25 December 2010

Psalm 2, 85; Zech 2.10-13; 1 John 4.7-16; John 3.31-36

Verse 10 says to sing and rejoice and verse 13 says to be silent before the Lord of Hosts. Which is it? As Forrest Gump said, “I think it’s both at the same time.” We rejoice at the coming of the Lord so long as we love Him and are found in Him and yet His judgment on the earth and those who have rejected Jesus will cause us to be filled with awe and fear, not for ourselves but for the world to be judged. Today, however, we are thankful that Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world but through Him the world might be saved. We should rejoice and sing to the King who loved us and has come into the world, first in the form of Jesus and now in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Are there more beautiful words than, “Whoever believes the Son has eternal life”? We rejoice this day because the Son has come into the world and shed abroad the Holy Spirit who shares with us that God is indeed true and that He loved us enough to come to rescue us from death. The coming of God into the world is the most amazing story ever told. We should wonder and marvel this day at the birth of a child who contained all that is God. How could that possibly be true? Our God is amazing!

God took the initiative in loving us even though we were His enemies. We would rather be God than worship God but love overcame our opposition. We realized God was not against us but for us enough to die for us. When we believed in Jesus, He sent the Holy Spirit to live in us that He might make His home in us. Now, through the Spirit, we are able to take the initiative in loving others. Our love should not be dependent on their love for us, but we are to become like Him in reaching forth our arms in love to the world in the Name of Jesus. He came that we might be saved. We now take up the mission of making Him known to the world by loving Him, one another and the world just as He has done. Let us resolve this day to allow Christ to be born again in our hearts that we might be fruitful and multiply.

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.