With the Beauty of the Christmas season, don’t forget the MESSY reason that it came about.
Here’s some verses we’ll be sharing around our table on Christmas Eve:
This Christmas, celebrate the fact that God was willing to enter the world to take on the messiness of our sin that we might know Him & experience His presence.
“The Word became flesh & moved into the neighborhood.”
John 1:14 MSG
The Way Church, 4 years old, worships in its new facilities. 200+ now have space to seek God b/c of church planting efforts in Denham Springs.
This time of year I love seeing the different ways churches reach out to their communities & the world. Christmas shoe boxes, Angel Tree’s, gifts to local at-risk kids, Christmas festivals & Block Parties, Special Christmas Musicals & Worship Gatherings, Christmas offerings for missions, etc., etc. But seeing new churches do these things really helps drive home the truth of the incarnation in my heart. The Incarnation is the truth that God became flesh & blood & dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ, in order to meet our deepest need in a way that had never been possible. When a new church begins to reach out in a community, we can realistically think about the day in the not too distant past, when that service or ministry was NOT available to those people. The word of God has “moved into the neighborhood”
Church Planter Josh Holland prays with a man on the streets of New Orleans as Level Ground Community Church, 2 years old participates in a gift distribution.
to bring the truth & be the hands & feet of Jesus. That’s why I tend to get goose bumps when someone says, “If it hadn’t been for Hope Church or Bridge Church (two church plants that I’ve been a part of), I don’t know where I’d be…” Because I can remember when there was no Hope Church or Bridge Church. And I can remember times when I almost gave up because of hard soil & my own discouragement. But through his grace we were blessed to be a part of bringing Jesus & being Jesus in these neighborhoods.
Grateful for those who are incarnation-ally engaging this Christmas season.
This truth can also apply to individual Christians in your neighborhood, workplace, or extended family. How can you bring Jesus & be Jesus to those around you who need light this Christmas?
And what people group in your community does not have an active witness to the light of Christmas this year? How could church planting bring the gospel to new neighborhoods around your church & through your church?
We’re grateful for another year of growth, fruitfulness, lessons learned, & God’s grace. Looking forward to 2014! Praying that it’s a year of life to the full for you.
The Incarnation is the noblest idea of any world religion. God did not watch human despair from the safety of heaven. He clothed Himself in humanity. He ceased watching the human war and became a soldier.
Calvin Miller, in The Christ of Christmas
from the Movie The Nativity Story, 2006.
The story of Christmas is foundational for understanding Christianity in so many ways. God sent his very best, his own Son Jesus Christ, the God-man, on a daring rescue mission. In need of rescue was the human race including you and I. The mission included a display of love that led to the willing death of an innocent Rescuer for the sake of those he loved. In the end, the Rescuer wins the day, defeating all the bad guys, including death, sin and guilt, and Satan (Colossians 2:13-15, Hebrews 2:14-15). Here’s the real kicker: Now God desires that we repeat the process of being sent, loving, sacrificing, and rescuing through announcing/retelling this story to all (John 21:20, Acts 1:8, Philippians 2:3-5). When God wanted to save the world, he sent himself. He GAVE PRESENCE. Today, he continues to GIVE PRESENCE to the world through those he has rescued.
Here’s three lessons we learn about Incarnational Living from God’s giving to us. These have become filters for our church as we seek to live with a missionary posture toward our community.
God’s Big Give: Proximity, Responsiveness, Radical Generosity. The story of Christ and Christmas.
The Christmas story says a lot about the nature of true worship. And we can say that God sent Christ into the world so that we could have unfettered opportunity to worship Him. However, worship is misunderstood today as a place & time (“the Worship Service starts at…”) or an experience or element of a gathering (“the worship was great today”). We find a great definition of true worship in Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55.
Worship is humble surrender born out of knowledge of God.
Mary’s worship demonstrated three things:
1. Humility – “It’s not about me.”
Real Worship starts with the reality that life is about HIS value, and then wonder that I can be accepted, cared for, given to, by such an incredible God. Mary says, “my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant” Luke 1:46-47. “It’s not about me. It’s about Him.” And “who me? I get to be part of this?.”
2. Surrender – “My life is Yours Jesus.”
Mary was a true worshipper because her heart was surrendered. In Luke 1:38 she said, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your Word.” In Luke 1:48, she again calls herself “His Servant.” The world here is literally bond-slave denoting one that has intentionally surrendered themselves to be in servitude to another. To surrender is to make your whole self available to God for whatever He desires. To say, “Your way is best. I’m listening. I’m ready to respond with yes.” The opposite of surrender is to resist, to fight, to struggle, to run away. And to make our way best and essentially ourselves god, which is idolatry. Mary’s worshipped with a heart that was without resistance.
3. Knowledge of God – “He has done great things for me, and holy is his name” Luke 1:49.
In this song, Mary shows us that she knows God’s word, has a deep understanding of God’s purposes, she knows his work in history, and that she’s internalized his promises to be for her and all of that led her to worship Him.
What has God done for you? How has God worked in your life? You can’t worship what you don’t know. Humility and surrender will open your life to experience God which will lead you to a life of worshipping Him.
So, is life all about you? is there resistance in your heart when it comes to the will of God? can you point to God’s work in your life? If not, during this Christmas season, humble yourself, surrender your heart and will, and get to know His story. Worship Him.
the Andrew Peterson song with scenes from The Nativity Story. A favorite Christmas song of ours:
The story of Christmas is foundational for understanding Christianity in so many ways. God sent his very best, his own Son Jesus Christ, the God-man, on a daring rescue mission. In need of rescue was the human race including you and I. The mission included a display of love that led to the willing death of an innocent Rescuer for the sake of those he loved. In the end, the Rescuer wins the day, defeating all the bad guys, including death, sin and guilt, and Satan (Colossians 2:13-15, Hebrews 2:14-15). Here’s the real kicker: Now God desires that we repeat the process of being sent, loving, sacrificing, and rescuing through announcing/retelling this story to all (John 21:20, Acts 1:8, Philippians 2:3-5). When God wanted to save the world, he sent himself. He GAVE PRESENCE. Today, he continues to GIVE PRESENCE to the world through those he has rescued.
Here’s three lessons we learn about Incarnational Living from God’s giving to us. These have become filters for our church as we seek to live with a missionary posture toward our community.
God’s Big Give: Proximity, Responsiveness, Radical Generosity. The story of Christ and Christmas.
Lane Corley 