I'm not doing a Christmas letter this year. Nor a picture. Not even a card. Instead I'm just laying low at home, doing my Christmas gift shopping on Amazon.
But I teach my group of ladies for Sunday School Class. And I was studying my lesson for Sunday and if you want to hear a Merry Christmas story get a load of this one!
So my lesson title is Rejoicing in God. So Rejoice is to feel or show great joy or delight. Okay.... So feel great joy or delight in God. That's great. But we all know that one really can't take a lot of delight in something we're not terribly in tune with or haven't spent time with or even really "know".
So what's to know about God that I can take delight in? Here's what I found. Not that I didn't know it before but you know how we ARE! So busy and involved in our own little crazy bubbles of self importance.
Lets look at what there is to know about God. Who is God?
`God is Supreme. The Creator
`God is Everlasting. Eternal.
`God is I Am. Unchanging.
`God is True. Truth.
`God is Almighty. All powerful.
`God is Glorious. Perfect.
`God is Holy. Pure
`God is good.
`God is living.
`God is with us.
Everyone of those things that God is, we ain't. So that's interesting to me because obviously God created us. Why didn't He make us all those things if he's all those things plus he made us? That question is a long answer but the short answer is that creation sinned....or man sinned. And the perfection and wholeness and sinless relationship was broken.
So God had a plan. Jesus. Was it a back up plan? Anyway. It was Jesus. And because Jesus became man and took on all our stuff, we can now be back on that unbroken access relationship with God. That's a Merry Christmas right there! I'm loving it!
So on to the rest of my lesson. Mary. When the angel told her what was going to happen, she totally already knew all these things about God. She KNEW them guys. Already. Deep in her heart. She said a whole slew of things about Him.
She said:
`He has regarded -me
`He is mighty - and has done to me
`He is mercy - to me
`He shows strength
`He looks at the proud and the mighty and the powerful and doesn't really put much approval in them so much as he fills the hungry and helps the servant.
Zacharias prayed too in this way. He said that God brings redemption, keeps his promises, saves from the enemies, shows mercy, helps us, and then he talks of the TENDER mercy of God. I think of human mercy and how we begrudgingly decide to forgive but sure we aren't going to forget! Tender mercy! What's that anyhow.
So I'm back to delighting in God. Rejoicing in God. Since God did keep his promise for redemption to get us back in unbroken relationship with Him, Since he also gave me a Holy Spirit to live in my heart to comfort and show me , Since I KNOW God is all these things. How do I apply it to making my life a garden of Eden rather than the dark and scary and dread and rolling in the muck and mud? There is plenty of the darkness and plenty of the agony and turmoil to be had. Lots of that.
So here's how we make our lives beautiful. We get it right about Jesus. Jesus came to HEAL the broken. God.sent. Jesus. Now take this little piece of news and make it personal. God created you. Relationship with God was broken because of your sin. God sent Jesus for YOU. Now your identity isn't in the mess and the shame and regret. Now it's in Jesus in you.
So this is an ancient story. And it's all pomp and circumstance in churches and other formalities. But it's still just normal good stuff that we can use in our moment by moment. No need to roll in the mud. That's not who we are anymore! We are redeemed and forgiven and a new creation. Live in that identity! And KNOW God. Like Mary did. If you look at Jesus rather than your stuff that's already been forgiven you'll have something to rejoice in God about. Merry Christmas.
But I teach my group of ladies for Sunday School Class. And I was studying my lesson for Sunday and if you want to hear a Merry Christmas story get a load of this one!
So my lesson title is Rejoicing in God. So Rejoice is to feel or show great joy or delight. Okay.... So feel great joy or delight in God. That's great. But we all know that one really can't take a lot of delight in something we're not terribly in tune with or haven't spent time with or even really "know".
So what's to know about God that I can take delight in? Here's what I found. Not that I didn't know it before but you know how we ARE! So busy and involved in our own little crazy bubbles of self importance.
Lets look at what there is to know about God. Who is God?
`God is Supreme. The Creator
`God is Everlasting. Eternal.
`God is I Am. Unchanging.
`God is True. Truth.
`God is Almighty. All powerful.
`God is Glorious. Perfect.
`God is Holy. Pure
`God is good.
`God is living.
`God is with us.
Everyone of those things that God is, we ain't. So that's interesting to me because obviously God created us. Why didn't He make us all those things if he's all those things plus he made us? That question is a long answer but the short answer is that creation sinned....or man sinned. And the perfection and wholeness and sinless relationship was broken.
So God had a plan. Jesus. Was it a back up plan? Anyway. It was Jesus. And because Jesus became man and took on all our stuff, we can now be back on that unbroken access relationship with God. That's a Merry Christmas right there! I'm loving it!
So on to the rest of my lesson. Mary. When the angel told her what was going to happen, she totally already knew all these things about God. She KNEW them guys. Already. Deep in her heart. She said a whole slew of things about Him.
She said:
`He has regarded -me
`He is mighty - and has done to me
`He is mercy - to me
`He shows strength
`He looks at the proud and the mighty and the powerful and doesn't really put much approval in them so much as he fills the hungry and helps the servant.
Zacharias prayed too in this way. He said that God brings redemption, keeps his promises, saves from the enemies, shows mercy, helps us, and then he talks of the TENDER mercy of God. I think of human mercy and how we begrudgingly decide to forgive but sure we aren't going to forget! Tender mercy! What's that anyhow.
So I'm back to delighting in God. Rejoicing in God. Since God did keep his promise for redemption to get us back in unbroken relationship with Him, Since he also gave me a Holy Spirit to live in my heart to comfort and show me , Since I KNOW God is all these things. How do I apply it to making my life a garden of Eden rather than the dark and scary and dread and rolling in the muck and mud? There is plenty of the darkness and plenty of the agony and turmoil to be had. Lots of that.
So here's how we make our lives beautiful. We get it right about Jesus. Jesus came to HEAL the broken. God.sent. Jesus. Now take this little piece of news and make it personal. God created you. Relationship with God was broken because of your sin. God sent Jesus for YOU. Now your identity isn't in the mess and the shame and regret. Now it's in Jesus in you.
So this is an ancient story. And it's all pomp and circumstance in churches and other formalities. But it's still just normal good stuff that we can use in our moment by moment. No need to roll in the mud. That's not who we are anymore! We are redeemed and forgiven and a new creation. Live in that identity! And KNOW God. Like Mary did. If you look at Jesus rather than your stuff that's already been forgiven you'll have something to rejoice in God about. Merry Christmas.
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