As normal, protestant, evangelical Christians, we tend to sing the same Christmas carols every year. And as a normal, evangelical Christian raised in a Christian home, I have my set of favorite Christmas carols that I sing every year. The older I get, the more I look at the meaning behind these songs. After all, the birth of Christ is one of the most important doctrines in our belief system.
"Hark the Herald Angels Sing" has become one of those favorites over the last couple of years. Not because it's a catchy, beautiful tune, but because it is so doctrinally heavy. Think about the meaning behind these lyrics.
Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.
The beauty behind the birth of Christ is that for the first time since the Garden of Eden, God reaches down to man to save him from his sins. It's the basic plan of salvation. Christ's purpose was to reconcile man to God, something that man couldn't do by himself.
Joyful all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies
With angelic hosts proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem
Christ came not for one nation, but for all nations. The prophets foretold that all nations would be blessed through this savior.
Christ by highest heaven adored,
Christ the everlasting Lord
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin's womb.
This baby born in a manger is the Lord of all the earth. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." God's promise to David was that his descendants would reign on his throne for all eternity. The virgin birth is also one of the central doctrines of what we believe. Isaiah said, "Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son." Over and over again Scripture emphasizes this virgin birth, which preserved Christ's sinless nature.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Philippians says that Christ, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. Can't you just picture it? Christ lays aside the crown in heaven, that he so richly deserves, to come down to this sinful world. His purpose was to die. Jesus said that He came so that we might have life, and have it to the fullness. John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him." Christ's purpose was to suffer and die so that we could experience eternal life.
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace
Hail the Sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Jesus said that He is the Light of the world. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He said that Light has come into the world, chasing away the darkness of our sins. He is the Great Physician, providing physical healing and spiritual healing from the chains of sin.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel!
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This Word, the Word that was and is and is to come, wrapped himself in flesh and dwelt among us. Our "God with us." God himself, here. It's almost too wonderful to comprehend. People sometimes accuse God of being unconcerned about what goes on here on this planet. But God cared enough to become one of us. Just so he could die to save us.
I wonder how much we really understand about the personhood of this Baby in a manger. This was God, wrapped up in the tiniest of packages. He wasn't born in a palace like he deserved. He was born into poverty. He knew what it was like to be one of us. There was nothing about him to capture our attention. But the blood that pumped through this tiny heart would one day be poured out to save all mankind. The tiny fingers that grasped his mother's had fashioned the earth. The little eyes had seen the face of the Most High. His ears had heard the praises of a thousand angels. This little baby was the great Yahweh, the Great I AM.
This is not something that we should just think about at Christmas. In the words of Charles Dickens, this Baby born in Bethlehem does not live in men's hearts one day of the year but in all the days of the year. Don't think about this little baby just on Christmas. His sacrifice, his love, his wonder, should be present in our minds all year round. Maybe then, we would actually live like it.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Another year gone by...
Yesterday I officially stopped being a teenager. Twenty years ago yesterday, I joined this world (nearly 2 weeks late). It's weird... I feel like I'm getting so old. I mean, I know I'm not, but it's still a surreal feeling.
I was thinking about the past year when I was on the phone with Audrey at the end of my birthday. I can remember last year, when I turned nineteen. So much had already happened. I had just finished my first semester of college, I had started making new friends, and I was happy. Things changed dramatically as the year went on though. I transferred schools again. I fell pretty hard for a guy that broke my heart. I finally found some direction in my life. I made new friends and grew closer to old ones. I lost some friends, and gained some friends. I cried a lot. I laughed a lot. And I learned a lot.
I learned a lot about the character of God in this year. It seems like all the hard things I've gone through, all the trials and tribulations that have happened to me, have revealed a part of the character of God. When I transferred schools, God showed me His undying faithfulness, and the promise that He would never leave me or forsake me was renewed again. When I went through the six month ordeal with Ben, God showed me that He is the Lover of my soul, my Pursuer, my Romancer. When I found out my dad would be leaving again to go overseas, God showed me that He is my Provider and my Father.
While this year has been unbelievably hard and emotional, I think I can look back on nineteen as a very good year. I've been blessed with so many close friends who challenge me to be better than I think I can be, who love me unconditionally, and who I can serve with gladness. I've just been blessed with life.
Here's to anticipating another rollercoaster year... so many ups and downs, but thank God I'm never alone.
I was thinking about the past year when I was on the phone with Audrey at the end of my birthday. I can remember last year, when I turned nineteen. So much had already happened. I had just finished my first semester of college, I had started making new friends, and I was happy. Things changed dramatically as the year went on though. I transferred schools again. I fell pretty hard for a guy that broke my heart. I finally found some direction in my life. I made new friends and grew closer to old ones. I lost some friends, and gained some friends. I cried a lot. I laughed a lot. And I learned a lot.
I learned a lot about the character of God in this year. It seems like all the hard things I've gone through, all the trials and tribulations that have happened to me, have revealed a part of the character of God. When I transferred schools, God showed me His undying faithfulness, and the promise that He would never leave me or forsake me was renewed again. When I went through the six month ordeal with Ben, God showed me that He is the Lover of my soul, my Pursuer, my Romancer. When I found out my dad would be leaving again to go overseas, God showed me that He is my Provider and my Father.
While this year has been unbelievably hard and emotional, I think I can look back on nineteen as a very good year. I've been blessed with so many close friends who challenge me to be better than I think I can be, who love me unconditionally, and who I can serve with gladness. I've just been blessed with life.
Here's to anticipating another rollercoaster year... so many ups and downs, but thank God I'm never alone.
Monday, December 10, 2007
May all your Christmases be white
This really is the most wonderful time of the year. Lights everywhere (especially here at DBU), hot chocolate, gathering with family and friends, and in the case of Texas, winter drizzle blanketing the ground. But I think this time of year is wonderful for a different reason.
It's about a young girl, maybe 12 or 13 years old, engaged to be married to a carpenter, who gets a surprise visit from an angel with what would seem like bad news. He tells her that she's going to be impregnated by the Holy Spirit even though she's never been with a man, and this little baby is going to be the promised Messiah. Her life is going to change drastically. Because of the culture of the day, she is going to be vilified, outcast, scorned. Everyone around her thinks she couldn't wait. And, speaking as a woman, I know all these things ran circles around her mind. But she didn't freak out like the rest of us would. She simply said, "I am the Lord's servant. Let it be done to me just as you have said." Think about the implications of her acceptance of this fate. She would be branded an adulteress. Jesus might be branded, for lack of a more acceptable term, a bastard son. But she quietly and humbly accepted that this was God's will for her.
It's about a young man, whom the Bible calls "righteous." He's just a carpenter, a poor man, trying to scratch out a living for himself and his new wife. But all that falls apart when she turns up pregnant and says that the baby is from God. What's a guy supposed to think? So he makes the toughest decision of his life. He's going to divorce her, without causing her any public disgrace. (By the way, that's love.) With this in mind, one night he falls asleep, just like normal. But this night is anything but normal. An angel appears to him and tells him that it really is okay to take Mary as his wife. This child within her really was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And what's more, the angel tells her that this child will save His people from their sins. And this young man gets up and does exactly what the angel says. Talk about faith. Joseph was probably in training to be a rabbi, and yet he "throws" it all away. In taking Mary as his wife, he basically said that Jesus really was his son, and that they couldn't wait until the marriage ceremony. He would be just as ostricized as Mary. He gave up his dreams so that he could raise a little child that wasn't biologically his.
It's about another Father. This one could easily see the state of the world. His creation, drowning in their sins, desperately looking for someone to save them from themselves. This Father had lovingly fashioned them out of dirt, knowing that one day they would choose their own selfish desires over Him. And now, because He deemed these fallen creatures so special, He sent His own Son to become one of them.
It's about a baby, born perfect into a sinful world. This tiny baby was the ruler of the entire universe, sitting in glory and might in heaven, one with His Father. This little child had fashioned the world with His hands, had breathed life into humanity, had led the people of Israel out of Egypt. He was there in the beginning. He was with God, and He was God. And yet, because of His strange love for these murdering and conniving creatures, He laid aside the crown that He alone deserved, wrapped Himself in their flesh, and stepped down from His throne to be born into a world that would reject Him and His love. He was willing to make this sacrifice to save the most unworthy people from imminent death. All this, simply because He didn't want to be separated from them for all eternity.
This is why this season is so wonderful. Two thousand years ago, the world heaved and groaned with the expectation of a savior, a military ruler who would conquer the world and bring peace. But they missed His coming, because He came in the tiniest of packages, born into poverty instead of the palace He deserved, born strictly for the purpose of dying for an unworthy world, born to rejection and ridicule. Just as a man brought death into the world, a Man had to bring eternal life. This is why we celebrate this season: Faith in God's promise, hope in His providence, and sacrificial love that conquers even the darkest of sin.
It's about a young girl, maybe 12 or 13 years old, engaged to be married to a carpenter, who gets a surprise visit from an angel with what would seem like bad news. He tells her that she's going to be impregnated by the Holy Spirit even though she's never been with a man, and this little baby is going to be the promised Messiah. Her life is going to change drastically. Because of the culture of the day, she is going to be vilified, outcast, scorned. Everyone around her thinks she couldn't wait. And, speaking as a woman, I know all these things ran circles around her mind. But she didn't freak out like the rest of us would. She simply said, "I am the Lord's servant. Let it be done to me just as you have said." Think about the implications of her acceptance of this fate. She would be branded an adulteress. Jesus might be branded, for lack of a more acceptable term, a bastard son. But she quietly and humbly accepted that this was God's will for her.
It's about a young man, whom the Bible calls "righteous." He's just a carpenter, a poor man, trying to scratch out a living for himself and his new wife. But all that falls apart when she turns up pregnant and says that the baby is from God. What's a guy supposed to think? So he makes the toughest decision of his life. He's going to divorce her, without causing her any public disgrace. (By the way, that's love.) With this in mind, one night he falls asleep, just like normal. But this night is anything but normal. An angel appears to him and tells him that it really is okay to take Mary as his wife. This child within her really was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And what's more, the angel tells her that this child will save His people from their sins. And this young man gets up and does exactly what the angel says. Talk about faith. Joseph was probably in training to be a rabbi, and yet he "throws" it all away. In taking Mary as his wife, he basically said that Jesus really was his son, and that they couldn't wait until the marriage ceremony. He would be just as ostricized as Mary. He gave up his dreams so that he could raise a little child that wasn't biologically his.
It's about another Father. This one could easily see the state of the world. His creation, drowning in their sins, desperately looking for someone to save them from themselves. This Father had lovingly fashioned them out of dirt, knowing that one day they would choose their own selfish desires over Him. And now, because He deemed these fallen creatures so special, He sent His own Son to become one of them.
It's about a baby, born perfect into a sinful world. This tiny baby was the ruler of the entire universe, sitting in glory and might in heaven, one with His Father. This little child had fashioned the world with His hands, had breathed life into humanity, had led the people of Israel out of Egypt. He was there in the beginning. He was with God, and He was God. And yet, because of His strange love for these murdering and conniving creatures, He laid aside the crown that He alone deserved, wrapped Himself in their flesh, and stepped down from His throne to be born into a world that would reject Him and His love. He was willing to make this sacrifice to save the most unworthy people from imminent death. All this, simply because He didn't want to be separated from them for all eternity.
This is why this season is so wonderful. Two thousand years ago, the world heaved and groaned with the expectation of a savior, a military ruler who would conquer the world and bring peace. But they missed His coming, because He came in the tiniest of packages, born into poverty instead of the palace He deserved, born strictly for the purpose of dying for an unworthy world, born to rejection and ridicule. Just as a man brought death into the world, a Man had to bring eternal life. This is why we celebrate this season: Faith in God's promise, hope in His providence, and sacrificial love that conquers even the darkest of sin.
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