Dynamic Change

There are many of us who are weary; we have tremendous burdens that wear down our souls and we are tired of all the difficulties we face.  Not everyone is like this.  Some are cheery and pleased beyond measure with their lives.  All the "breaks" seem to fall their way and nothing much troubles them.  There is though, a great number of us who are going through the motions at work, just trying to get by at home, trudging through mud at school and we need more than just a pat on the back; we need the supernatural hand of God upon us.  Thomas the disciple lived in such a gloom that even the good news of his fellow disciples that Jesus was alive could not shake him out of it.  Only Jesus Christ Himself could lift the despair of his heart.  Our age is one of disbelief; that there are no devils tormenting souls, no satanic power working amongst us.  It is just the circumstances, broken relationships and troubled pasts that we have in the middle of our darkness.  Amateur and professional counselors alike do their best to try to "get at the root of our issues" and after years of probing and manipulating and prescribing, the "terror of the night" is still there.   The misery and torment so many of us suffer is real and it cannot all be explained by our experiences; the wise must take into account the very real presence of unseen evil forces in our world.  Perhaps you have tried your best to get at what is wrong with someone you love dearly and you have gotten nowhere.   You are at the end of your rope with this person and you don't know what more could be done.  God may never show you what is causing the "jangling of nerves" and anguish but maybe if you would give the Holy Spirit space, Jesus Christ could be brought in contact with the broken soul and do what was done for Mary Magdalene.  Are you willing to intercede with desperate determination for the weary souls you know and by God's grace, bring Jesus Christ to them through your praying?  Remember that Jesus told His disciples that some people could only be helped through prayer!  Prayer was not in Jesus' mind the feeble alternative of weak and unsophisticated minds; it was the great blast of dynamite that alone could break loose certain people from their despair and turmoil when the "wise and skilled" come up against those cases too big for them to handle.

After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"  He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer."     Mark 9:28-29 NIV

Stable Baby

There is an amazingly casual quality to the description of the birth of Christ.  It is just there without fanfare or histrionics.  The child was delivered and no bright light struck the stable with golden hues, no blast of trumpets heralded the emergence of his arms and head, no earthquake shook the stable as the baby was softly given over to Mary.  It was a birth and in the moments immediately before and after there was a commonality to it...it was like your birth, like the birth of your parents before you and their parents before them.  Christ came as one more birth in a long line of births and the glow of it was as stupendous as when every other wanted and joyously anticipated child has emerged.   Nothing is so small and seemingly insignificant as when the Christ is born in you, when He makes you His home and yet the supernatural nature of it will awaken soon enough and your life will come alive with Him just as it did for the shepherds, the Magi, the Disciples, his mother and Joseph.  It may be silent now and even a bit dark;  it may be mundane and paltry as it gets lost in the uproar of the world's business, this coming of Christ to you but He has come and it will be astounding what He has done in you and through you soon enough.  The Christ will work His way out of you at home, at work and in all your studies.  He will clear out the darkness and His sun will shine brightly wherever you go.  You will become a light for the world because the Light of Christ will manifest itself in you at every point along your way.  Bethlehem may have been a dirty little town and the stable where Christ was born smelly and confining but soon enough His Presence exploded into the world with all the glory of God manifested.  It could be that you feel you are a mere stable for the Christ child's birth but nothing is so noble as the one who has Him born in her soul and the angels cannot contain their joy at seeing  Christ at home in you.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.  Luke 2: 6-7a

Reasonable Rationality

The problem with Christianity is not in the audacious claims made by it.  Everything about Christianity is really quite reasonable and logical.  Its difficulty lies in the simplicity it presents.  Who can't imagine a God making the universe?  It really isn't that stunning a conclusion!  And what is so odd about that God loving His created beings with unquenchable affection?  Is that hard to consider?  And can we be so shallow in our thinking that we can deny the possibility that there is universal right and wrong; that some things always are good and fair and others have for all time been wicked and bad?   What can we say about a God who is willing to take the extreme measure of dying Himself to make a way for His beloved people to become wholly good and thoroughly flawless?  Is that too strange a consideration?  What marks the Christian is not the illogic of her assumptions; it is the complete reasonableness of her thinking!  No Christian should apologize for believing that God is love and eternal and holy.  That is the logical conclusion.  What is irrational is the determination that evil is somehow desirable and life is temporary and behind all of this we see and smell and touch is the random unthinking of empty space.  Just consider for a moment the love you feel for a baby griping your thumb for all he is worth or the joy you experience making a new friend who really does want to be with you!  Is that the stuff of nonsense and balderdash?  The beginning of wisdom is that love is really Love and good is really Good and life is Life and darkness is too small to contain the Light.  Perhaps just a moment or two is enough to resettle your senses and grasp the simplicity of your faith, that God loves you and really does love you and is working out every detail of that life of yours for good that is eternally good and intelligently loving and in your favor.  You are not alone.  You are in the lap of Love and that Love does not give up on you even when you want to give up on Him.

 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."     Matthew 1:23 NIV

What Really Is Before You

At some point you are going to be forced into the decision of your life, to fight against spiritual forces in high places or ignore them and go on as if they don't exist.  The Christian is never inept in this; unless of course he or she completely disregards Who lives within.  It is Christ in you that makes the difference in every temptation and trial you face.  You have the power to change the course of generations by giving Christ complete sway in your battle against the great enemy and all those spirits lined up before you intent to wreck and pillage your heart.  Be icy in your disregard of the insults and injustices you face but fiery hot in your hatred of Satan who is doing his best to make you a blind adversary at the moment you take your eyes off Jesus and gaze into the blinding darkness of some frustration or depressing hardship you have before you.