Jesus, Light of the World (12-19-12)

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Advent Devotional, "Jesus, Light of the World," for preparing to light the fourth Advent Candle, the Wise Men candle.)

Matthew 2: 10-11
"And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.'

Can you visualize that sight?  The moment the wise men were setting out to continue their journey, they saw that the light continued to shine on them.  The knew that the God of the universe was smiling directly at them.  They traveled on with great expectancy and urgency because they knew that they were close to where the Christ Child would be found.  They were filled with so much joy that it could not be contained by any of them.

When I was a child my family occasionally  traveled to central Florida to spend Christmas with my grandparents.  Coming from central Illinois, and trying to make the best use of the time we were given for Christmas vacation, we always drove it in 24 hours.  It was a grueling trip for my dad, who did all the driving.  He often had to maneuver through snow, sleet, or ice, or even all three in order to not lose more than a day to travel travel time.  In Tennessee he had to add driving through Lookout Mountain to the itinerary, and coming from a completely flat state, this was a big deal, especially if the weather was bad!  Breakfast was usually somewhere in Georgia, and the moment we hit the Florida line and the sun began to shine brightly and warmly, the excitement would begin to build.  With three children crammed in the back seat of our Chevy, loaded down with toys, blankets and pillows, and loaded up on sugar from the orange juice at the welcome center, dad had the most difficult part of the drive just ahead of him simply because of the uncontainable excitement of those children in the backseat who couldn't wait to get to Grandma and Granddad's house.  The moment that we hit the two-lane road that led from the interstate to Lakeland, it would be a zoo.  When we reached that spot, we kids knew that we were down to the last sixty minutes of the 24-hour drive. . . sixty minutes before we could jump into the arms of Granddad and be smothered with kisses from Grandma.  As we passed each of the well-known 'guideposts,' the excitement grew to a near-frenzy until, at last, we pulled into their driveway, jumped out of the car, and ran to greet our awaiting grandparents.

The magi's experience was similar.  They were close, so very close, yet not quite there.  Joy burst forth from them with such rejoicing as they continued their trek to Bethlehem, to the place where they would soon gaze upon the Messiah, the Light of the World.

At last, at long last, they came to the place where Jesus was!  They entered the house, and in sheer awe, joy, and ecstasy, they bowed down before the King of the Jews and poured out their heartfelt worship to Him.  And just like when we visit relatives for Christmas, they 'opened up their treasures and presented to the Christ Child gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.'  These were the very best gifts they had to give.

Is your joy level high as you approach the day that we celebrate the birth of your Savior?  Is it pouring out from you and onto others?  What gifts are you bringing Him this season?  Have you considered giving Him the gift of YOURSELF and your worship?  Or have you been wrapped up in the activities that bring the seasonal stress?  Why not take several moments today to bring Him your gift.  I promise, it will restore the excitement in you, like when you were a child waiting for Christmas Day to arrive.  He is worthy of our delight and joy-filled hearts!"

Thanksgiving Every Day

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Thanksgiving 2012 is now past, and just like every other once a year event, the next day brings the start of another 365 days until the holiday is celebrated again.  But with Thanksgiving we shouldn't wait until next year to be thankful.  Giving thanks is something we  should be doing countless times every day.  Many are the moments in a day for which we ought to be thankful to God, no matter what our current circumstances are.  But we typically are not a thankful people.  I know for a fact  that the area of 'thankfulness' is one chamber of my heart that the Lord trying to enter into as He is teaching me about living in His presence and His peace.  You see, without an actively thankful lifestyle, we can never truly experience the peace we all long for.

It is interesting to me that in America we celebrate Thanksgiving, the season of thankfulness,  just prior to Christmas, the season of peace and joy.  This particular order seems to perfectly align itself with precept that thankful hearts lead to peaceful and joy-filled hearts.  But in America we have 'traditional-ized' the day that follows Thanksgiving as Black Friday, the day in which we are no longer thankful for that with which we have been blessed.  Instead, beginning in the mid-evening of Thanksgiving Day, we jump in our cars and drive very quickly to every store that is offering us its big sales.  On Thanksgiving Day we are often caught talking out of both sides of our mouths, saying on the one hand, "We are so thankful for and blessed by everything we have," while on the other side of our mouths we can be seen by others, loudly proclaiming by our actions, "MORE!!!  MORE!!!  We must have MORE!"

On this day after Thanksgiving 2012, in my personal walk with the Lord (as I read through Jesus Calling by Sarah Young), I am challenged, not by prospect of gaining for my loved ones the perfect gifts to give them for Christmas, purchased at the Black Friday price; I am challenged by my Lord to see the beautiful flowers that He has placed along my path this very day, flowers that reveal His love, provision, protection, mercy, and grace.  The goal of this day, this day that I personally refuse to refer to as Black Friday, is to recognize the red roses of love that the Lord has planted for me today, to pick those roses, one by one, and to gather them into a beautiful bouquet that I can present to the Lord at the end of this day. This is the life of a thankful-hearted person who is grateful for the Lord, for all He is and all He has done.  This is Thanksgiving every day.

The world's Black Friday, the pushing and shoving, the needing to be victorious in our Christmas purchasing, the selfish attitudes, and the "me" mentality is like a 4-D sonogram picture of the heart of our nation.  As my family proceeds to the Holy Celebration of the Birth of Christ, we are choosing to do without, to share more with others to make their Christmas brighter, and not buy into the trappings of the newest, must-have rages this year.  We are choosing simplicity.  I personally am choosing to make several "thankful posts" a day on God's Heart-wall for God alone to see.  I want to give HIM the greatest gift this year, my grateful heart that will bless Him.  And I desire to do that everyday so that Thanksgiving 2013 will simply be the culmination of a year of thankfulness.

Will you join me in this rage?  Will you storm the doors of heaven this year by blessing God over and over for His blessings to you?

Your Journey To Intimacy With God

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"Out of God's great desire for us to walk in a deep and intimate relationship with Him, one in which we begin to turn over our entire lives to His full control, He woos us by His Spirit to walk through the Door of Jesus.  We are saved through our belief in Jesus when we walk through that Jesus Door.  We then claim His sacrifice on the cross at the bronze altar as His act of sacrifice on our personal behalf, and we are baptized in the cleansing water found at the bronze laver, whereby we associate ourselves with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.  This is our Outer Court experience, but it is not the end of our journey.  It is not the goal.  It is not the place of the greatest intimacy.

As we continue to make our way through the Tabernacle, our journey takes us into the Inner Court.  It is that place where we begin to grow up in our faith.  It takes some believers (like me) many years to pass through that particular door because we are content with our Christian life in the Outer Court, just the way it is.  Others begin to grow right away, flourishing in the Holy Spirit, in the Word, and in pure worship to the Lord.  No matter into which category you happen to fall, the Inner Court is a place where you will become even more intimate with the Lord by way of walking in the Spirit, delving more deeply into the Word, and by learning to worship in both Spirit and the truth found in the Word.  Our growth will be evidenced by our greater fruit.  But this fruit is not limited to the ministry that God has given us to do.  We must also focus on the fruit that will grow inside of us, the very fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.  The Inner Court will be the place in which we identify, confess, dispossess, and take full vengeance on those actions and attitudes that do not line up with the Word and the Spirit.  It is also the place where we will learn to follow the commands that are found in the Word.  The door into the Inner Court is a "cross-roads" in our journey to the Holy of Holies, one which will determine if we will take the easy road (and stay in the Outer Court) or adjust our course, choosing to take the narrower path.  If we choose that narrow path into the Inner Court, it is there that we will be aligned and adjusted in our hearts to the good and perfect will of God, and begin to obey His commands with our whole hearts.

A marvelous thing happens when we are consistently seeking to turn our whole lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ through our confession of sin and the surrender of our will to His.  Through deeper study, a closer walk with the Spirit, and worship from a much more pure heart, we discover moments of great intimacy with the Lord such as we have never before experienced.  These are indescribable times of joy that only flow from a heart that is chasing after the God who can restore it.  This is the experience of those who have chosen to pass through the veil, crucifying their own flesh and will, and step into the Holy of Holies.  This is spiritual healing and intimacy with Christ!   And ultimately, our earthly level of intimacy will grow exponentially when we see Him face to face in Heaven!

The Tabernacle is where we meet Jesus.  It is where we identify our lives with His.  It is the place where we give Him the rule of our broken lives, tarnished with sin.  It is whee our intimacy with Him grows.  The Tabernacle is a picture of the journey of a true believer, and it reveals the relationship that we are currently having with Jesus!"