Category Archives: #realChristmas!

#realChristmas!, Gospel

Why Shepherds?

Leave a comment

 I was always a fan of Charles Shultz and his band of ‘Peanuts’.  The Emmy-winning animated series premiered in 1965.  It centered around Charlie Brown’s concern that the Christmas holiday had become too commercial.  After making known his concern and attempting to remedy the situation, he finally asks “What is the true meaning of Christmas?”

Linus Van Pelt responds  [see the clip]:

The shepherds were the first to be told of the birth of the King.  There was no media, internet or broadcasting at the time.  The news was however deemed important enough to send the angels to announce His arrival and where He could be found.

How ironic it is that the shepherds were virtually outcast from the Hebrew population because of their close ongoing association with the sheep.  This contact makes them ceremonially unclean [or forbidden from public contact].  As a result, shepherds would seem unlikely to be the first recipients of the best news in history. 

Yet, to spite the vanity in men and the needed to keep the integrity of the gospel, God debuted the news with a most humble community.  If the gospel were reserved for the wise or the rich, they would seek and compete for it themselves.  Theologian Matthew Henry says ” The gospel is fitted to bring down the pride of both Jews and Greeks, to shame the boasted science and learning of the Greeks and to take that constitution on which the Jews valued themselves and despised all the world besides . . .”

So this gospel was not given to the spiritual leaders or the congregation, but to the lowly shepherds watching their flocks by night.   The most spectacular music show lit by the very glory of God!

Another of my favorite Christmas songs: “A Star in the East” by Harry Belafonte admonished them to “rise up and follow”

 

May you experience just a tiny inkling of the joy that those to whom He was revealed that day so long ago felt this Christmas season!!

#realChristmas!, Gospel, Messiah, Worship

There’s only One Christmas Spirit!

Leave a comment

My Nana was the first to ask if we had the Christmas spirit. Other people would ask if we had “caught” the Christmas spirit.  Later, I realized that most people misspoke about what they imagined the Christmas spirit to be. People tended to speak of the joy of giving and receiving, the peace of warm family times, the friendliness and cheeriness of strangers.

 All of these traits are benefits of the spirit of Christmas, fully embellished with sentimentality and illustrated in movies galore.  The world gets a taste every year but doesn’t reckon the way to live in this light and warmth hence the old adage: “Wise Men Still Seek Him”.

dedicated to the memory of Myrtle Mullens

Materialism?

My wife tends to call me a Grinch for the Dr. Suess character who tried to steal the joy of Christmas by stealing the Christmas loot.  I have never been a hater of Christmas, but I have resented the commercialism that masquerades as the real spirit.

I resented that there seemed to be many influences working to persuade people that the spirit of buying, the spirit of materialism, the spirit of entitlement added to the spirit of overindulgence equals Christmas. 

These are all wrong ideas.  These are not separate entities.  The spirit of Christmas is the one and only Holy Spirit who opens us up to warmth and affection that is completely irrational, to giving beyond what seems reasonable, to leaving our natural desires because of what He has done [and continues to do].  There is no other spirit of Christmas, no matter what others may say.

This is the affinity that people thirst for.  The joy of Christmas exists with Him and He allows us to experience it and it grows within us as we abide with Him.  The world tries to deny him but even as the years are numbered by his birth which is celebrated by billions worldwide, so His influence continues forever {Hallelujah!}. 

And even in the shadow of this torn and shredded year, He will pour out His Spirit yet once again to help unite us and heal our hearts.  If you don’t know Him, your healing can begin now. Ask Him to reign over your life and heart. Feel free to share your experience with me!

Only then will be learn to position Him in His rightful place as prophesied by Isaiah:  ”  . . .  A Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  [9:6  AMP]

#realChristmas!

For unto you is born this day . . .

Leave a comment

The most amazing thing about writing  this blog is how after writing things again and again. Sometimes you get breakthroughs in awesome ways. I was watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas” for the umpteenth time.  I’ve watched and enjoyed it time and again, laughing at all the jokes in the same places.  
I always [frequently] get goosebumps when Linus quotes parts of Luke chapter 2 informing Charlie what the real meaning of Christmas is.  He got to the verse 11 and I heard it new for the umpteenth time again.  
       11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.


This is the Christmas message, a presentation for the world.  An announcement, a proclamation from the voices of angels, it is veritable truth yet written upon the page may miss your scrutiny and fail to boggle your little mind.  Clearly someone reads it in our hearing every year.  The problem for me and many I know is that we have been reading the King James Version all our lives yet we barely understand what is meant by the words on the page. Let’s take this verse apart bit by bit.


For unto you – This was spoken by the heavenly host, a huge number of angels summoned and sent to the shepherds to proclaim the debut of the kingdom, announced by John but delivered by a newborn. 
is born this day in the city of David – context for the announcement and specification that this is the offspring of David and fulfillment of the prophesy concerning where he is to be born
a Saviour, – one who will live up to his name, and deliver his people from destruction
which is Christ – affirmation that he is the Messiah but not only that . . . 

the Lord – an oft used old English word that has not been well translated to modern English because there is no equivalent word.  Lord means ‘owner’ and it has other connotations including one having authority, or influence.  It means Master.   He owns the world and all of us.  He had authority and wrest all other authority from death and the grave. 
The angels declared it and we wait until the world discovers the truth proclaimed that fateful night.  May you revel in that revelation again and again!  Merry Christmas!

#realChristmas!, forlorn, reconciliation

. . . and we beheld His glory

Leave a comment

My wife calls me a grinch after the children’s story of the gremlin that tried to steal Christmas.  I’m not against Christmas.  I am against 1) the commercialization of Christmas and 2) the ongoing secular takeover of the Christmas holiday and subsequent separation of the “baby Jesus” from the beaten, scorned and betrayed Savior who arose triumphant from the grave.

Christmas does have it’s own joy and life as it embodies the hope of genuine reconciliation to God.  But this was kept secret until after His death and resurrection.  So much of the story was was kept hidden such that there may have been many thousand people who saw the young Jesus but had no idea that he was indeed the Christ [ the prophesied, anticipated and heralded Messiah].  The context of the story was that four hundred years had passed since a prophet had transmitted a word from God.  After such a long time, it would seem that God had forsaken us, that we were forlorn and lost.

But there were indeed “Good tidings of Great Joy” that the foretold Savior had come.  Isaiah declared “His name would be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.  Of his Kingdom there would [will] be no end.”  [Isaiah 9:6-7a]

But only a few people actually celebrated the first Christmas.  The marvelous virgin-birth of the God-man, King of Kings was only REVEALED to a few as told by Luke the physician.  First were the shepherds watching their flocks.  Next the devout Simeon, who prayed for a chance to see God’s fulfillment of the promise.  Because he sought to see the Messiah and vigorously followed the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Anna the prophetess was at the temple also.  She saw the child and began an anthem of praise, declaring to everyone how the child would bring Jerusalem out of bondage.

The Magi were the last.  I wrote about them last year {http://www.phatonfruit.net/2015/12/25/the-faith-of-the-magi/}.  They traveled far to worship the coming King.  They arrived bearing gifts and were overwhelmed as they saw him.  They like those mentioned above, saw him for who he is.  He was not hidden in plain sight, He was revealed for who He is . . . and they beheld His glory.

#realChristmas!, Uncategorized

Not Just a Baby . . . (Christmas 2013)

Leave a comment
How amazing it is that Christ, after spending eternity with the Father took on this frail flesh and suffered the outright humiliation of being born not only with the limitation of being a human, but in the primitive ancient town of Bethlehem.  It is imperative that while we celebrate His being with us, that we contemplate the sum of his work.  It is true that we may not know the whole sum of his work for some time to come, but the revelation of what his work of salvation means is still staggering.  
 
So when we get enticed to consider his birth (and coinciding celebration) outside of the context of his life, ministry and creation of the Kingdom. We are missing it.  We are told he was slain before the foundation of the world so when he was born, his work of salvation was already complete!!
 
His architecture and creation of Kingship and Kingdom are masterful and profound.  As we learn minuscule portions of his creation and how minute changes in DNA create everything we see.  How the his spirit permeates the entire world at this time of year and unwittingly even those who refuse to accept him are affected.  These are the absolute shadings of how Great He is and that he is not just a man and he was not just a baby.  As the songwriter said: Sweet Little Jesus Boy, we didn’t know who you were . . . 
 
I have been in worship enjoying Fred Hammond’s song “Not Just A Man”  that says it better than these few words:
 
Merry Christmas All!!