The rescuer has come: a take on Christmas and the message of Christ

    Rich Mullins once said that, "God is a wild man."  God is totally at home in the wilds of the earth, the deeps, the roughest mountains, the coldest winters, and raging seas.  He loves these places and called them good.  His love is wilder and more romantic than all the books and stories ever written or told.  His desire for friendship and fellowship with us is more genuine than the most naive and innocent young person, yet more grounded in the truth of who we are than the most worldly-wise street punk we can imagine. 
     Some of us are bewildered that Jesus was born in a stable, and his parents not given better accommodations.  Jesus was completely at home, in fact, if it had been wilder or more remote he would not have fretted an ounce.  His parents might have.  So in His grace He didn't make it too hard on them.  I wonder if years later when He was told of where He was born He didn't chuckle and say something like, "Just like my Father to do that." 
     I wonder if our silly focus on the stable or the animals around Him as being beneath His dignity, or as something that was so horrible, etc, is because we really continue to not see the reality of what He was coming to do.  The wildness of the whole story is beyond comprehension.  Before creating the universe, or as the Bible says, "Before the beginning of time," the triune God knew what He was planning, and the rescue of humanity was part and parcel of it.  The reality of a heinous and hateful villain terrorizing His creation and Kingdom was a part of this story He wrote.  Real pain and death and tragedy were not left out.  And most amazingly, He Himself became one of us, and the central person of the whole story of history.  And His dying for us and rising again were and are the pinnacle of this amazing history.  And He has sent His people to deliver this story to the ends of the earth, and often to suffer and die for their part in the story.  Stables and a few cows don't seem so wild anymore, eh?  God would lower Himself to become a man??  To then willingly DIE????  To be killed on a cross after being beaten, and mocked, between two thieves??? 
     Oh yes, God is a wild man, He is the wildest and most romantic rescuer that there will ever be, and He is the greatest thwarter of the most vile and evil villain.  And He is the most noble and gallant and trustworthy King.  Oh, THIS is Christmas.  This is the good news of God.
     My friends, let Him rescue us, and give to the Son of God the reward of His suffering: us.  He came for me.  He came for you.  He came for all of us.  He loves us.  He wants us to be with Him forever.

stop hiding

     Recently I read how someone on facebook was "so blessed that we live in America where we can worship freely", unlike another country where they face persecution.  I wrote about this in another post on here.  Why do we have freedom in America?   It is NOT so we can indulge ourselves in luxury and waste and hide from the pain of the rest of the world, that much I know.  In 1 Timothy 6 it says that those who are rich should be rich in good deeds.  We are extremely rich, and must use the freedom we have to do good to the rest of our brothers and sisters who are suffering.  In Hebrews 13:3 it says that we should remember those in prison as though we were there too, and those who suffer as though we did also.  Do you do this?  Do I?  Do we really care about those that are hurting and in pain and beaten and killed for their faith?  We must stop using America as an excuse and place to hide from the troubles of others; we must join them to every degree possible and help them through their struggle.
     In general, we need to STOP saying how we are thankful for our freedoms here in America IF we are unwilling to go on to praying for and caring about people who are suffering in other places.   "What do you mean, stop saying we are thankful for something?"  I mean it, in that if we won't go on and then do something about others' concerns and hurt, we are very self focused and it's not a thanks God is very honored by.  When we say thanks in this self focused way we isolate ourselves from our brothers and sisters around the world as though we live in special place, and "Oh, it's just so sad others suffer the way they do."  We don't live in special place, and we aren't getting off, but God has an assignment we must do, and we better get after it.  We ARE suffering too, because they suffer, and we must join those in their physical suffering by agonizing for them, and stop thinking we got off easy.  We are part of the same body, and therefore, we are in pain and we ought to be realizing that the whole body is taking a blow from its enemy; we must begin to pray for the world in such a way that we won't stop until there is no more suffering anywhere, "But that will take until the Lord comes back." Exactly! 
     "But it's wrong to not be thankful."  Yes, and they would be thankful where they live if their toil and terror was lifted, as we should be here since we don't have much at all of it.  But if they suddenly became as self focused as Americans, they too would need to be shown a better way, and a bigger world.  The way most of us thank God for "our" freedoms is thanking Him for all the wrong things in that it is a shallow thanks, untempered by the pain of others and the great call of God to join them (Hebrews 13:3).   How can we thank God for "our" freedoms, and stop there, when someone in Nigeria is being murdered for their faith, or someone in China is being put into a mental hospital because of their preaching?  So is being an American more important, or is being a disciple of Jesus?  If being a disciple is more important, than until those in China can preach without concern, and North Korea, and Burma, etc, etc, etc, we are not really free at all.  It means we must begin to see the body of Christ as bigger than my congregation, or the Christians in America.  And we must value being a disciple of Jesus more than being an American.  I wrote a rather strong blog about this here: Reflections on Being a disciple of Jesus who is from America.  So while we have the respite here we do, yes, breathe a word of thanks, and then continue in that prayer until the whole world is free.
    Brothers and sisters, let's stop hiding behind the red, white and blue, and start suffering for our Savior along with all those who call on His name from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.