For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. (Isaiah 9:6)

If Hollywood had scripted the coming of the Son of God into the world, I am sure it would have looked quite different than the way it actually happened. Hollywood’s version undoubtedly would have included natural disasters, wide-scale destruction, and a cheesy, predictable “love-at-first-sight” story. To be honest, that’s probably how I myself would have imagined it. After all, we’re talking about the Creator of the cosmos entering into our three-dimensional reality. One would expect volcanoes, tidal waves, mushroom clouds, and global panic. Yet the God who came did so in such a way as to almost escape attention entirely. As the late Carlo Carretto once wrote, “God is made human in Christ. God makes himself present to us with such a special presence, such an obvious presence, as to overthrow all the complicated calculations made about him in the past.” Continue reading His Simple Coming →

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

At Christmas we celebrate the coming of the True Light (John 1:9) who is the unique revelation of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). God truly came to be with us, among us, as us. Jesus told his disciples that they have seen God the Father because they have seen Jesus (John 14:9-10). They saw him, heard him, touched him – a real, living person – flesh and blood (1 John 1:1-3). This same Jesus who ascended back to the Father has come to us again through the Person of the Holy Spirit (John 14:18). He tabernacles, makes his dwelling place, in you and me, the church. We are children of Light, bearing the fruit of Light, because the True Light lives in us (Ephesians 5:8-10). What a remarkable mystery, God with us! Continue reading God With Us →

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4)

It might be hard for us to fully grasp the significance of Deuteronomy 6:4. After all, as monotheists (mono – one; theos – God) we take for granted that there is only one God. As products of a Judeo-Christian culture our worldviews have been shaped from the day we were born to accept that there isn’t a pantheon of gods out there swarming around the heavens, but for the peoples of the ancient world this was as significant of a revelation as there is. When all the nations worshipped an array of deities, Israel stood alone as the people of the one and only God of the universe. As they prepared to cross into their promised land, it was imperative that they understood that there is but one God and that Israel owed its exclusive loyalty to him (Deut 5:9; 6:5). Jesus himself even affirmed this to be the greatest command of them all, to love the one God with all of your being (Mark 12:29). Continue reading God is One →

God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (I John 4:16b)

God is love. Three simple words that very well may be the deepest, most profound revelation in all of reality. John says he knows this revealed truth about God because he has seen it, heard it, touched it. “We proclaim to you what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life.” (I John 1:1, 3) It is because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ – God made man – that we can know and experience the deepest mysteries of God’s own inner life. His love is not like our love. His love precedes all human response and is freely offered to all, regardless of the condition of its object. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) The incarnation of Jesus did not occur because he was drawn to us. It occurred because he was thrust outward by his love. His desire was to abide with us, as one of us, so that we could abide in Him. Continue reading God Is Love →

And coming to Him as to a living stone…you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood. (I Peter 2:4-5)

Peter’s first epistle was addressed to several Christian communities scattered throughout Asia Minor. From his description of their former lifestyle (1:14, 18; 4:3) it seems clear that these believers were predominantly Gentile in background. Peter, of course, was a Jew by birth and, prior to Christ, would have been raised to see the temple in Jerusalem as the center of worship of the Lord. Built of stone, the temple was meant to be the perpetual dwelling place of the glory of God. It is no accident that Peter speaks of Christ metaphorically as a “stone.” He is the real Temple, the fullest expression of God come to earth. Alive from eternity past and resurrected from the dead, Jesus Christ is a “living” stone, and as the foundation of the church he is strong, durable, and firm. Continue reading Living Stones →