the wilderness." - from Day 7, *Gifts of Grace* - Jared C Wilson
If everything's important, nothing's important. If everything's a priority, nothing's a priority. @craiggroeschel
Not relief from pain, not relief from the weariness that follows, not anything of that sort at all, is my chief need. Thou, O Lord my God, art my need…And very much I need a quickened gratitude for the countless helps given every day.
— Amy Carmichael (1867-1952)
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