I love the sights, sounds and smells of the Christmas season. And people seem friendlier, happier. They actually stop and smile and wish you a “Merry Christmas,” despite the fact that it’s really not PC anymore. Happy Holidays is more like it. But PC or not, nothing can change the fact that this is the time we celebrate the birth of our Savoir and King.

And wasn’t it just like our wonderful Jesus to enter the world humbly, as a baby born in a hovel that only animals indwelled? It is hard to understand a love like this. Or a God like this. The very one who created the world graciously accepted the fact that the very world He created had so little room for Him.

Before we know it, another Christmas will come and go, and many will forget the One we honor now. Oh how important it is to make room in our heats for the One who loves us unconditionally, the One who will never leave us or forsake us, the One who knows us better than anyone else. Christ-mas is not a season, but a life long commitment and relationship. May we carry Christ and His love in our hearts now and always.

Wishing you all a blessed and Merry Christmas!

Until next time,

Sylvia 

Four men rip the roof off a house then lower a paralytic through the opening. It was the only way they could get to Jesus according to Mark 2:3. Their actions speak volumes, for it reveals their deep belief that Jesus could actually do something for their paralyzed friend. It also speaks of desperation. How long had this man been paralyzed? There’s no way to know for the Bible doesn’t tell us, but it was long enough, and the situation bleak enough, for these men to understand that Jesus was their only hope. If He didn’t do something for their friend, that was it. There were no other options. 

I find Jesus’ response interesting. He was at once impressed by their faith. But the first thing He said was “Son, your sins are forgiven you . . . and you are made upright and in right standing with God” (Mark 2:5 Amplified). This caused no end of grief for some of the scribes who were there and who immediately accursed Him of blaspheming. “Who can forgive sins except God?” they said.

Jesus’ response to them was classic, “Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man, Your sins are forgiven and put away, or to say Rise, take up your sleeping pad and start walking about and keep on walking? But that you may know positively and beyond a doubt that the Son of Man has the right and authority and power on earth to forgive sins—He said to the paralyzed man, I say to you, arise, pick up and carry your sleeping pad and be going on home.”

What happened here? Didn’t Jesus understand that the paralytic had come for healing? Yes. But He is a God of order. He loves us and wants us healed and whole. But more than that, He wants to deal with our sin nature and our sins, as only God can, first and most importantly, to reconcile us to Himself, but also because He knows that many times it is our sins that make us sick: the worry, the anger, the strife, the wanton lifestyles, etc. And sometimes before we’re willing to allow God to deal with either our sins or our health issues, we need to become desperate; we need to come to the place where we understand there is no where else to go.

The thing I love about this story is that Jesus didn’t rebuke the paralytic. He didn’t say, “Well, it’s about time you showed up!” Rather He called him “Son” a term of endearment and then followed it with “your sins are forgiven.” I don’t believe God will ever turn away anyone who is desperate for Him. But He may not always respond in the way we want. I’m sure the paralytic was disappointed when Jesus addressed his sin first rather than his physical needs. We always seem to invert what’s important. But the point is that God is there for us. And we don’t have to wait until we become desperate, either, before we seek Him. But for those who are, rest assured you have Someone who is willing and able to bring the needed remedy to your problem or situation. And no matter how He deems to work it out, His first words to you will be “Son” or “Daughter.” And then, in the face of His great love, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to go to Him.

Until next week,

Sylvia

Right after Jesus told everyone what a blessed life looked like, He continued with His radical teachings (Matthew chapters 5 to 7). I wonder what the people thought when He told them things like, they were the salt of the earth and if they lost their saltiness they were not good for anything but to be trodden underfoot? Or that they were the light of the world and shouldn’t hide their light because it gives praise and glory to God? Or that He had not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it? I imagine their heads were spinning. But Jesus didn’t stop there but continued with His University of Life, as it were. Their righteousness had to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. Was that even possible? And they shouldn’t bother offering a gift to God if they were angry at their brother.

And then came the really radical stuff. Just lusting after someone other than their husband or wife was adultery. And divorce was out except for the case of adultery. Forget it if their wife burned their dinner every night. They could no longer issue a bill of divorcement. They had to live with it. Next came the swearing of oaths. No more swearing. Just let “yes” be “yes.” And then the hair curler: Love your enemies! Do good to them who hate and persecute you! I imagine they were really squirming in their seats by then. After all, hadn’t life taught them that might made right and one should give as good as he got? You know, the “eye for an eye” thing. Now this Nazarene was not only telling them to love their enemies, but if they didn’t forgive everyone who had ever hurt them or done them wrong then God can’t forgive them either! What? Surely the only reason Jesus could say this was because He didn’t know their Aunt Mable or have Mr. Scrooge as a boss. If Jesus only knew what they had to put up, surely He wouldn’t be asking this of them!

But wait, it gets worse. Jesus goes on to say they and, by extension, we can’t serve two masters. It’s got to be either possessions, riches and whatever else we trust in or Him. Just Him. And He says stop finding fault with others. Stop looking at that little speck in their eye while we have a great big beam hanging out of ours. Stop judging or we’ll be judged.

Jesus goes on to talk about so many things. All hard, all radical. And then the clincher. If we want to follow Him we have to enter through the narrow gate. For only the narrow gate leads to life while the wide gate leads to destruction. Oh wait! That sounds so restricting. Does that mean we can’t do our own thing?

Finally, He wraps up these life lessons by saying that we will know each other by the fruit we bear. Good trees will bear good fruit and every tree that does not will be “cut down and cast into the fire,” and only those who do the will of the Father will enter into the kingdom of heaven. That’s heavy. That gives one pause. That takes a lot of guesswork out of the equation and removes all wiggle room. But then Jesus ends with a wonderful promise. Everyone who learns His life lessons and applies them are building a house on solid rock that neither the adverse rains nor winds of life will be able to destroy. But not so the others. Those who do not follow His admonitions are building their house on sand, subject to the elements and “great and complete was the fall of it.”

There’s so much here in these lessons of Jesus. And without Him, they are all completely impossible to apply with any real measure of success. But the Bible tells us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and that He who began a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. We are His workmanship and He’ll never give up on us. Aren’t you glad we don’t have to do this on our own?

Until next time,

Sylvia

Continuing to follow Jesus’ footsteps we find that according to John, Jesus’ first miracle was changing water into wine at a marriage feast in Cana. When His mother tells Him the wine has run out, Jesus says something strange, “My hour is not yet come.” And then He goes ahead and changes the water in six large pots to wine, pots that were for ceremonial washing and purification. Naturally this wine is superior to the wine the host had been serving all day. Still, on the face of it, it seems like a small, almost insignificant “first miracle.” But when you dig deeper it is both beautiful and stunning, and so in keeping with who Jesus is and why He came.

Genesis 49:8-11 gives us our first clue. Jacob is blessing his sons and has come to Judah who Jacob calls a lion and who holds the scepter. Jacob also tells Judah that his brothers will bow before him, thus establishing Judah as the tribe from which Jesus, the Messiah, would come. Then verse 11 is the clincher, “Binding his foal unto the vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.”

Isaiah 63:3 adds to the picture. It’s talking about the day of the Lord, the tribulation, when Jesus will return to rule the earth. “I (Jesus) have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garment, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.”

Zechariah 9:9 adds to our understanding. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

And finally, Revelation 19:11-16 completes the picture, “And behold I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True . . . and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood . . . and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”

The bible always explains itself, and what it’s saying here is this: That the first time Jesus’ garments are stained with blood it would be His blood when He comes, meek and lowly, riding on an ass just before His crucifixion. Six is the number of man, indicating imperfection, as opposed to the number seven which stands for God’s perfection. So the water pots represent mankind who are in need of cleansing and purification, and Jesus’ wine, His blood, is the means of that cleansing. At the last supper, didn’t Jesus tell His disciples that the cup of wine represented His blood that would be shed for them for the remission of sins?

Now, as for the second time Jesus comes, He will be riding a horse and His garments will be stained with the blood of those who will experience the winepress of His wrath, those water pots not filled and cleansed by Him.

In addition, it will be those represented by the six pots filled with wine that will be part of another marriage feast, the marriage feast of the Lamb and His bride, the church.

So what Jesus was saying in Cana was that it wasn’t time yet for Him to ride the ass or the horse, though incorporated in the message is the promise of this two-fold ministry as Lamb and Lion. And there’s another promise, too. It’s the promise of that other wedding feast which our wonderful Bridegroom and we, the bride, will celebrate together, only made possible by Jesus changing our imperfect means of cleansing with His perfect means, i.e. His blood.

Oh, how wonderful God’s word is!

Until next time,

Sylvia

As we continue to follow the footsteps of Jesus we next see Him teaching in the synagogues of Galilee. Luke 4:16 (Amplified) tells us that he “came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.” And on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah 60:1-2a saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight of the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound).” Then He rolled up the scroll and announced, “Today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

What was He saying? Well, Isaiah 60:1-2 outlines the characteristics and office of the Messiah, and by saying it was fulfilled meant He was declaring Himself as Messiah. It’s interesting that He stopped short and didn’t finish reading Isaiah 60:2b where it talks about the “day of vengeance of our God.” That day is to come in the future, during the tribulation when God will pour out His wrath on unrepentant mankind, but right there in Nazareth, Jesus was telling the people their deliverance, their healing, their salvation had come. What a testimony and promise! 

But what was the reaction of the people? Luke 4:28 tells us that the people were “filled with rage.” Not only that but they even tried to kill Jesus by dragging Him out of town so they could throw Him off a cliff.

It’s amazing how this liberating gospel message often generates the same response today. Instead of rejoicing over our wonderful Savior and accepting what He has done, people often get angry, hostile, and downright confrontational. That’s when God’s love just amazes me, because He really cares about people, even those who are so hostile to Him. But for those who listen and believe, Jesus’ message is still powerful, still liberating, still healing. And Jesus still wants to free the captives, all those bound in sin and addictions, all those who are oppressed and depressed.

Surely it’s an offer we can’t refuse.

Until next time,

Sylvia

I’m again pausing my “following Jesus” series because I can’t resist writing about the Feast of Tabernacles. I love this feast. Every year our church celebrates it for eight days and nights. As I wrote last year, the Feast of Tabernacles is one of seven feasts of the Lord. It commemorates the time when the Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years and literally tabernacled with God. But it’s so much more. It speaks prophetically of a time when Jesus will return and tabernacle with us here on earth, and set up His thousand year reign. Of course the Spirit of God already tabernacles with all true believers, but the Feast references the physical return of our Lord.

Throughout the past eight days, as I praised and worshiped, as the dancers whirled around with their colored flags, as the breathtakingly beautiful banners were paraded through the sanctuary declaring Jesus as “Soon Coming King,” “Lord of Lords,” and “Lion of Judah” it was easy to envision the splendor, or at least a small part of the splendor and pageantry and glory that will accompany the event that all Christendom awaits. And when I glimpsed it, it created such a longing in my heart it actually hurt. Scripture tells us that all creation groans for His return (Romans 8:22-23). I think all our hearts groaned last week. I could see it on the faces around me. They groaned because there was such a sweet presence of the Lord in the sanctuary. And while it was wonderful, we knew it was but a foretaste of things to come, a foretaste when once again God will tabernacle with man, and we would have to wait. I was never good at waiting.

But the Feast did something else for me. It reminded me of the here and now, and how important it is to live life fully for the Lord. He is to be our number one priority followed closely by the people He has placed in our lives. He has a plan and purpose for each of us, and we have only one lifetime to get it right. We need to take this seriously because everyday we don’t, is a lost day.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God . . . And he had on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11-16).

Oh, come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Until next time,

Sylvia

As we continue following Jesus’ footsteps, we next see Him gathering His disciples. According to Matthew 4:18-22 He first encounters two brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew. Both are fishermen. At once, Jesus tells them to “follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” A little further on, He sees two other brothers, James and John, also fishermen, repairing nets with their father Zebedee. And after He calls them to come, they immediately leave their boat and do so. John 1:43-49 tells us the next disciples who joined themselves to Jesus were Philip and Nathanael. John doesn’t say much about them in these passages. We only learn that “Philip was from Bethsaida, the same city as Andrew and Peter.” And Nathanael?  He was hardly a stellar candidate, for when Philip tells him he has discovered the Messiah, the One Moses and the Prophets wrote about, Nathanael responds with, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Not a very promising beginning to the greatest ministry the world has ever seen—four fishermen and two others the Bible tells us little about except that one of them has great doubts whether the Messiah or any relevant person could ever come from Nazareth. But it highlights the obvious. Jesus didn’t search among the educated, the rulers, the religious elite of His day for His disciples. No. These six were men of little distinction. Six more would join the ranks down the road, but it was with these six Jesus began His ministry.

When we consider who the scriptures have already told us Jesus is—the Son of God, a King, the Savior, the living Word, the Lamb of God, God Himself, the Creator of everything, the light of men—the choice of these six defies logic. Where were the CEOs? The dignitaries? The chief priests? Where were the “movers and shakers” to jump start Jesus’ ministry or help organize a massive PR campaign getting out the word that a mighty ministry of deliverance, healing and salvation was about to unfold? Yet . . . if we remember how Scripture reveals Jesus’ humility and meekness, His willingness to lay aside the majesty, the glory, the honor due Him, choosing these six makes perfect sense.

And it says something else, too. While Jesus is still looking for disciples today, He isn’t just looking for them among the exceptional or the great of this world. Oh, He wants them too. But He’s looking for the ordinary, the simple to follow Him and to be used by Him to further the Kingdom. 1 Corinthians 1:27 tells us “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” That means I qualify. And that means you do, too.

Until next time,

Sylvia

Jesus knows all about the wilderness. He spent 40 days and 40 nights there, without food (Matthew 4: 1-11). Verse two says He was hungry. That had to be an understatement. But I imagine He was thirsty too, because the days had to be brutally hot. I also imagine the desert winds whipping His face and grinding dirt into his skin. His mouth and tongue were probably coated with dust, too. And was He lonely? In that great expanse of wilderness? Among the wind and wildlife? He was probably cold after the sun went down. And the ground had to be hard and uninviting as a bed. Maybe He even had to fend off wild animals. Then at Jesus’ weakest, when He was physically drained, Satan comes along with his three temptations. And all this on the heels of Jesus’ glorious baptism in the Jordan where God His Father publically acknowledged Him not only as the “lamb who takes away the sins of the world” but as His beloved Son in whom He delighted.

Jesus responds like a gentleman and quotes scripture.  I think if I had been in His shoes and with His power, and hungry and thirsty and sandpapered by the wind for 40 days, I would have been cranky enough to squash Satan like an irritating bug. But once again, Jesus shows His superior character, His gentleness, His meekness, even to the traitor, Satan.

So why did Jesus have to endure all this? Because it was a time of preparation and, as strange as it may seem, a time of strengthening for His ministry which was to follow—both the one as sin bearer and the one as High Priest. Hebrews 4:15 (Amplified) says, “For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.”

Imagine how well God understands us because He’s allowed Himself to experience temptation and hardship! What can any of us say in the face of a God who will go to this length for man who He created and loves? I suppose nothing that really expresses the magnitude of it all can be said. We can, however, remember our precious High Priest when we are going through our own wilderness, when we think we are alone and facing trials and dangers and temptations that threaten to break us. Jesus understands. He knows our frame, our weakness, and He’s more than able to step in and be our strength. And we must also remember that our wilderness experience often times is preparation, perhaps preparation to become more Christ-like, or preparation to go into a deeper place with God, or preparation for some ministry or job He wants us to do. God never wastes anything. What’s more, He’s right there in that wilderness with us.

Until next time,

Sylvia

As we continue following the footsteps of Jesus we next see him in Luke 2:21-52 (Amplified) being brought to Jerusalem by his parents when he is eight days old in order to be circumcised and dedicated to the Lord according to the Law of Moses. While there, a man named Simeon, prompted by the Holy Spirit, takes Jesus in his arms and praises God for allowing him to see the Savior before he dies, the one who would be a Light to the Gentiles and bring “praise and honor and glory” to Israel. On the heels of that, the prophetess Anna, a widow for 84 years who never left the temple, also begins thanking God and talking about Jesus as the “redemption of Jerusalem.” By these two prophets, God makes it very clear that His mercy would extend to Jews and Gentiles both. And this on top of all the other wonderful revelations we’ve had about Jesus prior to His conception and at the time of His birth. So, before Jesus even utters one word, God has already openly and powerfully declared to the world Who He is and what His mission would be.

It’s interesting that our next encounter with Jesus is when he’s twelve years old and in Jerusalem with his family for the Feast of Passover, the time when Jews celebrate their deliverance from Egypt (a symbol of the world and sin) after they had applied the blood of a spotless lamb to their doorpost and lintels in Goshen so that the angel of death would pass over them on the way to slay all the first born in the land (Exodus 12:1-41). Numbers in the Bible mean something so we need to pay attention to the fact that it points out that Jesus was twelve. That Greek word for twelve is dodeka, and literally means two and ten, and gives us a wonderful picture. While the number two speaks of the duality of Jesus as 100% God and 100% man, the number ten speaks of Divine order, perfection, nothing wanting, and the law; thus illustrating that Jesus, the God-Man, was to be God the Father’s perfect fulfillment of the law and answer to the sin problem. As the spotless lamb chosen “from the foundation of the world,” Jesus’s blood is to be applied to the doorposts and lintels of our hearts that we, too, can be delivered from sin, and pass from spiritual death into eternal life

But what else can we glean from this story? Well, when the feast is over the family begins their return trip to Nazareth thinking Jesus is somewhere among the caravan. After they discovered He isn’t, they return to Jerusalem and find Him in the temple, listening to and questioning the teachers and astonishing them with His “intelligence and understanding and His replies.” When His parents confront Him, He answers, “How is it that you had to look for Me? Did you not see and know that it is necessary as a duty for Me to be in My Father’s house and occupied about My Father’s business?”

At twelve it is very clear Jesus is so exceptional that He dazzles the rabbis in the temple. It is also obvious that He not only knows who He is, but knows He’s on assignment from His Father, God. Yet knowing all this, Luke goes on to say that Jesus then returns with his parents to Nazareth and is “habitually obedient to them.”

Think of that! Jesus—whom the angels had already declared as God, Savior, King, Creator, then two prophets further proclaim Him as Light to the Gentiles and redeemer of Jerusalem/Israel—shows up in the temple at Passover, the very Lamb of God, but a lamb not yet ready to be sacrificed. And after blowing the minds of the learned rabbis, He returns home to a small inconsequential town where He learns carpentry and is “habitually obedient” to his parents. And while there, verse 52 tells us that “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”

Two things amaze me. One is how much God revealed about Jesus well before Jesus began His earthly ministry, and how detailed these revelations are. God certainly wasn’t trying to keep it a secret! The second is that God would endure the obscurity of a backwater town; would labor in meekness for and in habitual obedience to beings (no matter how wonderful) He Himself created. It all shows how much God wants us to know and understand who Jesus is, and how wonderful God is, too, for He did not think it abhorrent to walk and work among us; and in essence show us how to live.

Until next time,

Sylvia

A hurricane is bearing down on the Gulf of Mexico. It’s been in the news for days and people have been busy preparing. I doubt it will take many by surprise. But what of those other storms that come our way? Storms we’re not prepared for and that do surprise us? Things like a sudden serious illness, the loss of a job, financial reversals, etc.

Isn’t that just what happened to the apostles? They had spent the whole day with Jesus as He preached to the multitudes from a boat (Mark 4:1-41). Then at the end of the day Jesus told them to take Him across the Sea of Galilee. And that’s when the trouble started. That’s when “there arouse a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship,” and all this while Jesus slept. They hadn’t expected that—a storm so enormous it looked like they could drown, and certainly not while Jesus was with them.

So what does this have to do with us? Well, sometimes we’re just trying to follow the Lord, too, and do what He’s instructed us to do, and suddenly, from out of nowhere, we’re hit with something so big we think it could sink us. The truth is Jesus never promised us a life free of trials and tribulation. He only promised that He’d be there with us when they did come.

The apostles were so fearful they actually woke Jesus up, and He had to rebuke the wind with “Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39). But He also rebuked the apostles for their lack of faith. “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” Did they really believe the boat would sink when the God of all Glory, the Creator of the Universe was with them?

In our flesh it’s easy to take our eyes off Jesus and put them on our problems, or think that He’s asleep on the job. And that’s just what we shouldn’t do. If our boat is being tossed about by storms not of our making, what we need to remember is that Jesus is in the boat with us. And He’s telling us what He told His apostles, “Let us pass over unto the other side” (Mark 4:35). And what’s more, He’s able to get us there safely.

Until next week,

Sylvia