The Dirty Manger

The Dirty Manger
By Jen Smidt

“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:7).

This is without a doubt my favorite time of year. I love everything about it: glowing lights, fragrant trees, cheerful carols, and cherished memories. One special Christmas memory and a song lyric add a depth of worship and gratitude that I will treasure in my heart forever.

God Humbled Himself
Fifteen years ago when I gave birth to my firstborn son, the staggering reality of what exactly Jesus offered to us in the gift of himself became most tangible. As I held my newborn baby boy in the Christmas candlelight, tears flowed as I tried to comprehend that my great and glorious God took on this frail, infantile form for me. Never before had I truly understood the magnitude and humility of his incarnation. As if occupying a small, utterly dependent body of flesh wasn’t enough, he ordained that his first place of rest be in a dirty feed trough.

Why there? God could have chosen anywhere to rest his tiny head. Yet my soul is pierced as I remember the dirty manger is my heart too, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus can.

Dwelling in the Dirty Manger
God chose to have his Son enter the world in a stable and be laid in filthy slop so we could know that our sinful hearts are not too lowly of a place for him to occupy. He understands our need for rescue so much so that he was willing to lay in that rough and smelly receptacle so we could begin to know his love for us. He desires to dwell in our dirty hearts of stone and make them hearts of flesh, washed pure and clean by his blood.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). As his chosen children, we are given the gift of Jesus, and we are now in him. We are members of his Family, and we are near and dear to His heart. Celebrate! Party! Worship and adore him this Christmas season. The trough of our soul has been cleansed and filled with the most precious of gifts, the righteousness of Christ who humbled himself to lay in a dirty manger.

http://theresurgence.com/2011/12/06/the-dirty-manger

Heart Palpitations

Tonight I was awakened by heart palpitations. This has happened to me before and I don’t like it. Basically my heart feels likes it’s beating out of rhythm. Moments like these jolt me with the reality of my utter and absolute dependence upon God. Moments like these remind me that I am not as ‘in control’ of my life as I might want to believe. Moments like these force me to think more deeply than I may have been thinking lately. Moments like these bring me face to face with my own mortality and what matters most. And maybe that’s why God allows them…or perhaps more accurately, ordains them in my life from time to time.

As I sit here listening to the Spirit of God speak to me, I am becoming more and more aware that my ‘heart’ has not been beating in rhythm with God’s heart for some time now. Earlier this morning at our worship gathering the focus was on the devastating and deadly effects of sin in our lives and our very real need to actively root out and confront sin in our lives. With God’s help we can indeed ‘throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles’. With God’s help we can indeed ‘demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God’. But we must be intentional and vigilant, lest through his cunning and subtlety Satan lull us into a spiritual coma…a condition in which we go through all the outward appearances of holiness but in reality our hearts are far from our Father’s heart.

For me, I recognize that by refusing to agree with God (confess) about my sin and by refusing to turn fully and passionately towards His face (repentance), I have allowed Satan to steal my joy and render me (temporarily) ineffective as a servant of the Most High God. I know some may be wondering just what this sin or sins must be. Well for me it’s quite simple – pride. Pride that has caused me to be judgemental of other brothers and sisters and to do so under the guise of being discerning. Pride that has caused me to hold back and to withhold outward expressions of love towards other people as well as God Himself. Pride that has made my once soft, malleable heart hard.

But tonight I praise God for His grace and mercy that have once again led me back to His heart. And I rejoice in a ‘heart’ that is once again beating in rhythm with His. So no matter what happens with my physical heart, I am grateful beyond words that all is well for those who cling to, rely upon, trust and rest in Jesus. Hallelujah! Even so…come LORD Jesus!

Safety & Security is Killing Us

A friend of mine recently sent me this video. I thought it was right on point. It convicted me, challenged me, encouraged and inspired me all at the same time. What do you think?

Wait – Look At My Mouth

We are a restless lot…scurrying about like ants. It’s almost as if we can’t stand still. And even if we do physically…our minds continue racing ahead to the next thing or replaying the last thing…seldom being fully present in a given moment of time. Much of our scurrying is trivial and self-serving. Yet in the midst of the torrent of 21st century life we hear the Creator of time, the timeless, eternal One speaking –

“The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” Lamentations 3:25-26

So what does it really mean to wait on the LORD? I think the Miskito Indians in Honduras have the answer. In the Miskito language, the infinitive verb for ‘to wait’ is ‘bila kaikaia’. It combines the word ‘mouth’ (bila) and ‘to see’ (kaikaia) so it literally means ‘to look at the mouth’. So when I tell you to wait for me, I say ‘bili kaiks’ which means ‘wait for me’ or ‘look at my mouth.

I picture God speaking to us – ‘Wait on me. Look at my mouth.’ And I now picture me with eyes fixed on Jesus…looking at His mouth…desperate for the Words of Life to come from his lips and fall on my ears! Knowing that nothing is more important!

There Must Be More Than This

A prayer for more of Him and less of me.

“God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” Jim Elliot

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John the Baptist (John 3:30)

“God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame for you.” Jim Elliot

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot

Yearning

Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Wildfires. Drought. Floods. War. Famine. Greed. Hatred. Sickness. Disease. Death.

Nothing new in this list I suppose. These things have been a part of the human condition since as long as any of us can remember. Some of us have been more affected by these than others. And even amidst these things there are moments of reprieve…when it seems for just a moment that all is well. But all is not well. We are sick. The very earth upon which we walk is sick. All creation is groaning. We know something is terribly wrong. And we wonder, “Can it be fixed? How?”. We look here and there for solutions, for some measure of hope…only to be disappointed once again. But there is One who will not disappoint. His name is Jesus. Be careful if you think you know Him. He’s different. He doesn’t fit so neatly into our pre-conceived notions, our political leanings, our religious traditions, or our self-serving agendas.

So do you yearn to know Him? Do I? Do we earnestly and passionately and deeply and wholeheartedly long to know Him above all else? Do we truly believe that His love is better than life? Are we fully convinced of His worth? Convinced enough to foresake the fleeting pleasures and comforts of this world for an eternal joy that outweighs them all? Committed enough to be ‘holy’ (different, set-apart, other-than) as He is holy? Trusting enough to let go of whatever we’ve been holding onto and grab hold of Him for dear life? Faithful enough to be His body on earth? Willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel?

Lord, we want to yearn for You. Help us I pray.

In the path of your judgments,
   O LORD, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
   are the desire of our soul.
My soul yearns for you in the night;
   my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.  Isaiah 26:8-9

Epic: The Story God Is Telling

Most of us today live our lives at a frenetic pace. Willingly or unwillingly thrust into the ever-demanding, shallow torrent of ‘modern life’ which leaves little room for thinking deeply and intently about that which is truly and ultimately significant. Recently I re-read a little book that once again stirred my soul and reminded me that we are all part of a larger story, an Epic that has been unfolding since before time began. Understanding this Story gives context and substance and meaning to our lives. Apart from this larger Story we are out of sorts. So I invite you to read this little book by John Eldredge, Epic: The Story God Is Telling, and let me know what you think…”I wonder what sort of tale we’ve fallen into?”

In addition to this great book, I also recently came across this neat video that also talks about this larger Story. It’s entitled The History of Redemption and it uses Scripture only to tell the overarching Story of God. Check it out and post your thoughts!

Elvis has left the building…and so have many teens and young adults

Someone recently posted a link on Facebook to an article entitled ‘Why teens, young adults, are leaving American churches’ from Yahoo! News on 1/11/2011. Overall I thought this was a great article. I particularly like how the author ended it – “And still more will find it such a daunting task that they just throw up their hands. Maybe it’s time to do just that — throw hands up and pray, rather than create more programs — and leave the rest up to God.”

The author’s last comment is pretty much how I see things, but I thought I would take a risk and elaborate a little bit more on what I see as an overarching problem that will almost seem counterintuitive to many.  The real problem, as I see it — Too many ‘churched kids/adults’ are just that-‘churched’.

From my perspective, these ‘churched kids/adults’ tend to fall into two broad categories – the ‘over-churched’ and the ‘feel good-churched’.

The ‘over-churched’ These kids and adults are consumed with ‘church’ activities. They are at every Bible Study, every pot luck, every service. They have been convinced or convinced themselves that the mark of a true believer is how much time they spend ‘at church’ or participating in ‘church activities’. But so the saying goes, “Going to church will no more make you a Christian than sitting in your garage will make you a car.” In fact, the enemy of the faith has insidiously used ‘church’ to create an army of religious zealots who may actually not know the God they claim to serve at all. Ridiculous? Preposterous? That’s exactly what happened in Jesus’ day. The most religious and ‘synagogued’ folks of Jesus’ day were the very ones who missed Him. So when this ‘over-churched’ crowd is forced to venture away from the perceived ‘safety’ of ‘church’ they project their own doubts, fears, and guilt upon anyone who would dare challenge what they’ve been taught in ‘church’.

The ‘feel good-churched’ The adults in this category are your typical Sunday morning crowd. They show up to assuage their guilt, to hear a clever sermon with a few jokes or stories, to sing some songs that mostly just remind them of yesteryear, and to see their friends. The kids in this category are your typical youth event crowd. They show up to ‘get a little Jesus’, to hang out with friends and eat free food, to sing songs mostly about themselves, and to assure themselves that although they may be participating in some of the very same behaviors as the ‘pagans’ they are somehow okay with the King of the Universe.

Now I’m sure that many would not agree with my particular characterization of today’s ‘church’ and that’s fine. But wouldn’t you at least have to acknowledge what’s being articulated in the Yahoo! News article—that ‘churches’ today are diminishing in their size, their relevance, and their impact? If so, then my main point is this—what’s needed are not some minor adjustments, but a complete re-formation of (1) our understanding of the gospel, (2) our understanding of the Church (not ‘church’), and (3) our willingness to be led by the Spirit of God into Christ-centered living as opposed to the current norm of me-centered living with a dash of ‘churchianity’.

So what might today’s ’95 Theses’ look like? I don’t really know, but I do think that this message is a great place to start.  I hope you’ll watch and offer some feedback.

The Meaning of Christmas – by Linus

Not a big fan of what we call ‘Christmas’ these days.  I am a big fan of marveling at Jesus, standing in awe of who He is, how He came…here…to rescue us…from our sin and even ourselves.  When my oldest daughter was three, she would tell the story of Jesus’ birth and I would always say to her, “But Jesus isn’t a little baby any more is He?”.  And she would say, “No.  He’s a big strong man.”  Of course He is that and more…much more.  So as Linus reminds us of this epic invasion of Emmanuel-GOD with us, in the flesh-may we marvel at Jesus as we eagerly await His return!  2 Thessalonians 1:10

Hallelujah Chorus Flash Mob