Mary's Song (God with us) Luke 1:46-56

My favorite Christmas song has always been Amy Grant’s “Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song)” written by Chris Eaton and Amy.  I think what fascinates me most is listening to the coming of the Messiah from the perspective of his 13 year old earthly mother.  I know it was accustomed at that time for someone so young to be married, but the fact remains, she was barely a teenager.  Not only was she faced with the responsibility of convincing her parents, family, and engaged fiancé/husband that she wasn’t a promiscuous whoremonger; while functioning throughout her daily tasks being pregnant for nine months; but also carrying the long awaited, long anticipated, Messiah. 

13 years old.

Sometimes I find myself caught up in the images on Christmas cards, nativity scenes, or shown in popular cinema displaying this precious little, wide-eyed baby in the arms of this young, virgin girl. But my human mind, in all its mortal limitations, cannot fathom the immense enormity of Who she was actually holding.  Isaiah the prophet wrote some hundreds year before that a “virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Translated literally, El, short for Elohim, the Almighty, and Powerful Creator God, was the name in Genesis 1:1 by which the Creator is known during His acts of creation.  Elohim, who created time, space, and matter, exists outside the boundaries of time, space, and matter – each of which are subject to His beckoning commands. And as Hebrews 11:3 states, God created the universe ex nihilo, which is Latin for “creation out of nothing,” spinning out galaxies by only the Word of His breath.  Immanu signifies with or beside us.  Therefore, in her arms Mary held the Almighty Creator; exclusive in His being; existing beyond time, space, and matter; with all the Explosive Power of Creation at His beckoning call, the I Am that I Am; God, residing with us.

Paul describes the kenosis in Philippians 2:6 using the words huparcho and morphe, stating that the essence of the very nature of this little baby boy cradled in Mary’s arms was absolutely unalterable, unequivocally inalienable, and explicitly unchangeable.  And that this little boy’s nature held all of the essential attributes of the inner nature of God, amplifying the inner reality of Who He was, which, by definition, will never change.

John, through the power of the Holy Spirit, carefully chose the word logos in the first verse of the first chapter of his gospel to describe this little baby boy.  During that time, the Greeks used logos, which meant “the word” to represent the word still in the mind, or the reason.  Philosophers used this word to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates the entire universe, or the rational principle that governs all things.  The monotheistic Jews thought this a great word to signify God, being that He was the rational mind (the reason) behind the creation and coordination of the universe.  Thus John used logos which was meaningful to both the Greeks and Jews at that time, and in John 1:14 stated that this logos, The Word, the Rational Mind, or Reason Who governs both the creation and coordination of the entire universe – became flesh and pitched His tent (tabernacled) with us.

I was thinking of the sun, the most powerful entity in our galaxy.  It stands 93 million miles away from us making up around 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System. The core of the sun is at a warm 24.5 million degrees Fahrenheit! It generates ridiculous amounts of energy through nuclear fusion.  If the earth would move closer to the sun, all life, and in fact the earth itself would be destroyed. Imagine if you would the sun, in all its power, heat, and energy not just coming closer to the earth, but actually coming in contact with the earth.  Just the mere thought of one thousand degrees, much less 24.5 million degrees is mind melting, (pun intended); pure, raw energy touching the surface of our “previously inhabited” home. This poor world wouldn’t stand a chance. Imagine a container able to harness this massive monstrosity of energy, enveloping the sun allowing it in all its dynamism to reside among us, yet with all its vigor swelling and swirling inside.

This is a poor attempt at a pathetic association to Who Mary held in her arms.  For the sun is smaller than a miniscule insignificant piece of nothing in comparison to Elohim.  Yet in all His awesome creation power, in all His essential attributes being the exact image and essence of God, and in all His governing and coordinating of all that has ever and will ever exist – there He lay.  Vulnerable, helpless, needy.  I remember holding my son in my arms for the first time. Standing in a wondrous stupor, with so many questions as to how I was going to fulfill my responsibility to raise from this defenseless bundle of joy; a man.  How to provide all he needed to survive, how to protect him from all the hurts, harms, and dangers of this cruel unforgiving world.  All this without the resounding angelic words that were penetrating Mary’s inner soul, that this baby is Jehovah’s salvation, the Son of God, the Messiah.

God with us.

Francesca Battistelli’s “You’re Here” is a modern day “Breath of Heaven” which again is a beautiful rendition of Mary speaking of the child she holds in her arms.  A portion of the lyrics say:

Look at your hands, they're still so small
Someday You're going to stretch them out and save us all
Noel, noel, God with us Emmanuel

As we celebrate this time of year let us not forget why He came.  God came to die.  And His perfect, holy death was for me and for you.  Thank you Almighty Elohim for residing with us, for dying for us, and for living again, for us.

God with us, Immanuel…

Amy Grant's "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)"

Francesca Battistelli's "You're Here"

The Christ-like Response to Lies, Persecution, and Character Attacks

1 Corinthians 4:12,13 - "...when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we entreat..."

It’s amazing how the Holy Spirit works.  In John 14:26, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will, “teach you all things and remind you of all the things I have said to you.”  Well, I was “reminded” this week in my daily devotions.  So, I’m going through 1 Corinthians, which of course deals with how the church (The Body of Christ) should behave.  When you get to chapter four, Paul is describing the life and attitude of an apostle, which he calls “God’s managers”, then he sums up the chapter by urging us to imitate him.  And the main topic of imitation is humility. Pride can manifest itself in a variety of ways.  One of which is how we typically respond when others mistreat us.

One thing I really, really hate is being lied on.  Now combine that with not being able to defend yourself, all the while knowing that someone is intentionally twisting and manipulating the facts in order to misrepresent you and your pure intentions to others (I’m getting heated just thinking about it, lol)!  But at the core of it is pride.  Pride in the sense of, “how dare you utter words against me out of your mouth, do you know who I am?”  “I’m Olu, and nobody gets away with speaking sideways about me!”  “Oh, you think you can talk jibber jabber and get away with it without any consequences?” (ok, let me calm down, lol) I mean, of course one shouldn’t be thrilled that their name is being falsely dragged through the mud, but our reaction to it should be an imitation of Christ’s humility (easier said than done...).

In 1 Corinthians 4:12-13, Paul gives three scenarios complete with proper, biblical “Body of Christ” reactions to each of them…

“…when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we entreat…”

This is undoubtedly the reaction of someone who has their pride in check, lol.  To understand what Paul was saying I did a word study of this passage.  To be “reviled” is to be subject to verbal abuse, and it has the idea of the use of severe, harsh condemnatory language.  The actual word Paul used is literally translated “being speared with words” (ouch)!  “Persecuted,” in the original language has the idea of eagerly running swiftly in a hostile manner in order to catch a person or a thing, giving all you have to harass, trouble, and/or molest them.  And finally, the word translated “slandered” is actually “being harm averred.”  So, after looking up what in the world “averred” meant (lol), I found that it meant to “allege or assert in pleading a cause.”  Now throw “harm” in front of it and you have someone alleging or asserting harm on you in a pleading fashion!  The English translation of the word Paul used is calumny (had to look up that one too), which is the act of uttering false charges or misrepresentations maliciously calculated to harm another’s reputation. Vicious!

So, putting it all together, when people are throwing severe, harsh spears of verbally abusive words, while eagerly chasing behind you in a hostile manner and with every thread of their being, in order to harass you, all the while screaming malicious, well-thought out lies, false charges, and blatant misrepresentations with the sole purpose of destroying your reputation (whew!) - when that happens to us, Paul gives us the proper, biblical response:

"...bless, ...endure, ...entreat"

(Now isn't that easy!)  Our, "Body of Christ" response is to bless them, that means I'm to "speak well of" or to "invoke a benediction of prosperity towards" them.  I'm to endure or tolerate or "bear with" the onslaught.  And finally, I'm to entreat.  Now, I was cool with this word until I looked it up.  It literally means, "to call beside."  Its the same word that means to intervene between two parties with a view of reconciling differences (oh joy, oh rapture). It also means to gain goodwill with pleasing acts of kindness.

This is our response.  Why?  Because of humility.  Paul says in Romans not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Romans 12:3), then in Philippians he tells us to have the same mindset as Christ (Philippians 2:5).  If they treated Christ Jesus, the God-Man Savior of the world this way, and he responded properly, who are we to respond any less?  Oh, and by the way, we have The Fullness of the Godhead in us, which give us access to the same power that raised Jesus from the dead - so not by my might, or by my power, but by your Spirit, dear Lord.  Paul said earlier in 1 Corinthians 4:9 that God displays us like dead men.  And guess what?  Dead men don't worry or stress or retaliate against people who revile, persecute, or slander them - because they are dead.  So being that we are dead to the flesh, we respond in life with Christlike imitation.  This is true Christianity.

My character, my reputation is very precious to me.  And when others attempt to destroy it with false accusations and clever omissions of the truth it really burns me up inside (before I read 1 Corinthians 4, ok maybe even a little bit after, lol).  But Paul says earlier in the chapter that what others think of me or portray me as is of little importance because how God views me is what really matters (1 Corinthians 4:3,4).  So go ahead, attack my character, paint a warped, false picture of my intentions and actions.  As long as I'm walking in the Spirit of humble obedience God says He will give me the strength to bless, endure, and entreat.

I love the fact that Paul doesn't say, "if" we are reviled, persecuted, or slandered, he says, "when."  If it hasn't happened to you, just you wait!  Oh, its not going to be easy, especially if we aren't operating with the full power of the Holy Spirit.  But with His help we can respond biblically in a way that is pleasing to our Lord. 

Father, help me.  Thank you for the power to respond like You.  Please work on my heart, mind, and soul that I may please you, even when others are acting against me.

Walk This Way...

Psalms 119:101 - “I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey Your Word.”

David points out that he has made a decision. “I have kept” is a phrase that denotes action. Forceful action demonstrated on oneself. If we don’t apply some “force” our feet will go any and every where. We have to make conscious decisions not allow our “feet” to go where they naturally want to go.

Notice the verse says “every evil path”. Even before we get to the actual evil, the Psalmist says that he avoids even the road (path) to the evil. A lot of times we think we know our “tipping point” – how far we can go without actually getting in trouble. I bet 90% of the time I’ve messed up has been because I flirted too close to the road to evil. We don’t really wake up in the morning and say, “you know what, I’m gonna get in some evil trouble today!” Nah, that’s not how it works. It starts by playing too close to, flirting with disaster.

The only way to live a life of obedience is to consciously, forcefully, and mightily keep our feet off of the path to evil. Think of all the things we could have avoided in life. Your particular “evil path” might be that girly you need to consciously, forcefully, and mightily stay away from. It may be your "homey(s)" or "friends" that don’t have your betterment in mind. It may be that neighborhood, that club, that movie theater, that bookstore or video store. It may be those thought patterns that lead your mind to places or times in your past that you don’t need to be reminiscing on. What ever it may be, let’s join David in this verse and avoid them at all costs.

Let's start now..

Good Judgment

Psalm 119:66 “Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe your commands.”

Good judgment…I must say that this has been, by far, the most complicated, complex, convoluted issue in my life – having good judgment. I would say that over 90% of the jacked up stuff that’s happened to me has been based on my own bad judgment. I wish, so often, that I could travel back in time and tell my self, “Olu, don’t do it that way, try to handle it this way.” It is difficult, and as men we are forced to make a lot of judgment calls. Be it at home, at work, church, in our own lives and in the lives of those close to us. Just think where you would be today if you used “good judgment” in all the decisions you’ve ever made! (A small tear just trickled down my face…LOL)

The Great Preacher Spurgeon compared our actions somewhat to that of birds that fall for a “bird call” by a hunter then ends up getting shot! Due to the bird’s lack of judgment, he is unable to distinguish between a call from an actual bird vs. a man-made call from a deadly hunter. Our own flesh, Satan, and this World System all serve as cunning hunters with their tricks and traps that appear harmless and at times beneficial. We need that “good judgment” from God to aid us in making correct decisions. And this good judgment only comes from the commands of God – His Word, The Bible.

Earlier in chapter 19, the scripture says the commandments of the Lord are pure, enlighten the eyes. God’s Word gives us clear understanding of things otherwise not understood. The muddy world is made clear through the Word of God. So as you memorize scriptures, know that applying God’s word to your hearts (memorizing) will help you have “good judgment” now and forever in your life!

God bless...