Janus

 

“The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

—Psalm 121:8

The name for the month of January comes from the name of Janus, the Roman god of doorways. This god had two faces: one looking forward and one looking backwards. As we step over the threshold into this new year, we certainly have a better view of the year behind us than we do of the one ahead.

We constantly read in the Psalms that we are to consider the Lord’s works and, by doing so, see all that He has done. This good advice is illustrated many times in Scripture.

In a story recorded in 1 Samuel 7, Samuel met with the Israelites at Mizpah to confess their sins and cry out to God for deliverance from the Philistines. Here Samuel took a stone and set it up, naming it “Ebenezer,” saying, “Thus far has the Lord helped us.”

At this threshold of a new year, we should look back long enough to see how the Lord has helped us through the year just past. I like to make a list of the high points of each year. Then, I take note of how impossible it would have been to meet the challenges and enjoy the blessings without the direct intervention of our Lord.

Looking forward into the new year presents a bit of a harder task. And, lest we get into too much daydreaming, as I often do, let me warn each of us about the dangers that forward thinking often presents. We cannot possibly know what lies ahead of us in the new year. As much as we would like to plan it out, we don’t have that luxury. We need to remember that God controls our future. We do not.

Nevertheless, we do need to consciously and volitionally trust God with what lies ahead. We often will not know what the next day will bring. Yet, we should not live in fear, or presume life will always work out according to our careful plans. If we belong to the Sovereign God, we know that we can rely on His wisdom to guide us and His love to watch over us.

I pray that we will know more about how to live our lives by following the way of trust, to live in peace with our future, even while we do not know what this new year will bring. We can depend on the One who knows every day before we get to it, and we can fully trust the One who will bring light to the pathways of our lives. As the Psalmist has committed himself, recorded in Psalm 119:105-106, let us also say:

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.

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1 Note: The photo at the top of this devotional of The Cathedral of St. Paul, Erie, Pennsylvania, was taken by photographer, Pat Bywater, December 26, 2017.

 

 

By No Means Least

 

“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”

—Micah  5:2 and Matthew 2:6

People in the days of Jesus would not have named Bethlehem a “destination city.” It lay small and insignificant, a few miles from Jerusalem, which served as the towering, celebrated city among all of Israel. Yet, God chose this little town for the greatest miracle in history.

You might also say, “Mary, you are by no means least among the young women of Israel,” although, at the time, everyone would have considered her pretty commonplace and poor. Yet, God chose this humble virgin as the mother for His Son, Jesus, and honored her above all women.

And, to the shepherds, we could say, “Herdsmen, you are by no means least among the men of Israel,” even though everyone at that time would have looked at them: smelly, uneducated, poor, and hardly capable of the call to spread abroad the news of the Savior’s birth. Yet the angels announced the greatest news in history to them and urged them to spread the news.

So many times in Scripture, God rebukes those who would overlook those considered “least.” Sometimes, we see ourselves in this light, and God rebukes our faulty thinking. He has chosen us to carry His Holy Spirit within us, elevating us far beyond the station to which our corrupt culture might elevate us. And, more often, we pick and choose among the people we meet, or merely see, and purposely overlook those who seem plain, common, or poor.

We should take time during this busy season, to see those around us in a different light. We should wonder if God has chosen them for something special. We should invite them into conversations and we should urge them to occupy honored places. Remember what Jesus said, recorded in Luke 9:48:

“For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest.”

Let us allow the lowly shepherds, the humble Mary, and the little town of Bethlehem to remind us that God often chooses those people, places, and things we tend to overlook. We must allow God to show us His power to elevate and use whomever and whatever He wishes to use for His glory. Amen!

 

 

Magnify

 

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

—Luke 1:46-47

Mary spoke the above statement upon learning that God had chosen her to bear the Son of God. This stirring tribute to God, called “The Magnificat,” comes from the Latin root word from which our word “magnify” derives. This same verb appears in the first sentence of Mary’s declaration.

One way we use the word “magnify,” is to think of making something appear bigger, so that we can see it better. At a ballgame, we might watch the game from the stands on a jumbo screen that magnifies the players, so that we can see facial expressions and the intricate details of each play. In the laboratory, we magnify tiny creatures through a microscope, so that we can see them better with the human eye. In neither case do we actually make the objects bigger. We just make them appear bigger, so that our eyes can see them.

What did Mary mean when she said that she “magnified” the Lord? As God had chosen to reveal Himself to her through the Holy Spirit, she looked at His character, His might, His blessing, His holiness, His mercy, and His multitude of gifts. Then, she spoke of each attribute of God in such poetic ways and desired to make them bigger, so that she and others could see Him more clearly. It was as though she had practiced this art throughout her short life. God had obviously carefully prepared her for this moment.

Psalm 34:3 records King David’s desire to give the same kind of glory to God that Mary gave. He wrote:

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!

When we gather together with other Christians and relate what we know of our God, we also magnify Him. We do not actually make Him any bigger or greater than He’s always been. But instead, through our expressions of worship, we show others the bigness of our God. We allow them to see and understand Him in ways they may have never seen Him or understood Him before.

During this Season of Advent, like Mary did, we need to consider our great God, and we need to magnify His character in such a way that others can better see Him, better heed Him, and better know Him for themselves. He is certainly worthy of this exaltation!

 

 

Lo, He Comes!

 

“Look, he is coming with the clouds; everyone shall see him, including those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the world will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.”

—Revelation 1:7

“Jesus comes! Prepare!’

These words came early in the biblical story. God promised a Messiah—“God with us”—to the Jews through the Old Testament prophets and then through John the Baptist. We look at these prophecies as texts for the Season of Advent. And, we rejoice that God has a plan through His Son, who came as a helpless babe. Jesus grew into a man, lived, suffered, died in our place on the cross of Calvary, and ascended back to His Father in heaven.

If we only observe the first coming of our Lord at Christmas, we lose the complete story of the Season of Advent. Just as we can read the text of many Advent hymns in two ways—heralding the first coming of Jesus and watching for His second coming—we can sing about the second coming as the next Advent of our Lord.

The hymn, “Lo! He Comes, With Clouds Descending,” expresses the Christian’s hope for Christ’s return to earth. Here’s the first verse. ¹

Lo! He comes, with clouds descending,
Once for favored sinners slain;
Thousand, thousand saints attending
Swell the triumph of His train;
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign,
God appears on earth to reign.

You may hear a beautiful rendition of this hymn by clicking on the video button below:

 

 

The hymn appears to have been a collaboration between five individuals: a land surveyor from England turned Moravian preacher, hymn-writer Charles Wesley, two of his followers—one a cobbler—and finally a man who loved to add Hallelujahs to Wesley texts. One author explains the origin of the hymn this way: ²

As we await the coming of our Lord, about which this hymn is written, God’s Kingdom continues to grow just as this hymn once grew. Preachers, cobblers, land surveyors and those who embellish with hallelujahs build on one another’s efforts for the glory of God. They are just a few of the “thousand, thousand saints attending.”

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1 Wesley, Charles; Cennick, John; Madan, Martin. “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending.” Hymn in the Public Domain.

2 Peterson, William J. and Peterson, Randy. The One Year Book of Hymns. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1995. Entry for August 8th.

 

 

Half-Spent was the Night

 

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

—Isaiah 9:2

From as far back as the fourteenth century, images of the tender stem and fragrance of a rose and the half-spent night remind us of the largely unnoticed way in which Jesus, the Messiah, came into our world. The first and second stanzas of the Christmas carol “Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming” use this phrase: “When half-spent was the night.”

When we think about that phrase, it suggests that the “night” still flows onward. Our world continues to have a shroud of darkness covering it. Yet, in the last stanza of that Christmas carol, we see that this “Flower”—with glorious splendor—dispels the darkness everywhere. This tender rose depicts our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who has come to us as a beautiful baby and at a time in history that God chose, while things were void of His light.

Depending on our circumstances, we may face a time of darkness and seeming absence of light this Season of Advent. But, we must remember that we do indeed have a Savior. And, we must also keep in mind that He does come to us in the darkness of our lives. When we know Him—when we look for Him and seek Him—He has promised to come to us in His glorious presence.

Note the words of this beloved Christmas carol: ¹

Lo, how a rose e’er blooming
   from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
   as men of old have sung.
It came, a Flower bright,
   amid the cold of winter,
When half-spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it,
   the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
   the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright
   she bore to men a Savior,
When half-spent was the night.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender
   with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
   the darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
   from sin and death he saves us
And lightens every load.

The Baylor University Chamber Singers share this lovely Christmas carol:

 

 

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1 Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming. German Carol, Public Domain.

 

 

Bravo!

 

“Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. King of kings and Lord of lords, and He shall reign forever and ever.”

—Revelation 19:6; 11:15

Most people will recognize the words in the Scripture verse above as the text of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. It has become a custom for those in the audience or congregation to rise to their feet and remain standing during the singing of this chorus from the oratorio. King George II, attending the first performance of this work in 1741, was so moved by the glorious music that he stood. The audience in the concert hall followed his example. Since that time, kings and commoners have stood in honor of the Lord God Omnipotent, who reigns over heaven and earth.

Whether we stand in honor of the King of Kings, or kneel before Him, echoing the words of the Prophet Isaiah, God spoke these words through the Apostle Paul, found in Philippians 2:9-11:

Therefore God exalted him [Jesus] to the highest place and gave him the name that is above very name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Especially in the culture of the United States, humans find bowing to anyone difficult. But to Americans, bowing before foreign kings and world leaders seems especially troubling because of their exalted place among men and, more often than not, their seeming lack of the kind of humility God will some day require from all of His creation. For an amazing story of a king whom God turned around, please study the story of King Nebuchadnezzar in these three chapters from Daniel 2 - 4.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the very large Kingdom of Babylon, thought so much of his own power that he had a 90‑foot‑tall statue of himself erected for all to worship. He boasted of his greatness and flew into a murderous rage at anyone refusing to bow before this representation of himself. But, God took Nebuchadnezzar through some phenomenal experiences and brought him to a place of genuine humility. Note this testimony of the king from Daniel 4:37:

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

We should humbly pray for world leaders that they, too, may recognize Jesus Christ as the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And, like King George II in 1741, honor Christ by standing, or kneeling before Him.

When you listen carefully to the famous “Hallelujah Chorus,” please hear within this piece a sense of the greatness of Christ’s power, the awesomeness of His loving reign, and the honor truly due Him from us all!

 

 

 

 

Gratitude Excites Humility

 

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”

—Daniel 4:37

Pride seems to erase gratitude. Have you ever thought about that? And the reverse seems true as well: gratitude seems to erase pride. How does that happen?

Scripture gives us a multitude of examples of people and nations filled with pride that God had to humble. For example in Ezekiel 28:17, God said to the city of Tyre:

Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.

Even Satan himself, filled with pride, heard these words from God recorded in Isaiah 14:13:

You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

We all have those things in our lives for which we are tempted to invest our pride. Whether it’s:

• “my body of work”
  
  
• “my family”
  
  
• “my home”
  
  
• “my beauty”
  
  
• “my talent”
  
  
• “my charming personality”
  
  
• “my something else.”
  
  

When we take personal credit, gloat over others, or try to impress others, we have taken those things that God has given us and turned them into objects of our own personal pride. We have forgotten that God is the source of every good and perfect gift in our lives.

Even countries, cities, and churches can become prideful about the wonderful things that have come their way through God’s grace. When I hear people talk about “American Exceptionalism,” I agree in part. But, I wish those who speak so pridefully of this characteristic of our nation would also recognize that God has “shed His grace on us.” As a nation, we have been extraordinarily blessed by Him. We simply cannot take sole credit for anything our nation has.

Can we feel pleasure in the things God has uniquely given us? Certainly. But, when that pleasure erupts into praise of self and a sense of willful pride, we have crossed a line. When sinful pride creeps into our thinking, we should step back, realize all God has done for us in creating us with gifts and abilities that He has chosen to give to us, and gratefully bow in worship before our great God. He gives us gifts of all sorts. And, He wants us to joyfully use them to glorify Him.

In our example of Nebuchadnezzar at the beginning of this blog post, we see a pagan king, who experienced the humbling of God, pausing to reflect on this powerful, righteous One. How much more should we daily acknowledge God’s work in us. We should take no credit. Instead, we should bow in grateful praise. Everything we have should be on display for God’s glory—not ours!