Advent Reflections, #3: Wonderful Counselor

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us…And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor.” Isaiah 9:6

Hundreds of years before the advent of Jesus the prophet Isaiah gave word of his coming.  He said that the child to be born, the child upon whom the weight of the everlasting government would rest upon, would be a wonderful counselor.

As we look upon the child Jesus and reflect upon Isaiah’s words, what does it mean that the wonderful counselor laid there in a manager?

A counselor skillfully helps people to see the truth, helps them evaluate life and circumstance, giving them truth and through the truth brings freedom.  Now in a clinical setting the truth may be skilled advice, it may be skilled observation, it may be a number of things, but the goal is to bring about healing and freedom. 

It what ways did Jesus do this? 

Why did God send a counselor? 

How do we see this in the events of the incarnation?

I believe that there were specific things in the culture and religious status quo of the first century that Jesus’ life came to bring truth to.  While Jesus would show himself as counselor throughout his journey to the cross I think we can see many truths displayed in the event of the incarnation.  These are a bit general, but I’m sure these would have had a profound practical and contemporary impact to those living in His time; these truths carry that impact to us today.

Nearness

The incarnation screams of the Lord’s desire for nearness to His people.  Any thought or idea of Him being far off or indifferent was immediately and utterly destroyed when God became a helpless babe.

Regard for the Lowly

We see in the incarnation the Lord’s regard for the lowly.  Christ may have come as a wealthy king or even a opulent child, but he chose to come to a obscure family, to be born in obscure conditions wrapped in some rags, set in a feed trough.  There was no trumpeting of his coming on the night of his birth, only to the overlooked shepherds were shown the glory of what occurred that night.

God’s Word is True

In the Babe of Bethlehem we see and receive encouragement that God’s Word is true.  That night the word of God was fulfilled and in the coming days and years of the life of Christ the Word would continue to be fulfilled.  Scriptures came to life that night, meaning not yet seen became illuminated and the glory of God is seen in a deeper way.  He will fulfilled every word, and do everything he has set to do.

During this season of contemplating the advent, may the Wonderful Counselor lead us to all truth and enlighten our eyes to see more of His beauty.

**This post is a follow up of sorts to Advent Reflections, #1: Isa. 9 **

Advent Reflections, #2: Judas

“He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”” Luke 22:47-48

Judas.

I was a bit surprised when I began to think about him recently as I was considering advent.  What does Judas have to do with the incarnation?  Well nothing as far as specifics go, but if you take a step back and look at the whole Christ’s life, the image of Judas’ kiss is striking.  Jesus’ life, his birth, is leading to this betrayal and ultimately his death. 

The end informs our view of the beginning.

Jesus was born to be betrayed.

This idea has been walking with me the last several days.  When Jesus came, he came near.  He didn’t come to a life of comfort, didn’t come to a ‘successful’ life.  Think about it.  In the eyes of man as Christ hung on the cross his life work was a flop.  Betrayed by one of his own, died a cursed man’s death.  Denied, abandoned by nearly everyone close to him.  If we were to evaluate his leadership by these final days of his life, we’d find it faulty.  Yet, we can’t view the events of his life in isolation; we know the truth and we trust in the glory of his resurrection.  Still the lowliness and foolishness of the path Jesus led is impacting me anew.  Oh what love possessed this man! 

I set my eyes upon the Babe of Bethlehem and wonder at the child born to be betrayed.

Advent Reflections, #1: Isa. 9

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given….and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

Well it’s advent season.  That means trying to put in some concentrated time in the Word to focus upon the incarnation.  I’ve found it to be beneficial in this time to get into the story, to get into the humanity of the entire event.  Who are these people?  What is God doing for the people in the time of the first advent? 

It’s necessary to rise above the various theological concepts associated with the coming of Christ and to dive deep into the rawness of it all.  It’s far more difficult to think of the people, how they felt, what they thought, who they were, than to simply glance over it all as a nice Christmas story.

I want God to touch my heart in a deep meaningful way, so an corresponding approach to reading the Word is required.

Today I’ve been reading Isaiah 9.  Isaiah talks of the people in the time of Christ’s first coming as being those who ‘walk in darkness’ and ‘dwell in a land of deep darkness’ and I was struck by the names of the child to be born king in v. 6, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.’  There are any number of identities Christ embodied that the Lord may have chosen to highlight through Isaiah, but he chose these four.  The Lord saw the people, His people, and out of love he sent them a man who embodied these four identities specifically.  I have not in the past viewed these names of Christ as a response, a ministry to the specific people of the first century, but it is a beautiful reminder of His nearness. 

He sees, hears, and responds to mankind not arbitrarily, but intentionally.   

It seems to me that each one of these specific identities is deserving of deeper reflection as we seek the Lord Jesus during advent.

A Responsive Heart-Mary and Joseph

I have been spending much of my devotional time in Luke 1 and 2 for several weeks now and have been asking the Lord why He chose Mary and Joseph to be the parents of Jesus.

What qualities did they exude making them worthy to be the parents of Jesus?

What type of people were they?

What kind of decisions did they make?

These along with many other inquiries I have brought to the Holy Spirit, and honestly I haven’t got much of an answer or much insight at all. We don’t have an abundance of information into their lives, actually we have relatively no information, yet what we do have has pointed me to a simple yet significant quality which their son Jesus is very fond of.

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” Luke 9:62

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26

Mary and Joseph both had remarkably responsive hearts to the call of the Lord.  When we read about the events surrounding the incarnation it is easy to glance over the words and not take the time to look into the difficulties of the situations and decisions they were faced with.  It is easy not to take the time to realize the emotional, practical, financial, familial, and social ramifications of the decisions they were making for the child Jesus.  In the several events found in Matthew 1 & 2 and Luke 1 & 2, the willingness of their hearts is truly astounding.  They were able to hear to command of God and respond with a resounding ‘yes’ even though it would mean hardship for them.  I cherish seeing the willingness of Mary to bear the child Jesus and the willingness of Joseph to believe in faith, not divorce Mary, and become a father to this first born son.  These events and the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem are my favorite, yet I want to draw your attention to another.

“behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child and destroy him.” Luke 2:13

Now I don’t know how many times I have read over this story and not seen the realities of this situation.  Mary and Joseph are still in Bethlehem away from their home in Nazareth, and Lord gives them warning to flee to Egypt because Herod is going to kill all the male children in the region.  This is no light matter, we’re talking about a genocide of every male child under 2 years old.  Can you imagine the trust the Father had in this young couple by allowing them to bear the safety of His son Jesus during this time of trouble.  So Joseph takes the family and makes another move to Egypt, which is at least a several days journey from Bethlehem.  Another new town, new people, no home, and no work.  Granted they were fleeing from genocide, but the only warning Joseph had was from a dream, yet his heart was ready to say yes to the call no matter what the cost or circumstance.

This is ultimately where my attention is drawn.  Like I said, we don’t know much about Mary and Joseph, but we can see they knew how to say yes to anything and everything the Lord commanded them.  The quality of a responsive heart is one that the Lord esteems throughout the Scriptures and in the case above, Joseph’s willingness meant the survival of Jesus.  This boy would then grow up into the man who taught us that if we aren’t willing to give up everything, even our own lives, then we are not worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is clear Mary and Joseph were exactly the kind of people Jesus was talking about.

May we look at the events found in these pages of Scripture and see the type of life Jesus esteems and desires for us to live.  May we be filled with love for Jesus that would enable us to forsake all for His name, and may the Holy Spirit fill us with such grace to face any and every circumstance while still keeping Jesus as our priority.

Seeing Jesus Rightly-Simeon

The past few days I have been struck by the depth of revelation that Simeon had concerning Jesus’ ministry.

“And his father and mother marveled at what was said about him.  And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through you own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” Luke 2:33-35

Not only does Simeon recognize that Jesus is the Lord’s Christ, but He then says some remarkable things about what Jesus will do.  I am not extremely knowledgable about messianic expectation, but I am fairly sure most would not have thought about the messiah as someone bringing about the fall of many in Israel, or as someone with a sign that would be opposed.  Yet, as we know from seeing the life of Jesus through the gospels, he is far from the political, militant, or governmental leader many expected the messiah to be.  His ministry did exactly as Simeon said,  Jesus loved the unloved and rebuked the religious hierarchy.  The men who were thought to be the most righteous are seen plotting to kill Jesus while the sinners are becoming the greatest disciples.  There are also many instances in the gospels where the people responded with anger even violence towards Jesus after He would preach.  He truly revealed the thoughts of their hearts!

When reading these statements made by Simeon, I am moved to have that kind of revelation concerning Jesus.  I want to see Jesus not as the world would see Him, or even as the majority of the church would see Him……I want to see Jesus for who He really is.  I want to think rightly about Jesus and His ministry, what He did, what He’s doing, and what He is going to do, because I know the more I see of Jesus the more I am going to fall in love with Him.  Jesus is beautiful and I want to see His beauty!

Something I love about this section of Luke 2 is I believe Luke gives us a glimpse into the type of lifestyle that cultivates the ability to see Jesus rightly.  As Simeon is having this interaction with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, another woman comes onto the scene by the name of Anna, who also recognizes Jesus as the Christ, worships God, and begins to proclaim His coming to the people of Jerusalem.  Now we do not get to see what she said, but we do get to see the type of lifestyle she lead, enabling her to see Jesus as the Christ and respond with adoration and bold proclamation.

“She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Luke 2:37-38

I believe this insight into Anna’s life is an absolute gift from God.  Reading earlier in the passage we know Anna led this kind of life for something like 60 years, and I know from personal experience it could not have been easy.  Yet, the result of leading a life centered around worshiping God through fasting and prayer night and day is seeing Jesus with eyes wide open!  May we, like Anna, order our lives in a way that would give us the ability to see Jesus rightly and speak of Him like Simeon did.  May the Holy Spirit release in us grace to live a lifestyle centered around ‘worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day’, that we might see the glorious beauty of the man, our God, and the lover of our souls, Jesus Christ.

**Note: I’m planning on launching the Our Ministry and Vision page on here    Feb. 1…keep an eye out for it!**

Help My Unbelief-Zechariah

A few days ago as I was reading through the birth narrative in Luke 1 and 2 I asked myself the question, “Would I have responded the same as Zechariah to Gabriel’s news?

“I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.  And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” Lk. 1:19

What struck my heart was this…if I were honest, I would have responded very similar to the way Zechariah responded.  “How shall I know this?  For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”  This realization pained my heart because I want to see Jesus, hear His words, and believe.  Here is reality, everyday we have a greater experience than that of Zechariah, for in this instance it was only an angel that was before him and when we open our Bibles and enter into prayer, who stands before us is far greater than Gabriel, it’s Jesus Christ our God.  Granted Zechariah’s experience was superficially more dramatic than our day to day, yet Jesus is our reality and not only is He standing before us in His word, He is living in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

When I come before Jesus, my desire is for my heart to respond in love.  Love is believing and I want to hear and believe.  Yet, many times my initial response to things of God is to approach with my mind first, figuring out the all inner-workings, and then second allowing the realities of Scripture to impact my heart in faith.  This approach many of us take is completely backwards and results in our initial response being similar to that of Zechariah, namely doubt and skepticism.  Our hearts are left standing at a distance from Jesus rather than running to Him with abandon.

Zechariah went into the Holy Place, encountered God and found the initial response of his heart to be doubt.  May we, as we come before the Holy One Jesus Christ in His word and in prayer, come with our hearts filled with love and adoration, eager to see and believe that we might draw ever closer to Him.  May we value the words of Jesus above than the reason of our minds.