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Thoughts on Celebratory Days
We are getting to the age where we are starting to celebrate big numbered events: this past year Peter and I celebrated fifteen years of marriage and just this weekend, our oldest daughter, Emily, turned thirteen. God has blessed both our marriage and our daughter’s life. We are blessed to get to raise this daughter whom we are so proud of. It has been a gift from God to see her grow into a young woman that wants to serve the Lord with her life.
When these big celebratory days come, I am tempted in a couple of ways: 1.) I am tempted to take credit for the gifts that God has given me and 2.) I am tempted to put my feet up and pretend that the work is finished.
I can be tempted to look at our marriage and our children and take the credit for how they have turned out. I start to believe our marriage is good because we make it a priority to communicate well together or our children have turned out so good because we have made it a priority to disciple them well. The Bible teaches that: “Every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). God brought Peter and I together and He gave each of our children to us. Any good in our marriage or our parenting is from God. He has led us to disciple our children and given us the tools that we use for our family to run well.
I am also tempted to look at our happy marriage and our well adjusted teenager and believe that our circumstances will always be favorable. I start to believe we have put in the time to make our marriage great and we have put in the time to raise our teenager so now we can put our feet up and sit on easy street. The problem with this way of thinking is I have no idea what challenges our marriage and our children will face. I know that Jesus tells us “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus promises that we will have trouble. We need to keep depending on Him throughout our entire lives. Our jobs as parents aren’t done when our children are teenagers, we keep depending on God in our marriages and in parenting as long as we have breath in our lungs.
These verses vividly contrast a person who is depending on their circumstances and a person who is depending on God:
This is what the Lord says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives."
"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." --Jeremiah 17:5-8
The man who depends on himself is utterly alone. The man who trusts in the Lord flourishes in any circumstance. I am so thankful for the circumstances that God has given our family. I know that they may not always be favorable circumstances, but I know that I can rest in God knowing that even when circumstances seem hard, we do not fear when heat comes. God will give us what we need. We just need to keep depending on Him and being grateful for what He has already provided.
As we celebrate these big numbered birthdays and anniversaries, I hope that we will overflow with gratitude to God who gives us everything we need. I also hope that we will rest not in our perceived strength in our gifts, but that we would depend on God as we continue to live our lives glorifying Him in our marriage and in our parenting.
Why is Jesus the Best Gift of All?
We are getting very close to Christmas. If you are like me, by now you have probably already heard the Christmas story read from the Bible and found it to be a real temptation to gloss over these familiar words without truly thinking about the gift of Jesus coming to the world as a baby. The book of Isaiah tells of this gift: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
But why, out of all the gifts we will receive this holiday season, is Jesus the best gift we could get? Let’s pause just for a few moments and look at eight ways why Jesus is the best gift. This is by no means an exhaustive list and it isn’t ranked in any order. It is just a list so we can pause and worship our Immanuel – God with us.
1.) Forgiveness of Sins- When the angel told Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife the angel said, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). It is clear from the beginning that Jesus came to save us from our sins. What an incredible gift to be seen with Jesus’ righteousness. No matter what terrible sin we have committed, we aren’t too far gone for Jesus to save us from that sin. There is also nothing that we can do on our own to earn Jesus’ righteousness. Forgiveness of our sins is given to us by Him, and Him alone. We can’t receive any other gift that would provide us forgiveness for our sins.
2.) Eternal Life– When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we not only receive forgiveness of sins but we receive eternal life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We often think of death as the enemy or the worst thing that can happen to us. To be sure death is hard because it separates us from our loved ones here on earth, but if we are Christians, death is just the beginning of our eternal reward. “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4). Jesus gives us eternal life in glory.
3.) A Purpose-After we have received forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life, Jesus gives us a purpose for our days. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Our lives are better when they are lived with the purpose of serving and glorifying God.
4.) Everything We Need to Live a Godly Life-When we are given a purpose to serve and glorify God with our lives, we will need His help. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). We are never alone. There is nothing that God will call us to do that we can’t complete because we have His help. We have the Holy Spirit living in us who replaces our desires with God’s desires and helps us to live lives that are good for us and good for others around us.
5.) Empathy– Because Jesus gave up His heavenly dwelling to join us here on earth, He can sympathize with our suffering here on earth. He knows what it is like to be a human and experience negative human emotions. He also knows what it’s like to be tempted to sin but unlike us, He was sinless. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Just like a friend, we can tell Jesus what we are going through and He understands.
6.) A Light in the Darkness– We don’t have to look far to see sadness and darkness in this world. My own heart has felt very heavy this December. Jesus is the light of the world and He gives us a hope that will never fade away. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). We can look to Jesus and know that He is our light and our salvation. This world is dark and hard but Jesus is light and life.
7.) An Inheritance that Doesn’t Fade-This world is a throw away world. The Christmas presents we open will be outdated and old by the end of this month. They won’t have the same luster they did when we opened them. Jesus is a gift that will never fade. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:3-7). Though our earthly possessions and relationships can tarnish and fade, Jesus gives us an inheritance that can’t be taken away from us.
8.) Shows us God’s Glory– God is hard to imagine sometimes. We don’t fully understand His full glory, but when Jesus came to earth as a man we were able to get a taste of what God is like. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 1:3). We can look to Jesus’ life on earth and see how to live a Godly life and how God interacts with His people.
Maybe you have already accepted Jesus’ gift of Himself in your life. Maybe you haven’t accepted His gift, but are seeing that the world can’t provide what Jesus provides. Wherever you are this Christmas season, I hope that you see what a gift that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was and is for us this Christmas season and beyond.
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