The Advent of Power

As we draw near to Christmas, we often see nativity scenes and sing songs that reflect on little baby Jesus. There is nothing wrong with drawing up beside the manger and gazing in wonder at God wrapped in the skin of a helpless, human baby. It is good and right that we wonder at His humility and this miracle.

But there is another side to this story.

The miracle of the incarnation is a moment of incredible power. It was a decisive event in the destiny of the universe, the turning point of history.

When Christ emptied Himself of His divine power and knowledge He performed a deed of breathtaking heroism. His submission in the incarnation was a heroic act of faith, and a dramatic step   in the war in heaven.

The Apostle John was given a vision of what was happening on a cosmic level in the birth of Jesus. He records his vision in the 12th chapter of Revelation. John saw Satan, the enemy of God and of man, trying to prevent the birth of the Christ child and to destroy him, but God preserved the baby's life and Satan was defeated. Notice that he was defeated at the birth of the child.

The birth of Jesus was a military victory in the battle between good and evil.

Is it any wonder that when the angels ambushed those unsuspecting shepherds that they were armed for battle. Luke describes the shepherds as being scared by the appearance of one angel, but imagine their terror when the sky is opened and they were suddenly confronted by a contingent of the heavenly army. One messenger angel was terrifying, I can't imagine the fear inspired by an angelic war host.

The Christmas story is not just about a humble carpenter and his virgin bride in a stable in Bethlehem. There is much more going on there than the simple surroundings would indicate.  This is a momentous occasion of great cosmic importance. The armies of heaven were literally present in Bethlehem that night. Only the shepherds got to see them, but they were there.

The lonely couple far from home, giving birth to this little baby, and laying him in a feeding trough were playing their part in one of the most powerful and pivotal moments of all time.

I wonder what is going on right now? What is God doing around us and through us if we could only see it?

The Advent of Interruption

Nobody expected God to come.

Sure, there were the old prophecies and the vague hope for a messiah someday, but no one was expecting God to break through and actively involve Himself in and through the lives or ordinary people.

Zechariah was minding his own business in the temple when he was interrupted by an angel. Even after the angel told him who he was and what was going to happen, Zechariah still incredulously asked for proof.

Mary wasn't expecting an angelic visitation, let alone a divine pregnancy, an immaculate conception. She neither asked for nor expected this invasive interruption of her plans.

Joseph wasn't anticipating his virgin bride to fall pregnant until after the wedding. Upon discovering her unwelcome interruption, he immediately set about to do what any self-respecting, God fearing man would do, break off the engagement with his shameful betrothed. Only another angelic visitation in his sleep convinced him to change his plans and adopt the Son of God as his own son.

The Magi were not sure what to expect as the stars told them a surprising tale of the King of the Jews to be born in a distant land. They stepped forward into their journey with an uninformed but sincere faith to see where the star might lead them, prepared to worship the as yet unborn King wherever they might find him. The most obvious place to search was at the palace.

King Herod certainly wasn't expecting to have to deal with a new threat to his rule. He had effectively eliminated all who he perceived as a threat, not even sparing his own family. He was not expecting the inconvenience of a messiah, of The Messiah. The arrival of the magi was an interruption that he could do without.

The scribes and teachers of the law who told Herod where the messiah would be born, in lowly Bethlehem, were not expecting it to happen in their day. Even the arrival of the strange magi from the east and Herod's cryptic inquiry were not enough to pique their interest. They evidently couldn't be bothered to follow up on the lead they provided and went about their business, not terribly curious about an apparent messiah in their midst.

The shepherds certainly weren't expecting an angelic visitation, let alone a heavenly invasion with the armies of heaven appearing before them and breaking into song on that evening in the wilds of Judea. Minding their own business, tending sheep, perhaps picking fleas from their cloaks or swapping stories around the fire, when they were terrified by the heavenly ambush.

No one was expecting God to interrupt their lives with good news of great joy. No one was expecting to be used by God to accomplish His marvelous purposes in history. At just the right time, although no one expected him, and few welcomed him, He came among us through the lives of ordinary people.

He does the same thing today.

Are you ready to be interrupted?

The Advent of Hope

The world is messed up!

There are wars and rumours of wars. There are economic problems, political problems, racial problems, family problems, and the list could go on. Proposed solutions and the people proposing them come and go, but the problems remain. In the midst of all of this, it is easy to become discouraged. Just a quick glance at the headlines on any given day gives us many reasons to despair and few reasons to hope. 

We may imagine that we are living in a uniquely terrible time in history, but many generations have seen similar times and felt similar things. Empires have risen and crumbled and people in those times have lived through a level of pain and chaos that most of us have never experienced. And, I hope we never will. The Jews living in Palestine at the turn of the first century knew more about these things than we do at the end of the twenty-first century. 

They were living under an oppressive foreign regime who installed a puppet king over them. They lived under military occupation and were subject to brutal treatment and crushing taxation. They longed for someone to deliver them. They lived in anticipation that God would intervene and save them, setting them free. They dreamed of the coming of the Messiah, the long delayed fulfilment of the ancient prophecies, already hundreds of years old in their day. 

When Zechariah was ambushed by an angel of God in the temple, the plot began to thicken. Their were rumblings and rumours  not of war but of hope. Could this baby to be born to a barren old woman and a dried up husband be the One? There were whispers in the hills of Judah. God is on the move! There is something special about this child!

But this baby, miraculous though his birth was, was not the One. There was another coming. A birth even more miraculous on the way. Not one originating in the temple, but in a backwater town. Another visitation, and another miraculous pregnancy, this time in a virgin womb. God's only son became flesh, the Spirit of Christ enfleshed in the waiting womb of a willing young woman. Mary was to be the mother of the Our Lord, the Hope of Nations. 

The Advent of Christ was a rebirth of hope. More than that, a fulfilment of hope becoming flesh and dwelling among us. God drew near to us and demonstrated His love in the most tangible way possible, He became one of us. The God who created all things humbled Himself and became part of His creation. He began the remaking that will ultimately be fulfilled when His reign is fully established. But what a beginning He has made!

He is not distant or disengaged. He is not against us. He is one of us. He is among us. He is for us. We can know Him and know that He understands us. He is the reason for and the embodiment of our hope. The hope that came at Christmas!

The "Not Yet"

Recently, I was encouraged to spend some time talking with God about the "not yet" of the Kingdom. As a Christian, I experience this life as a state of perpetual "in between". God has revealed His rule and reign through Jesus Christ, and that reign is current and continuing, but is not yet fully realized. It is real, but not yet complete.

I live in this world, enjoying all that this world has to offer as I live under Him, but I also recognize that this world is not all that it could be, was, or will be. There is a present joyous reality of life with Christ that is interrupted and disturbed by the brokenness in and around me. This life is not all that it should be, it is not yet all that it will be. So I asked the Lord, what is your vision of us and for us?

As I prayed  I was immediately drawn to the theme of revival. As I silently discussed this with the Lord, I found myself asking, “Yes, revival Lord, but what would that look like?” Suddenly my mind was filled with images and ideas of people experiencing God personally, being ambushed by God and surprised by joy. Their joy and encouragement moved them to share their excitement and to become infectiously cheerful. As they were transformed by God’s Spirit they became more free to express what God had put in them and to use their gifts with greater freedom and power than they had previously experienced. They were hearing from God and walking with God day by day, experiencing and sharing.

As I prayerfully reflected on what could be, even in this bent world, I found myself pondering the obstacles.

Why is it that we do not live as free as we actually are? Why do we live discouraged? Why are we so easily distracted from the joy set before us? Why are we not joyously infecting the world with love, joy, and peace? Why is this vision not being more fully experienced and lived out?


The first word that came to mind was “discouragement.” People lack experience with God and this leads to a lack of trust in God, which leads to a lack of hope and boldness. If we really knew as Him as He is, if we knew God experientially, we would be more free and bold to follow Him wherever He might lead and follow Him with joy.

As I pondered why this might not be so, It came to me that that we are making it too complex. Our answers reveal that we have misunderstood the problem.

We tend to offer more information, education, and training; illustrating our belief that a lack of knowledge or technique is the problem. (Not that training is bad, but to the extent that is leads to placing our trust in methodology or technique rather than walking in a dependent and conversational relationship with God, it leads in the wrong direction.)

We (particularly those of us from the Global North and West) have a tendency to trust in our own abilities and strategies. We have been trained to value efficiency, productivity, and control. It seems to me that God is calling me (perhaps us) to a more relational and dependent understanding of Him.

Perhaps the answer is not money, education, power, or control. Perhaps the answer is "to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

May we not be afraid to be like little children. May we be willing to confess our dependence on Our Father and to walk with The Son under the Inspiration of The Holy Spirit. May we commit ourselves to learning to discern the voice of the Good Master rather than mastering methods and techniques. May we learn to walk humbly with Our God.

Ambushed Again!

On Friday I was skyping with some friends. As we often do, we ended the call by praying for each other. One of the things they prayed for me was that God would fill me up for the up coming week of intense ministry by meeting me in worship. In the last few days, this prayer has been answered many times over, the most recent one was this morning, when God ambushed me again!

Perhaps that needs a little explaining...

When I was a kid, we took great delight on hiding in the house and jumping out at unsuspecting loved ones. Often, particularly with my dad, these childish ambushes were followed with tickles and fun. At any moment, your day could be interrupted by a loving ambush. When you least expected it, someone would jump out at you and you would be thrown into chaos for a moment as your adrenalin kicked in. The intensity of emotion heightening the connection with someone you were not looking for.

One of the really fun things for me in the last few years, has been the way God sneaks up behind me and taps me on the shoulder when I'm not looking. Sometimes it feels really playful, as if He was hiding behind the door with a sly smile on His face, listening to my approaching footsteps, anticipating the look on my face when He jumps out. Other times it is more sedate and deep like suddenly discovering an old friend sitting in your living room and inviting you to sit down and catch up. Still other times, the ambushes are more severe, like suddenly being caught in the act, suddenly knowing that you are caught, guilty, and there is no wiggling out of it.

One of the great joys of my life has been learning what it means to live in what Dallas Willard calls "a God bathed world". The fact is that our world is filled with God. He is available to us every moment. He is actually present everywhere at every moment but we can live our whole lives without being aware of Him. Cultivating sensitivity to Him and creating space in my life to respond to Him takes discipline and intentionality, but it is well worth it. He reveals Himself to those who seek Him.

This morning, He ambushed me as my wife was reading from "Jesus Calling". I'm not really a devotional reader kind of guy, but God totally ambushed me this morning! I am preparing to travel to Asia for a week of intense ministry. I went to bed last night trying to anticipate all that the week would hold and even playing through potential conversations in my head. This mornings reading opened with this line, "Trust me enough to let things happen without striving to predict or control them." I didn't really hear the rest of the reading.

I felt like God had just tapped me on the shoulder. My mind flooded with all the ways I had tried to do exactly that. I was suddenly deliciously aware of His presence and the absurdity of my façade of control, my desire to accurately anticipate the future. Instead, He reminded me that I can and should relax into His presence. I can be present in every moment and be anticipating Him, listening for His approaching footsteps.

I am eager to see what He has in store for me this week. I am eager to live with Him, to walk with Him. With an almost childlike giggling fear, I'm peering around each corner wondering when He will ambush me again.