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“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” – Luke 2:7

What little we know about the birth of Jesus Christ is found in a few scriptures in the book of Matthew and in the book of Luke.

What we do know is that Jesus came as the lowliest of the low. Instead of a castle, instead of a comfortable place, He was laid in a manger. God is in the lowliest of the low.

Why did Christ come?

Was there some other way? No.

Could people just live a good live and get to heaven? No.

Aren’t there many ways to heaven? No.

If there was some other way, God would not have chosen to give His Son as a sacrifice for sin. It was not an easy choice. It was a necessary choice. It was the only way.

Because of that we can have great joy in salvation, no matter what our circumstances.

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” – Luke 2:10-11

May you have joy in Christ as your Savior this Christmas season.

“Be still and know that I am God” – Psalms 46:10

Life can be busy. A lot going on. Sometimes it seems there is no time to gather yourself, to reflect.

Spending time to reflect is important. It can help ground yourself, remind you of what is important, and experience the presence of God.

Other religions and philosophies promote ‘meditation’, and sometimes leave a bad impression with Christians, maybe because sometimes the promoters of the mediation want the goal to be ‘nothingness’ or ‘knowing yourself’. Just because others may use the tool for various purposes, that doesn’t mean Christians can not rightly use the tool.

The goal of Christian mediation or ‘being still’ is to spend time with God.

Different from prayer, which is of course important. Different from reflecting on scripture, which is of course important. It’s just spending time in the presence of God, commune with God, enjoy His presence, feel His Spirit, being open to hear His voice.

There is no formula, no ritual, no prescribed way. No one can tell you how you should spend time with God. No right and wrong way to do that. It’s your time to spend alone with just you and God.

It doesn’t need to be a long time. Set a time and try spending 5 minutes being still with God. You may get valuable benefits.

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” – Hebrews 8:12

God is a God of mercy. The word mercy is used in many different ways. It implies benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness. It may be compassionate behavior. It may be extending help to those who have misfortune.

God’s mercy isn’t just for those who deserve it. Indeed, the Christian understanding of mercy is God’s blessings on those who don’t deserve it.

Even when we are unrighteousness, when our actions, behaviors, or thoughts are disgusting and without reason, God shows mercy.

Can we understand such mercy, can we make sense of it? No. Graham Greene, a great writer once said “You cannot conceive, nor can I, of the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.”

Not only does God show mercy, but He refuses to call the sins and failures to His remembrance ever again. They are completely forgiven. The old is gone.

Completely forgiven.
Unrighteousness gone.
Completely clean.
Fresh.
Redeemed.
Forgiven.
Restored.

The same as if it never happened. You didn’t deserve it. But it’s God’s nature and His mercy to freely give it.

Rejoice in God’s mercy.

“For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

Ephesians 3:20 “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us”

It’s easy to forget that God has great power. Our God works miracles. God has no limits.

At times it may be that the circumstances appear unbearable, that there is no way out, and that there is no hope.

We can’t say what God will do. Only God knows what God will do. The attitude of those we know as the “three Hebrew children” is instructive, as recorded in the book of Daniel chapter 3.

These three young people refused to obey the law of a powerful king. The law said that all must worship a golden image the king had set up. The punishment for disobeying the king was to be thrown alive into a furnace and be burned to death. The king gave them one last chance to obey him, or be thrown into the furnace, and believing that they had no way out he asked them, poking fun at their God, “who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”

Their answer is recorded in the book of Daniel 3:17 &18. Note the ‘if it be so…’ and the ‘but if not’.

“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thing hand, O king. But, if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

The rest of the chapter tell us that the king had them tied, threw the three into the flaming furnace. No one expected what happened next. As the king was watching, expecting them to be consumed by fire, he said “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” He then called them out of the furnace, set them free, gave praise to their God, and promoted them in his kingdom.

“If it be so…” “But if not…” Let’s trust God’s sufficiency, and let’s practice in our daily live as if we completely and fully trust His sufficiency. Let us say with calm and surrendered confidence “I trust the Lord.”

We don’t know what God will do.

We know what God is able to do.

And we know He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

People may indeed diminish you because of your “weaknesses” – “you’re not good enough”; “you’ll never amount to anything”; “you’re finished” “you’re done”…not strong enough, not smart enough, not tall enough, not skinny enough, not handsome enough, not pretty enough, not talented enough, not…whatever.

We don’t know why people may say these things. We can’t know their hearts. Sometimes to puff themselves up, to try to make them feel better about their selves.

Some of the weaknesses they attribute to us are not real, it’s just something they image in their hearts. Some of the weaknesses are real, and we know they are.

The world may take those weaknesses and try to convince you that you are not enough.

But God says – No.

In an amazing verse in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

In that same verse, the writer then says “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  

God will not dimmish you because of your weaknesses.

Don’t think that you can’t draw close to God because of some weakness.

It may that God’s power will be manifest because of your weaknesses.

Always remember: God’s grace is sufficient for you.

God loves you. Always.

There are two aspects of righteousness. The first is being in right standing with God. This comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. “the righteousness which is of God by faith” Philippians 3:9

The second aspect of righteousness is practicing right things. Not to win salvation, or to earn favor with God. But because we love God and want to be like Him.

Developing righteousness practices may not come easy. Habits form that are hard to break. Maybe we deal with stress and disappointment by anger and rage, or get relief by turning to alcohol or drugs, or illicit sex. Or maybe it’s just too painful and we withdraw from life.

There are ways to begin to form new habits, new ways of dealing with the stress, setbacks and disappointments of life. Habits form over a long period of time, and it may take time to form new habits. Do not be discouraged. Sometimes it’s one step forward, two steps back; two steps forward one step back. Don’t be discouraged – go ahead and take the step anyway. In the long run, you will begin to make progress. Ask for God’s help.

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clearly writes about forming habits. He talks about three way to make changes: goals, deciding what we want;  processes (or habits), what we are going to do to move toward the goal; identity, who we are. The strongest motive for making change is to chose our identity. That is, decide who we are. Once we decide, we will act consistent with who we have decide to be. This is the most powerful way to make a change.

For example, if we tell ourselves, “I’m the kind of person who never misses a workout.” We will direct our habits as if we are that person.

The example Clearly gives is smoking. If someone asks if you want a smoke, you might reply “No thanks, I’m trying to quit.” Or “No thanks, I’m not a smoker.” It changes your identity.

In Proverbs 23:7, it seems to tell us that as a person “thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Whatever a person identifies themselves in their heart, that’s how they will act. If there are bad habits you want to stop, or good habits you want to start, why not tell yourself “I’m the kind of person who…”

When people say God sits high, but He looks low, it doesn’t mean He is just passively looking. It means He is involved in all things.

The nature of God is He cares. “Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly” Psalm 138:6

“For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.” Psalm 69:33

There is nothing too low that God is not there. Nothing too difficult, nothing too big, nothing too regrettable, nothing too awful, terrible, nasty, fowl, or unpleasant, that God’s present doesn’t reach.

Take a minute and have joy. God sits high, but He looks low.

There are two aspects of righteousness.

The first aspect of righteousness is being in right standing with God.

The scripture is abundantly clear that we cannot obtain this righteousness of our own accord. Isaiah 65:6 “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags”; and Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us”; and from Galatians 2:16 “for by works of the law shall no flesh be justified”.

If we can’t obtain this right standing with God by good works (living a good life, etc.), how then can we obtain it? Romans 3:22 “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe”.

The second aspect of righteousness the practice of doing right things. Not to gain or keep salvation, or so God will love us. Rather, it’s because we love God and we want to please Him.

“Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness” 2 Timothy 2:22

“And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” Romans 6:13

Let’s actively pursue righteousness in our lives!

A sincere follower of Christ tends toward good works.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10

Make sure we understand, we are not saved by good works. The verses right before the one above say “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9

This means that no amount of good works will save us, or justify us before God. We are saved only through faith in the work of Jesus Christ at Calvary.

Because of God’s great salvation, we have gratitude toward Him. We realize God’s nature of love, and we want to be like Him. We welcome the work of His Holy Spirit into thoughts and actions.

We don’t do good works to prove something to God, to other people, or to ourselves.

We do good works because we sincerely love God and we sincerely love our neighbors. We want the best for our neighbors.

We don’t diminish our neighbors in our thoughts. We don’t think that we know the secrets of our neighbors’ hearts and judge them harshly. We don’t judge the actions of others more harshly than we would want them to judge our own actions.

We think toward them kindly, graciously, generously, liberally. We try to attribute good to their motives and actions. Just as we would want out neighbors to think toward us.

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely, this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
– Mark 12:30-31

Those who follow Christ, in a real way not just outward appearance, are apt to good works. True good works.

“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” – Titus 2:14

That word ‘peculiar’ may be a stumbling block for some. A person may think, ‘I don’t want to be peculiar!’ The word can be thought of as special, called, or chosen. But peculiar is a good word. It’s about those who are willing to be difference, to not conform, and who are interested in following Christ’s way, even if they often fail. That’s indeed peculiar!

True good works then differ from illusory good works. Illusory good works would be when we do something good so that we can show others how good we are. We fool ourselves and we fool others. It often can be seen with moral outrage at others. It’s kind of like, ‘see how outraged I am? That shows how morally superior I am’. It’s often done in political circles, and to gain the acceptance of our ‘tribe’. Sometimes that kind of outrage feeds outrage and becomes dangerous.

We’ll have more about good works in the near future. For now let’s think about these verses:

“Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” – John 6:28 – 29