Author: TimMaynard

Christmas Gifts – Day 22

Hopefully by now your Christmas shopping is about wrapped up (corny pun INTENDED).  I’ve often thought about the person who wrote the Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas.  If you add up the number of gifts sung about in the song, you would see there are 364 gifts! 

Someone has said that Christmas is that time of year when you buy presents you can’t afford, for people you don’t like, to impress people you don’t know.  Hopefully your Christmas giving is not going to be that cynical! 
But the gifts we give are important.  We want the person to know they are loved.  We don’t give expecting to get back an equal or better gift.  Truly the best Christmases I remember are those when I had a gift to give that was so meaningful and given in so much love that I literally could not wait for the privilege to share it!
That’s what the wise men did.  They traveled from afar bearing gifts from their homeland.  If we estimate the time of their journey correctly, they traveled two years to bring their gifts to the newborn King!  That’s some long road trip.  (see Matthew 2:1-12)
But there was no hint that they gave their gifts in selfishness or with resentment for what they had to go through to get to the house where Jesus was.  They opened their gifts gladly, carefully deciding who got to approach the manger first. 
A missionary teacher shared the story of a student who traveled on foot for two days to bring her a Christmas gift.  While he didn’t fully understand what Christmas was about, he carefully crafted a clay candle holder for her gift, and then began walking.  When he arrived, hungry and weary from the trip, she gently scolded him for coming so far to present the gift.  He said something she never forgot:  “I came because I love you.  The journey was part of the gift.” 
And at Christmas, we hear the Father whisper the same to us.
Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)
 
FOR REFLECTION:  Think of the most meaningful Christmas present you ever received.  Thank God for the person who loved you enough to give it.

Christmas Gifts – Day 21

Of all the gifts of Christmas, light is one of the greatest.  We all know the relief of walking out of a dark room into the light, or out of a dark night into the warmth of light in our home.  Some know the experience of walking out of a dark and hopeless season of life into the light. 
And maybe you are yet to find your way to that gift.  American astronomer and astrologist Carl Sagan spoke of our predicament in this way:  “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great, enveloping cosmic dark.”  It reminds us of the words of Isaiah who wrote of “people who walked in darkness….”  This darkness of which the prophet spoke is not simply the absence of a candle.  It was a depth of spiritual gloom that enveloped the world. 
For some who read these words, an “enveloping darkness” just about describes life for you.  Many feel a gloom and pessimism about the world that steals our hope and robs our joy.  Again to quote Sagan, “In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” 
How do we “save ourselves from ourselves?”  Isaiah continues, “The people who walked in darkness have seen A GREAT LIGHT!”  A light has come!  Dawn has cracked the darkness open.  “For unto us a child is born…..!”  And now light has come to scatter our darkness….hope has come to dissolve our despair.  Joy to the world, THE LORD HAS COME.
And so, though we often try to light up Christmas, it is really Christmas that lights US!  We have the light within us.  The light of the knowledge of Who was in that manger…that light is a gift that needs to be shared.  You didn’t receive it to keep it, but to give it away.
A world that thinks no help will come from elsewhere to save us needs the light you have.  The light has come at Christmas.
Go light your world.
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The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.  (Isaiah 9:2)
 
FOR REFLECTION:  Find a candle, light it and pray for a person you know who is walking in darkness.  As you blow it out, remember what it was like to “walk in darkness.”

 

Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See – Day 20

On December 17th of 1903 the Wright Brothers made history as they first flew in an airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.   The world has changed as a result of their amazing feat, as Orville manned the airplane for a twelve second flight.  Wilbur rushed immediately to the nearest telegraph office, and sent the exciting message, “Have flown for 12 seconds. Will be home for Christmas.”  Receiving the message, their sister Katherine rushed to the local newspaper office with the exciting report from her brothers.  She told the editor of their accomplishment and said they would be home December 19th if he would like to set up an interview.  He said he would put something in the paper about this.  On December 19th, the newspaper had a small paragraph with the following headline:  Wright Brothers to Be Home for Christmas.

How could anyone be so blind?  The most important message of the year… the decade…  perhaps of the century and the editor missed it.  But let’s be honest.  How many of us miss Christmas the same way?

The trees are ready, the special recipes prepared to cook, the presents bought and wrapped.  By now the stress and strain of Christmas has begun to sink in.  The tinsel and decorations are wearing thin and the rounds of festivities and parties is wearing us out.  And Christmas comes and Christmas goes in many of our lives and in some of our homes without mention of the One whose birth we celebrate.

How could we miss it?  How much clearer could God have made it?  And yet, the same thing happened that first Christmas:  “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.”  The message came, but other things took precedence… business had to be conducted, supper cooked, clothes cleaned, animals fed, fires stoked.  “HE came…” and they missed it.
How could they, we wonder?  More to the point:
How can we?
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He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.  But to as many as received Him to  them He gave the right to become children of God.  (John 1:14)
FOR REFLECTION:  What is one thing you can do to make certain you personally don’t miss the real reason for Christmas this year?

Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See – Day 19

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8  )  God doesn’t change.  His essential nature (“morphe”… see Day 18)  has always been and will always be God.  But in the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity, the Word made flesh… Jesus;  though being in “morphe” God (see Philippians 2:6), did not consider God-equality something to be clung to but made Himself nothing, and taking on Himself the form of a servant and being made in likeness of man….”  (Philippians 2:7)  And there we encounter the second word that will deepen our thinking about the incarnation.

“The likeness of man” translates a word having to do with shape or external appearance.  The word is “schema” which is the origin of the English words “scheme” or “schematic.”  Jesus, you remember from our devotional yesterday, has the essential, unchanging nature of God (“morphe”) but He also possessed the external “schema” (shape or likeness) of man.  His morphe never changed.  His schema (external appearance) changed radically from embryo, to fetus, to preschooler, to toddler, to adolescent, to young adult, to adult….just as our external appearance changes and yet we continue to be human beings through all those changes.

Now I know this is deeper than we may want to go, but we must try and get a glimpse of what our Savior experienced so that we may know something that is hopeful.  He knew what being human meant.  He wasn’t playing a game when He walked among us as the God-man.  He really hurt.  He really cried.  He really lived.  And He really died.  We can know He is never far from any of us, never distant.  Always as near as our call to Him….as our need for Him.

And we need to see Him for Who He is.  “Why should the eye be so lazy? Let us exercise the eye until it learns to see,” said GK Chesterton.  Let us use our eyes until we can see past the superficial, past the piled up layers of unreality, past the Photoshop portrayals and into the reality of the mystery of the Word made flesh.

Then, and only then, will we really see Christmas….and Jesus for Who He is.
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“Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has been told us.”  (Luke 2:15)
FOR REFLECTION:   Take a moment now, as your day begins or ends, to close your eyes and see with eyes of faith.  What is God leading you to see that your physical eyes cannot?

Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See – Day 18

Sometimes it’s hard to see the true value of a person or of anything really if we allow the externals to distract us.  This is why, I believe, we are told to “judge nothing by externals.”  And why in the Old Testament story of the choosing of David to be Israel’s king, God told the prophet Samuel, “I do not look at things as man sees them.  For man looks at the external.  I look at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

It seems as though God made it abundantly certain that we would have to look hard to see Jesus in the flesh of Mary’s baby.  The externals of “humanity” and the status of “humility” blocked our ability to truly see Jesus for Who He was in His eternal nature.

There are two words in the Philippians hymn of incarnation (Philippians 2:6-11) that help us to clarity this issue.  The English language, while popular around the world, is actually not as rich and textured as the common Greek the in which the New Testament was written.

For instance, when the text tells us that Jesus, “though being in the form of (morphe) God.”  That word “morphe” is where we find our English word “morph” or “morphology.”  It means “the essence of something that never changes.”  For instance, you are a human being.  Your essential being, your “morph” is human.  No matter how your outer person changes, your “morphe” never does.

Likewise when Jesus came to Earth as a baby in the incarnation, He still continued in His essential nature, His “morphe,” to be Deity.  That was something about Jesus that never changed though His outer appearance did.

I have in my office a camel skin cane that was given to me as a gift from the mission field.  It is intricately woven on the outside, and curved at the top.  It is built around a cork/wood core.  But what you can’t see by looking at it is the sharpened sword blade inside it.  It was shaped by a craftsman for a Somali warlord.  So the question I sometimes ask is, “Is this a cane or is this a sword?”  Practically, it’s both cane and sword.  But its creator determined what it was to be: a sword disguised as a cane to surprise and kill an enemy.

Jesus always was and continued to be God (and continues to BE God) in His eternal essence, His “morphe.”  Is He what we can see, or really what we cannot? ________________________________________________________________________
“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them.  People judge by outward  appearance but the Lord judges the heart.”  (1 Samuel 16:7)
FOR REFLECTION:  Is there something you should repent of because you passed a judgement based on externals?

Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See – Day 17

I know, I know.  It messes with our nativity sets and our Christmas cards when we allow the truth of the Christmas story to seep through.  Our Mary and Joseph portrayals are often too old… and too white.  The holy family probably did not have halos around their heads, nor did the baby Jesus.

And the wise men?  Well there were not necessarily just three.  We know there was more than one (wise “MEN”), but we don’t know if they arrived on camels or horses.  Camels are certainly more exotic; horses more practical for longer distances.  I actually sat on a camel once… wouldn’t want to cross the desert on one!  They do look cool on our nativity scenes, though, but then so did my son’s plastic Godzilla when he occasionally appeared.

But we do know this.   They were perhaps not wise in how they went about the search for Jesus.  I can only credit their lack of knowledge of Herod and his insanity with their coming right into the lions den… looking for the baby born to be his replacement!  Herod was driven mad with jealousy over this child born “king of the Jews!”

We do know that  the wise men (magi) from the east did not appear in the story of Jesus until he was at least two years of age.  (see Matthew 2:16)  They came to the house (in Nazareth) to worship Him and bring their gifts.  And after they left, Herod madly set out to search for the male child, born within the past two years, and slaughtered every child in the area in an effort to destroy his competition before he became old enough to rule.

No one can imagine with accuracy the depth and length our spiritual enemy will stoop to destroy the image of the Christ child.   It is a reality that all who bear that image drive him to jealousy and rage.  He is intent to stamp out the image of the One who, at the cross, crushed his head as God promised in Genesis 3:15.  Satan is a defeated foe because of Jesus.

The wise men went home a different way.   An angel appeared and warned them not to return to Herod.  And so, the Gospel tells us, “they went home a different way.”  That’s about more than geography.  That is a clear statement that their meeting with Jesus changed them.  They saw salvation… hope personified… Divine love in the person of a child. And it changed them.  They went home a different way.

And when you meet Jesus, you will, too!


And going into the house they saw the child with Mary His mother and they fell down and  worshiped Him.  (Matthew 2:11)

FOR REFLECTION:  Ask God to help your worship this year to transform you.

Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See – Day 16

Deity in diapers. This was how Max Lucado described the reality of the incarnation.  How do we even wrap our minds around that concept?  The baby that laid in the manger… made the manger?  More than that… He created the mother who bore Him and the carpenter who raised Him!

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed

The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.

How do we come away from Christmas with anything but amazement…unless we haven’t been looking.  How did an entire village miss the entry of the Son of God onto the earth, into our time zone?  For them, I believe, it was business.  The crowds had shown up!  The cash registers were ringing, and the money was flowing.  There’s important work to be done!  How often have we missed the solemn, silent reality of Christmas because of our busyness?

For Jerusalem, just a brief walk away, it was different.  They were looking.  They were just looking for the wrong Messiah!  Jerusalem was continually being tripped up by false messiahs who would come, lead a few gullible followers astray, and end up having the whole bunch discredited and executed.  They knew when THEIR messiah came he would come with the thunder of hoof-beats and a commanding army following.  Their messiah was a deliverer who would break the yoke of Rome.  The missed the entrance of Jesus because of distraction… maybe even because of deception.

And Rome?  How did all of Rome miss the entry of the second Person of the Trinity coming to earth?  Rome had it all… power, money, business, art, entertainment, medicine, prestige.  It was the center of the world of the day… and she knew it!  Rome needed nothing or no one!  Rome was the beneficent… not the needy.  She was the one the world approached for help, not vice-versa.  Rome missed the humble entrance of Christ because of pride… the pride of life which is often the companion of the love of the world.  She was self-sufficient and fulfilled.  Why did they need a Messiah… to be saved from what?

And so the first Christmas came in the midst of an ordinary day and Deity was laid in the arms of a rural teen aged couple… the hope of the world came quietly and without recognition.  We can let Christmas slip by just like those who missed that first Christmas… with our self-sufficiency, our distraction, and our business.  Jesus never cries for your attention.

But you are wise if you give it.


Where is He who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship Him.   (Matthew 2:2)

FOR REFLECTION:  Where are you most likely to lose Christmas this year?  What can you do to change that?

Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See – Day 15

Last week our son Dave, who teaches art at Nease High School, invited me to chaperon a brief field trip with his class. We were going to see a glass blower in action in St Augustine, which was probably not something on my bucket list but there it was. And frankly, it was an amazing experience!

WE went to the studio of Thomas Long who has his art placed around the world. Most recently, Disney bought a $250,000 piece from him for display in Downtown Disney. So much for the starving artist motif!

Long’s process is a little different than most, and he uses electric ovens to heat the glass. These ovens run 24/7 at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit! He patiently walked us through his process, then donned special glasses and opened what he called “the glory hole” to the oven. Anyone nearby felt the heat. All of us averted our eyes rather than look into the “glory” of that heat!

AND I thought about something as he continued talking. I thought about the verse we have come back to several times in these devotional thoughts. “And we beheld His glory; glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

How could we do that? God’s glory appearing to someone in the Old Testament was a death sentence. Moses asked God to “show me your glory.” And God placed Moses in the cleft of a rock and passed by, showing him only the back of His glory. (see Exodus 33:18-23)

But we don’t see the back of God’s glory. We behold the fullness of His glory in the face of Jesus. “Veiled in flesh,” we see the Godhead. “All the fullness of God” resided in Jesus. And we get to see it and live to tell about it!

Christmas reveals that glory to us. And not only that, but we are called to share that revelation with all who will hear. The glory of God, once found only in a pale refection in the heavens (“The heavens declare the glory of God”) now resides fully in the incarnation of God’s Son.

No wonder the angels sang “Glory to God in the highest….” And we can sing it too.


 

And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 40:5)

FOR REFLECTION: Thank God today that He has allowed us to “behold His glory” in Jesus!

Word of The Father – Day 14

When Christ came to earth in incarnation, He came as the One Who “is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15) He was the One Who made all things and in whom all things hold together. (Col 1:17) Yet He was also a baby, born in a manger that HE made…surrounded by people HE created… accompanied by angels Who had just served HIM. As difficult as it is for us to juxtapose all of that into one person without losing either His Deity or His humanity, this is precisely the One the Bible points to as the Christ Who was to come.

We could easily dismiss the Christmas account, explain away the humility and humanity of the incarnation as best we could, and simply worship One Who may or may not exist somewhere “out there.” Or we could sentimentalize the Christmas story and tear away the Deity of Jesus making the baby a welfare case that needed to be pitied… not worshiped. Some have chosen that route.

And yet the Bible tenaciously holds to the proclamation that, in that baby lying in an animal shed behind a Middle Eastern hostel in an occupied Roman territory, circa 1 AD GOD DWELT. God came down. The Word of the Father, now in fleshed appeared.

And we beheld His glory… and we behold it again at Christmas. Our Christmas lights, as prevalent as they are this time of year, can only dimly remind us of the glory that was contained in that newborn body. His nine-month journey within the body of a Jewish adolescent now completed, Jesus entered our world cold, hungry, and completely helpless.

God.  Helpless.

We cannot imagine the humility this took; we cannot understand the condescension of the Savior to this level. All we can do is sit back… and let the wonder in.

  Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing

  O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him

  O come let us adore Him, CHRIST THE LORD!


 

Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing….”  (Philippians 2:5-6)

FOR REFLECTION: How will the truth of Jesus’ incarnation enrich your Christmas celebration this year?

 

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