There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Obviously, no amount of evidence, data, trends, facts, studies, or science will ever convince most ‘public health officials’ that masks aren’t doing squat to stop the spread of COVID-19. Cases
Source: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Obviously, no amount of evidence, data, trends, facts, studies, or science will ever convince most ‘public health officials’ thatmasks aren’t doing squatto stop the spread of COVID-19. Cases and deaths continue to spike (yes, many of these are super-sensitive PCR test-driven numbers, but still) despite the fact that well over 90% of the countryare complyingwith their absurd mandates. Yet, predictably, the virus keeps going right on virusing, as highly contagious respiratory viruses, unfortunately, tend to do, especially once cold weather hits.
Nevertheless, those of us who are mask skeptics have adifficult chorein front of us. Given that most of the country is under a mask mandate of some form or another, we can point to spikes all day AFTER these mandates were put in place only to have our opponents simply say, “Look how bad it would have been WITHOUT masks!”
It’s a tough argument to counter given the fact that our overlords have sold masking as a low-cost, easy “solution” that’s totally worth it even if they “save one life,” or something (nevermind the health risks – let’scensor docs who talk about those!). So, how DO we prove that things wouldn’t have been worse without masks? One way is to look at data from the few free states remaining.
Dr. Deborah Birx traveled with family out of state over Thanksgiving weekend — disregarding her own advice to stay home and not gather during the holidays, according to a report.
The White House coronavirus response coordinator was joined by three different generations of family at one of her vacation properties on Fenwick Island in Delaware on Nov. 27, just one day after the Thanksgiving holiday,the Associated Press reported.
The group — which included her husband Paige Reffe, a daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren — were from two separate households.
U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. (video screenshot)
By Chuck Ross
Daily Caller News Foundation
Rep. Devin Nunes accused the Justice Department and FBI officials of misleading Congress regarding documents Republicans sought as part of their investigation into abuse of the FISA program.
Nunes said Sunday that he plans to submit criminal referrals to the Justice Department regarding information found in newly declassified FBI messages from Peter Strzok.
Nunes said that the messages should have been provided to his committee years ago, but that government officials denied they existed.
Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday he plans to make new criminal referrals to the Justice Department following the release of internal FBI messages from the account of Peter Strzok, the top FBI investigator on Crossfire Hurricane.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Nunes said the messages, which the Justice Department and FBI declassified earlier this month, should have been provided to Congress years ago when Republicans began investigating whether the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in order to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
“They knew that we were investigating FISA abuse, why would this not have been given to Congress? This is just another example we’re going to have to do another criminal referral,” Nunes said Sunday.
The messages in question are from Strzok’s Lync account, the FBI’s internal messaging system. The messages, which The Daily Caller News Foundationpublished on Thursday, show Strzok discussing details of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.
The messages show Strzok, who was fired from the FBI in August 2019, commenting on July 28, 2016, about open counterintelligence investigations related to Trump. The FBI has insisted that the bureau was not investigating Trump before Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016.
Nunes has long doubted the FBI’s official claims about the beginning of its investigation of the Trump campaign.
He said Sunday that Strzok’s messages show the FBI’s narrative “was always nonsense.”
Strzok sent a message to another FBI employee on Sept. 23, 2016, asserting that former British spy Christopher Steele had spoken to a news outlet regarding a dossier he compiled on Donald Trump in order to “influence” the FBI’s investigation.
The Justice Department inspector general blasted the Crossfire Hurricane team for withholding exculpatory information regarding the Steele dossier in its applications for FISA warrants against Carter Page.
Nunes did not identify who he plans to refer for criminal investigation, but he asserted that Justice Department and FBI officials lied to Congress regarding the existence of documents like the latest batch of Strzok messages.
“This is clearly lying and obstructing Congress. This is information that we asked for numerous times,” Nunes said.
“We sat in meetings with DOJ and FBI and they sat there and stone cold said ‘Oh, there’s no more information, there’s no more text messages,’” Nunes said, adding that “these were the text messages that we really needed to run a proper investigation.”
Nunes has submitted more than a dozen other criminal referrals to the Justice Department regarding the investigation of the Trump campaign. Hehas called for probesinto leaks to the media regarding Trump associates, and has also issued referrals on FBI officials discussed in the inspector general’s report on Crossfire Hurricane.
The status of those referrals is unclear, though many of the issues in the referrals appear to be part of an investigation led by U.S. AttorneyJohn Durhaminto the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.
Nunes also said that Durham has enough evidence to issue indictments for lying to Congress.
“I don’t see how John Durham can’t bust several people for lying and misleading Congress. At a minimum there ought to be several indictments on that.”
Republicans who have investigated the FBI’s abuse of FISA and the Steele dossier have accused Steele, a former MI6 officer, of lying to the FBI regarding his contacts with the media. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Grahamreferred Steeleto the Justice Department and FBI for investigation in January 2018.
Other Republicans have accused Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, which hired Steele to investigate Trump on behalf of the DNC and Clinton campaign, of potentially making false statements to Congress regarding his interactions with former Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.
Simpson testified in 2017 that he did not meet Ohr until after the 2016 election. Ohr told Congress that they met in August 2016 to discuss Fusion GPS and Steele’s investigation of the Trump campaign.
Grassley said in a lettersent Dec. 3, 2018 that Simpson made “extremely misleading” statements in a deposition before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Aug. 22, 2017.
(Michael Patrick Leahy – Breitbart) A report released by the Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society at a press conference on Wednesday alleged Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife made $419.5 million in contributions to non-profit organizations during the 2020 election cycle–$350 million to the “Safe Elections” Project of the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) and another $69.5 million to the Center for Election Innovation and Research–that, “improperly influence[d] the 2020 presidential election on behalf of one particular candidate and party.”
“The 2020 presidential election witnessed an unprecedented and coordinated public-private partnership to improperly influence the 2020 presidential election on behalf of one particular candidate and party. Funded by hundreds of millions of dollars from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other high-tech interests, activist organizations created a two-tiered election system that treated voters differently depending on whether they lived in Democrat or Republican strongholds,” Amistad Project Director Phill Kline wrotein the report’s executive summary.View article →
I believe Trump can accept the imperfect Constitutional process while still disputing results. Accepting Joe Biden as the 46th president upon Congress’ certification does not mean he believes the election was fair.
A $600 stimulus check per person, included in the coronavirus package agreed by Congressional leadership after months of debate, has irked netizens, accusing lawmakers of throwing “pennies” at pandemic-weary Americans.
The $900-billion coronavirus deal was announced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday night, a compromise reached between Democrats and Republicans after nearly nine months of fruitless negotiations.
“We can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a very long time: more help is on the way. As our citizens continue battling this coronavirus this holiday season, they will not be fighting alone,”McConnel said on the Senate floor.
The full text of the deal is yet to be released, but it has already sparked indignation as well as a torrent of mockery for promising a $600 check for those earning up to $75,000 a year.
$600 is so disrespectful Congress may as well come to our houses and throw it at us in pennies to add insult to injury
“Congress makes a $130k a year & has had how many vacations in the last 8 month to agree to a measly $600? REVOLUTION ANYONE?”actor Kirk Acevedo tweeted, while another observer chastised the lawmakers ofbeing“out of touch” with people.
“These politicians are worse than Ebenezer Scrooge. We need $2000 monthly direct cash relief,”progressive activist and podcast host Ryan Knight tweeted.
$600 checks are NOT enough. These politicians are worse than Ebenezer Scrooge. We need $2000 monthly direct cash relief.
Michigan Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib pointed out that just lawmaker held no reservations when they passed a massive $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act earlier this month, which is, however, yet to be signed by US President Donald Trump, who vowed to veto it for not repealing liability protections for social media platforms.
“Don’t be coming back with ONLY $600 per survivor check when you just passed a ~$750 billion funding bill for defense contracts…It’s shameful that you are abandoning people in need,”she tweeted.
Don’t be coming back with ONLY $600 per survivor check when you just passed a ~$750 billion funding bill for defense contracts.
Yet, you all hesitate & debate whether our own people *need* a direct payment of $1,200.
It’s shameful that you are abandoning people in need.
The outcry was not limited to liberals, although many of the Democratic party supporters blamed the GOP for holding up the funds. Some conservatives, including those backing the president, have been up in arms as well.
“Inflation is at almost $0. People could have been given $2,000 a month. Caught up on their bills. Paid down their debt. Got ahead for once. No one in Congress [and] fought for this,”conservative commentator Mike Cernovich charged.
Inflation is at almost $0. People could have been given $2,000 a month. Caught up on their bills. Paid down their debt. Got ahead for once.
Democratic candidate for Florida 3d Congressional District Adam Christensen joked that the dissatisfaction over the bill has become an unlikely unifying factor in the time when the American public is increasingly divided.
“It’s very hard to unite everyone, but Washington seems to have to insulted everyone with this $600 pay off,”hewrote.
The news has also sparked a meme fest, with some coming up with ingenious suggestions on how better spend the money.
When you trying to act like the 600 stimulus not enough but plan to spend it on a PS5 anywaypic.twitter.com/khDb0NREKQ
What will I spend my $600 Stimulus check on? Oh just my $516 car payment and I mean I guess the remaining $84 I’ll put toward my $320 student loan payment. Winning.pic.twitter.com/0M3E6oxRrF
Trump has yet to speak on the deal, however, he is unlikely to rejoice at the compromise. The Washington Postreportedon Friday that White House aides had to intervene last-minute“to prevent President Trump from issuing a statement calling for substantially larger stimulus payments for millions of Americans.”Trump, who has publicly been calling out Congress fordelayingthe help, reportedly wanted for the checks to be at least $1,200 and up to $2,000 per person.
Since somehow winning the election, the media has been hard at work for Joe Biden. They haven’t spent the hours and days, combing through his history or digging up past girlfriends to accuse him of heinous acts. No, for the first time, the media is playing nice and giving Biden room to breathe. They haven’t remotely been on him like they were with President Trump. And now, they have already released polls showing how good of a job Biden is doing.
That’s right. The man hasn’t even taken office yet, and major news outlets have already begun spinning polls to shine Biden in bright light. The latest polls come from the Hill and they have President-elect Joe Biden at a 60% approval rate.
What is so surprising about the poll is how can he already have a 60% approval rate when he hasn’t even taken office yet. What has he done? Biden has been busy doing press conferences, interviews, and still trying to figure out how to read the teleprompter. Other than appointing a few low-level cabinet positions, Biden has done much of anything. And 40% of America is already starting to doubt him as a President.
This is where the problem lies. The media doesn’t want to be proven wrong. They don’t want the person that they backed to turn out to be the corrupt politician that all of American knew he was. On top of that, Biden isn’t fit to be the next President of the United States. Just during his time on the campaign trail, he showed the American people that he is weak, fumbling, and can barely keep his words together. It’s sad to watch and the man seriously needs to seek medical attention.
But to the media – it’s business as usual. They won’t be satisfied until Biden is considered the best President in the whole world. That is what they are working on right now. The articles constantly read how good of a job he is doing with COVID-19, yet even Biden admitted it was the Trump Administration who did all the work. But again, that isn’t the headlines the media is looking for.
This piece was written by Jeremy Porter on December 20, 2020. It originally appeared inDrewBerquist.comand is used by permission.
In modern times, there has never been a Christmas like this in America. Millions are freshly unemployed, another wave of lockdowns is forcing countless businesses to close their doors, and people are waiting in line for hours at food banks all over the nation just to get a little bit of food for their families. Of course those at the bottom end of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest. It is being reported that employment among those that make $27,000 a year or less is down 20 percent from pre-pandemic levels. That is an extremely shocking number, and it helps to explain why the number of Americans living in poverty rose to 52 million during the month of November.
But it isn’t just the unemployed that are suffering. Many of those that are still working have had their hours cut or they aren’t able to make as much in tips, commissions or bonuses as they did prior to the pandemic.
Tens of millions of households are bringing home less income these days, and this has become a major national crisis. In fact, one brand new survey discovered that a whopping 42 percent of U.S. households are currently making less money than they did prior to the pandemic…
Nine months into the pandemic, 42% of Americans say their household income is still below what it was before the coronavirus outbreak began, according to a new survey from Bankrate.com.
And that same survey found that 85 percent of Americans are concerned about how their incomes will be affected by this pandemic moving forward…
As the financial fallout from the pandemic continues and with expanded unemployment benefits and eviction moratoriums set to expire at the end of the year, 85% of adults are worried about a lasting negative impact to their income. That’s an increase from the percentage of people who reported that same concern in June.
With less money to go around, this is not a “normal Christmas” for millions of U.S. families.
And in some cases, there simply will not be any presents at all. For example, an unemployed nurse in Kansas named Sierra Schauvilegee says that her children “will not open a single gift” on Christmas morning this year…
There will be no presents under the Christmas tree this year for Sierra Schauvilegee and her children. Schauvilegee lost her job as a nurse when the residential care facility she worked for permanently closed down at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Finding new work has proved impossible.
“This is the first year my children will not open a single gift, nothing under our tree,” said Schauvilegee, who lives in Ingalls, Kansas. “I used all my savings to survive and I begged my mother to move in until I received rental assistance and food stamps, that is all I literally have.”
“Since July 26, 2020, we have been surviving on an unemployment income of $900 a month after taxes which is Florida’s maximum unemployment payment. This amount does not even cover the cost of rent for our tiny apartment,” Cawthorne Shannon said. “We have sold all personal items, except for a car, that had any value just to pay a bill. So now we sleep on palettes or lawn chairs.” She is unsure whether they will be able to stay in their apartment after New Year.
For Thanksgiving, Cawthorne Shannon and her daughter were only able to afford to have stuffing and cranberry sauce sandwiches. This year for Christmas, they can’t afford to celebrate it at all. They are hoping next year will be better.
Chase has suffered misfortune after misfortune since the spring: Unemployment benefits have been stuck in limbo. Work opportunities have been sporadic. Now, the cold makes it hard to find jobs in his trade, as a mason on construction crews. His savings depleted and his truck partially wrecked by a hit-and-run driver, Chase can’t move somewhere where jobs are more plentiful.
Have you ever spent a night sleeping in a vehicle in a strange location?
If not, you should try it some time.
I promise you that it will be an experience that you will never forget.
Unfortunately, millions more Americans could soon find themselves thrown out into the streets.
According to CNBC, over 11 million U.S. households have piled up $70,000,000,000 in unpaid rent…
By January, more than 11 million households will owe more than $6,000 in back rent, utilities and late fees, on average — about four months’ worth, according to an estimate from Moody’s Analytics. That’s a collective deficit of $70 billion.
In past articles, I have warned about the unprecedented wave of evictions that we could see in 2021. Unless something dramatic happens, the suffering that we are going to witness is going to be off the charts.
Of course what we really need is for the lockdowns to end so that the economy can start getting back to normal, but instead a new round of lockdowns is depressing economic activity all over the nation.
Today, I was stunned to learn that Apple is temporarily closing all of their stores in the entire state of California. The good news is that those stores will eventually open back up again, but countless other businesses that are shutting down right now won’t be so fortunate.
This is what an economic depression looks like, and what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.
If you still have a warm home, plenty of food on the table and money for some of the luxuries in life, you should consider yourself to be extremely blessed.
Because for tens of millions of Americans, this Christmas is going to be an exceptionally bitter one, and the year ahead is not looking very promising at all.
Having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end.—John 13:1.
IT is recorded of Jesus Christ, just when He was about to be departed from His disciples and led away to Calvary, that: “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” He knew that one of His disciples would betray Him, yet He loved Judas. He knew that another disciple would deny Him, and swear that he never knew Him, and yet He loved Peter. It was the love which Christ had for Peter that broke his heart, and brought him back in penitence to the feet of his Lord. For three years Jesus had been with the disciples trying to teach them His love, not only by His life and words, but by His works. And on the night of His betrayal He takes a basin of water, girds Himself with a towel, and taking the place of a servant, washes their feet; He wants to convince them of His unchanging love.[1]
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Lord, I should be holy and without blame before You in love.
You, my God, from the beginning, chose me for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which You called me for the obtaining of the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ. Whom You foreknew, You also predestined to be conformed to the image of Your Son, that You might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom You predestined, these You also called; whom You called, these You also justified; and whom You justified, these You also glorified. I am elect according to Your foreknowledge, Father God, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
You will give me a new heart and put a new spirit within me; You will take the heart of stone out of my flesh and give me a heart of flesh. You did not call me to uncleanness, but to holiness.
By Your Spirit, Lord, may I live a life that reflects my status as one of Your chosen children. And keep my heart tender toward You, I pray.
All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him (v. 11). Though this and the previous verses express the idea of submission in terms alluding to Solomon’s kingdom, yet the final fulfilment of this promise will be when Jesus, as the Lamb, overcomes because he is Lord of lords and King of kings (Rev. 17:14; 19:16).[1]
Ver. 11.—Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him (comp. Isa. 49:7, 23; 60:3–14). This prophecy has not yet been fulfilled in the letter; but it may one day be exactly accomplished. Or it may not have been intended to be understood literally. General truths are often expressed by the sacred writers universally.[2]
11. And all kings shall prostrate themselves before him. This verse contains a more distinct statement of the truth, That the whole world will be brought in subjection to the authority of Christ. The kingdom of Judah was unquestionably never more flourishing than under the reign of Solomon; but even then there were only a small number of kings who paid tribute to him, and what they paid was inconsiderable in amount; and, moreover, it was paid upon condition that they should be allowed to live in the enjoyment of liberty under their own laws. While David then began with his own son, and the posterity of his son, he rose by the Spirit of prophecy to the spiritual kingdom of Christ; a point worthy of our special notice, since it teaches us that we have not been called to the hope of everlasting salvation by chance, but because our heavenly Father had already destined to give us to his Son. From this we also learn, that in the Church and flock of Christ there is a place for kings; whom David does not here disarm of their sword nor despoil of their crown, in order to admit them into the Church, but rather declares that they will come with all the dignity of their station to prostrate themselves at the feet of Christ.[3]
Kings shall bow down before him (v. 11)
What it means to be a royal son endowed with God’s righteousness (v. 1) has been spelt out in the intervening verses, and is now summarized here at the midpoint of the psalm: All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him.
Of the royal line of David, it was his immediate successor who saw the prophecies and prayers of verses 2–10 most nearly fulfilled. ‘Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines … These countries brought tribute and were Solomon’s subjects all his life … Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.’
With even better reason, the New Testament uses just such language of Christ, the language of universal authority and recognition, ‘that in everything he might have the supremacy’; although of course ‘at present we do not see everything subject to him’, as we were shown in the New Testament’s treatment of Psalm 8.
Again we see that this psalm is in a broader sense both prayer and prophecy. As originally composed, it is a prayer for use presumably at the enthronement of an Israelite king—Solomon, surely, in the tenth century bc. As adopted by the Christian church, it is a prophecy: it prophesies ‘something greater than Solomon’, the reign of Messiah, which was to begin a thousand years later and has been growing ever since.
For he shall have dominion
O’er river, sea and shore,
Far as the eagle’s pinion
Or dove’s light wing can soar.
The historical reality never quite measured up to the vision of the poem; the final reality will far surpass it.[4]
11. “Yea, all kings shall fall down before him.” Personally shall they pay their reverence, however mighty they may be. No matter how high their state, how ancient their dynasty, or far-off their realms, they shall willingly accept him as their Imperial Lord. “All nations shall serve him.” The people shall be as obedient as the governors. The extent of the mediatorial rule is set forth by the two far-reaching alls, all kings and all nations: we see not as yet all things put under him, but since we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour in heaven, we are altogether without doubt as to his universal monarchy on earth. It is not to be imagined that an Alexander or a Cæsar shall have wider sway than the Son of God. “Every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Hasten it, O Lord, in thine own time.[5]
Them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him.—1 Thess. 4:14.
My soul! thy last night’s thoughts with which thou fell asleep, were upon a subject so truly connected with Jesus, that I hope thou couldst, and didst say, “My meditation of him was sweet!” There is another blessed thought, connected both with Jesus and with it, that may be proper to take along with it. Seek of God the Spirit to unfold its beauties in Jesus to thy view, this evening, and lead thee with it to fall asleep, this evening, as on the former, in the Lord. The apostle opens it to thy meditation in these words: “They which sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him.” The bodies, as well as the souls of the redeemed are alike the purchase of Christ’s blood, and Jesus will have them all with him. They are his jewels, his treasure, his Segullah. He suffers them to lie among the dust, it is true; but he saith himself, though they have so lain, yet shall they be “as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.” (Psalm 68:13.) How will Jesus accomplish it at the last day? He explains it himself: “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me.” (John 12:32.) And if the magnetic powers of the loadstone be such that it will separate the smallest particles of steel from every thing of earth or dust around, so that they shall fly to the touch of the loadstone in every direction, can his powers be doubted, who hath constituted such principles in nature so to act and so to be governed? O my soul, how sure is it, that Jesus will at the last day open the graves of his people, and cause them to come up out of them! Heaven would not be complete without this; neither the Lord Jesus fully rewarded, to see “the travail of his soul.” This final consummation of all things is the blessedness Paul speaks of, when, “in the dispensation of the fulness of time, Jehovah might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.” (Ephes. 1:10.) Sweet thought, my soul! take it with thee to thy bed. This glory, this triumph of thy Jesus, as Mediator, the head of his body the Church, remains to be accomplished; neither will it be accomplished until “the last trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed!” The patriarchs, the prophets, and holy saints of God, who died in Christ, before his incarnation, felt, no doubt, an accession to their glory and happiness, and joy in their souls, when the Son of God, after he had finished redemption-work, returned to heaven. The sight they had of Christ in his human nature, opened a new source of joy unspeakable. Oh! the unknown rapture of feasting their eyes upon him. And “the spirits of just men made perfect, (some of whom, my soul, thou hast seen, and known, and enjoyed sweet communion with, in the Church below,) who are now before the throne, and serve him in his temple night and day, they are at the fountain-head of bliss, in “seeing Jesus as he is, and knowing, even as they are known.” Nevertheless, their present enjoyments are the enjoyments of the soul only: their felicity is not complete, until, at the restitution of all things, their bodies shall be raised to the triumphs of eternity. Take, my soul, these thoughts with thee to bed; and be as ready to give thy body to thy Jesus for the grave, that he, in his own time, which is the best time, may undress thee for it, as thou takest off thy garments for nightly rest: for most certain it is, that as “Jesus died and rose again, even them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him.”[1]
December 20Haggai 1:1-2:23 Revelation 11:1-19 Psalm 139:1-24 Proverbs 30:15-16
Haggai 1:1 – This is the same year as Ezra 4:24 (520 BC). Haggai is the first prophet to the returned remnant. We’ve read about Zerubbabel and Joshua in Ezra 3:2.
Haggai 1:4 – Interesting priorities – it wasn’t time to build the LORD’s house, but it was to build “cieled houses.” This was “roofed with costly woods” – and some think “with the very cedar provided for the rebuilding of the temple” (Ezra 3:7). (Pulpit Commentary).
Haggai 1:9 – We’re told that God doesn’t dwell in temples (Acts 7:48, Acts 17:24). God did not need a temple – but this is indicative of the hearts of the people. Construction stopped for 16 years because of opposition (Ezra 4:24), but instead of seeking the LORD, they built their own houses. So what was so important about the temple? For man to obey God, they must follow his rules – and that includes the sacrifices. Well over a hundred of the Torah laws dealt with the temple. Under Babylonian captivity they had an excuse – but now there is no excuse.
Haggai 1:14 – God has put it in some people’s spirit to do the Work of the house of the LORD God. Let’s do the work today – remember His Last Command (Matthew 28:19-20).
Haggai 2:3 – This building was not going to rival Solomon’s Temple, but God still encouraged those building it (Haggai 2:4), because He would fill it with His glory (Haggai 2:7). He even promised that it would be more glorious than Solomon’s (Haggai 2:9).
Haggai 2:9 – How would this humble building rival Solomon’s Palace? Because in this place God would give His peace. If you’re interested in learning how that happened, check out this article yours truly did on the Peace of Christmas.
Haggai 2:19 – Blessing comes from obeying the LORD. (Haggai 2:18). Now what is the blessing: is it always health, wealth, and prosperity? LutheranSatire matched up present day “religious affirmations” with martyrs of church history in a provocative video. God’s blessings undo the ceremonial uncleanness (Haggai 2:13-14), and his chastening (Haggai 2:17).
Revelation 11:1 – We read about something similar in Ezekiel 40:3.
Revelation 11:3 – Who are the two witnesses? They have the power to shut heaven like Elijah (1 Kings 17:1), and their enemies are destroyed like Moses’ (Numbers 16:32).
Revelation 11:10 – Welcome to Alternative Christmas. Celebrating the death of the intolerant bigots. What could be more joyous than the termination of people who didn’t get along with the Antichrist’s political correctness?
Psalm 139:1– Welcome to the greatest Psalm on omniscience. God knows me (Psalm 139:1), my goings (Psalm 139:2), my ways (Psalm 139:3), my words (Psalm 139:4). What is my response? Psalm 139:14 – I will praise thee!
And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him …
(Genesis 37:5)
To fulfill your dream you’re going to have to make some trade-offs. You’ll trade off popularity for excellence and short-term pleasure for long-term fulfillment. Accepting the security men offer in exchange for the significance that doing God’s will brings is a lousy deal!
Learn from Joseph! He discovered that it’s a mistake to share your dream with false brethren, for it only reminds them of the dream they never had or the one they’ve abandoned. When somebody tries to talk you out of your dream, they’re usually just trying to talk themselves back into their own comfort zone. To do it, they’ll give you any rational lie they ever gave themselves. Don’t buy it! Love them, help them if you can, but don’t be influenced by those who have “given up.”
Dreamers are survivors. It was Joseph’s dream that caused him to overcome temptation, betrayal, imprisonment, and a lot of things that cause us to quit. Remember, God’s purpose alone should be the stuff of which your dreams are made. To discover your dream—get to know yourself, your strengths, and your weaknesses. Look at your opportunities. Examine where God has put you, then seek His counsel.
If you do, He’ll give you a dream for your life.[1]
Many local television stations across the United States entitle their newscasts Eyewitness News. Obviously, the impression station managers and news directors want to convey is that their newscasts are accurate and that viewers can count on the broadcasts as bona fide sources of daily community information. Such telecasts do not always achieve their goals of accuracy and balanced reporting, but use of the term eyewitness by the producers implies a desire to attain those ideals. That’s because eyewitness, in some sense, still connotes the idea of a credible, reliable report—a trustworthy individual actually witnessed certain events and can provide a truthful account of them.
The principle of the honest eyewitness also derives from the traditions and standards of Western jurisprudence. Courts accept a story as true when two or three witnesses can corroborate and verify its major elements. But the principle goes back much further to the biblical affirmation that testimony had to be confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6; Matt. 18:16; 1 Tim. 5:19).
Luke, ever the careful historian and theologian, used the testimony of reliable witnesses to great effect in confirming the truth of his narrative of the birth of Christ. His efforts were all the more effective because he could cite the most credible witnesses any writer ever had. And he did all that so we would know beyond a doubt that Jesus Christ was the greatest and most special child ever born.
The Righteousness of Joseph and Mary
First of all, Luke removed any uncertainty about the character and honesty of his witnesses by relying on the testimony of Jesus’ parents. Because of the righteous character of Joseph and Mary’s lives, Luke knew his readers could trust their testimony.
Matthew 1:19 identifies Joseph this way: “Joseph … being a just man.” That means he was right with God—a righteous man. And that was notable because in those days Israel had quite an array of theological and political viewpoints that were out of step with God’s righteous plan. There were those influenced by the Sadducees, who were essentially the religious liberals (they denied the supernatural and a bodily resurrection from the dead). Many Jews followed the system of the religious legalists, the Pharisees, who believed in tradition, ceremonies, and good works as a means to salvation. Then there were the adherents of nationalism, who politicized Judaism and were fanatically intent on overthrowing Roman control and regaining independence for the nation of Israel. The Zealots most clearly represented that outlook. And there was even a segment of Jewish society that lived out in the desert as separatists. The Essenes, with their asceticism and contemplative piety, epitomized that sectarian element.
Those crosscurrents of unscriptural emphases had led the nation of Israel far from God. But He was still working among a small remnant of His people, reassuring them that Messiah was coming and that His plan of redemption was still intact. The Lord was faithfully carrying out His program through righteous people, those who believed His promises, repented of their sins, and cast themselves on His mercy for the forgiveness of sins. Joseph was a prime example of this righteous remnant, as was his young wife, Mary, whom Luke earlier quoted as saying, “‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior’” (1:46–47). It’s clear that Jesus’ parents knew and loved the Lord.
The Testimony of Joseph and Mary
Joseph and Mary’s devotion to follow the will of God in everything pertaining to their new son was also clear. Luke 2:21–24 features that faithful, joyful spirit of obedience:
And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.
Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
The Circumcising and Naming of Jesus
The first way in which Jesus’ parents testified to His identity as Messiah and Savior was by bringing Him to be circumcised and formally named.
The Law of Moses prescribed that the parents of male babies, when the boys were eight days old, were to have their sons circumcised (Lev. 12:3). However, God first introduced the rite of circumcision (Gen. 17:9–14) to Abraham when he underwent the formal procedure as an adult and the Lord identified him as the father of the Israelite nation. From then on, as a sign of the covenant, every male child in Israel was to be circumcised on the eighth day.
Although circumcision was physical and done for health reasons (by having the man’s foreskin cut away, God was protecting the Jewish wife from receiving harmful infections and bacteria from her husband), it primarily symbolized the need for spiritual cleansing. Every time Jewish parents brought a son to be circumcised, it was a reminder of original sin—they were sinners; they had borne a sinner—and their need for a cleansing at the deepest level of their souls. That’s why Scripture commands us to circumcise our hearts (Rom. 2:28–29; Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:11).
But why did Jesus, the holy and sinless Son of God (Isa. 53:9;
2 Cor. 5:21), need to be circumcised? Because that’s what God’s Law required. Whatever His Law mandated at that time in redemptive history, Jesus, through His earthly parents, wanted to comply with those commands. As the apostle Paul wrote, “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal. 4:4).
Christ came to fulfill every aspect of the Law (Matt. 5:17), whether He did so passively as an infant at His circumcision or actively as an adult at His baptism. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him” (Matt. 3:13–15).
Jesus entered this world and lived obediently as a child, young person, and adult under the Law—an entire life of perfection—so that at the Cross the Father could credit the Son’s perfect life to sinners’ accounts. Without the death of One who lived a perfect life, there could be no substitutionary atonement. At Calvary, God treated Jesus as if He had lived your life so He could treat you as if you had lived Jesus’ life. That is a simple summary of the doctrine of justification.
According to Jewish custom, the parents named the son at the same time they had him circumcised. So on that occasion Christ’s parents formally named Him Jesus—and the choice of that name was an easy one. The angel had told both Joseph and Mary that they were to name their Son Jesus (Matt. 1:21; Luke 1:31).
Jesus is the New Testament equivalent of the Hebrew name Joshua and means “Yahweh saves.” Joshua, Moses’ successor, was a great deliverer (Deut. 31:1–8; Josh. 1:1–7) who led the people of Israel into the Promised Land. But the Child whom Mary and Joseph named Jesus was a far greater Deliverer than Joshua. He was God the Savior, come in human flesh to willingly and compassionately save all those who believe.
God is by nature a saving God (Ezek. 18:23, 32), and Jesus demonstrated those sympathies when He wept over the lost condition of Jerusalem: “‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!’” (Matt. 23:37; Matt. 11:28; Luke 15:11–32).
Christianity, as the world’s only true religion, is the only one that provides a genuine savior, and that Savior is Jesus. He affirmed that when He declared, “‘For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost’” (Luke 19:10). And Joseph and Mary testified to that truth when they named Him at His circumcision.
Jesus Presented to God After Mary’s Purification
The second aspect of Joseph and Mary’s testimony to Jesus was twofold: Mary observed a prescribed time of purification for herself, and she and Joseph formally presented Jesus to God. “Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, ‘A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons’” (Luke 2:22–24).
As Luke tells us, Mary observed a set time for personal purification, in keeping with the Mosaic Law. In Leviticus 12:2–4, the Lord commanded Moses, “‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: “If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.”’”
The seven-day uncleanness was a ceremonial uncleanness that meant the woman could not enter the tabernacle (later the temple) or touch anything holy during that time. The week was symbolically parallel to the woman’s monthly menstrual period, during which God also considered her unclean. Both types of uncleanness were regular reminders to the woman and to her family that they were still sinners in need of God’s forgiveness.
Beginning on the eighth day, the new mother of a male child had to face another period of uncleanness, the thirty-three days of her purification. As in the previous seven days, she was not to touch any consecrated item or enter the worship sanctuary. So for Mary and all other obedient Jewish women who bore sons, there was a somewhat bittersweet forty-day period. On the one hand, they experienced the great joy of having a new son, which meant the family name would continue. But on the other hand, they had to endure a mandatory disassociation from holy things as a reminder that they were sinners, that they had borne sinful sons, and therefore that as human mothers, they needed purification.
Once Mary had carefully observed and completed the forty-day period of uncleanness, she could joyfully and with a clear conscience present Jesus to the Lord. She was accompanied by Joseph, which meant the entire little family was present at the temple for the special observance of the completion of Mary’s purification.
As with the circumcision and purification, Joseph and Mary obeyed the Old Testament when they presented their Son to God: “The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me” (Exod. 22:29; 13:2, 12, 15; Num. 8:17). It was not mandatory for them to go to the Temple to present Jesus. But in the spirit of how Hannah brought Samuel to the Lord (1 Sam. 1:24–28), they went above and beyond the normal duty and brought God’s Son to God’s house. They knew the Child was very special and that He, of all children, belonged to the Lord already. By their action Jesus’ parents in effect said, “We are devoting this Child to You, God. He is already Yours, so do whatever You will in His life so He serves, honors, and glorifies You.”
That special presentation did not mean, however, that Joseph and Mary dedicated Jesus to the Levitical priesthood. They were of the tribe of Judah and therefore, like all non-Levite families, they needed to redeem their Son from that priestly responsibility by paying five shekels of silver (Num. 18:15–16). That would have been equivalent to many days’ wages, a difficult amount for a working-class couple like Joseph and Mary to pay. But God made sure they had the necessary coins.
That Jesus the Redeemer was ceremonially redeemed is an interesting irony, but it is nevertheless an important scriptural reality. Just as with His earlier circumcision and later baptism, Jesus did not need to go through any picture of redemption. He was the sinless Son of God; He did not need to be cleansed from sin or redeemed from condemnation. But He was circumcised, He was baptized, and He was “redeemed” as part of His presentation to God—all because He had to obey the letter of the Law to fulfill all righteousness on our behalf.
The Sacrifice for Mary’s Purification
Jesus’ ceremonial dedication to the Lord by His parents, as significant as it was, did not officially end Mary’s time of uncleanness. That end would come only by her offering a sacrifice for purification. And once again Mary, as a righteous woman, followed God’s original pattern for offering such a sacrifice:
When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then he shall offer it before the Lord, and make atonement for her. And she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female.
And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean. (Lev. 12:6–8)
Notice that Mary had several options in offering her sacrifice. If she and Joseph had had the resources, they could have brought a lamb and a bird. But since they couldn’t afford to do that, they utilized the second option and brought a pair of birds (Luke 2:24). That indicates again that Mary and Joseph were not wealthy. However, the Lord enabled them, with their middle-class resources, to purchase the two birds in the temple, even at inflated prices.
After the priest made atonement for Mary by sacrificing the birds—one for a burnt offering, the other for a sin offering—she was clean. That didn’t mean the blood of the sacrifices washed her sins away; it simply meant Mary’s heart was then right with the Lord because she had confessed her sin and impurity and asked Him for forgiveness.
The sacrifice for Mary’s purification was a wonderful picture that looked ahead to her Son’s final sacrifice, which alone can actually remove people’s sin. When Christ was sacrificed on the cross, God revealed the only answer for sinful alienation from Him. Remember what happened right after Jesus’ death? The thick temple veil that separated mankind from God was ripped in two from top to bottom. That momentous event signified there was now access to God because the final atoning sacrifice was complete. Never again would repentant sinners, such as Mary, need to deal with ceremonial uncleanness.
So Joseph and Mary gave the first confirming testimony to Jesus’ birth, identity, and true purpose. They named Him Jesus because they knew He would save His people from their sins. They came to the temple (which they didn’t have to do) and offered Him to God because they understood that, in a special way, He belonged to the Lord. They had that understanding, of course, because they knew their newborn was the Christ, the Son of the Father.
Because of Joseph and Mary’s faithful testimony, we also can know that the Babe born in Bethlehem was and is the Son of God, the Redeemer of all who trust in Him.[1]
This lesson emphasizes the humanity of Jesus so that we might fully appreciate what God did when His deity invaded our humanity.
Outline
The older we get, the more we understand that the real meaning of the holiday is not the giving of gifts (as exciting as that is), but the relationship we have with one another, and the privilege that the holiday provides for us to get together.
But as we enjoy the warmth and joy of our relationships with one another, if we think of it very deeply, we finally contemplate the truth that God so desired a relationship with us that He paid the incredibly supreme price to come and be one of us, so that we might know Him.
At His Birth
During His Childhood
In His Adulthood
Overview
In 1 Timothy 3:16 we read, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.” It is almost as if Paul were overcome by the thought of it.
At His Birth
The Apostle Paul bursts out in this epistle with the astonishing words: “Without controversy.” In other words, there won’t ever be any argument about this. No one can bring an argument against this. “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.”
Then he describes the mystery: “God was manifested in the flesh.” The only reason we don’t say that to one another more often is because we haven’t taken the time to comprehend the incredible truth that is involved in God becoming flesh.
In my reading, I have discovered that many of the great writers whom we admire have had moments like Paul had when he wrote 1 Timothy, moments when in the ordinary course of their writing it suddenly dawned on them, it suddenly hit them, it suddenly became part of their frontal lobe thinking, this truth that God has become a man.
W. Tozer wrote, “The coming of Jesus Christ into this world represents a truth more profound than any philosophy that the world has ever known. All of the great thinkers of the world together could never have produced anything even remotely approaching the wonder and profundity disclosed in the message of these words: He came. The words are wiser than all learning, and understood in their high spiritual context, they are more eloquent than all oratory, more lyric and moving than all music. They tell us that all of mankind, sitting in darkness, has been visited by the Light of the world.”
John the Apostle, writing in the New Testament, said it this way: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
And writing in a more formal way to the Galatians, Paul the Apostle said it in these words: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4).
Isaiah the Prophet said it would be like this. In the seventh chapter of his prophecy (Isaiah 7:14), which is quoted by Matthew in the narrative of the birth of Jesus, Isaiah said that His name would be called Immanuel, which, being translated, is “God with us.” God coming down to be one of us.
As we’ve asked ourselves before, is this the way we would have done it? Would this have been your master plan to rescue lost mankind? Would you have had your Redeemer delivered to a manger and wrapped in strips of swaddling cloth? Would you have had Him born in a stable built for cattle? Would you have had His first visitors the hated shepherds of the hillside? Have you ever heard of a royal story quite like that? Paul was right—great is the mystery of godliness! God was manifested in the flesh.
During His Childhood
I would be afraid of God were it not for the fact that He has come to show me that I don’t need to be. He has come as a man, to walk among men and reveal Himself to us, one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man, but truly human. And that’s what we often forget. It is a mystery, this birth of our Savior, born in Bethlehem so many years ago. Isaiah the Prophet said, Jesus grew up “as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground,” and, “He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:2–3).
One writer has interpreted Isaiah’s words like this: “There was no splendor or appearance that we should be drawn to Him. He was just an ordinary baby.”
It’s true that if you and I had lived during the days of our Lord’s childhood, and if we had met Him on the street, we would not have nudged each other and said, “Why, there is the young Messiah!” We would not have known. It was not even known by those with whom He grew up.
Even his own brothers did not know that He was the Messiah. He was just an ordinary baby like you and like me. There was nothing that would have set Him apart from us, except the fact that if we were near Him and could have watched His life, you would have understood that He did not sin.
One thing that has captured my attention is that from the day Jesus was born until He was 12 years old, we have no record of Him speaking. Then, when Jesus was 12 years old, He lingered in Jerusalem at the temple after His parents had left to return to Nazareth. When they found Him and asked Him why this had happened, He spoke 17 words in the Jewish language to the effect that, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
In His Adulthood
Then in the New Testament we are given the record of His baptism at the age of 30. So all through His life, from the time He was born—with the exception of that time when He was 12—until He was 30 years of age, we have no word from Messiah. No word. Jesus lived His life in those early years in total obscurity. We have no word from His lips for three decades. And then we have His magnificent ministry that was lived out in just three years.
Jesus spent His whole life as we would know it experiencing humanity, living among the common people, going to work every day in his father Joseph’s carpenter shop, working alongside his brothers, learning to experience what it is like to be a human being. Not a human being with a halo, because that’s not normal human experience, but human life as our lives are.
In Luke 2, just as Luke is concluding this early period of the Lord’s life, he provides us with the only sketch of what was going on with Jesus during that time. In Luke 2:40 Luke says of Jesus in His early days, “[He] grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”
Then, in Luke 2:52 he writes, “and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” That’s it. That’s all we have.
All kinds of legends have been invented about His childhood, but they don’t come from the Scriptures. The Scriptures are incredibly silent about those years.
This tells me that it was done on purpose, so that God could get through to us that Jesus Christ grew up as one among us—with little being said, little being written, but much being experienced in His life.
There are some things we can arrive at by conjecture. Secular historians tell us that Jesus’ father died when He was a very young boy. That is pretty well accepted. If so, then Jesus no doubt would have had to take more responsibility as the older brother in the family and in the family business. It would also mean that He knew what it meant to lose a parent. He experienced that. It would also mean that He grew up in a single parent home. He knew what that is like as well.
Think for a moment just what those days must have been like. Later, when He was rejected by His brothers, that must have hurt. He knew in His heart that one day He would close the door on that home and walk out into a life that would be chronicled for the rest of history to read about. But how could He say that to James so that it would come through? In fact, in the beginning James didn’t believe any of it.
As He got out into His ministry, we know that Jesus felt the pain of being betrayed by a very close friend. Three times, one of His closest friends said that he didn’t even know Him. He probably was slandered and lied about more than any human being who ever walked on this earth. Why did that all happen? Because He came to be one of us. He came to walk among us. He came to experience what we experience. Whatever your troubles or trials, Jesus understands all of it, because He has experienced it.
The Bible tells us He was tired, He was thirsty, He wept. Two places in the New Testament say that He was troubled in spirit. Have you ever been troubled in spirit? Jesus understands what that is like. He was hungry, He was often tired, and yes, He was even tempted.
All of that is to say that the ratio of 30 years of living and three years of ministry is so that when He spoke in those three years, He would speak with authority, He would speak as one who could be trusted, and He would speak as one who had lived life as we do. So when He says, “Don’t do that,” it is not because He is trying to keep us from enjoying a good time. As the Son of God He walked in the soot and dirt and sin and filth of the world, and He saw the pain and anguish of those who violated the holy law.
Hebrews 4:14 tells us, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
We are to come boldly to Jesus Christ not just because He is God, but we can come boldly to Him because He is a friend who understands. He has been there before. He has walked through the thing you are walking through. Whatever pain you have felt, He has felt. In fact, one of the translations of the words “to speak boldly” is “to have free utterance.” Come before the Lord with free utterance.
Do you pray like that? Sometimes when I hear Christians praying, and especially when I know how badly they are hurting, I want to put my arm around them and say, “Would you just please tell the Lord what you feel?” He will understand. He is not someone who is removed from us as if a planet in a distant galaxy. He is the Lord who came down. He is the One who became one of us and walked among us and felt every emotion we feel. If you are hurting, He has hurt as you do. Therefore, what a friend He can be to you!
When you pray, you don’t have to couch all your prayers in the “thees and thous” of the King James Bible. You can come and tell Him what is in your heart.
Do you know Him like that? Have you cultivated a relationship with Jesus Christ that helps you to have free utterance when you pray?
That’s why Christmas is so special. It brings God down, not in a defamatory way, not in a defeating way, but to be one of us so that we can relate to Him. And just as human relationships at Christmas are special, so the relationship we have with Jesus Christ is special because of who He is, how He lived, and what He did.
Application
Why do you think it was essential that the Son of God be incarnated as a Baby in Bethlehem?
Upon what portions of the Bible do you base your thoughts?
What stereotypes of Christmas (Christmas scenes, cards, nativity scenes) might we need to rethink if we understand that Jesus was, physically, just an “ordinary baby”?
What do you think Paul meant in Philippians 2:7 when he referred to Jesus “coming in the likeness of men”?
What point is he making?
Why do you think that “likeness” is important?
What physical trials can you think of that Jesus either endured according to the biblical record, or might have endured because of when and where He lived?
What mistreatment from other people?
In Matthew 26:48–49, why do you think Judas needed to provide Jesus’ captors with an indication of which Person He was?
How does this compare with the perception that Jesus always stood out in a crowd?
What comfort do you personally find in the fact that Jesus was a “common man”?
What do the following verses tell us of the benefits of Jesus’ coming in the likeness of man?
Hebrews 4:15–16
Hebrews 12:1–2
Hebrews 12:3–4
Did You Know?
Myths of Jesus performing miraculous or magical feats during His childhood are rampant, especially in the various Eastern religions. And often, Christians do not know how to answer such claims from outside the Bible.
It is essential to remember that through God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12, 15, 17), the Messiah was—by God’s unconditional contract—promised to Israel first (Romans 1:16), and then to the world through Israel. That is precisely why Jesus went first to the Jews, then after being rejected by the religious leaders, to the population of Israel at large, and to the Gentiles.
Because of that, it was essential that Jesus present Himself first to Israel, through the “signs” Israel required (John 2:18; 1 Corinthians 1:22). These signs were not simply magic tricks; they were local, immediate manifestations of acts that the Old Testament had already revealed only Messiah could do. And—very clearly stated in John 2:11—the very first of these was His miracle of turning purification water into “best wine” at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. That means none—exactly zero—miracles were done by Him as a child.
Donna Jeremiah’s Package Code
Four curious children can create a challenge for any mom at Christmastime, so I decided to avoid the constant struggle to hide presents and keep track of which child was shaking, smelling, or unsealing a package to determine what was inside.
I wanted to wrap the packages and put them under our tree in advance of Christmas morning, but keeping an ever-present watch over the activities around the tree was more than this mom could easily handle.
I decided to create a numbering system that would allow me to wrap the packages and affix a name tag, but instead of the name I would code each gift with a multiple digit number. I had to rotate the numbers; our children are clever and could soon figure out who had what number.
On Christmas morning we would distribute the gifts and the children would not have time to guess the contents. My system has proven effective and we still use it.[1]
The FBI claims that investigations into Trump’s campaign began on July 31, 2016.
The declassified text messages, released by Republican Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley on Wednesday, show communications between Strzok and his alleged mistress, FBI special counsel Lisa Page. Strzok asked Page to discuss “[o]ur open C[counter-]I[ntelligence] investigations relating to Trump’s Russian connections” with him on July 28, 2016.
The new Strzok texts also reveal that journalist Carl Bernstein, who helped expose the Watergate scandal in the 1970s and appears regularly on CNN, told the FBI that he received the “dossier” from Sen. John McCain.
According to the released messages, Strzok texted Page, “Carl Bernstein (yes that Carl) called [Office of Public Affairs], said he got a ‘dossier’ from McCain.”
Page replied, “Awesome, let Carl run it down then.”
The dossier included allegations about Donald Trump and members of the Trump campaign and was funded in part by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The FBI found that most of the allegations could not be corroborated and that certain allegations were inaccurate or inconsistent with information gathered by the Crossfire Hurricane team.
Even for Christians who worship God on Sundays, it’s hard not to give in to promises that our doctors, or our politicians, or our favorite celebrity preachers, or our organic vitamin regimen, or our purity rings will fix the world, or at least allow us to control all the scary stuff in it. And, we too, are tempted to look for someone (or someones) to blame for all that seems out of control with our world, whether a global pandemic or election results.
In early March, the University of California San Francisco held a panel discussion of infectious disease specialists on a new virus that had, at that point, killed 41 Americans. These experts not only estimated that 60 to 70 percent of America’s population would eventually contract the virus, but that our best attempts to contain it, either through lockdowns or contact tracing, would be, in their words, “basically futile.”
Today, nine months later, the predictions of this particular panel of experts have turned out like most other COVID-19 predictions: right on some things, wrong on others. It’s not clear just how effective all of the quarantining, lock-downing, social distancing, and masking has been in reducing the number of infections, or why, despite more data, our assumptions about COVID-19 remain largely unchanged. And, of course, we’ve yet to reckon with the economic, educational, and mental health consequences of the policy paths we’ve chosen.
What is clear, more clear than ever in fact, are the base set of assumptions we now operate from as Westerners and Americans. Catastrophes like COVID always reveal worldview. To borrow a phrase philosopher Craig Gay uses in his book The Way of the Modern World, we are“practical atheists.” A subtle, operational-level form of secularism, practical atheism is not necessarily to believe that God does not exist. Rather, it’s to live as if God does not exist.
Professor Gay identifies two features of a culture operating from a deeply engrained practical atheism. First, there is an illusion of control. If there is no Higher Power determining the course of human events or judging the morality of our actions, the world is a place for us to make and remake according to our wishes. Grand leaps in science, medicine, and technology only deepen the faith we put in ourselves.
At the heart of our illusions of control is the assumption that world is totallyunderstandable. We actually believe, Professor Gay says, not only that we can “comprehend reality in its totality,” but that “we are capable of rendering it stable and predictable.” In other words, we will ultimately make the world “work for us.”
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