The Empty Manger

The Manger Gertrude Käsebier 1852 - 1934

National Gallery of Art, NGO Image, Public Domain

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8, NIV)

   
     The manger was full of God’s promise but only for a short time. The child who brought favor and grace was laid in the manger is a testament of God’s gift to all of the world. In some ways, we understand the manger was part of God’s way of showing the humility of Christ coming amongst us but what do we see in the empty manger?

      In simple ways, we understand the Son was the gift of God's favor and grace and yet He could not be left in the manger.  The gift is found in Christ's living and showing the Kingdom of God. This gift from God as grace was ultimately fulfilled in the giving, dying and rising again of the Son.
The manger is empty to some because people don’t realize there is a gift in the manger. They don’t understand the gift is free and available to them. Instead of reaching out for the gift, they push the gift away. Others mock the manger as empty of value and substance. Some people believe the manger is empty because the manger that held a baby for the world is just a myth and it would be foolish to believe in such a story. To others the manger is empty because the real event of God redeeming the world through His Son, is unreasonable or nonsensical and they reinvent a more appropriate story to their liking.

      There are other people who would empty the manger of any significance replacing the power of Christmas with their cultural myths of goodness by believing in a magical round man in a red suit. In reality, the power to live a good life and give goodness away, comes from the goodness of God. Our goodness comes from God who gave His Son as the Living Christ through His Spirit to empower us to give His forgiveness, redemption, grace and love to those around us.

       Of course the manger is empty, because my Lord and Savior didn’t stay in the manger, He went to the cross and later rose from the grave. In fact, every place where Jesus was born and lived is empty of His physical bodily form. The physical form and presence of Jesus is gone from these places and they are empty. Yet He is not gone because He has sent His presence and power through the Holy Spirit now comes in far greater ways. The stable is empty, the manger is empty, the carpenter’s shop is empty, the roads are empty, the boats are empty, the great temple is empty, the cross is empty and the tomb is empty. In the end of all matters, it is not the emptiness that has meaning but what He did in those empty places and who and where He is now. He is alive in every empty place, we may find in history and life.  Without the empty cross, there is no salvation and without the empty tomb, there is no Holy Spirit. All of this emptiness is redeemed into the salvation and joy we have in the Living Savior. He is there at every empty place with the new life He gives to all who believe.

      Yes, the manger is empty but the Christ that first was laid there; now fills every empty place with Himself. Come to empty manger, the empty cross and the empty tomb and you will find the Living Risen Christ. The Jesus who came first to a Bethlehem manger; emptied Himself that we might be saved. From the humble stable and manger … empty of respect and honor, He opens the door to the gifts of favor and love He brings to all who believe through His grace. It is in the emptying of Christ that we are saved and it is in the emptying of ourselves that we proclaim the Living Christ, able to redeem all emptiness in all people, for all time.

“But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7, NIV).

He Came for Everyone

Giuliano Traballesi, The Nativity Drawing, National Gallery - NGO Image, Public Domain

“You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9, NLT).

      There is an incredibly powerful reality in the coming of our Savior to the earth to redeem the peoples of the world.  It is what we truly celebrate in the Christmas season and is the joy of our salvation.  It is incredible, that the Christ who existed and reigned in heaven would be willing to come to earth to redeem a world lost in sin and consumed with selfishness.  It took the ultimate sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son to reach to the lowest realms of wickedness, lifting any and all who would believe in Him to the heights of heaven and eternity. It is a reach beyond our comprehension as the Holy God moves beyond every dominion of human sinfulness and every other power of heaven and earth to love and save us by His favor and grace.

      God’s love reaches to the lowest places.  His love reaches to the fatherless, the poor, the outcast, the forgotten, the lonely, the neglected, the brokenhearted, the miserable, the used and misused, and even to the cynical and the prodigals. His love is truly incomprehensible in its reach to all those who are hurt and damaged by sin.  Sin attacks all good and all virtue, maiming people and their relationships, but our salvation in Christ redeems pain and brokenness. No one on this earth ever escapes the damage and stain of sin and because of this common fallen state; we all need a Savior.  We are all in a lowly place and since our Christ comes to all of us in our lowly condition, no one or no damage is ever out of the reach of His love.

      This powerful reality of Christ giving up His heavenly place and coming to redeem the world, even coming to the lowest in the lowliest of places is born out in the tangible and physical aspects of the Incarnation and birth of Jesus.  Jesus was not born in a palace. The rich and powerful religious and political classes do not even notice His birth nor were they invited.  The proclamation of His birth, which bursts from the heavens with such glorious excitement is not seen or witnessed by royalty but rather by members of one of the lowliest and common of all occupations. Shepherds were not respected and were disregarded as ceremonially un-clean and unwelcome worshipers in the synagogues and in the Jewish Temple. It was to these poor and lowly caretakers of the flocks in the fields, that the heavens were opened with the shattering announcement that God’s favor and peace had come to the world.  They were the first to worship the new born King. In their humble worship, we see that the lowliest are remembered and would be redeemed by the heavenly Son, now born into the world.

      What does all this mean to each of us?  How does the mighty reach of Christ to the poor and lowly, translate into joy in our lives? Joy comes as His redemptive love reaches all of us. He comes to every place. He comes to every way that we have failed and covers all the sin of our lives. It means there will never be a lowly place where His presence will not be with us through His Holy Spirit. He will always come, never abandoning us in the low points of our lives. He comes, lifting us up from the places of pain and suffering and giving us His peace.  Christ coming to the lowly … means nothing can separate us from His love as we believe and follow our Savior.  The coming of Christ; is real joy to the whole world. To the lowly, Christ will always come. Thus no one is beyond the reach of God’s love through the grace of Jesus Christ. His coming to be born in the lowly manger was the first moment of His coming to the lowly but it was only the beginning of the incomprehensible myriad of times Christ will come, again and again through His death and resurrection to save the world. The message of the birth of Christ is simple … Jesus comes to save and give life, now and forever.  Thanks, be to God.

Thought and Scripture Reading  … God’s generosity towards us, should move us to be generous.  2 Corinthians 8 & 9

The Incarnation (God’s gift to the world)

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27, ESV).

      She was a young girl, a virgin when the angel appeared to her. She wonders about the details of the child that she was to carry and asks how this “Son of the Most High” will come in her body but she accepts in perfect trust the assurances of the Word delivered by an angel. What is remarkable about her response; is the fact that her simple trusting faith is drastically different then the response of Zachariah the father of John the Baptist on his visit by an angel recorded just earlier in the same gospel. Zachariah doubts. Mary believes. Mary asks, “How will this be …” and Zachariah asks, “How shall I know this?” Mary looks ahead with an expectation and wonder at God’s power while Zachariah looks at the impossibility of the event happening given the circumstances. Mary was not a religious priest but her faith dwarfs Zachariah’s lack of belief even if he seems the more the logical choice of the exemplar. Zachariah is quieted of all possible speech by the hand of God while Mary by answering, “Behold I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” is noted for her faith. A living faith in a mighty God that would evidence itself a short time later in her beautiful and powerful proclamation, recorded for the ages as “The Magnificat.” Joseph was unsure in response to his situation with Mary, but after his encounter with an angel, he simply does what the angel directed him to do. Elizabeth gives direct credit to God for His favor when she realizes a miracle has happened. What do these interactions between the realms of God’s provision of sovereign grace and those He wishes to involve in the implementation of His plan, bring to the Christmas story? What are the lessons of the contrasts in faith that we see here in the lives of Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachariah?

      God’s divine incarnation plan which is sometimes called “The Christmas Story” with all its twists and turns; radiates the power of grace in coming to earth. God’s grace cannot be held up by the lack of faith in any one of the participants or by any other action or inaction. Since God is the Creator of the universe … all that is created, including all the human beings and all nations is melded and used in His graceful purposes in redeeming the world. God can use the accepting or the unbelieving and even the hostile to bring about His purposes. On the other hand; that Mary is chosen shows God’s omniscient knowledge as to His intimate familiarity of all His children. Mary was specially chosen for a role of honor by God Himself. Still the story is not about the people such as Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachariah but the incarnation event of God coming in human form that brings salvation.

      It was this great event, the birth of Jesus coming as a baby in whom God delivered His only begotten Son in a fullness of grace unseen before on the created earth, that the world would find salvation and life. God’s amazing grace would lead to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ to redeem all sinners who would believe in Him. He came for those that might doubt at first, those that believe in an instant and for those who had waited for centuries for their salvation to come as a Messiah for all nations. In the Incarnation, God delivers in the presence of His Son, the fulfilled promise of favor, peace and grace as a gift to all of creation. We often talk of how Jesus freely offers salvation to the poor or the rich but the inclusiveness of the gospel extends beyond monetary conditions or social classes to include all persons for all time. No one is left out. Anyone who believes and would desire the gift found in the Christmas story will not be excluded from salvation through the Son. The gift is the Son and in the Son is the salvation of the world. The salvation of the world is the real message in the event that happened so long ago in a stable in the town of Bethlehem so long ago.

“For nothing will be impossible with God …” (Luke 1:37, ESV).

Suggested Reading … Luke 1 & 2

Name above all names ...

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14, NKJV).

      As we reflect in this season on the coming of the Christ child we encounter an array of names, prophecies and paradoxical events set in some contradictory places. If we just look at the name of this child who is promised both to Mary and Joseph by divine message carried by angels we start to see the some of the names that this favored child would be called.  The angel Gabriel speaks to Mary and tells her that she will bear a son after the Holy Spirit comes on her, and he will be called “Jesus.”  He will be great and shall be called the “Son of the Most High” reigning over the throne of David and house of Jacob and his kingdom shall have no end (Luke 1:28-35).  An angel who is unnamed comes to Joseph in a dream as he struggles with a dilemma over what to do with Mary whom he was engaged to that was with child by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is told to fear not and to name this son “Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” This is a fulfillment to prophecy as to child being born that shall be called “Immanuel which means ‘God is with us’ ” (Matthew 1:18-25).

     Before this child is even born many names are upon him. In addition this child would certainly as soon as he was born be called “Jesus son of Joseph” or “Yeshua ben Yosef” which is the Jewish tradition as well.  The name of Jesus is the Greek form of the name Yeshua which is better known as the English word Joshua which means “salvation or ‘the LORD saves’ ” which Matthew directly refers to (Mt. 1:21).  He will later be acknowledged as “the Christ” which is the Messiah that all of Israel for has waited centuries to come and deliver them and become their Messiah King and the Messiah of all of the world because of God’s love. As he is later crucified be mockingly labeled by the sign on the cross as the “King of the Jews” in three languages (John 19:20).  In addition to these names, there are many other titles and descriptions given to Jesus Christ, from Wonderful Counselor, Shepherd and Saviour.

     In the countless languages of the world, Jesus Christ is translated into many names and He alone is our salvation as God coming in the flesh, much more than a man because a man cannot save the world. Only God could save us by coming as one of us to save us.  Jesus was eternal God (The Word) and now He came to save us, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” and this is the only way that salvation could come to a fallen world (John 1:14).  His love and faithfulness allowed Jesus Christ to be the “Lamb of God” and only He can take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). 

      It wasn’t just His name that took away our sins. It was the person He was, and is and is to come.   Our praise, thankfulness and worship begin at the manger but they must include our repentance at the cross and the living celebration of the same Spirit in us that raised Christ from the dead.  We rejoice in the coming amongst us, of God in Jesus Christ during this Christmas season even as we await our living in the presence of the glorious King of Kings for eternity.  It is really quite a gift to us that was first promised to Mary and Joseph and was born in a stable.   Hallelujah, what a gift of “peace and favor.” Hallelujah, what a Savior!

The Christ Child comes to us ...

“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; for those that live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine” (Isaiah 9:2, NLT )

     It could be said that the world at the time of Jesus was a time that mighty nation of Israel and the holy city of Jerusalem had lost their way.  They were having a hard time understanding that Jesus was the Messiah and he could release them from their bondage under a foreign government.  The past was troubled and there were few possibilities of hope with many frustrations all around them.  The difficulties of their lives were ever present and the answers were ever illusive. They were stumbling in the darkness of their understanding and unaware that their feeling of heaviness came from their own sinful pride.  It might be said even today: we cannot understand all there is to life, as we struggle with the weight of the past, the difficulties of the present and the uncertainty of the future.  We struggle with the darkness of not understanding the little frustrations in our lives but also with the huge unanswerable questions.  We drift into darkness with our flirtations with sin and pride stumbling to find our way out of those places. We get depressed with our failures, frustrated with our unfulfilled dreams and saddened with our frailties as we face disease and death.  We are staggered by storms in our lives and constantly wish we could see ahead and grasp the future. In some ways our understanding of things seems to be lit with an inadequate faltering light.

       What will Jesus do with all this darkness of unknowning and all of these lingering doubts?  There is a constant inability in all of us to see what is ahead and at the same time there is an endless desiring in us to understand what is behind us, around us and ahead of us.  It is the human condition.  The ancient peoples struggled in the human condition when God sent His Son and it remains a difficulty for us today.

      The Son who was to be the Savior, entered the world as a tiny child in the room fit for animals and this did not seem to be the answer.  On the surface it looks like a most fragile of promises.  Yet this Jesus came as Light and Life.  He would shine in the darkest of moments bringing a new light to the world.  He shines now for all those who will open their eyes to the hope He brings.  He is the One who knows everything and we should trust Him with our past, present and future.  He is the One who could with His voice calm the sea and we can trust Him with our fears.  He is the One who penetrates our darkness and we should look to Him for understanding.  He was and is the Light of the world and in Him all will find a way in our darkness.  He is waiting to shine the light of His presence towards you, behind you, in front of you and all around you.  In that light you find God’s wondrous love that came as baby in a manger and later gave His life as the answer for your sin and mine.  The true light of Christmas isn’t colored and electric but pure and powerful. The light that Jesus Christ brings is able to penetrate the darkness that we all face, providing true answers to every question and a love that heals our greatest pain.  May we always and forever be a people who “see a great light.”

“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, ‘I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.’” (John 8:12, NLT)

Suggested Reading … John 8

A knock at the door of our house …

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20, ESV)

   There is a restlessness that comes to all Christian believers in the tension of living between belief and functioning reality. We can live out our days filled with our living, leaving faith to float around in our minds longing for connection in the interactions of plans, intentions, interruptions and circumstances. If our self-determining and self-directing living is completely consumed with ourselves; where is the space for faith to stop floating about in our minds and be of connecting significance?

     Sadly this is the issue with many people; faith is left without a space to lodge. Faith is left, designated to this floating wandering territory by the inactivity of involving it with our daily living. Sure we may give it momentary lodgings from time to time but we do not give it a permanent home. It becomes more like a trophy or a defining name instead of being a motivating and empowering dynamic allowed living and growing in our life.  True faith in Christ is not a plaque on the wall or gold toned plastic award on a shelf, noting a conversion or a simple belief in Him.  Although being a Christian does require conversion and belief; they are just notations in the endless unfolding of Christ being present, loved, acknowledged, trusted in every moment of our living and in all our days.

Christ longs to be present with us in all things and in all ways. He did give His life to be noted only as the Savior in our conversion or acceptance of Him. His grace is not just a key to the door at the gates of heaven but a living, liberating and empowering creative and redeeming presence in our lives. He stands at the door our lives, not just come in for just a meal but to abide forever.

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11, ESV)

Suggested Reading … Psalm 16

The One who answers ...

NGO Image, National Gallery of Art, Public Domain

“I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto Him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” (Psalm 34:4-7, KJ21)

   

    There are times in our lives that we ache and yearn, fear and worry and cry and hurt because someone has injured us or our situation in life is bleak and foreboding. These trying times can be momentary, they can be seasonal and they can even be chronic, stretching into years and lifetimes. Even the closest of friends, the most loyal of families, the most devoted of allies and the most intimate of spouses cannot know the deepness of our anguish nor can they at times help us negotiate the tempest of our thoughts and feelings during these times.

   

    Of course we know of the interest, love, companionship, desire and devotion of these that are committed to us but they cannot truly always provide answers to all of our aches, fears, worries and hurts. Oftentimes we do not speak of these matters because we feel friends, families and even spouses should be aware of them. Other times we hesitantly bring up these trials and heartbreak to those around us and we find those around us busy, consumed with other matters or unable to fully provide for our needs. Their love and devotion can and will support us most of the time but there are times when the ache is deeper than their capacities to help.

    

    So who will answer us in those times? There is One who answers when we cry out in our deepest anguish. There is someone who comes when every source of comfort has been exhausted. There is One who comes to those who have waited for long periods of time. It is our Savior. Our Savior knows of our deepest aches, fears and hurts. He knows the anguish in our souls. He even knows the extent and duration of each and every trial. He has listened and He has heard every cry. He is listening now.

  

     Seek Him in your pain. Desire the balm of His presence and compassion. Release your tears and heartbreak to His goodness and you will find Him faithful and true. He is waiting for you to come with all the weight of every one of your troubles and heartaches. He will answer you with His care and provision. You are His child and He loves you.

  

Suggested Reading … Psalm 34

God's Gift in Creation

The Lord is our strength and our shield.

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.” (Psalm 28:7, ESV).

      The Lord is our strength and our shield and in Him we exult and find joy. Not just momentary happiness because joy is more than happiness! Happiness comes from joy and joy can be the result of happiness but joy is deeper. Joy holds when the emotion of happiness fades away in the change of the moment or circumstance. Those that trust in the "Joy of the Lord," love the Lord above all else and they trust Him in every way and in every situation, circumstance and difficulty.They are not focused on the situation, circumstance or the difficulty because their eyes are focused on their Savior and they are trusting in Him for their joy!

   

   For the "Joy of the Lord" to be our strength and our shield we simply live in the joy of the Lord. The joy in the Lord is both a Holy Spirit guided, faith infused perspective and confidence in our Lord as Savior and a deep delight and fulfillment in what He did, does and will always do for us. This anchoring trusting faith of the true disciple thus finds joy exclusively in the Lord regardless of any situation, place, difficulty or circumstance they might encounter in their life.

A Prayer to the Lord

LORD, You are my strength. Thank you for anointing me and building a fortress around me to protect and shield my life. Thank you for saving me and blessing me as your inheritance. Be my Shepherd in all things and carry me forever. Oh Lord, You are our joy! Amen. (Adapted from Psalm 28:7-9)

A Branch on the Vine

  At the center of all that is living is the One who created and gives all there is to life. It is a gift of grace from our Creator to be given a life to live. It is a gift of grace to be given a new life as follower of Christ; forgiven and free from our sin as we are redeemed and sanctified as we live out our days. Most of all, it is an indescribable gift of grace to be given life eternal.  All of life from beginning unto eternity comes from the “Giver of Life” and we should live out our lives in gratitude and thanks.

     Christ desires that we live out our lives drawing from Him as the source of all substance and life. He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15:1-11).  We live as the body of Christ, alive in the life He gives us in His saving and sanctifying us. It is His love that we are drawing our life from and it is His love that flows through us into the lives of others. This is the most important part of our living as the branches of the vine. This happens as we love others and the world around us. It is what He desires most of all and it is what He states will be the defining mark of His Body, the Church.  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)

     We cannot fake this love, nor can we try by our best intentions to love this way.  Our loving has to come from our dying to our selfish ways and making everything we do in our fellowship about following and loving our Lord. This means in our personal life and in our life together as a part of the “Body of Christ,” which is His church around the world.  If we love Christ above all else, it will change our lives and our world.

     As Christ changes our lives, we should be excited to give witness to the power that has changed us. This translates into the sharing of the Christ that is our Lord with our friends and family and the world around us.  Our witnessing to what He has done in our lives will then be natural and flow out of the work of the Holy Spirit in making us new. This happens as we die to ourselves and let Christ flow into us as His branches. May we remember His great love for us in forgiving all of our sins and may we let His love flow in and out of us as we love those around us with His love. May we be true branches on the true Vine of all life.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:12-17)

Be wary of the condemnation which comes from your own sinful heart.

“By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;  for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20, ESV).

  There is not a single living person that has lived a perfect life. There has not been a single person who has ever lived that was perfect in their living except our Savior.  This fact forms the basis of both the truth of human sinfulness and the grace of God which Christians believe saves and sanctifies us.

Yet even as forgiven Christians, we live out our lives struggling at times with guilt and shame from our past and our less than perfect life. In reality, we may have acquired the wisdom to realize the danger of listening to our human hearts that would lead us into sin through wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and excess.  We may have seen how sin creeps into our living at different moments. We most likely know from our life experiences, the deceitfulness of our hearts in the minimalizing of the reality of sin and its consequences (Jeremiah 17:9).

     Thus in our humble appraising of our own weaknesses we can find the keys and strength to counter the allure of sin; yet there remains another side to the deceitfulness of the human heart.  This deceitfulness lingers around our past sin because it drags us into the sea of guilt and shame like an ocean sleeper wave with a dangerous undertow.

     We stand in the surf at times and yet can be oblivious to the momentary lapses of remembrances that come in the form of an overpowering tugging from the residue of past sins. Sometimes this pull is so strong that we end up in water full of confusion, regret and shame.  Our best efforts may never heal the hurt we have caused, alleviate the consequences  or redeem  even the smallest aspects of those sins but we must never forget the power found in the grace of Christ to forgive and heal us from all sin.

     We must remember the reality of God’s amazing grace to cover all sin, including all of our sin. We must speak the truth of Christ’s sufficiency in forgiving all sin and taking away all condemnation into our human heart. No matter what we feel at any moment, the truth of Christ’s redeeming and sanctifying love must be rock upon which we stand until the teaming waters of doubt subside. Thus we stand upon the rock of faith, remembering “there is no condemnation in Christ” and this is the unwavering truth in our lives regardless of what we feel because of God’s mighty work in declaring and securing as His children.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do …” (Romans 8:1-3, ESV).

Finding Beauty in an Unexpected Place

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,  and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor" (Isaiah 61:1-3, NIV).

  What is beauty? Is beauty something individualized and classified as to certain people? Is it something for the lucky in the genetic pool of features and characteristic who have exquisite features and captivating looks? Is this natural beauty just something that the luck of the draw doles out? Or is beauty something you can buy in product form of which by the application of make-up, creams and color accents and agents will render the ordinary face extraordinary? What is it about beauty that fashion groups and companies try to determine and dictate to others by their subjective definitions of certain features what beauty is? Is beauty, a body shape or size or a certain striking facial feature? Is beauty attained by the endless offerings of new styles in clothes and dress and thus available for purchase?

     Is not beauty more than the physical features or factors of a person? Surely beauty is more than something purchased and applied to the surface of the skin? Surely beauty is not the clothes draped or stretched across and around the body, regardless of the shape or size of the person?
Even in a broader sense of beauty … there are natural flowers, plants and trees that are attractive to the eyes with their color and unique features that we would speak of as beautiful. There are panoramic vistas that are considered beautiful. There is architecture whether in design and structure that appeals to the senses and is defined as beautiful. In addition, most artwork and photography exists as attempts to capture and gift us with the artist’s interpretations of beauty.

    Yet, however beauty is defined or presented, there are moments in our lives when we encounter rare and extraordinary beauty where we least expect it. It happened to me in one of the rankest and discouraging places I have ever visited in my lifetime. At the Guatemala City Dump Community, where the paths are filthy, gutted and broken down of life and promise, I met two women who were radiant, hopeful and full of life and promise. They are women whose beauty was shining like a light in the darkest of places. In a place where the stench of discarded, used up waste and accumulating refuse … staggers and penetrates every sense of your being. Yet, here in this repulsive and ugly place, these beautiful women live expectant in the hope of their faith. Here in this offending place of nauseating smells; the pleasantness of everything about them brings forth the sweetness of the very presence of Christ in whom they trust absolutely. Here, in this place of despair, they live out their days in the hope of their faith.

    These beautiful women bonded together as sisters, live with their families in a 12 x 18 foot space they are proud to call their home. This tiny home built from discarded boards and covered with salvaged tin was splashed with color and decorated with things they have collected along the way. They work in the dump collecting things to be sold or recycled. To add their lot in life, these sisters have lost their husbands to the violence that comes with life on the edge of life. Death comes on the edge of life where violence often rails against the poor and disadvantaged because force and evil are tempting as pathways for change. Their husbands drifted away from God even as the wives clung and still cling to the mercies and provisions of God. I have seldom seen any greater faith and trust in anyone in my life and seldom sensed any greater joy than the fruit of the Spirit of God in their lives life lived out here in this dreadful place as women of beauty in the middle of great hopelessness.
Their beauty is not something … they apply after buying some beauty product for they have no money to buy anything extra. Their beauty is not just something that was naturally gifted to them in their features that they vainly exhibit. No, their beauty flows out as something more. Even as they smile and reach out to others … there is something so rare and powerful in the trueness of their essence. Their beauty is far deeper and far more substantial. It has been fashioned and molded by the greatest sculptor of all time, their Lord and Savior. All the pain, misery, poverty and difficulty that life has doled out to them and everything that has come against them has not made them bitter, hostile or mean spirited. Instead all the awfulness thrown against them has been reclaimed and remade as they have trusted in their Savior and given their days over to the hand of God. He has remade these women beautiful in every way.

     If beauty somehow is to come from ashes, then something has to be burned upped. Something has to have been offered up to the qualities of the heat and flame as to change the composition of the substance. So then what has been burned away in the heat of pain and suffering, affliction and circumstance while leaving the pureness of gold to remain in the place where the fire burned off the dross?

     These precious women of faith have given themselves up to the One who refines in the fire. They have released all the pain and suffering, affliction and circumstance to be refined as precious as the finest gold. They surrender their days to their Lord and all they contain. They give up all that would pull them away from the workmanship of their loving Father. They trust Him completely, totally and in every way. Their contentment while living in this awful place is found in Him alone. Their joy is in Him regardless of their lot in life and their beauty is something that God has fashioned by His love.
It is rare to see such trusting faith. I have seldom seen any greater faith and trust then in these special women of true beauty. I have rarely sensed any greater joy as the true and beautiful fruit of the Spirit of God in a life lived out than is evident in these women. They possess great beauty in the middle of great hopelessness. Their beauty comes from the living grace of a loving Father and God, who in the ashes in our lives creates true beauty. Only He can take what would be awful, terrible, rank and filthy can bring beauty. Beauty comes from the Savior who came to redeem the world and only He can make beauty from the ashes of our lives.  He alone can make a person truly beautiful as He creates and fashions us from the inside out as to shine with His workmanship. I will be forever etched by in my faith; by these beautiful women whose trusting faith in a Living God made then alive in Him while living in one of the worst places, I have seen with my eyes on this earth.
Praise, be to God, who loves us all with a great and extravagant love. Amen.

In all things …

“You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you” (Psalm 32:7-8, NIV).

  Isn’t it amazing how little regard and recognition we sometimes give to the God who created us, redeems us, knows us, sustains us, protects us and saves us?  Even though hundreds of promises are given to us, in His Word of His watchful, long-suffering, patient and wonderful love being fixed upon us as His children; we tend to forget this reality.

     If you do see reasons to praise God in the ordinary, you’ll most likely not see Him in the extraordinary. If you are not thankful in the commonness of each day, you will probably not be thankful when God does mighty things for you.  If you do not trust God in the affliction, you will not know Him in the blessing. If you do not honor God in the mundane, you will not seek Him in your need.  If you do not desire God in your days, your life will not reflect Him when it ends. If God is not in your legacy at your passing, you will have missed your true purpose in living.

     We not only fail at times to remember His attentive presence but we also fail in being appreciative and thankful. We at times fail to praise Him in all we have been given out of His tremendous bounty.  He is ever faithful to provide as we seek Him for all our basic and momentary needs while at the same time delighting to bring us the gifts of peace and presence in mighty ways when He sees our needs as our Heavenly Father. 

We need to be thankful and we need to give our God praise and honor, for He is always present in our lives with His love, care and grace.  He is present in the ordinary and He is present in mighty ways, we just need to see it and be thankful to Him in all ways, in all things and in all your days. 

“I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.” (Psalm 34:1-2, NIV)

A faithful servant of God …

“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence …” (1 John 3:17-19, NIV)

The dust blows and twists about as you stand on this rutted dirt road and no matter which direction you turn, it stings the eyes. The first smells you sense seem both sweet and nauseating at the same time. As you take a deeper breath, something more sinister pushes violently against your lungs as they desire better air. Slowly your mind recognizes the repulsive smells of accumulating, lingering and burning refuse in massive amounts.

As you gaze first in one direction and then in another, all you see are people working midst piles of organized and separated reclaimed trash. There are piles of plastic, piles of clothing and cloth, piles of aluminum and metal and piles of unrecognizable stuff. Then you notice trucks of every shape and size bringing more and more to this overflowing place of the discarded and reclaimed. Huge new trucks overloaded with waste of every kind. There are sewage trucks and open-backed trucks, covered trucks and compacting trucks, shining trucks and dirty trucks; all delivering more or driving away to gather more. Then there are the tucks of poor, smaller broken down and battered beyond description moving the reclaimed and recyclable trash to buyers. There will be no new trucks for these purveyors of gathering and selling; only more loads to eke out enough money to buy some beans and rice for their family.

Then there is the endless parade of people. There are people laboring under bags ten times their size and people barely able to walk. In every direction people are moving, weaving and crossing the road, going somewhere. Men and women going to the dump to work for twelve hours or so, to rummage and claim enough stuff to put together a dollar’s worth for their efforts. People with families, women with babies, men maimed by the busyness of the trucks, children dressed for school and children hardly dressed with ragged shirts and tattered over-sized or undersized shoes. Finally along the edges of the broken down shacks are the addicted men, who have rummaged through the garbage to find bottles of liquor to drain the last ounces or cans of glue and solvents trying to stay high as if to rise above the squalor of this place. This place is the Guatemala City dump and it is one of the largest dumps in the world.

Yet here in this place of the dirt, filth, cast-offs and hopelessness; smiles persist on the faces of the children and great charity is seem in the efforts of churches, leaders and projects of various kinds and functions. Those humans that offer up their energy, heart and time … seem like angels among the rest of us but the fact remains; they are humans who give more than the rest of us.

Behind a huge wall of nondescript fading aqua colored building is a small church with saintly pastor. A pastor who not only cares for the spiritual needs of the people she shepherds and guides but a pastor who feeds the poor because her Savior asks her to love as He loves. Her eyes glint with the loving compassion that her Lord had for the people sitting on a hillside when he sent the loaves and the fishes around to feed the multitude. The genuine Christian empathy and faith of substance that enables this small demure woman to feed the hundreds of children who come to side of the church each and every day is completely daunting to consider and comprehend. Still there are no cultural or societal awards for this kind of work and sadly there are few outside of this place that even know of her or of her monumental ministry of hope in a hopeless place. Yet as peered into the faces of a few of the hundreds that gather each day to eat, most likely their only meal of the day; I knew I was seeing what faith in a loving God looks like when it is flows out in true love and grace.

In my life … I have met countless pastors and sat in the audience of great spiritual teachers and leaders but I have not been in the presence of anyone so humbly and authentically real in word and deed in their faith. This is real faith, not for a dedicated moment of emotion; but real to feed the spiritually and physically hungry … meal after meal and day after day. This is real faith; not for accolades or reward but simply because she knows Jesus Christ as her Lord and she loves Him. The children in this awful place cannot keep from running with great big smiles to her to hug her. Their endless expressions of gratitude are what the “Gospel” brings when it is truly lived out. I know somewhere else, a place completely the opposite of this place of want, struggle, tears and pain; there is a Savior who is also smiling as He watches this woman who loving serves Him. This Risen Christ is smiling; because faithful servant is living out “Good News,” He wants the world to see and find.

May the Lord richly bless you my friend, Pastor Mercedez for all that you do. I know the Lord is well pleased.