God's Love Up Close

"And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins." ²² So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ²³ "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."

Matthew 1:21-23

The almighty God revealed in the Bible is unique from all other gods and people in how personal He is.  He did not remain unseen and unknown in a place far away but chose to draw near to sinful man in the person of Jesus Christ.  People who fear God in both the Old and New Testament knew God was with them--even when He did not assume any physical form--by the amazing deliverances and salvation He wrought and fulfillment of His promises.  When the virgin Mary gave birth to a son in Bethlehem, God kept His word to visit His people in person and provide peace to all people.

Everyone who met with Jesus during His life on earth experienced God's divine love up close.  Jesus was not content to only become a human being who lived on earth, but He was pleased to do all the dirty work of rubbing shoulders with lost humanity in person.  He discussed matters of the Law with the experts who lacked knowledge of God in truth, and He touched people (even lepers!) when He healed them.  He took a dead girl by the hand and raised her to life!  There are rulers and celebrities today with bodyguards who will not allow themselves to be touched by anyone, but Jesus allowed Himself to be touched as well.  He immersed Himself in the lives of others to show God's love, and ultimately demonstrated it by dying for the sins of the world on Calvary.

The church is referred to in the New Testament as the body of Christ of which Jesus is the Head (1 Cor. 12:27).  Though Jesus ascended alive into heaven 40 days after His resurrection, the church is comprised of born again Christians who are filled with the Holy Spirit.  The church is more than Christ's fan club but many members united as a single organism that is divinely ordained and empowered to do God's will until He returns.  It is by fellowship with the church and connection with the lives of Christians where the love of God can still be seen today up close.  Jesus said in John 13:35, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

John 3:16 explains because God loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him will not perish but has eternal life.  While this is powerful and true, we may not always feel like God is personal or close.  Since Christians are united with other believers in the church by faith in Jesus, we have the incredible blessing to see God's love up close through our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We also have the opportunity to be a source of God's love and grace to others because of the Holy Spirit who indwells us.  How blessed we are to be known and loved by Jesus our Saviour, and may all who interact with us realise He lives because of His love up close in us.

Our Awesome God

One awesome quality of God is His sovereignty and immaculate plans only He could possibly conceive and accomplish.  While we try to do our best with our scraps of intelligence and limited ability, He brings into existence what could not be foreseen or predicted.  The birth of Samson is one of those moments in history when God was working to do what His people could not even dream was possible in an unlikely, improbable way.

During their marriage, Manoah and his wife had been unable to have children.  This suggests they desired children, did everything in their power to have a child, but as time wore on they were unsuccessful.  One day the wife of Manoah was met by an angel of the LORD who told her she would have a son who would begin to deliver the children of Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, a people who had oppressed them 40 years.  It is remarkable that Manoah and his wife were well aware of their present inability to even fall pregnant, much less deliver Israel from the Philistines!  Their own personal struggles likely overshadowed the plight of their nation God intended to deliver by their son who was not yet conceived.

Where there was only inability, emptiness and barrenness, God purposed to raise up a deliverer to save His people.  The second time the angel of the LORD appeared Manoah feared they would be struck dead because they had seen God, yet his wife wisely responded in Judges 13:23:  "But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time."  Consider all God has spoken to us in the Bible concerning the future and how to presently order our lives in the way that pleases Him.  God has chosen to allow His redeemed people to remain on earth so His plans, purposes and salvation would be accomplished through us--despite our inability to do anything.

Regardless of our season of life on earth, God reveals enough for us to take the next step of faith in obedience to Him.  We are the overwhelmed and ignorant; we are the helpless and barren, yet God plans to work His wonders, deliverance and salvation through us.  God's answer to our prayers is not only for our sakes but to accomplish His purposes concerning our nation in the years to come.  Praise be to God who only does awesome things, who instructs and prepares us for what we never could have dreamed or foreseen that He will make reality by His grace and goodness.

The Legacy of Glory

"The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools."

Proverbs 3:35

There is a desire in the hearts of men to be well-thought of and long remembered, and this is seen even in lives of self-serving people who did not fear God.  Absalom the son of David could easily be numbered among such people, for 2 Samuel 18:18 tells us:  "Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillar for himself, which is in the King's Valley. For he said, "I have no son to keep my name in remembrance." He called the pillar after his own name. And to this day it is called Absalom's Monument."  The proverb spoken by the wisdom of God proved true, for Absalom's infamous insurrection that ended with his death and being cast into an unmarked grave only brought himself and his memory shame.

A legacy is what a person leaves behind for others, something that imparts a positive or negative impact that remains long after the person is gone.  As Absalom's case demonstrates, both the foolish and wise are considerate of how they will be remembered after their days on earth are brought to an end.  It is a good thing to consider:  will your legacy be one of shame?  What this passage shows us is better than leaving a rich legacy to others is to be one who inherits glory by faith in God.  The wise, whom Jesus identified as those who hear His words and obey them, are God's legacy and inheritance.  When we are born again He chooses to allow us to remain on earth for a season as a testimony of His love and power to save for the benefit of others, and He has also chosen us as His everlasting inheritance in glory.

Whilst Christians can have a bad rap for their imperfections (as if those who criticise are any better), followers of Jesus Christ have many admirable qualities due to our heavenly Father.  The love, grace and goodness of our LORD Jesus covers and cleanses us of our many transgressions and sins, and our God begins to refine us day by day to be more like Him.  How blessed we are by the legacy left behind of godly men and women who expended their lives in faithful service to the LORD day by day, an inspiration that encourages us to press on as they did through many trials, persecutions and troubles.

All have sinned, yet the wise who follow Jesus need not have a legacy of shame as the fools.  Many people have heard the Good News of the Gospel and given it no heed, and in the eternal state they will look back upon their calloused hearts and minds with shame.  People who can recite the Gospel as easily as lyrics from a popular song have not been saved or transformed by the Gospel, and it will not be God or "hypocritical" Christians but only themselves who are to blame.  Those who place their faith in Jesus can be assured of inheriting glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools--regardless how much they accomplish, acquire or leave behind to others.  The world is enriched by Christ more than they know through His legacy of Christians who have died and those still living.  While the world may take Christ for granted, may we live for His glory today.

A Prepared Sacrifice

This morning at church the martyr Polycarp was mentioned in the sermon, a man who was blameless in the eyes of others and accepted death by wild beasts or flames rather than deny Jesus Christ the LORD.  God had been good to him for his 86 years of life:  how could he deny God?  Unlike convicted criminals who were terrified of dying and did everything in their power to evade the execution of justice, Polycarp wore martyrdom as a privileged crown.  Like Jesus before him who had done no wrong, Polycarp did not resist evil.  He did not protest or rail against the injustice he suffered that would cut his life short.  Rather than being nailed to the stake, he offered to stand against it willingly by the power of God who gave him strength..

After being led to the stake, Polycarp prayed before many witnesses:  "O Father of thy well-beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have attained the knowledge of thee, the God of angels and powers, and of every creature, and of all just men which live before thee, I give thee thanks that thou hast vouchsafed to grant me this day, that I may have my part among the number of the martyrs in the cup of Christ, unto the resurrection of eternal life, both of body and soul, through the operation of thy Holy Spirit; among whom I shall this day be received into thy sight for an acceptable sacrifice: and as thou hast prepared and revealed the same before this time, so thou hast accomplished the same, O thou most true God, which canst not lie. Wherefore I in like case for all things praise thee, and bless thee, and glorify thee by our ever lasting Bishop, Jesus Christ, to whom be glory evermore. Amen."

Polycarp prayed to a God he knew was in complete control and had orchestrated the circumstances of his impending death even as Jesus had gone to the cross.  While the purpose of Jesus going to the cross was different--providing atonement for lost sinners and a demonstration of God's love for lost humanity--Polycarp's death for his faith in Jesus would bring glory to His LORD who died for Him.  Polycarp so loved God he praised Him for the opportunity to die for Christ's sake, really a gift in his eyes, to have prepared and provided him the means of blessing the LORD in a new way:  by fire.  Polycarp's embrace of death was not insanity, for he had been granted eternal life by faith in Jesus.

The testimony of Polycarp remains a curiosity for those who do not know God and an inspiration to all who do.  Praise the LORD He is sovereign over all and has prepared us and provided good works for us to do every day--not just to go out in a blaze for God's glory.  Ephesians 2:10 says of believers, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. "  To lay down your life for Jesus' sake in martyrdom is a good work, and to live for Him every day is a great privilege too, for He divinely enables to walk in the path Jesus guides and strengthens us.  As we present ourselves as living sacrifices to God, we are prepared for every good work until our lives on earth end.