Born In Us Today

Dear Peachtree Family, The season leading up to Christmas in the church calendar is historically referred to as “Advent.” In everyday lingo, we often use this word in regards to technology. For example, “With the advent of the automobile, people began to walk less.” In Christian terms, we think of Advent as a season of longing for the coming of Jesus. Advent, then, is a preparation for God’s unique arrival on earth. More than any technological advent, the world will never be the same.

So as we wait for the Christmas celebration, we do so with great anticipation. We prepare our homes with festive decorations. We prepare to bless our loved ones with thoughtful gifts. We prepare generosity for those who are poor. Most importantly, we prepare our hearts to receive the Savior.

This Advent devotional’s aim is to help you with the daily preparation for Christ’s coming as King.

It dovetails with the focus of our weekly worship in the Sanctuary. Our theme borrows the line from the great carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, “Cast out our sin and enter in. Be Born in Us Today.”

Jesus was not only birthed in a manger two thousand years ago. He is born in us, today! My co-author, Cory Hartman, and I pray these Scriptures and meditations bring inspiration and guidance to your Christmas season.

When the reality of God’s new birth reaches us personally, we will change in remarkable ways.

We are privileged to witness this transformation through the character and testimony of Mary, Joseph, the Magi, the Shepherds, and our Heavenly Father. Therefore, the weekly journey of December involves: A Teenager’s Faith

December 2

A Carpenter’s Courage

December 9

A Scholar’s Hope

December 16

A Shepherd’s Humility

December 23

A Father’s Love

December 24

I invite you not only to join us this Christmas in singing the songs and celebrating in our Peachtree sanctuary. I encourage you to read the following Scriptures and reflections in personal devotion.

May God be born in you anew through this season.

With hope in Christ,

W EEK ONE A T E E N AG E R’ S FA I T H

NOVEMBER 26–DECEMBER 2

Let’s Do It Your Way Matthew 26:36–44. Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with

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him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with

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sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Today many of us go back to work after gathering with loved ones for a Thanksgiving weekend celebration of God’s blessings. Maybe our belts are still straining from the delicious helpings of turkey.

Maybe obscure corners of our closets, attics, and the spaces under our beds are beginning to burst with yet-to-be-wrapped Christmas presents. For many of us, this isn’t only a time of plenty, but the beginning of what Andy Williams and Amy Grant belt out as “the most wonderful time of the year.”

So why begin our meditation on the birth of Christ by jumping ahead to Gethsemane? This is Advent, not Lent. The crisis in the garden in the gloom of night comes much later in the Jesus story, and it couldn’t be further from a celebration of God’s bounty.

We start in Gethsemane because of what Jesus said. “Your will be done.” It’s an echo from a much earlier time in His life—in fact, before He was born.

When the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would conceive a son without a man, she knew that God was bringing extreme risk into her life. What would Joseph say? What would her father say? Would she be ejected from her home to raise a child on her own, on the streets, all alone? Would either of them even survive?

Despite the danger, Mary’s response to God’s plan was firm with faith: “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38).

In Jesus, God became human in every way, as we are. Amazingly, the Perfect One matured. He “grew in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:9). He even “learned obedience” (Heb. 5:8). Like all of us, He learned from His parents.

In Jesus’ anguish in the garden, we hear echoes of His mother. In the moment of imminent trial, Jesus yields to His Father. Affirming that God has the right to make the plan that He knows is best, Jesus says, “Okay—let’s do it your way.” Just like Mom.

Father, I trust You that Your plan is best. Your way is always the right way.

I don’t understand everything in my life right now—especially the things I’d love to change but can’t.

But as much as I might want to get out of them, I’d rather go through them Your way.

I know You promise good to me on the other side. I am the Lord’s servant; may Your Word to me be fulfilled. Amen.

How to Recognize a Message from God

One day, I (Rich) was giving a presentation when all of the sudden I could not formulate what I wanted to say. I had this vague sense that the idea was close, but I could not find or retrieve the words I needed from memory. As a preacher, this is definitely an occupational hazard! Most people refer to it as “tip of the tongue” syndrome.

Fortunately in this instance, a member of my team gave me a little prompt of what I was supposed to say.

With this small reminder, the floodgates of recognition opened. I was able to finish the speech without any other incident.

The Apostle Paul refers to God’s word as being “near to us; it is in your mouth and in your heart.”

Many times we are familiar and fluent with God’s gospel, but at moments we will need a prompt.

This is the pattern Paul describes in Romans. When the words of Scripture are “near us,” then we recognize and believe God’s message for us the second we hear it. That message drives us to call on the name of the Lord and be saved, both for all eternity and in the difficult challenges we face each day.

The more curious about Biblical truth we become, the more we study Scripture. And the more we study Scripture, the better we get to know it. Then, God’s Spirit nudges us to adjust our lives according to His will and way so that we might help others hear and believe. Maybe God will use you as a prompt for someone else. It’s on the “tip of their tongue,” but they need a little reminder.

Lord, as I read the Bible today, pique my curiosity. Puzzle me with it, needle me with it, astound me with it. Make it something I can’t forget. And when Your Spirit brings Your words to my mind today, make me hear Your voice and adjust my life to join in the message.

Then make the people in my life pick up the theme of Your righteousness and believe. Amen.

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I think something similar was happening with Jesus’ mother, Mary. When Gabriel declared, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!” the word “favored” must have rung a bell. She knew that “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” before God explained a salvation plan to him (Gen. 6:8). So, when the angel spoke to Mary, she didn’t just hear the words: she recognized God’s message in her.

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Romans 10:6–17. But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

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Do You Have Faith in the Future?

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Hebrews 10:36–11:2; 11:13–16. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”

And, “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for… All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Let me ask you a question: Do you have faith in the future?

Is that a tricky question? Many Christians who have faith in Jesus have a hard time answering honestly that they have faith in a bright future. Because of what the Bible teaches about the “terrible times in the last days” (2 Tim. 3:1), some people almost see pessimism as a mark of spiritual maturity.

But faith has past, present, and future dimensions, as Mary demonstrated when she learned she would become the mother of the Son of God. Mary had faith in the work God had done in the past. She had faith that God had given David and his line the royal authority over Jacob’s descendants, as the angel Gabriel mentioned to her.

Mary also had faith in the present. By that I mean she was faithful—she was devoted to God and available to be used by Him the moment He called her, because she trusted Him. But Mary also had faith in the future. Listen to all the future-tense claims the angel makes: “You will conceive and give birth to a son…He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:31–33). Mary had faith that all these promises would come true, somehow, some way, some day.

Faith like this—future faith—is the sort of faith praised in the Epistle to the Hebrews. “Faith is confidence in what we hope for.” It is “assurance about what we do not see.” We might well say, “what we do not see yet.”

Faith isn’t the opposite of doubt; it’s the opposite of sight. “The ancients were commended” for having faith that God’s promises would someday come true, even though they went a whole lifetime without seeing more than glimmers of it.

Faith in the future doesn’t mean that you believe in “progress” as if, in Lennon and McCartney’s words, “it’s getting better all the time.” Rather, it means that you believe that God has prepared a permanent city for us homeless wanderers to enter—a city that we’re not only trekking toward but that is rushing towards us.

It means that “in just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.” Mary believed it, and that changed everything. And we should, too.

Lord God, You’ve promised me more than I can imagine: resurrection from the dead, eternal life, a whole new world with no mourning or crying or pain. And You’ve promised never to leave me or forsake me between here and there, between now and then. I trust that Your promises are true because of Jesus, no matter how long it takes. Please make Your great and precious promises transform my attitude today. Amen.

The Most Important Quality You Can’t Find on a Résumé 1 Samuel 16:1–13. The Lord said to Samuel, “…Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to …Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” … Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.” So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.” So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.

Imagine if God gave you the task of finding the right person to be mother of His Son who was coming in human flesh—not in the first but the 21st century, today. God hasn’t given you His omniscience, but let’s say He has given you cutting-edge technology to sift through the résumés of potential candidates.

What would you look for? Maybe certifications as a caregiver or experience as a nanny. Maybe degrees in education. Maybe experience in government and references from elite officials; after all, the child is going to grow up to be a king. Or maybe there’s a perfect recipe of Myers-Briggs personality letters or Clifton StrengthsFinder attributes that will do the job.

Yet David is the king that God has chosen, because God sees into his heart. The first quality God sees is a relentless, unshakable, passionate devotion to Yahweh. Out of all of David’s errors in his life, idol-worship is never one of them. God also sees receptivity. David is available to serve God’s purpose without question and without delay.

God saw the same quality in Mary. Her faith made her available for whatever God wanted.

Her plans, including her marriage plans, were subject to change by God at a moment’s notice: “I am the Lord’s servant,” she says. “May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38).

For many of us, change can be hard. Sudden change is even worse. But for David, for Mary, and for their descendant and son Jesus, there was continuity beneath the awesome changes God called them to.

Despite going from shepherd to king, from fiancée to messianic mother, and from Son of God to Lamb of God, one thing never changed: their availability to serve God’s purposes, wherever, whenever, and however God planned.

God, when You look at me, I want You to see receptivity to You and to what You want to do.

I want You to see availability to be employed in Your business.

Forgive me for the extent to which I make my plans primary and unalterable.

Make me curious today about what You’re up to around me and how I get to join You in it. Amen.

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What more can we do? As God said to Samuel the prophet a thousand years before Jesus, people like us “look at the outward appearance.” That’s what Samuel did when he looked at the sons of Jesse, Jesus’ ancestor. Eliab was a tough guy, the perfect choice to lead Israel into battle against the mighty Philistines. David, not so much. Jesse didn’t even bother including him with his other sons. The Scripture describes David’s ruddy glow and good looks. It’s not a compliment. He’s a pretty boy. And he plays the harp. Jesse’s not thinking mighty warrior. He’s thinking pop star.

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Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king…You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”

Faith Grows in the Shade Exodus 1:22–2:4. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three

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months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar

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and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

Hebrews 11:23. By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

The conception and birth of Jesus were fraught with danger. Mary knew she was likely to lose her fiancé Joseph. Maybe her father would kick her out of the family for getting pregnant out of wedlock and sullying the family name. She might be left to fend for herself and her child. There were not a lot of safe options in the first century. Even if Joseph stayed with her (as he eventually did), how would the powers-that-be react when they suspected her son would make a claim to David’s throne? (Hint: not well.)

But Mary was not the first mother in Israel’s history to give birth to a national deliverer under harrowing circumstances. Jochebed, the mother of Moses, was faced with her own terrible, dead-end choice fourteen centuries earlier. Should she leave her child to die of exposure before Pharaoh’s soldiers got to him? Or should she try to hold on to him despite the risk to his life and hers?

Jochebed saw by faith that there was something special about her child, and not just because he was hers. “He was beautiful in God’s sight” (Acts 7:20 ESV). So, she kept him. But even when the risk became so unbearable that she finally did leave her baby by the river, it was with the hope that he would survive.

By God’s ingenious providence he did, and 80 years later he was the Lord’s instrument for the rescue of His people from slavery.

It is easy for a Christian to want more faith. It is not easy to live in the circumstances that require faith.

Yet those circumstances are where faith grows. Faith is a plant that thrives in the shade—in the dark times of life. The dark places are where heroes of faith—and their mothers—are born, and it is from the shadows that salvation comes to light.

It may seem as if there is no way out of your circumstances. Yet that is where your faith can grow more than ever before, because that is where you learn that “nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37 ESV).

Father, You know that in a certain area of my life, I don’t see any way out.

Even if I know what I ought to do, obedience seems impossible.

As I take the risk of faith, give me the hope of Jochebed and Mary that You will come through and make the way where there was none before. Amen.

Fierce Faith Psalm 146. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—He remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.

In 2004, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote a story commending John Stott, one of the giants of evangelical Christianity in the latter half of the 20th century. “When you read Stott, you encounter first a tone of voice,” Brooks wrote. “It is friendly, courteous and natural…humble and self-critical, but also confident, joyful and optimistic.”

At the same time, however, Brooks frequently found himself flummoxed by Stott. “Stott is so embracing it’s always a bit of a shock … when you come across something on which he will not compromise,” wrote Brooks. “It’s like being in ‘Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ except he has a backbone of steel.”

Maybe we need to look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, the same way. We are used to seeing her medieval and Renaissance portraits—blue-robed, haloed, head bowed, hands over her heart, submitting to the angel or gazing placidly at the manger. We know her words of humble faith: “I am the Lord’s servant.

May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38).

Mary’s faith was nourished by Scriptures such as Psalm 146. The psalm encourages us to place our hope in God, who made the universe, rather than in mortals, whose power to help or harm ends with their last, fragile breath. Encouragement like this must have enabled Mary to confidently accept her role in God’s plan of deliverance from whatever came next.

But the psalm also encourages us that God watches out for the weak; He nourishes them, protects them, avenges them, “but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.” Mary believed that her faith in God would personally preserve her part in God’s wider work on behalf of “the cause of the oppressed,” including her subjugated nation.

Mary’s faith was both meek as a lamb’s and as ferocious as a lion’s—quite like the Son she bore.

We, like her, emulate Jesus when we humbly bow to God’s will for us today with confidence in God’s justice coming tomorrow.

O God, thank You for Your goodness to me now and in the age to come, which is all Your grace. Forgive me for not trusting You as much as You deserve it and for not yearning for Your righteous Kingdom as much as we all need it. Make me like Jesus was—both bolder than I’ve ever been and meeker than I’ve ever been. Amen.

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Yet this is the same young woman who, a few verses later, bursts into a song of fierce triumph: “[God] has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:51–53).

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spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those

How We Grow in Faith Acts 14:21–23. They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Paul and

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Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the

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Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

You have certain things, or you don’t. Something is either true or it’s not. If Mary had a modern pregnancy test after seeing Gabriel, there would have been two possible results: pregnant or not pregnant.

Pink or blue. But definitely not “sorta.”

However, many things in life aren’t binary, zero-or-one, yes-or-no; and faith is one of them. Faith isn’t an on-off switch. It’s more like a dimmer switch. While there is a difference between having no faith in God and having some faith in God, there’s also a difference between having some faith and having much faith.

Jesus was disappointed in some people’s lack of faith, but He chided His disciples for their little faith. He commended “faith like a grain of mustard seed” (Matt. 17:20), which He called “the smallest of all seeds” (Matt. 13:32). But Jesus didn’t compare faith to a mustard seed because He wants it to be small. He wants it to grow explosively.

Faith can grow like a muscle. And to strengthen muscles as much as possible, it helps to have a fitness coach and buddies to work out with.

That’s why in the Book of Acts we frequently see apostles traveling from city to city to strengthen believers in faith. In Acts 16:5 “the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.”

The early disciples of Jesus didn’t assume their faith would grow on its own. They knew that powerful faith was the result of encouraging each other.

Likewise, let’s actively encourage each other to have more faith in Christ and to remain faithful to Christ.

We need to cheer each other on when it’s hard. We need to remind each other of what and for whom we’re living. We need to convince each other that it’s plausible to believe God can do all things and not settle for less. It’s a team effort.

When Mary received her announcement from Gabriel, she displayed her faith by accepting it. But then she visited her relative Elizabeth, who herself was miraculously pregnant. Just imagine how much their faith grew when they shared their news with each other. Now imagine how much our church’s faith will grow when we do the same.

Lord Jesus, infuse my faith with Your Holy Spirit so that it grows explosively.

I don’t want to settle for just-getting-by faith. I want mountain-moving faith.

Today, as You bring brothers and sisters to my mind, remind me to encourage them so that we share our faith together and remember that You are faithful. Amen.

W EEK T WO A C A R PE N T E R’ S COU R AGE

DECEMBER 3–9

A Sign to Look for When There’s No Way Out Isaiah 7:1–16. When Ahaz … was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem…. The hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “ … Say to him, ‘Be careful,

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keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—

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because … Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘It will not take place, it will not happen…. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’” Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.” Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans?

Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel… . Before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.”

Ahaz was not a faithful king. Even though God appointed the kings of Judah to keep His people loyal in worshipping Him and Him alone, Ahaz didn’t waste any time doing the opposite. (See 2 Chron. 28.)

Not only did Ahaz worship all kinds of pagan gods, he even sacrificed his sons as offerings.

To get Ahaz’s attention, God allowed the kingdoms of Aram and Ephraim to form a threatening alliance.

But then He sent the prophet Isaiah to Ahaz with a message: “Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid.” If Ahaz would trust God to give Judah victory in battle, God would bail Ahaz out, despite his unfaithfulness. However, Isaiah warned, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”

Unfortunately, when Isaiah graciously offered Ahaz a sign to prove that God meant what He said, Ahaz blew him off with a fake, religious-sounding answer: “I will not put the Lord to the test.”

Instead, Ahaz planned a shady backroom deal with a brutal foreign empire called Assyria.

That’s when Isaiah gave him an unforgettable answer: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel”—Hebrew for “God with us.” That would be the sign: a boy would be born, and while he was still young, Judah’s frightening invaders would be utterly devastated.

To Ahaz, the sign may have come in the form of a new queen who would soon conceive his successor, Hezekiah. During Hezekiah’s reign, God displayed His saving presence in some of the most spectacular ways His people had ever seen.

But a much bigger fulfillment awaited Isaiah’s prophecy. Centuries later, when God’s people languished under the heavy hand of a tyrant named Herod, an ally of a foreign empire (Rome), God sent the sign again. A virgin conceived—this time without ceasing to be a virgin—and gave birth to a son who truly was God-with-us.

Jesus is our sign, our Immanuel. Jesus is the proof that God cares when the walls are closing in and we have no way out. Jesus is our reason to keep faith and keep courage. He is the evidence that no matter how scary it gets, God will always rescue us, and He will never let us down.

Sovereign Lord, I confess that I can easily be dismayed. It’s as if I live my life assuming that it’s up to me to solve all my own problems, or I look to this person or that to help me.

But here You are, patiently, compassionately coming to me, inviting me again to trust You. Give me courage to walk by faith in You today. Amen.

Stressful Responsibility and How to Overcome Deuteronomy 31:1–3, 7–8, 23. Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: “I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’ The Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations Lord said…” Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” …The Lord gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.”

Few things bring out fear and anxiety like becoming responsible for other people.

There’s a tale—which may not be true, but it should be—about researchers who wanted to produce symptoms of stress in monkeys. They put the monkeys in a cage and devised complicated obstacles to make it hard for them to reach their food. But no matter how difficult they made the obstacles the monkeys kept their cool.

Then the researchers divided the cage by a wall with a very small opening. They put all but one of the monkeys in the half of the cage without the food. The majority monkeys freaked out, initially, until the other monkey, the solitary monkey, brought the others food. It struggled through the obstacles, again and again, to feed the others. And guess where researchers finally found the physical symptoms of stress.

Yes. In the monkey that helped the others.

It’s the same sort of fear faced by a new coach, a new manager, a new pastor, a new teacher…and a new father. It’s the fear Joseph faced when—surprise!—Mary got pregnant way ahead of schedule. And by the way, the new baby was appointed by God to be a king, which the local king won’t be happy to hear, since he’s insecure and ruthless.

Yet “don’t be afraid,” the angel told Joseph. He might as well have told him, as Joshua had repeatedly been told, “Be strong and courageous.”

Under the immense pressure of responsibility for others, Joshua and Joseph obeyed the word of the Lord.

They both knew God’s word, meditated on it, and lived by it. That word told them, as it tells us, that God never leaves or forsakes the person who gratefully follows His directions and does what He says. That enables us to be strong and courageous no matter what pressures we face.

Lord, You are always faithful. Your word tells me so. Bring Your word to my mind throughout today and incline me to obey it. Give me the assurance that as long as I’m trusting and following You, I don’t have to be afraid. I will be strong and courageous. Amen.

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Responsibility for others is daunting, no matter how much experience you have. For example, Joshua wasn’t a young buck. He was Moses’ right-hand man, but he was 70. And even though he was the seasoned leader of Israel’s warriors during their forty years in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, he wasn’t getting any younger. And that was nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands of people he suddenly became responsible for as much larger and much stronger foes of war headed their way.

Who wouldn’t fear that responsibility?

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before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the

Encouragement from Jesus’ Courage

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Luke 13:31–35. At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go

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somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

When Pharisees told Jesus, “Herod wants to kill you,” did Jesus think, “What else is new?”

When Jesus was a young child, King Herod the Great conspired to kill Him before He became a threat to Herod’s throne. Thanks to an angel’s timely warning, Joseph took Jesus and Mary and escaped to Egypt before Herod’s soldiers arrived and massacred every toddler boy in Bethlehem (Matt. 2).

After Jesus’ family returned to Palestine, He lived in a territory controlled by Herod Antipas, one of Herod’s few sons that survived his father’s bloody regime. Antipas wasn’t as brutal as his dad, but to paraphrase Jesus, he was smart as a fox. Or thought he was. When John the Baptist publically called Antipas out for marrying his brother’s ex-wife, Antipas had him arrested. But he knew that John was popular, too, so, in a fancy of political savvy, Antipas stayed John’s execution. Until his wife got involved. And the next thing Antipas knew he was holding John’s severed head on a silver platter, outfoxed, as it were.

The Pharisees tried to outfox Jesus in the same way. They wanted Him to stop diverting their followers with the gospel. So, they told Jesus that Herod Antipas had a bounty on His head, hoping Jesus would run and never come back.

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Yet Jesus couldn’t be outfoxed. He wasn’t afraid to die. In fact, he was planning on it. Herod won’t kill me, Jesus said; Jerusalem will.

Yesterday we looked at how Joshua learned to “be strong and courageous.” Believe it or not, the name “Jesus” reflects the way Greek-speakers said “Yeshua,” which is a variation on the name “Joshua.” Many Jews were named “Jesus” after Joshua. But in Christ’s case the namesake was special. “Joshua” means “the Lord saves,” and the angel who named Him explained that “he [Jesus] will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).

So, this Jesus is that saving Lord. He is also the ultimate Joshua, who was strong and courageous all the way to victory. Jesus died to save us from death and from all the fear it brings, so now we can be as courageous as He was.

We need Jesus to be born in us today so that we can live out of His courage. Courage makes us grateful to God when it’s easier to publically deny Him. Courage helps us show disruptive compassion when it’s easier to go with the apathetic flow. We can receive that courage if we’re strong in the faith that everything Jesus has won for us is greater than anything the world can throw at us.

Lord Jesus, I live because of You. By faith, I trust You to live through me today.

Tests of my faith can make me afraid of what will happen if I do this or I don’t do that.

So, give me Your courage and confidence that whatever little death I die for You today, there’s more than enough life on the other side. Amen.

What Carries Us through the Flames Daniel 3:13–25. Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

So these men were brought before the king, and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” … So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace… Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.” He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

C. S. Lewis observed, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” In other words, a person may appear kind or wise or self-controlled. But not until a person is willing to pay a cost—especially a high cost—for remaining courageously faithful to what’s right, is their sincerity truly proven.

It’s hard to imagine a more severe test of faith than what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced.

As three exiled Jews serving as officials in the Babylonian government, they had an unusually straightforward choice. Either publicly bow down to a golden statue or burn alive.

In fact, God did intervene, and the three Jews did not burn up. But there was more: a figure that looked to King Nebuchadnezzar “like a son of the gods” appeared with them. We don’t know exactly who or what that figure was. But we do know that the Son of God, who was born human for us, stands with us when we enter the fire for Him. Over the centuries, many faithful ones have entered the flames, and they have been burned up. They showed in the moment of truth that they would rather die than deny Jesus. But whatever tests we face and whatever the stakes, we can have confidence that the Lord stands with us, too—that he will protect us and deliver us, because he’s already gone through it Himself. He may allow us to experience a little pain for a short time, but there is salvation and eternal life on the other side.

Lord, I have a risk to take. It seems like the danger is all I can see.

But now I’m taking my eyes off of it and putting them onto You. I know You’re worth it. And I trust You to stand with me in the fire and bring me through to the other side. Amen.

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Yet the choice was not quite as straightforward as it first appeared. The friends knew there was another possibility. God might intervene to disrupt everything. In fact, they were oddly confident God would do just that: “He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.” But to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that wasn’t really the point, because “even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

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Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? … If

Courage in the Arena Acts 19:23–31. About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large

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by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also

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Paul followed this logic in crazy situations like the one he found himself in at Ephesus. For two years, Christianity exploded in Ephesus, the leading city of the Roman province of Asia (western Turkey today).

By the end of this period, according to Luke, “all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia”— approximately three million people!—“heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10).

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numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made

Then some Ephesian craftsmen made a stink. Business was not good at the usually reliable Temple of Artemis, not for one of the so-called Seven Wonders of World. Souvenir sales were down. Pilgrims weren’t spending as much. And this Paul character wouldn’t shut up. The craftsmen got a mob riled up, chanting nationalistic slogans until it was a full-blown pagan riot with Paul right in the middle of it.

that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.” When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater.

When you read the letters of Paul, he seems like a pretty complex thinker. One of the more amusing moments in the Bible comes in Peter’s second epistle where he writes, “Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him…His letters contain some things that are hard to understand” (3:15–16). (Umm, you think?)

So, for a guy with such a capacious and subtle intellect, it’s striking that some things were blindingly simple to Paul. For instance, it seems that Paul’s basic approach to life was, “People don’t know Jesus.

I know Jesus. Therefore, I should tell them about Jesus.”

So, what was Paul’s plan? He was ready to talk it out. What was he thinking? “They don’t know Jesus.

I know Jesus. Therefore, I should tell them about Jesus.”

Paul’s total disregard for his own safety feels confounding, but it should be an inspiration. We feel embarrassment by our lack of similar commitment. Quite simply, Christ’s glorious sacrifice for our sins meant far more to Paul than his own life.

But shame isn’t a sufficient or lasting motivator for us to tell more people about Jesus. I think we would rather have Paul’s courage if, like Paul, we truly contemplated Jesus, His glory, His wonder, what He’s done to save us, how He’s purchased us, body and soul. And how He’ll always be with us, deliver us, even in the face of a hostile crowd.

Lord, You are awesome to behold. Let me see You as You are with the eyes of faith.

Let me see the lost ones You love, who don’t yet love You, the way You see them.

With that new vision, may You grow large in my eyes and may all the dangers appear small.

Amen.

The Power of Weakness 2 Corinthians 6:1–10. As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Apostle Paul was born approximately 2,000 years too early to appreciate Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes’ 1972 hit If You Don’t Know Me by Now. It’s really too bad, because he might have quoted this line to the church at Corinth: “You will never ever, ever know me.”

See, out of all the churches Paul was associated with, Corinth was the only one that wasn’t entirely confident in his apostleship, which is weird, because Paul personally founded the church. But that tense relationship produced some of the most powerful material in the New Testament.

Take 2 Corinthians 6, for example. Speaking for his whole apostolic team—but really for himself, thinly shielding his deeply hurt feelings—Paul says in verse 4 that “we commend ourselves in every way” and then lays out the evidence of his apostleship.

The image-obsessed Corinthians viewed Paul’s weaknesses—his repeated trouble with the law, the scars from his beatings, his disappointing speaking presence, his manual trade as tentmaker—as discrediting.

Surely someone could more appropriately represent the Lord of glory than this guy.

Why? Because that’s exactly how the Lord came. The Son of God was born to peasants and laid in a feeding trough. The Lord of glory was crucified. This is how God designed it to work. The mark of His presence and approval is embarrassing weakness backlit by His breathtaking strength.

Paul’s conviction that his life was being molded into the shape of his crucified Lord girded him with the courage to stand before the rioters in Ephesus, the council in Jerusalem, Caesar in Rome…and critical and unappreciative believers in Corinth. He knew that however they might cut him, they would only deepen the engraving of God’s image on him.

The same is true for us. We all have weaknesses; we all have features in the corners of our lives that are potentially embarrassing. But even if exposed, those weaknesses do not disqualify us from serving the Lord. Rather, they qualify us to exhibit the power of His grace that brings glory to His name.

Lord Jesus, I’ll be honest—I really don’t like it when my flaws are pointed out. I don’t even want to see them myself; I want to keep them tucked out of sight. But as I picture the weakness You suffered for me, grant me the courage to be like You in weakness so that I might also be like You in glory. Amen.

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Yet Paul boldly asserts that those weaknesses are the very marks of his legitimacy—or, more precisely, those weaknesses combined with astounding, supernatural strength. It is the combination of suffering and purity—hardships and patience, of imprisonments and kindness, of beatings and power, of being nobodies and being treasured by Somebody, of poverty and having title to the whole universe—that proved Paul was sent by the Lord.

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favor, now is the day of salvation. We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not

When They Talk Bad about You 1 Peter 3:9–18. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil

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and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears

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are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

When Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, the pain and shame and anger he felt must have been indescribable. But when the angel told him that her crazy explanation was not made up and that he was to marry her anyway, different emotions must have arisen.

Joseph knew that some people would believe that he was the father—including possibly Mary’s family— and that they would slander his character. He knew that others would believe he was not the father, turning Joseph into a laughingstock or an object of pity. He knew that his son-who-was-not-really-his-son would face ridicule all his life. Maybe these prospects inclined Joseph to settle in Bethlehem for good, although it passed. Jesus spent most of his life back in Nazareth, listening to the insults of people who didn’t understand who He was.

Jesus’ first-century followers heard similar insults from those who didn’t understand who they were. Not only did the abusive language hurt and demean, it encouraged violence. But Apostle Peter encouraged them, “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened,” and he gave them—and us—several reasons why.

First, Peter says that God blesses people who bless others, even when others are hurling curses. As a general principle, God blesses peaceful speech with a peaceful life, especially in response to verbal attacks.

Second, Peter says that if believers are intent on doing good, no one has any reason to harm us. People occasionally hurt the innocent loner, but they usually won’t hurt the person who’s actively trying to help someone else.

Third, Peter advises believers to explain our devotion to Christ comes from the hope He provides for a wonderful future. However, Peter urges, do it respectfully, gently, peaceably. That way people might realize Christians are more interested in passively helping the world than aggressively upsetting it.

Finally, though, Peter admits there’s no guarantee. We might suffer unjustly anyway. But that’s still no reason to be afraid. We’re still stamped with God’s approval. We get to be like the Christ who innocently suffered for us, who died for us, who sacrificed His life for us. There’s no comparable suffering in the history of mankind.

So, thankfully, gratefully standing with Christ is the least we can do in return, even when it hurts.

Lord Jesus, I want to revere You today in my heart, to make You Number One. In my place, You were mocked, and You didn’t deserve it.

Now in Your place, I’m willing to be made fun of.

Help me to work for the good of everyone and to receive the blessing You promise. Amen.

WEEK THREE A S C HOL A R’ S HOPE

DECEM BER 10–16

The Right Way to Look Ahead Genesis 49:1, 8–12, 18. Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will

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happen to you in days to come….

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“Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk… I look for your deliverance, Lord.”

Has anyone encouraged you to “live in the present”? It’s fairly common advice these days. Thinking ahead is often portrayed as a bad thing—and it can be.

Sometimes people live in a fantasy world of what might be but don’t do anything about it, nothing practical, anyway. They don’t pray. They just daydream away. On the other hand, there are people who are so worried about the future, they turn every day into an anxiety-driven safari of trouble-hunting.

But it’s nothing new. Jesus even addressed it in His Sermon on the Mount, urging us to trust our Father in Heaven for each day, one day at a time (see Matt. 6:25–34).

Yet trusting God doesn’t just help us to live for today. It also helps us see the future. Check out Jacob.

Almost half of the Book of Genesis describes Jacob’s tumultuous life. It took him a lifetime to learn how to trust God for the future, but by the end he was teaching his sons how it looks.

Jacob blessed his twelve sons (though some of his blessings sounded something like a “mixed blessing”) by foretelling the characteristics of their descendants, son by son. But Jacob reserved his longest prophesy for Judah. Jacob predicted that the tribe of Judah would hold royal authority over all the tribes—which was fulfilled in the dynasty of King David—“until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.”

Who would this mysterious ruler be? God’s people watched and waited for centuries and still didn’t know.

But they weren’t alone. Far to the east, maybe in Babylon, scholars called “magi” studied the stars in their own attempt to predict the future. Some of them saw a phenomenon that told them that a new king of Judah—perhaps the one Jacob foretold—had been born.

Because those men looked ahead, because of their own hope in the future, they took action in the present. When they came and bowed down to the child Jesus, they actually made the prophecy come true: “and the obedience of the nations shall be his.”

There’s a particularly noteworthy feature of Jacob’s blessing on his sons. After predicting the destinies of seven of them, Jacob paused for a moment before completing the last five, breathing this simple prayer: “I look for your deliverance, Lord.” To consider the future in that same way, not anxiously, but as an opportunity for God’s deliverance—that’s the way to look ahead. That’s hope.

God Almighty, my days are in Your hand. Your plans for me, even beyond the end of my life, are good plans, and I trust You with them. Rather than being anxious about my future today, I choose to look for Your deliverance, Lord. Amen.

How to Have Hope in the Worst Circumstances Micah 7:1–7.

What misery is mine! …The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains.

Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets. Both hands are skilled in doing conspire together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge…. Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace guard the words of your lips. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies are the members of his own household. But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

The Bible illustrates how we can handle our problems by showing us problems we can’t possibly handle.

When you read the Book of Psalms or prophets like Micah, it’s easy to wonder if those writers were exaggerating about how bad things were. Really, guys, was everyone that bad? Were they really trying to kill you, literally? Like, all the time?

But maybe it really was that bad. The sorts of things Micah describes—violent conspiracies, bribery, false accusations, informants—are still going on today.

Yet there’s something else behind the extreme circumstances that all the righteous people in the Bible complained about. If the Bible only gave examples of God saving people in so-so situations, semi-bad situations, how would anyone know if God could handle a super bad situation? Fortunately, the Bible shows that God can do exactly that, meaning He can save anyone out of any situation, even the one you might be facing right now.

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evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire— they all

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People who wrote the Bible believed that, no matter what was going on, God was already involved and would become more involved if they asked Him. Very, very few people approach life like this today.

But Micah’s response was totally different: “I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.” Micah believed that God was real, that God answered prayer, that God would intervene, and the size of the circumstances didn’t matter. Big or small, God covered it all.

That belief was the basis for Micah’s hope and for our hope as well. God is real. God is involved with all that goes on in our lives, good and bad. Knowing that, believing that like Micah, we have the brightest hope, even in our darkest days.

Please hear my cry, Lord. I might not be going through what Micah went through, but his words describe just how I feel. In this one area of my life, I don’t see any hope; it seems like there’s no way out. But I know that You are real, that You’re really involved, and that You really care. I watch in hope for You; I wait for God, my Savior. Amen.

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For example, if I (Cory) were surrounded every day by people as lawless, cutthroat, untrustworthy, and dangerous as the people who surrounded Micah, my first response would most likely be a combination of, “It’s up to me to figure out a way to fix this,” and, “I can’t fix this—woe is me.”

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Romans 8:18–25. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will

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be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Everyone wants hope. No one can live without hope. Yet hope isn’t especially fun.

Hope is a state of mind: expectation and anticipation. Hope is a virtue. Paul frequently refers to the triad of “faith, hope, and love” in his writings. But hope is also an emotion and a complex emotion at that.

On one hand, hope is joyous. Paul talks about the “eager expectation” of both believers and, somehow, an entire speechless creation. We hope for freedom and a glory to be revealed in us: the “redemption of our bodies” by the resurrection from the dead. Paul exhorts believers to “be joyful in hope” (Rom. 12:12).

People with hope can happily endure bad circumstances. People without it, even people living comfortable lives, not so much.

But at the same time, bad circumstances are still bad. There’s a certain pain inherent in hope, because no one “hopes for what they already have.” Hope is the expectation of a better future. And if that’s true, the present is dim in comparison. Therefore, hope for a brighter tomorrow requires a darker today.

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That’s why Paul says that we experience hope amid suffering. Creation itself is suffering in bondage to decay. Along with creation we actually groan. And we are required to patiently wait for our redemption.

Hope is complex. It’s joyous, but it isn’t fun.

At the same time, who doesn’t want hope? When you think about the areas of your life that aren’t right— where things need to be right, but they’re broken or lost, and it’s all too confusing to see how they’re going to get any better—don’t you yearn for hope? Don’t you think, “If I knew this was somehow going to get better, then I could endure, no matter how long it takes”?

The gospel says it is going to get better, that everything broken will be made whole, that everything lost will be restored, that everything wrong will be made right in ways we can’t even imagine.

For centuries, Israel groaned in hope for a Messiah, but was totally surprised when He came. Christians are groaning for the same Messiah today, and we’ll be just as astonished when He comes again. We have joy in that, in the meantime, even in our darker days, knowing when Jesus does return, it’s going to be better than anything we could have possibly hoped.

God, help me today to glory in my sufferings, because I know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope— a hope that does not put me to shame, because Your love has been poured out into my heart through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:3–5). Amen.

What If Hope Were Illegal?

Acts 26:4–8, 19–20, 23. The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee. And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me. Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? … So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds…I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.

Would you go to prison for hope?

Hope is not a crime. There’s no prohibition on hope. But hope can be dangerous if it upsets the status quo, especially if it contradicts the hope of powerful leaders.

When Richard Wurmbrand, later the founder of a ministry called The Voice of the Martyrs, was imprisoned in Communist Romania in 1948, it was not because the Communists lacked hope. It was because their hope and Wurmbrand’s hope were diametrically opposed. The Communist hope of a triumphant, atheistic, worldly paradise for workers impelled them to seize total control over churches.

Wurmbrand’s hope compelled him to preach just the opposite, defying the regime with underground sermons on the supreme Lordship of Christ and His coming rule. And he went to prison for it.

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the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. They have known me for a long

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Paul was in a similar situation. He boldly proclaimed to King Agrippa, “It is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today.” That hope was the resurrection of the dead.

People all around us today have hopes. They’re hoping for things like a happy marriage, thriving children, a new home, more time off of work, promotions and recognition. In the grand scheme of things, they’re fairly modest hopes on a small scale. But they’re huge to the people who have them.

If we’re honest, we all have hopes like these. But we also hope for something more, something that not only encourages us, but encourage others, like our future resurrection. It’s a real thing. Jesus proved it.

Lesser hopes are no challenge for a hope like that. So, proclaim it to the world.

God of hope, fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in You so that I would overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13). Amen.

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Like Paul’s former comrades, the Jewish sect called the Pharisees, Paul believed that God would raise righteous people to live forever with Him. Unlike the others, though, Paul preached that God raised Jesus of Nazareth before anyone else. It transformed Paul’s hope and outraged his old teachers.

What Paul’s countrymen had hoped for their entire lives had finally come true. Hope in Christ had finally arrived. But Paul’s Good News was bad news for them, and they conspired to kill him instead.

Suffering-and-Kingdom-and-Patient-Endurance Revelation 1:4–9. John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

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To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and

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priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. “Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I (Rich) went to go visit a beloved Pastor who was facing a terminal diagnosis with cancer. His body had withered but not his spirit. His breath was limited but not his sense of humor.

“I’m not afraid of death,” he said to me. “It’s the dying part, I could do without.” He was ready for the Kingdom of Heaven, but not for the suffering he had to endure in the process.

In the Book of Revelation, John describes himself to his readers as “your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus.” Suffering-and-kingdom-and-patient-endurance— that’s not three things; that’s one thing that belongs to us if we belong to Jesus. You can’t have Jesus without suffering-and-kingdom-and-patient-endurance.

Now, the kingdom part sounds good; I like that. The suffering part, not so much. But I can’t avoid it.

Yet there’s something that bridges the gap between the two: patient endurance, persevering hope.

The glory of the kingdom that we’re now tasting as an appetizer gives us hope to endure suffering patiently until we feast on the main course.

Advent is a time to remember Israel’s hope for the Messiah’s coming. So, it’s also a good time for us to remember our hope of the Messiah’s “coming with the clouds.” Our suffering is real, but our Kingdom is real, too. In light of those realities, let’s double down on patient endurance, on persevering hope.

Jesus, thank You for loving us and freeing us from our sins by Your blood.

Thank you for making us into a Kingdom and priests to serve Your God and Father, the one who was and is and is to come. Help me today not to complain about the suffering that belongs to me because I belong to You. Instead, fill me with persevering hope in the Kingdom You’ve given us. Amen.

Hope Deferred Proverbs 13:12.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

But some proverbs don’t give you a lot to go on; instead they give you a lot to think about.

For instance, take today’s proverb about “hope deferred.” Those words in Hebrew can be paraphrased as “waiting longer than you thought you would.” That does “make the heart sick,” doesn’t it? When we’re stuck in a line or a waiting room long beyond what we expected, we can become borderline deranged.

But there’s a bigger, deeper, graver kind of “hope deferred” that does indeed frequently cause mental illness. Like when we’re stuck in a situation we don’t like or dealing with a problem we can’t solve.

We’re waiting for rescue, for things to get better, for God to answer our prayer … and we wait, and we wait.

And nothing comes. We can slide into despair and depression—we become heartsick—and the shapes and sizes of the issues in our lives become blurry and distorted in our mind’s eye.

By contrast, “a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” When you get what you want, and you want what you get, you feel terrific. It’s a jolt of energy. Satisfied desire nourishes like physical food.

So, the answer is simple, right? If you want to live life to the fullest, make sure all your longings are fulfilled and none of your hopes are deferred.

Only it’s not that simple, is it?

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Much of the wisdom in the Book of Proverbs reads like online “clickbait”: a really complicated problem boiled down to a simple “do this, don’t do that” in 60 seconds or less (with a lot of advertisements).

Similarly, a lot of proverbs are capsulized “how-tos”, spoken in one breath.

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This proverb is a description of human nature, not a prescription. The track of life doesn’t follow straight lines.

On the other hand, hope deferred often seems to be exactly what our heavenly Father wants for His most beloved children. Abraham and Sarah waited a long time for a baby. The Israelites in Egypt waited a long time for liberation. The woman in Jesus’ day with the unceasing flow of blood waited a long time for healing. The list goes on and on, and your name and mine are on it.

Christmas reminds us that ultimately the two halves of the proverb meet together. Israel’s hope for its Messiah was deferred for so long, until suddenly, shockingly, He’s nailed to a tree that brings life to us all.

The church’s hope for Christ’s return has been deferred as well. But when He does come, we will eat from the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2).

Lord, I can want so many things—or want a few things so much.

I confess that sometimes what I want is all I can think about, and my heart becomes sick over it. Lift my gaze to Your cross to receive nourishment there.

Help me to recognize how the thing that I really want, deep down, is You. Amen.

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Our longings can be so twisted that our efforts to fulfill them become dangerous to us or those around us— especially when they become idols with a life of their own. The tree of life can become a gallows pole.

If Your Hope Is Coming True and You Don’t Recognize It Yet Luke 24:13–21, 25–27. Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they

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talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;

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but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel…”

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Yesterday we mulled over the proverb that “hope deferred makes a heart sick.” Today we see that hope dashed makes a heart break.

Two of Jesus’ wider circle of disciples (that is, followers beyond the Twelve) are walking away from Jerusalem as soon as they lawfully can after the Sabbath. They’re fleeing the site of the most devastating turn of events they have ever experienced.

These men were confident that Jesus of Nazareth, a powerful prophet, was going to bring about the glorious end of history that would elevate God’s people: “We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” Yet now their thoughts are so consumed with Jesus’ shocking execution and the total, pathetic obliteration of their hopes that when a stranger asks them what they’re talking about, they can hardly speak.

Their hope revealed something important about these men. We don’t worship what we think; we worship what we love—we worship what we hope will save us. It’s unlikely that Cleopas and his friend had yet concluded that Jesus was fully God come in human flesh—to them He was, after all, “a prophet.” They probably would have been scandalized by the notion that they worshiped Jesus. Yet in a quiet, primitive way they worshiped Him all the same, because their hopes rested on Jesus. He was their Savior. And now He was gone.

Yet He wasn’t gone. He was actually standing right in front of them, His identity hidden from their eyes.

Just as it had been hidden from Israel during His ministry. Just as it had been hidden from Herod during His infancy in Bethlehem.

Sometimes our hopes are dashed, and our spirits are crushed because our hopes turn out to be mere fantasies. They deserve to crumble before they take the place of God in our worship. But sometimes our hope rests in what we sincerely believe God is doing, yet it collapses—it doesn’t work out the way we expect—and we have no explanation why. We become as sorrowful as the disciples heading to Emmaus.

But if we could only see, Jesus may just be standing right in front of our eyes. As long as our hope is truly in the Giver, not just gifts, anything can happen. As Psalm 25:3 says, “No one who hopes in [Him] will ever be put to shame.”

Lord, fill me with the courage to hope again even if my hopes have been dashed before.

Convince me in the truth that You are present and active in my life. Help me see how You are right in front of me right now. May You ever, always, only have my worship. Amen.

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The Humble God Philippians 2:1–11. Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy

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complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out

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of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

At Christmas we remember that the God we worship doesn’t mind not being God for a while.

It’s not that Jesus, the Son who was “in very nature God,” ceased to be God at any point of His life on earth. It’s that He freely chose not to act like it. He emptied Himself; He made Himself nothing. He didn’t use His Godhood to His own advantage, and He didn’t cling to it. He somehow shoehorned Himself into the dimensions of a human body and soul. C. S. Lewis observed that the incarnation is the ultimate miracle: If you can believe this, you can believe anything.

Jesus’ suffering did not begin at the cross or in Pilate’s fort or in the garden. It began the moment He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, even before He was conscious of it. The very act of becoming human was suffering. Lewis pointed out that if you could imagine becoming a slug you might begin to grasp what the incarnation meant for Jesus.

What kind of God would be that humble? What kind of God would divest Himself of all His majesty to become one of us—in fact, an exceptionally humble one of us, born into humble circumstances—to be misunderstood and rejected and abused by puffed-up slugs strutting around like they own the place, and for their sake?

The only God there is, that’s who.

Paul says to the church, In your relationships with each other, think like that. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.” Wow. The only way we can pull this off is, in the words of an older translation, to “let this mind be in us.” We need Jesus to give us a brain transplant to be as humble toward each other as God Almighty was to us.

The humility that went to the extreme of a slave’s death on a cross was not the end of the story for Jesus.

The Father raised Him up; Jesus didn’t stay humbled because He hadn’t stayed exalted. Someday all of us “slugs” will humble ourselves at the sound of His name—some of us willingly, some not. But those who humble ourselves before Him now will at that time receive our own gracious elevation—to become, for the very first time, truly human.

Lord Jesus Christ, I am awed by Your humility.

It makes me pour contempt on all my pride and repent in dust and ashes.

Forgive me for inflating my own importance or for not adequately recognizing Yours.

Put Your mind in me as I interact with people today. Be forever exalted. Amen.

“I Know What I’m Doing” Matthew 11:25–30. At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

These words coming from a child are like a declaration of independence. They are so bold that most of us probably never said them outright to our parents (but maybe we did to our older siblings).

They also sound a note of joyous triumph. They signal that we have grown in strength and skill and capacity and wisdom; we can handle what we couldn’t before. Remember the first time you tied your shoe without help, the first time you added two-digit numbers, the first time you answered a phone without coaching. I got this, we thought. I know what I’m doing.

We were not only proud of ourselves in those moments, our parents were proud of us, too. As we grew older, then, it was natural to continue to see “I know what I’m doing” as a sign of maturity and as a mark of achievement. The more we know and the more we can do, the more on top of things we must be, right?

Wrong. Somewhere we hit a tipping point in which “I know what I’m doing” hurts us more than it helps us. Certitude that “I know what I’m doing” frequently lurks at the roots of bad decisions, unbearable stress, ill temper, broken marriages, and exhaustion.

Jesus—the one person who really does know what He’s doing—is God come in the form of a baby. He grew up to be “gentle and humble in heart.” We may resist admitting to others that we don’t know what we’re doing because their meekest rebukes still feel harsh and demeaning. But Jesus delivers the strongest word of correction in the softest voice, full of acceptance, approval, and love. Being corrected

by Jesus feels more affirming than being praised by a friend.

When we start to accept that we don’t know what we’re doing and we humbly take the load of His teaching upon ourselves, we find that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. Finally, when we are set free from the burden of being right, we find rest for our souls.

Jesus, my world tells me I have to be right, and so does my conscience.

The last thing I want to be is a screw-up, and I secretly fear that I might be.

But You accept me with open arms; You tell me that you love me as I am, and I can never lose Your love. I don’t know what I’m doing, so grant me rest for my soul. Amen.

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Worst of all, it leads to failing to recognize God when He’s right in front of us. God generally remains invisible to those who are sure they know what they’re doing. But He loves revealing Himself to “little children” of any age who know that they don’t.

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the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son

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Psalm 131. My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great

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matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.

When my (Cory’s) oldest child was a baby, he would not stay still—unless he was eating, that is.

That pattern continued as he got older; he wanted to play, to move, to ride his tricycle, to go rapidly from one thing to the next.

My youngest child is the opposite. It’s not that he doesn’t like playing and moving around. It’s that he gets great, quiet joy and satisfaction from sitting close to people he loves, especially his mom. He’s eight years old now, and he’ll still sit and cuddle with her for an hour, unmoving, leaning against her side.

This is the sort of child pictured by David in Psalm 131. David compares such a child to the state of his soul, which isn’t immediately apparent in the translation above.

For a Hebrew-speaker, soul often meant the energy that makes us live. We can feel our soul get volatile, turbulent, even manic over both wild dreams and dreadful worries.

Yet as described by the psalm, David has leveled out and quieted his soul, smoothing it like a pond on a still day. At least for a moment, he has taken several steps away from matters that are too big for him to handle. As imaged in the underlying Hebrew, his soul now sits quietly on him the way my younger son sits on his mother’s lap.

I don’t believe that we are meant to experience that type of peace all the time. I don’t believe that is a worthy goal, much less a practical one. Jesus is our perfect model, and the Gospels give us plenty of examples of His soul simmering with drive, bubbling with joy, and even boiling with anger.

Yet if the soul is never still, there’s something wrong; it isn’t well.

David’s little psalm reveals that the key to the quiet soul is humility. It starts from stepping from things that are too big for us, which requires us to admit that things are too big for us. Our mind has to deflate; our head needs to bow; our eyes need to train on the ground under our feet.

Yet humility also means stepping toward God in expectant waiting. He who made the stars must handle the fires and forces and far-flung spaces that we cannot.

When and where—in bed, on the train, on your back porch—will you next take a moment to let your soul lean quietly on you as you lean quietly on God?

Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty.

Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me.

Surely, I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. I hope in you from this time forth and forever. Amen.

This Christmas, Before You Fight …

James 4:1–10. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

“Fights and quarrels.” We don’t like them, but we all face them. When they come our way, some of us rush to the barricades, some of us play dead until the enemy passes, and some of us see the battle coming and stay as far away as possible.

James says that we fight about things because we want things. They aren’t always material things— money, property, and possessions. They can be prestige, respect, and attention. They can be safety, belonging, and faithfulness. They can be for us individually or for the extension of our soul in our children or in our organization or in our demographic tribe.

When we fight, we think we know who our enemy is. Actually, we usually don’t think it at all; we just assume it. But James asserts that we have a different enemy than we think: the devil, whose efforts to sow discord we must resist.

We’re frustrated and can’t get anywhere because “God opposes the proud,” but we get back on track when we “humble [ourselves] before the Lord.” When we become humble before Him by admitting our contribution to a problem, we become humble toward each other as well. The healing can begin, and the Lord lifts us up.

As Christmas nears, many of us will gather with our families. These can be the places where we’ve experienced quarreling and fighting more than any other. We can’t expect that the people we gather with will be as humble as they should be. But before we enter a time with them that’s supposed to be joyous, we can take a few private moments of “mourning” and “gloom,” not of self-pity, but of repentance.

We can uncover the cravings in our lives that are unsatisfied or threatened. We can submit them to the Lord and humbly ask Him to fulfill them. And we can humbly re-enter relationships but with heads lifted up, prepared, so far as it depends on us, for peace.

Lord, the last thing I want is for You to oppose me, because I can’t win that fight.

I want Your favor, Your blessing. I’ve sought for it and fought for it in other ways, but You’re the place that it’s found, the hideaway where it’s kept secure.

In the face of conflict, I humble myself before You. Lift me up in due time. Amen.

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More importantly, however, it turns out that we are the enemy, and God is the offended party. Our cravings, however valid at their core, have become an out-of-control addiction to a world that falsely promises to satisfy them. They’ve become unfaithfulness, adultery against the one who jealously loves us and promises to give us all that we want by giving us Himself. Our discord with each other masks our real problem, the disruption between us and God.

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within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you

Why the Bible Will Always Be Better Than a Bible Movie Genesis 41:14–40. So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

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“I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”

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… Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “ … God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do…. The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon. And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt….”

The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.”

There are a lot of Bible based movies. Yet the Bible itself will always remain superior, and this story about Joseph is one reason why.

In the best possible movie about Joseph, the main character is Joseph. In the Bible, the main character is God. Genesis 37–50, which tells the story of Joseph, gives far more detail about Joseph than it does about God. Joseph is the focus; his motivations and transformation are in the center of the frame. So, if you’re making a movie from this literature, Joseph is your natural hero; he is the story.

But those chapters in Genesis are only a small portion of the whole Bible. When you read the entire Bible, the character on every page is God. It is evident that He is the hero; it is His story.

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For modern, individualistic Americans, it is standard to live life as a movie about ourselves. If I happen to be devoted to God, then God may be a strong supporting character, but I’m still the star.

One of the things that makes Joseph special is that he did not look at his life that way. He saw God as the hero of his story.

Joseph had been wrongly imprisoned for years. He was far from home and had no family. Yet here he stands before the ruler of an empire, and that ruler believes Joseph can help him. This is Joseph’s big break.

So, what does Joseph say? “I cannot do it … but God will give Pharaoh the answer.” God gave the dream to show Pharaoh what God is about to do. God firmly decided it, and God would do it soon. God explained it all to Joseph.

Joseph was humble enough to see himself as a character in God’s story, not the other way around. His perspective was so captivating that even Pharaoh picked up on it. As Pharaoh saw it, Joseph’s most appealing quality for the post of second-in-command was that he had the Spirit of God. Bringing Joseph into his house was bringing God into his house. Joseph humbled himself before the Lord, and the Lord lifted him up.

As we approach Christmas, our default posture is to see it as a featured event of our lives since we are the main character in our story. But Christmas reminds us that it’s not mainly our story at all. Rather, we are characters in the story of the baby in the manger; He is the hero, and it’s all about Him. When we approach our lives with that kind of humility, we’re a short step from being lifted up like Joseph.

God, thank You for making me a character in Your story. You didn’t have to do it, but You did.

Let me play my part so that the spotlight remains on You. Whatever reflection from You illuminates me is enough to last a lifetime. Amen.

Humble Enough for a Solution 2 Kings 5:1, 9–15. Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the valiant soldier, but he had leprosy… So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.”

I (Cory) vividly remember a time in my life when I had a particular problem I could not solve. I tried everything I could think of. Every time I bumped up against the problem I would learn something that I was sure would help me avoid or overcome it the next time. But I was always wrong; no matter how much I learned, I could never learn enough to make a difference.

Sometimes I looked to books or friends or people older than me for advice, but their counsel usually didn’t make much difference either. To be fair, I didn’t take all the advice. Some of it seemed reasonable, but some of it seemed unnecessarily extreme. If I were REALLY bad off, I might have to do something that drastic, I thought. But I don’t think that’s for me. And the problem continued.

Naaman was furious. His national and personal pride was pricked. For Naaman, it wasn’t enough to be cured; he had to be cured the right way. He was humiliated enough by his ailment; he demanded that his pride be preserved in the therapy.

But Naaman realized what I eventually realized: if you have a problem you can’t solve, you’re in no position to dictate the solution. If Naaman or I really knew what was best for us, we wouldn’t have needed to ask for help in the first place. So Naaman, desperate, humbled himself enough to do what Elisha said, and he found his cure.

Isn’t this how salvation of the deepest kind always works? God sent His Son to be the solution to the problem of the human race. The only people Jesus couldn’t save were those who insisted on being saved under certain conditions or limitations and those who wouldn’t admit they needed saving at all.

Whatever problem we’re facing now, let’s learn to be humble enough to accept the solution—whatever river it is in which we’re sent to wash.

Lord, if there’s any message from You that I’m resisting because of pride, please soften me enough— and make me want Your salvation enough—to hear it. Help me learn the goodness of humility. Amen.

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W EEK 4: A SHEPHERD’S HUMILIT Y

My problem wasn’t unlike Naaman’s problem with leprosy. Surely, he had tried every cure known in his home country of Aram (modern Syria), but nothing helped. Then, after hearing about a miracle-working prophet in Israel, Aram’s neighbor and enemy, Naaman knocked on Elisha’s door. But Elisha paid him no respect; he didn’t even come to the door. He didn’t say magic words and wave his arms around. He just said through a messenger, “Go to our local river and wash up.”

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sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a

How Two Humble Guys Changed the World Acts 10:25–35. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.” While talking with him, Peter went inside and found

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a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate

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with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?” Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”

One of the most important events in the early church—actually, one of the most important events in the last 2,000 years—was a meeting between a Jew named Peter and a Roman named Cornelius. Luke, who wrote the Book of Acts, found it so important that he told the story twice in a row and even included little flashbacks within each telling. We are not supposed to miss a single detail.

Cornelius was a Roman military officer—or a Greek-speaker who had taken a Roman name—stationed in Judea. He was also what first-century Jews called a “God-fearer.” That means he abandoned the gods he was raised to worship in favor of the God of Israel. Cornelius, then, concluded that the Jews were right and that his own people were wrong. However, he didn’t obey the Law in all the ritual and cultural details, most notably circumcision, so he didn’t count as a Jew and wasn’t fully accepted by them. So being a God-fearer like Cornelius meant both admitting that your people were wrong and embracing second-class status among your new people.

Peter was a Jew who had been raised to believe that his people had a unique relationship with the one God who made everything, a God who demanded that Jews take certain steps and precautions to ensure their unique relationship remained pure. Those precautions included rituals that drew a sharp line between Jew and non-Jew. Jews considered themselves superior because their God was superior to the gods of all other nations.

Yet the Jews were under the yoke of those nations. Being a Jew, then, meant believing in your superiority in a world where other people physically proved your inferiority every day—people like Cornelius, in fact.

God just had to get these guys together.

When Peter arrived at Cornelius’s house, Cornelius literally bowed down before him, profoundly humble—yet this was humble pie for Peter too. Peter knew he was transgressing Jewish custom by walking into the Roman’s house and that his Jewish-Christian friends would give him flak for it. He also had to admit that he had been wrong about God-fearers like Cornelius. They weren’t second-class after all; God accepted them without bias.

A humble encounter between two strangers sparked a transformation of the Christian movement. Christianity became the most ethnically diverse, widely spread religion in history. Because two men humbled themselves enough to follow God’s direction, everyone could enter God’s family, no matter what their background—even you and me.

God, I know Christ today because once two strangers were humble enough to admit they were wrong. What would happen if I did the same? Help me to be humble enough to enter situations where I’m not in my element and to be corrected when I don’t know as much as I think. Amen.

CHRISTMAS A FAT H E R’ S L OV E

DEC EM BER 24–2 5

God’s Unconditional, Conditional Love Deuteronomy 7:6–14. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection

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on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him. Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today. If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers… You will be blessed more than any other people.

Some people think that the Old Testament describes God as wrathful and severe while the New Testament describes Him as merciful and full of love. But the Bible paints a different picture.

Moses was the messenger God appointed to bring about Israel’s miraculous liberation from slavery in Egypt. He also led Israel’s 40-years-longer-than-expected sojourn in the wilderness as they waited to take possession of the land God promised to Abraham. In Deuteronomy—Moses’ farewell speech—Moses explains that the whole journey was an exhibition of God’s love.

God “treasured” Israel, “set his affection on” Israel, “blessed” Israel. His love was more than legal; it was emotional, physical, tangible. Yet the most curious thing about God’s love is that it was both unconditional and conditional.

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On one hand, God’s love for Israel was unconditional. Israel didn’t do anything to merit it; God loved them simply because He couldn’t help Himself. Israel never had to be big and important among the nations to keep God’s interest. God loved them as they were, just as He loved Israel’s ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as they were.

Not only that, but Israel couldn’t lose God’s love. God promised to keep his solemn covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who loved Him. That is an almost inconceivably long time: imagine that because one person loved God, God would show love to that person’s descendants for the next 25,000 years.

Yet on the other hand, God’s love for Israel was conditional. The condition was rather simple: an Israelite had to love God and not hate him—that is, to prefer God over every rival. Israel showed it loved God by obeying God’s instructions.

This makes for quite a puzzle. Abraham loved God, so God was obligated to love Abraham’s descendants.

But Abraham’s descendants frequently did not love God, so God was obligated to destroy them. Which would win out? What would God do?

This tense paradox, which played out over Israel’s tumultuous history, was finally resolved when God sent His beloved Son to become an Israelite Himself and then die on a cross. On Jesus, God poured out the destruction due to all of Israel for its refusal to love God, yet God’s willingness to pay the price on His own proved His never-ending, unconditional love.

Tonight, we meditate on this amazing truth of God’s love. He doesn’t just love us unconditionally. He also fulfills all the conditions we don’t. We simply have to choose Him as He chose us.

God, your love is greater than I can fathom, more than I can conceive.

Whatever else I do today and tomorrow, please help my mind to return continually to what it’s really all about: the greatness of your love. Amen.

Be Born in Us Today Romans 5:1–8. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christmas Day. We celebrate the birth of Christ, the newborn King!

Over the last 30 days we’ve walked a pilgrimage to this moment in which we contemplate the God who came in the flesh for us. Paul’s words today help us recall and sum up our journey.

In Mary we saw a teenager’s faith that God would be true to His promises and would deliver her through the Son she would deliver. By faith like hers, we hear God’s verdict of “not guilty” and “gain access … into this grace in which we now stand.”

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stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings,

In Joseph we saw a carpenter’s courage to play his role in God’s plan, even though the powers of his world were stacked against him. By courage like his, “we glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance [and] perseverance, character.”

In the Magi we saw a scholar’s hope that God would bring a glory into the world worth watching and waiting for. By hope like theirs, “we boast in the hope of the glory of God,” knowing that that hope will not “put us to shame.”

Lastly, in God Himself we see a Father’s love that takes upon Himself the full cost of our crimes to fulfill His everlasting love and bring us home. “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” As dearly loved children, we have the confidence that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Christ was born for us two millennia ago. Now, for the sake of faith, courage, hope, humility, and above all love, may Christ be born in us today.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with God’s people. Amen (Rev. 22:21).

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In the shepherds we saw a shepherd’s humility to receive the astonishing message that Christ the Lord, the King of Kings, was lying in a manger. By humility like theirs, we admit that “when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”

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OUR MISSION Joining Christ daily in the restoration of all things.

OUR MEASURES

O U R VA L U E S UNEXPEC TED TOGETHERNESS

Because the Gospel brings everyone to the table

GENTLE REVERENCE

Because the Gospel requires both grace and truth

D I S R U P T I V E C O M PA S S I O N

Because the Gospel changes us all for good

G R AT E F U L

instead of entitled

AVA I L A B L E

instead of hurried

CURIOUS

O U R S T R AT E G Y

instead of self-centered

ENCOUR AGING

instead of critical

a weekly celebration of God’s grace

a mid-size fellowship (30–80 people) to learn and gather

an intentional community of 2–4 people for deep exploration

Christmas

AT PE AC H T R EE

Family Advent Celebration

December 2 | 4 pm | Sanctuary

Lessons and Carols Service

December 9 | 4 pm | Kellett Chapel

Christmas Pops Concert

December 16 | 7 pm | Sanctuary

Family Christmas Pageant

December 23 | 5 pm | Sanctuary

Young Families Service

December 24 | 10 am | Sanctuary

Christmas Eve Communion Service December 24 | 12 pm | Kellett Chapel

Christmas Eve Candlelight Services December 24 | 2, 4, 6, 8 pm | Sanctuary

3434 Roswell Road, NW | Atlanta, Georgia 30305 | 404.842.5800 | PeachtreeChurch.com