This was a reading I prepared for our ladies’ Christmas tea at church this year, based on Matthew 2:1-12. As with everything on my blog, feel free to use/ share this – I just ask that you include the url to this site. I pray that we are all preparing our hearts for Christmas along with our homes!

Dusty and physically spent from their journey, their hearts beating in anticipation, the Magi arrived in Jerusalem. They had seen His star, and felt compelled to find Him, to worship Him: the long-awaited King of the Jews! They had traveled for months, years, and had finally arrived at their destination, anxious honor Him, this child-King announced to them from the heavens themselves.

These sincere worshippers from a foreign land went to the most logical place they could think of to find Him: Jerusalem, the city of David. “Where is He? Where is the King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him!” Their enthusiasm was not mirrored in the faces of those they talked to in the city. In fact, rather than the spark of recognition and excitement they had expected, they saw fear, confusion, and distrust.

The news of their visit and inquiry about a new king reached the ears of King Herod. The King was more than curious and unsettled. He was enraged. He heard their words as a threat to his kingship and power. He knew what to do, for the words of the Magi had been too familiar. The promised Christ. The King of the Jews. Oh yes, he knew the King to which they referred, and a bunch of dusty prophecies could not be allowed to infringe upon his power.

Herod gathered together the chief priests and scribes, and soon he had received his answer: prophecy stated that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. He quietly summoned the magi and sent them on to Bethlehem with instructions to inform him of the child’s whereabouts. He would destroy this so-called king before it was too late.

The magi set out from the palace on their way to Bethlehem. As they neared the town, and the last gleams of daylight disappeared from the western horizon, they glanced at the night sky which was so familiar to them and were suddenly overcome with wonder. The star! THE star! The one they had seen, discussed, studied two years earlier was winking back at them from the velvety, diamond-studded heavens. It appeared to be moving, shining, gliding its way through the streets of Bethlehem until it gloriously shone on one tiny house jumbled among many on the crowded street.

Their knock at the door was answered by an obviously poor but dignified young woman. When they noticed the small boy clinging to her cloak, they knew. This child did not look extraordinary – his appearance and surroundings would not distinguish him from the scores of common children in Bethlehem. But still, they knew this was the one. He was not marked by elegant trappings, but the bright star which shone down on this house made it unmistakable: this was the Christ, the King of the Jews.

One by one these regal and learned men knelt before the boy in worship, recognizing that this child was more than a future human king – He was divine. Each produced a treasure – gifts worthy of a king. Gifts which foretold more than they realized.

The first gift revealed was gold – a shining treasure seemingly out of place in the simple house. This gold was more than an expensive gift. Gold signified kingly glory, for they were paying tribute to the True King.

As the second gift was opened, the strong aroma of Frankincense filled the air. Frankincense was part of the unique recipe given by God for the incense to be used to in the tabernacle and temple. The scent of Frankincense was to come before God in a pleasing aroma of worship, and these magi were honoring Him as God in flesh.

The third gift, although still costly and beautiful, was unsettling. Myrrh is a bitter herb used in the embalming of the dead. This third gift foretold the suffering and death which awaited the child of the promise who stood before them.

As we consider the events of this day long ago, we must consider our own approach to this one True King. Some will hear the news of the Christ and will react as the people in Jerusalem did – they will not respond with excitement and joy. They will be afraid, confused, and suspicious. This King they have heard of could disrupt the calm of their lives and demand a different kind of allegiance than they are willing to offer. Rather than searching for the King themselves in order to enter into the joy of serving Him, they will stand back and miss the gift of Immanuel – God with us.

Others will hear and respond with anger, as King Herod did. Who is this One who claims the right to rule? Who will seek to usurp the power and authority we feel we have over our own destinies and daily lives? They will not stand back, they will wage war. The Wonderful Counselor will be seen as a threat, and they will seek to destroy this King and erase all memory of His name. But one day, they must bow the knee. For He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

A few will hear of His coming and rejoice, search for Him, and seek to present themselves to Him in worship. They will recognize Him not as just another child, but as the promised Christ. They will give all they have to Him, the one True King, the one True God, the Redeemer and Savior of their souls.

Where would you have been that day? Would you have ignored Him, hated Him – or would you have worshipped Him? What will you do with the problem of Jesus? Who do you say that He is?

O come let us adore Him, for He is Christ the Lord.

Watching and listening to people this time of year intrigues me. In the celebration of Thanksgiving, we set aside time to thank our Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, our Abba Father for all that He has blessed us with. Sadly, we have turned this amazing opportunity to pause and corporately thank Him into a glutenous feast with a cardboard turkey centerpiece. If you are a crafty-Martha-Stewart-type, perhaps your centerpiece is a cornucopia handcrafted out of fresh picked willow branches, but nevertheless, we often miss the point.

Even in our attempts to make the holiday more meaningful, it often seems to ring hollow. Go around the table and say what you are thankful for – “my family,” “my job,” “this house,” whatever. Not that it’s bad to be thankful for these things, but are we truly thankful people? What about the little things? What about the painful things? Are we thankful for those?

…And if we were genuinely thankful people, how different would “black Friday” be?

I ventured out to JoAnn fabrics and Kohls last year on Black Friday – only the second time I remember ever doing that. I was almost 7 months pregnant and had AG with me, who was at that time 19 months old. Cranky older women were grabbing shopping carts before I could get to them so that they didn’t have to carry their purses and the 20 bolts of fabric they snatched up before someone else saw them. Apparently, it didn’t even matter what kind of fabric it was. They would hold onto it like birds of prey and circle the cutting table for recently set-aside options that they might like better. (Who knew that 60 year old quilters could be so mean?)

I came home that day exhausted and frustrated and feeling invisible. I had to laugh to myself as I thought, “And a very Merry Christmas to you, too.”

I love 2 Corinthians chapter 9 – Paul was writing to the Corinthian church and was reminding them of the pledge they had made to support and help their needy brothers and sisters in Christ in Jerusalem. In verse 5, he says he was sending some other brothers to “finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.” John MacArthur notes, “[grudgingly is] more clearly translated ‘covetousness’ or ‘greed,’ it denotes a grasping to get more and keep it at the expense of others. This attitude emphasizes selfishness and pride, which can have a detrimental effect on giving, and is natural for unbelievers, but should not be for professed believers.”

Is that convicting to you? It is to me. “A grasping to get more and keep it at the expense of others.” Remember what it means to give thanks. Nothing we have is ours – it is entrusted to us by God. If we truly believe that He owns it all, how would that change the way we live? I surely do not think that we can have a genuine, humble heart of gratitude on one day and then go out the next day and brawl over a bolt of fabric like animals. Notice how Paul describes the impact of the Corinthians’ choosing to give sacrificially:

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (9:12-14)

If we are followers of Jesus Christ, our genuine hearts of gratitude will motivate us to act. To give, to serve, to love – as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to our Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. To recognize that our gifts back to Him pale in comparison with his “indescribable gift” in Jesus Christ.

This year, I want to think of Thanksgiving and Christmas as going hand in hand. May I be truly thankful, not just for material blessings or the people in my life, although I really am deeply thankful for them. May I realize that we serve a great and gracious God who has given something indescribable to us – a personal relationship with the Almighty One. That humble scene of the babe lying in the manger led to the cross – and the ability for mere fallen mortals to enter the throne room of heaven and call the Creator of the universe, “Abba” – “Daddy.” This is no light thing to be taken for granted. It should rock our lives.

Thanksgiving cannot be about the turkey. Christmas cannot be about the presents. Oh, Father, forgive us for marginalizing you in our lives! It is easy to point to our culture and say, “evil!,” while entertaining the same vanity in our own lives. Because you have given us everything, we humbly thank you. May it not be just words on our lips – may it change the way we live. And may we not forget to give You the highest gift we can this Christmas – everything we are, everything we have. How do you wish to use us, Father? May we do it cheerfully as an expression of thanks.

NP and I sat on the couch last night in silence watching the election results come in. Just like many of you, I felt disappointed, sad, and slightly anxious, but most of all I was in a state of disbelief. I know that today’s America is nowhere near the ideals of the Puritans or the founding fathers, but deep down I was hoping and praying that the remnant of believers would hold fast to Truth. I don’t think that happened in many cases.

I keep thinking about the book of Exodus. One of the amazing things to me about Exodus was that despite the severity of their oppression in Egypt, despite the fact that they had been forced to throw their tiny, helpless infants into a watery grave, the Israelites wanted to go back. They felt that the cruelty and murderous rage of Pharaoh was better than God’s provision in the wilderness. It was better than having to rely on Him alone.

As I write this I am tearing up, for I feel that this is exactly where we are as a nation. We don’t want God. We don’t want to be a nation “under Him.” We don’t want to bow the knee and recognize Him as the source of Truth, justice, and all that is right and good. We would rather go to a human being for some sense of refuge. Even a man who finds it acceptable, if not good, to murder helpless infants. In our perverted reasoning, we think we can separate a man’s morality from his ability to rule in a right and just manner.

I wish that I could say it was the fact that Christians are in the minority and that we were outvoted by “pagans” that caused the election to turn out as it did. However, I have been appalled at the number of Christians who I have heard of, directly or indirectly, who were planning to vote for Obama. Have we so lost our compass of truth that he seemed to us the best choice? Whatever the reason – economic strategy, health care plan, position on education. We were willing to overlook what should have deeply unsettled us about this man in favor of fringe issues. And yes, I consider those fringe issues. It is from the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks, our mind thinks, our hands act – religion and morality are not distinguishable from ability to rule justly.

I do want to say that I could care less the color of the man’s skin. I did not vote against him because he was black, and neither should people have voted for him because he was black. In our postmodern culture, we threw the substance of his words (or lack thereof) out the window in favor of a good story – we’re making history, we’re voting for change, and it’s exhilarating! And so, we put one of the most liberal men in the senate in the power seat of our country. Many seemed to be closing their eyes and hoping for the best.

As we watched last night, I was deeply disturbed by an interview with Oprah Winfrey. She passionately talked about this election, and said that four years ago when she first met Barack Obama that something had “stirred inside of her.” She seemed to be searching for words to express the depth of this feeling she had that he would one day be the president of the United States. She said that from that point on, she began to introduce him to people as a man who would one day run for president.

The most sickening thing to me was to hear her quote Matthew 16:26 (For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?) as her reasoning for promoting him so heavily. She said that she knew that she would “lose her soul” if she were to ignore the prompting within her.

Oprah, perhaps you have never bothered to read the rest of that passage, or even the verse before it.

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
(Matthew 16:21-26)

You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Unfortunately, I think that is an accurate rebuke of the vast majority of us these days. Even when we slap a Bible verse on top and claim that we were moved by the Lord to do this or that.

I cannot tell you exactly what God’s position is on the minutia of the issues of health care reform, economic regulation, or foreign policy. But I can easily tell you God’s position on human life: murdering a human being for our own lifestyle, “mental health,” or avoiding the logical outcomes of sinful living is wrong. And we just picked a man who is as liberal as they get on this issue. I can also tell you that God definitely is anti-race discrimination! …and I think the church’s painful history with mishandling and outright mistreating this issue is much to blame for what happened yesterday.

So, what now? What do we as believers do from November 5th onward?

Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.
Titus 3:1

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Romans 13:1

We will speak about and treat Barack Obama with the respect he is due as the president-elect of our country. We will pray. Pray for the Obama family to come into saving, transforming faith in the one and only Messiah who can save the people from their sins. Pray for our nation to be deeply convicted of sin and come to repentance. Pray for our churches to hold fast to Truth and not compromise in a difficult age.

And oh, Lord Jesus, come quickly. We long to see you, to live in your presence, to bow down before you.

And in the words of Hannah,
My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in the Lord.
I smile at my enemies, Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
No one is holy like the Lord, For there is none besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.
Talk no more so very proudly; Let no arrogance come from your mouth,
For the Lord is the God of knowledge; And by Him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty men are broken, And those who stumbled are girded with strength.
2 Samuel 2:1-4

I do not have time to discuss this much today, but I wanted to post a link to Touchtone Magazine’s blog “Babies and Bottle Caps.”

I am astonished to hear other Christians saying that they plan to vote for Obama. I want to discuss my thoughts on this further tomorrow, but please read the article linked above. To me, this is a fascinating look at the pervasive issues of worldview that have infiltrated the Church.

What does Obama regard as holy, if anything? I am not in love with McCain, that’s for sure, but I could never justify voting for Obama based on his track record with abortion. How do we think we can trust the ethical and moral decisions of a man who believes that infanticide is acceptable? And though we may deny it, ethics and morality DO matter.

May God have mercy on us.