For Unto Us a Son is Given

 

This early Nativity scene dates to about 390 AD and was found on the Island of Naxos in the South Aegean. The capital city of Naxos is Hora.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

How Do You React to Adverse Circumstances?

 

Edward F. Lundwall Jr.

Some call being uncomfortably cold an intolerable circumstance, while others stand up to threatening situations. Some curse the adverse situation, and even God, yet others pray and trust God. I have observed both as an Army chaplain and a church pastor.

My brother-in-law saw the liberation of the Philippines Islands in WWII. He had been buried alive in a tunnel collapsed by enemy fire. His response was to commit himself to the Lord's service. He entered the Christian ministry.

Through prayer, the Lord saved my life by causing the enemy to destroy its own assault force. In reasoning with God, I got peace when I prayed that if I could glorify Him more by living than by dying that He would deliver me and our unit. Again, in desperate life-or-death circumstances, my former executive officer committed himself to God. He trusted Christ as his Savior and as a church pastor he has taught God’s Word for decades.

Critical circumstances are opportunities to trust God and receive blessings in one's spiritual life. The Apostle Paul wrote: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (James 1:2–4).

However, for those who resist God’s dealing with them and refuse to let adverse circumstances be a door to spiritual life and salvation, adverse circumstances often bring sickness, death, and eternal loss. “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)” (2 Corinthians 6:1– 2).

While our battalion was on location near Tay Nin, Viet Nam, the monsoon rains soaked us. One man came back with his buddies to the battalion fire support base, after a night on an ambush cite, chilled to the bone. I met him trying to get warm beside a fire in a sump, a bomb crater. Several other men were there, then Charlie Company commander sent another man and ordered us away because he said that sump fires can be dangerous. It was known that some lazy soldiers would throw mortar and artillery left over explosive charges in with the trash instead of burning them by safe procedures. I obeyed and walked away, but others stayed. After I had walked halfway across the fire support base, a huge blast erupted from the sump fire. I rushed back and found several men killed and wounded.

One particular man was laying on the side of the sump, both legs broken looking like a rag doll; his left arm was worse, with bones exposed, even so he was still conscious. I bent down and asked him if I could pray for him. He almost sat up and emphatically said: “NO!” I learned later that he had been taught that Protestant clergy were not to be trusted.

Later, one of his friends told me that just before he went to the sump fire, the man had railed at God for not stopping "this silly old rain and this silly old war!” Four days later, after both legs and his left arm were amputated, he died. He should have sought the Lord, for: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:” (Isaiah 55:6). For “. . . the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man . . .” (Genesis 6:3a).

Edward Lundwall Jr. is a retired Army Chaplain, endorsed by the GARBC, who first served as a home missionary with FBHM and then served as Chaplain 1967–1973. He now is a freelance writer. His books deal especially on Discipleship and the Local Church.

Rejoice While We Await His Return

Psalm 96:13 speaks of all creation rejoicing at the coming judgement. The idea of rejoicing and judgement are not usually connected in our minds, but they should be.

Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,

he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness

and the peoples in his faithfulness.

God is a just Judge who will set all things right. The enemies of God will be put under the feet of the Son of God. The dawning of the kingdom will bring a cessation of crime, wars, plagues, oppression, arrogant boasting, famine, poverty, false religion, false prophets, antichrists, mental illness, demonic activity, and aberrant behaviors.

Before His majesty all the earth will remain silent. 

Angels will bow and declare His holiness.

The living and the dead will receive the rewards of their deeds.

For the one who trusts in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ the coming judgement is not to be feared. By His Blood we are cleansed from unrighteousness and reconciled to God. The judgement promises peace!

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it…" (Isaiah 25:8-9)

That judgement is coming is certain. Christians are warned “in the last days perilous times shall come” (2 Timothy 3). Yet no amount of opposition to the Gospel can thwart the saving power of God.

We are not to dwell on this or to become entangled in speculation about the events of the last days. We have work to do until that Great Day of the Lord. We are to abide daily in God's Word and serve Him in obedience. 

We are to “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)

We are to "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

We are to discern the true Light and be diligent in testing the spirits. “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. (I John 4:2-3)

We are to love, especially those who have proven to belong to the Household of Faith. 

"Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24:12-13)

Related reading: Put Handles on Your Faith; A Prayer for Troubled Times

Meditation on the Holy Cross

 

Alice C. Linsley

On this day we honor or venerate the Holy Cross. Those who attend the liturgy will doubtless hear a sermon about how God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son to die for us. That is true.

Probably you will hear about the cross as an especially excruciating form of execution invented by the Romans. That is true. However, the efficacy of the Blood of Jesus does not rely on the existence of the Roman empire.

You may not hear about the power of the blood of Jesus to redeem, restore, heal, and reconcile. Sermons on the Blood of Jesus are now rarely heard in many liturgical churches.

Before he died at age 108, Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri left a signed note indicating Messiah's identity: Yeshua - Jesus. A few months before, Kaduri had surprised his followers when he told them that he met the Messiah in dreams and visions. Kaduri's manuscripts, written in his own hand, have crosses drawn all over the pages. You probably won't hear about that in a sermon either.

There is also the fact that humans buried their dead in red ocher dust, a symbolic blood covering, for over 100,000 years. Blood and the hope of life after dead were clearly linked in the minds of those "primitive" peoples.

The typical pulpit narrative makes it sound as if the Blood of Jesus Messiah had no power to redeem until the Roman empire came into existence. Not so with the Church Fathers who considered Eden's Tree of Life a prefiguring of the Cross. No so among the early Hebrew who anticipated Messiah's death and third day resurrection.

Not so upon a closer reading of the Scriptures! The cross symbol and its significance predate the Romans by thousands of years. 

What is the cross? It is two bars crossed. Most images of the Cross show a horizontal bar and a vertical bar. Where have we read of that in the Hebrew Scriptures, in texts from long before the Romans?

The blood of the Passover associated with Moses has a parallel in the blood symbolism of the scarlet cord associated with Rahab. The blood smeared horizontally on the doors brought salvation to Jacob's house. The cord hanging vertically from Rahab's window brought salvation to her house.  

Consider then that the cross invented by the Romans was no surprise to the Eternal God.

Related reading: On Blood and the Impulse to Immortality; Messiah's Sign in Creation; The Substance of Abraham's Faith

Four Dimensions of Christian Ministry

 

“And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Edward F. Lundwall, Jr.

The individual Christian and the Body of Christ experience growth through an attitude of ministry. Ministry is the privileged work of the Church. It involves:

1. Proclamation, initiation by baptism, and formation in the fundamentals of the Faith.

2. Discipleship that encourages Bible study, prayer, regular attendance at worship, and endurance in the face of conflict, persecution, and worldly pressures.

3. Protection of and provision for the world's needy: orphans, prisoners, the poor, the sick, the abandoned, etc.

4. All ministry should be motivated by the sinner's love of Jesus Christ who died for all. There is no place for ego, personal kingdom building, or exhibitionism.

Focus on these four areas of ministry builds up the individual and the Body of Christ. Clergy and church councils should make these a priority. 

Related reading: Put Handles on Your Faith; On God's Terms; Formed and Informed by the Bible

On God's Terms

 

Today many people consider all religions to be paths to God and all beliefs to be of equal authority. However, we come to God on God's terms or not at all.

What are those terms?

1. Recognition of our sinfulness and need for redemption.

"For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."  (Romans 3:22b-25)

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 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." (Ephesians 2:5-9)

People do not want to believe because they do not want to give up sin. They prefer to argue with God in attempts to justify their sin. Yet God has pronounced that the penalty of sin is death. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)

2. Acceptance of our need for spiritual cleansing and deliverance from slavery to fleshly desires. 

Peter told the crowd to repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:1-3)

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2)

3. Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Baptism represents agreement to God's terms and personal acceptance of a calling to love and serve as Christ loves and serves.

This is the mark of one who has entered into the fellowship of the Apostles who were commissioned to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20)

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

4. A commitment to grow through fellowship with the Faithful, obedience to the Word, and righteous accountability.

The love that pleases the Lord is expressed in obedience to his word. 

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3)

Related reading: Put Handles on Your Faith; Formed and Informed by the Bible; God's Provisions for Victory

Put Handles on Your Faith

 

Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Ephesians 6:13)

The Apostle Paul urges Christians to put on spiritual armor and to take up the sword of the Spirit. The armor passage from Ephesians 6 is familiar to most Christians. Pastor Ed Lundwall wonders if some people are carrying swords without handles?

Image trying to use an ax or a sword without a handle. Handles make those "handy" and effective implements. 

God has provided the Christian with several handles that help us grow in the faith, stand firm against opposition, and defend ourselves against attacks by the evil one.

The first handle is faith that justifies. This sort of faith brings the mind, body, and spirit into harmony through submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the faith that regards God's promises as certain. 1 John 5:4b reminds us that “this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.”

The second handle is the Holy Spirit that directs, encourages, and preserves the follower of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4:30 states that we have been sealed for the day of redemption in the Holy Spirit.

The third handle is the Holy Scriptures which instruct, exhort, and correct the person of faith. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Related reading: God's Provisions for Victory; A Disciple's Guide to Bible Study; Formed and Informed by the Bible; Expect Opposition: Stand Firm!; The Faith that Overcomes

Predestination and Choice

 

Edward F. Lundwall, Jr.

Since the time of the early Church writers, choice has been upheld in tension with the biblical teaching of predestination. The writings of Augustine inform our understanding of how personal choice and predestination relate to each other. 

Augustine's writings reflect his early spiritual rebellion and conversion. As a youth, he was a Romanized North African “bad boy.” However, his Christian mother constantly prayed for him. Then he was completely “converted” and became one of the leading figures of the early Church. His conversion may be spoken of as predestined, but it still involved choice, in fact, many choices.

Christians who worry about whether they are predestined could learn from Augustine's spiritual journey. Everyone needs to hear an evangelistic message preached to experience conversion, even the predestined. One neighbor, a Primitive Baptist, said that they just spent their time trying to see if they were predestined to be an “elect.”

In his treatise “The City of God” Augustine contends that the nation of Israel sinned away its salvation and lost its covenant blessings, and that all these have been given to the Church. Many Church Fathers held a similar "replacement" or "supersessionist" view.

In the supersessionist view, the people of “the new covenant” (Christians) replace the people of “the old covenant” (Jews) as the people of God. Early texts used to support this view include the Epistle of Barnabas and Hebrews 8.

However, God is anxious that all should be saved and the old covenant versus new covenant dichotomy does not hinder the Holy Spirit from drawing yearning hearts to their Creator and Savior. The author of the book of Hebrews recognizes saints who lived before the Covenant with Israel: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Heb. 11).

Hebrews 11:6 makes this clear: "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Noah had a choice to obey, being "warned by God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” (Heb. 11:6, 7) 

Those who believe God's promises and receive the Holy Spirit, are predestined to adoption through Jesus Christ, "according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:5, 6)

Predestination relates to one's status before God. Choice opens the door to blessings and salvation.

Related reading: All Need to Repent; Forgiveness and Restoration; God's Forgiveness Must Bring Forth Fruit; Calvin and Predestination

The Crucified Lifestyle

Edward F. Lundwall, Jr.

Jesus said to his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

It is one thing to embrace a concept, but it is another to practice it as a lifestyle. Belonging to Christ requires following Him according to His Word (John 10:27) and patterning one's life after his servanthood.

He gave his life for the world, an ultimate act of service. Those who follow Him must also give their lives in service to others. This means setting aside selfish behaviors, denying the impulse to impress others, showing compassion to the suffering, and attending to the material needs of those in want. The crucified lifestyle involves dying to the sinful nature and replacing it with the life Jesus offers. 

The crucified lifestyle is not another legalistic work, but the exchange of the corrupting ways of the old life for the life of the Spirit that dwells within. Paul strikes the contrast: "for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger." (Romans 2:8) Galatians 5:21 says "that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Our sinful ways bring much pain if not restrained. Those who come to love Jesus discover that He is the way of life. Jesus said: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10b).

All life finds its expression gradually, from crying for its mother’s milk to becoming an adult. We are continually learning, practicing, and adjusting choices.

Each phase of life has its own functions and desires and must be trained, that is, brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. Our rebellious nature resists replacement by the life Jesus Christ offers. To live the new life requires a crucified experience. The cross brings death in a most humiliating way. 1 Peter 5:6 says, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."

“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13)

Lucifer deceives Eve and uses her to make Adam join her in disobedience against God's command. The result is death, for sin brings death. Paul expresses the angst of our condition: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24)

God in love gives a means of redemption in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Through Him alone we are able to exchange the old life for the new. It is God's will that each “be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:23-25)

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Related reading: His Power Within You; Exchanging the Old for the New; Confirm His Calling

A Call to Renewal

The Christmas star lighted the wise men’s hearts
showing the way to Bethlehem’s stall
to view the newborn King.

They honored Him with their treasures,
gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
We honor Him for setting us free from sin.

Let us seek the Eternal One,
His life to receive
that in the joy of His presence
we may worship Him in wonder and praise.

As they of long ago shared the glorious news
that Christ the King has come 

we too rejoice that He will come again.

May the Lord who sent angels 
to humble shepherds in a field
and a star for wise men to guide,

call us at this holy season to behold Jesus anew,
and offer treasures from hearts in which He dwells.

Edward F. Lundwall, Jr.

Epiphany 2022