So, Why Was He Born?

Merry Christmas! Here we are in the middle of my favorite time of the year again. I love Christmastime. There is so much I love about it that if I started listing it, you wouldn't stay around to read the actual meat of the blog post. Have you ever noticed that there are a ton of things about the season that we just seem to accept? We accept December 25th as some sort of Holy Day. We accept the magi being in our nativities. We accept "oh how the angels sang" when the Bible doesn't record them singing. Not big deals to me or my celebrating. For the most part, it adds to the enjoyment of it all. However, there is one thing that has been recurring this year that I just can't accept anymore.

Why was Jesus born?

Short answer, heard in song and sermon alike, is "to die".

Nope. Nope. Nope. Well, not exclusively. He did come to die, for which I am ever grateful, but follow me for a bit here. For us to believe and promote that Jesus came to Earth to die, and some have said, "Just to die", is to imply that God wasted what we believe to be a little over 33 years of a wonderful life. I'm going to break the bonds of paragraph and give you some other reasons why He was born. I'm sure that this is not even close to an exhaustive list.

1. Matthew 5:17, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill." Our Bible is full of pages and pages of the law and the prophets and so much of it points to the purity and innocence of the Son of God. There is an inherent righteousness in the law of God and it is to be obeyed (Romans 8:4). The children of Israel said that they would fulfill it (Deut. 5:27) but they couldn't. No one can, not in our sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), so the Bible tells us that God sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh. So now, according to scripture, those who are in Christ are now able to fulfill the righteousness of God, His law, by virtue of the life of Christ and the reality of Christ in the believer. We need his life for ours. 
2. That was the "law" part of Matthew 5:17, now for the "prophets" part. I believe that, aside from creation itself, fulfilled prophecy is one of the greatest evidences of God's existence, as well as evidence of His inspiration. According to your source, you will find that Jesus fulfilled around 300 prophecies, and quite probably more. Without the years of His life being lived out, recorded, and even historically verified, where would your confidence in God's word come from? I know, I know...God said it, I believe it...yeah, me too. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, so let me copy in something here from somebody who has already done the math..."According to “The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy” by J. Barton Payne, there are 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament for a total of 1,817. These prophecies are contained in 8,352 of the Bible’s verses. Since there are 31,124 verses in the Bible, the 8,352 verses that contain prophecy constitute 26.8 percent of the Bible’s volume." Isn't it awesome that so many of them have been fulfilled already?
3. Speaking of confidence, look at Hebrews 4:15, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." The Lord Jesus Christ has "been there" and can empathize with us. Salvation is not about our feeble or most pious efforts to reach out to a holy God. It is the story of how the holy God reached out to us in the most compassionate way, walking in our shoes, experiencing our hurts. No wonder the Bible can immediately say, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." 
4. Enough for confidence. How about some comfort? John 16:33 says, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Isn't that a wonderful comfort? Would it be found in a Bible that had no life of Christ in it?
5. You know what else would not be found in the Bible, without his life? His words. Luke 4:18 gives us the account of Jesus reading scripture from the book of Isaiah, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach..." and three verses later he said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." Jesus used the years of life in ministry to preach with words and actions, which we now follow after, fulfilling the great commandment and the great commission.  

These are but a few, but I think the point is made. Jesus was born for much, much more than just to die. He was born to live and in living he gave us words to live by and preach, an example of servitude and righteousness, and great confidence to live for God for we know He is faithful and true to His word and wants to hear from us (I John 5:14, 15). So let me enjoy Christmas and the birth of my Savior. Don't get me wrong, I am glad that he died for my sins...but I'm also glad and privileged to strive to walk in the steps of a life well lived. 

And again I say, Merry Christmas!

p.s. Sorry it's been so long. I will try to do better.

Build a bridge and get over it.

Sorry for the sarcasm of the title. It's catching, though, isn't it?

Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always in all things unto God...

I have noticed an interesting contrast on Facebook this week. Nine days ago, many of my friends started expressing thankfulness for the manifold blessings in their life. It has been wonderful reading these and I appreciate the spirit of such an exercise. It is a great testimony of the grace of God at work in our life. 

At nearly the same time, a few days ago, many people, including some that are expressing thanks for some things in their life, are or have been engaged in murmuring, complaining, and even darkly prognosticating the future. This my friends is what James referred to as a fountain yielding fresh water and salt water. He goes on to say, "These things ought not so to be." 

Please consider the scriptural mandate in the life of a child of God...always in all things. 

Two things. First, if things truly do get worse, it is Bible prophecy being fulfilled and the coming of my Savior is ever nearer. The Bible is clear that everyone will turn their back on Israel. Secondly, remember Nineveh. They were bad from the king all the way down. One half hearted man of God, who finally obeyed God saw God turn that place around. What could have happened if the half hearted servant had been enthusiastically obedient? Let's find out. Let's serve God and trust God. Let's enthusiastically obey the Lord and let's just see if these have to be the last vestiges of freedom as we have known it. My freedom comes from the Son so I am free indeed.

And then I want to say to men of God who may be reading this, ministers, preachers, missionaries, and others in authority as you handle the word of God. I believe God's men ought to set the example. Paul gladly took that challenge upon himself with the Lord Jesus Christ as his pattern. Listen, the election is over. Romans 13:1 tells us that the powers that be are ordained of God. God's will was accomplished. Stop defending Him like He is a poor bullied student on a playground. Lead, exemplify, pray, and lead a peaceable life.

Wisdom Cries...Walk with wise men

Proverbs 13:20  He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

One of the things that I am most grateful for, aside from my wife and children, is the presence of wise men in my life. I have truly been blessed by some great men. I guess I was fortunate enough to realize early on, that I was not going to just happen to be the man God would want me to be. I have always been open to direction and help. It seems that may be a dying trait. Especially among males, the thought today is, "I've got this." It is a sign of weakness to accept advice and the cool thing is to disallow any leadership in your life. Well, thankfully, my life is full of wise men that I have gleaned and grown from over the years. Let me challenge you fellas, get with an older wiser man or more than one, and allow them to rub off on you. Respect their wisdom and experience and learn from it. Appreciate it and apply it to your life. Get over yourself and your pride. Let someone in. One thing I am sure you will find out is that you are not the man you think you are. You very well may be the man society thinks you are, but if you will invest some time with a wise man or two, you will see that society has it all wrong.

I must also say that because of the blessing of other men in my life, I had a desire to be the same for someone else. To mentor and be mentored is a very special thing. To mentor is to disciple and you can not do any better work than building people. Your most effective outlet with the gospel will be that close relationship where you can challenge and be challenged. Listen to wisdom, figuratively from this scripture and literally in your life, from other men.

p.s. Ladies, the same goes for you.