The Greek word used of Jesus and translated "only-begotten" in the King James Version of John 3:16 is monogenes. This means that as son of God, Jesus is unique or one of a kind. He is also unique as a man. And how? Not in his physical appearance, we will see in this gracEmail, nor because he died, or even because he died by crucifixion. On a few subsequent Sundays we will explore some ways that Jesus is entirely unique, truly one of a kind, indeed a man like no other. Jesus did not stand out from others based on physical appearance (Isaiah 53:2). If we had visited first-century Nazareth on … [Read more...]
JESUS: NEW MAN FOR A NEW WORLD
Mama Cass Elliott sang the song and her words echoed the good news Jesus himself had preached. "There's a New World Coming / And it's just around the bend / There's a new world coming / This one's coming to an end" (Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing). Jesus called it "the kingdom of heaven," the new dimension of reality in which God will restore everything, redeem our bodies and liberate creation itself. These things are absolutely certain and, equally as certain, not yet. Even martyrs seeking justice cry "How long, O Lord, how long?" and must wait a little longer. To follow after Jesus is to … [Read more...]
The Christmas story we wish was not there
Part 1 Christmas is beautiful. Christmas is ugly. Christmas is happy. Christmas is sad. Families rejoin, celebrate, exchange gifts. Families disintegrate into individuals without families, sad and alone. Christmas means babies all dressed in reds and whites. Christmas means babies left on doorsteps, hospital driveways, even in dumpsters. Christmas involves plenty--of food, fun, and fellowship. Christmas involves famine, disease, and nothing to feed the children. Christmas is a time of reunions, restorations, reconciliations. Christmas is a time of families fighting, fussing, … [Read more...]
Christmas Prophecy Fulfilled
This Christmas I am impressed anew that we are seeing biblical prophecy fulfilled before our eyes. Not the kind of prophetic fulfillment about which the sensationalists talk and write best-seller books for the gullible masses -- about Middle Eastern conflict and geopolitics and world banks and bar codes at the supermarkets. No, something far more solid and biblical than any of that! God's word to Isaiah 2,700 years ago has come to pass: "The root of Jesse will come, and the one who rises to rule over the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope." All you have to do is turn on the radio, or … [Read more...]
the virgin birth and more- 2
Life was not easy for Mary after that visit from Gabriel, the angel who told her that she would conceive a child. Her, a virgin--conceive? Humanly impossible. "How can these things be?" she had asked, quite literally. Since that day, it seemed to Mary, everyone else in Galilee had asked the same question of her--but in another tone of voice. After a while, she had learned to accept the clucking and glances and side remarks. But what of Isaiah 7:14.and its mention of a virgin who becomes pregnant and delivers a son? Didn't anyone think of`that? Apparently not--at least not before the fact. Not … [Read more...]
RULES FOR RICH FOLKS
As we approach this Christmas season--indeed, as we live any day in any year--are there guidelines, principles, or maxims from God to direct our shopping and to guide our giving? Indeed there are, including a healthful cluster of instructions found in 1 Timothy 6:17-19. We might have overlooked them, because they are directed to "those who are rich" and we assumed that meant someone else. However, we need to know that the rich person in Timothy's world, and in most of the world ever since, is any person who is wearing clothes and who owns other clothes they are not wearing. It is … [Read more...]
TURKEYS, THANKS, AND TYPHOONS
As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in the United States this year, the holiday is a good time to remember that thanks and giving properly go together. For God's gracious gifts to us, we give thanks. The expression "say grace" means giving thanks. Because we are thankful, we give to others in need. The circle is completed when those to whom we give, themselves give thanks to God. This year we enjoy our Thanksgiving against a world background that includes horrific destruction in the Philippines, resulting in incalculable human suffering and loss. I invite you to join me in asking God … [Read more...]
BETHLEHEM’S BABIES (2)
"It is hard to celebrate Christ's birth with joy when I read about Herod killing all the boy babies of Bethlehem. Can we find any beam of light shining through this horrible and senseless event?" * * * More than a thousand years after Rachel's death, Jacob's descendants of the Southern Kingdom were snatched from their homeland and taken at spearpoint to faraway Babylon. Ramah, five miles north of Jerusalem, was a gathering place for the exiles. Rachel's "children" are dead and dying. Jeremiah captures the scene -- in the verses which Matthew quotes and throughout the Book of Lamentations. … [Read more...]
BETHLEHEM’S BABIES (1)
"It is hard to celebrate Christ's birth with joy when I read about Herod killing all the boy babies of Bethlehem. Can we find any beam of light shining through this horrible and senseless event?" * * * We could wish that Matthew's Christmas story stopped with the Magi and the wondrous star, but it doesn't. The Magi had asked Herod's help in locating the newborn king, and the tyrannical despot had asked them to return with the baby's exact address. Instructed by a heavenly dream, they returned home instead (Matt. 2:1-12). When he realized that the Magi had come and gone, Herod ordered that … [Read more...]
WHEN GOD BECAME MAN
The greater miracle, it has been said, is not the virgin birth of Jesus but the fact that in that wondrous conception the eternal God took on human nature and the Creator condescended to join his creation. Mary's son is none other than Immanuel -- "God with us" (Matt. 1:23). Like the Magi, we fall down and worship him. The Christmas carol has it right: "Hail, the incarnate deity!" He who existed in the form of God emptied himself and was made in the likeness of men (Phil. 2:6-7). It is part of the mystery of godliness that in Jesus of Nazareth God was "revealed in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16). He … [Read more...]