O Come, Emmanuel

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us").

Matthew 1:23

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free

Thine own from Satan's tyranny

From depths of Hell Thy people save

And give them victory o'er the grave

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

And death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

This is my favorite Christmas song. A strange choice, is it not? Neither cheery nor upbeat, it definitely fits into the solemn category.

But every Christmas Eve, as I hold my lighted candle during a worship service, and sing this to God I feel it in my bones. This deep need put into words and notes and chords. A song that speaks of the lost who are longing to be found.

When Jesus came to earth as a newborn baby the people of Israel had not heard from God in over 400 years. Can you imagine? Remember this was a time before the Holy Spirit was gifted to believers. The veil was still in place in the temple to keep the presence of God apart from His people.

I know what it feels like to be in exile, to be lost and alone. I know what it is to mourn, to feel a loss so great that like a wave crashing over you no air can get to your lungs.

So maybe this is why I relate to this song so much. Israel is not the only one looking for Emmanuel - we all are. We all feel a little lost and alone and mourn with all our hearts to be saved, to be rescued.

But that's where the similarities with us end. We, who sing this song in the mindset of 2015, have a very different perspective from the people of Israel 2,000 years ago.

The difference? They were looking for Him, but we have found Him!

That's the thing about this song, as mournful as it may sound, it's message is of hope. And it will meet you wherever you are today:

I am filled with sorrow, but He has come!
I am angry, but He has come!
I have been betrayed, but He has come!
I carry shame and guilt, but He has come!

Emmanuel. Not only has He come, but He has stayed in hearts by way of the Holy Spirit. Emmanuel, God is with us.

Oh, beloved. Emmanuel came to earth. He died a sinner's death in my place. He arose from the dead, thereby conquering it. He lives in all of us who believe in Him.

So, this year, as I pack away Christmas ornaments and vacuum pine needles off of my floors, I will remember. There is no need to mourn, no need to feel lost. My circumstances may take my joy for awhile. Life may not be ideal today, but I remember the message of hope from the song that may sound the least hopeful -

I long for a Savior, One who is good and true and faithful. One who can vanquish sin and death. One who can right wrongs. One who can deliver me from evil.

But the wait is over! He has come.

Emmanuel is here.

Consider it Joy (to the World)

This is the season of joy, right?

Joy to the World! The Lord has come! 

Good tidings of comfort of joy! 

But what if, during the Season of Joy, I feel anything but joyful? What if life has thrown me a curve ball and the unexpected or the unwelcome has happened? What if the joy in my heart has faded?

If you're anything like me you've walked through these times of joylessness. We realize during these times that joy isn't vital to brainwaves and heartbeats, but joy is vital to living the way God intends us to live. We are called to abundant, joyful lives as Jesus tells us in John 10.

Oh, Lord. The circumstances of life have taken my joy. The path You have called me to walk brings a sorrow to my life. So what do I do with the darkness and pain You've let me encounter?

Beloved, consider it joy.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4

Or, as the Message version translates it:

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

Here's the thing: we don't always get to pick the paths we walk down in life. God directs our paths and these paths are not always well-paved and peaceful. Sometimes the path God chooses for us seems dark and painful. Sometimes the Way is not the way we would choose for ourselves.

But it's not our call. Isaiah 30 tells us that even when we "eat the bread of adversity and drink the water of affliction", His presence will be with us saying, "This is the way, walk in it."

So maybe God has called you down a bramble and thorn-filled path, but we are to consider it joy, a gift. We are to rejoice in our troubles because God is using them for good. God uses our troubles to make us better, to refine us.

This path, friend, counts for something. Your pain, your sorrow, your loss. It means something. God loves you enough to make you uncomfortable. He loves you enough to lead you through the valleys, so your mountaintops will be sweeter.

I don't pretend to know why God has asked you to walk through your particular trial. But I do know that your trial is very precious in the sight of God. I know that He has promised to walk with you through it.

I also know He has told you to rejoice and have joy in your trial. Your trail will deepen your faith and deepen your need for Him. 

And when the road is finished and the time of darkness has passed, you will have been shaped into a new and better version of yourself. A version that does not depend on circumstances for your joy. Instead you'll be someone who finds joy in one place and one place alone. 

Because, as the song says, the moment the Lord came, angels declared joy to the world. Our joy, true and deep and real joy, comes from Jesus alone. 

So, consider it joy, friends. Consider the path He has called you to walk as joy. Each sad and painful step will lead you closer to Jesus.

And knowing Jesus is knowing the best kind of joy there is.

Living in the Not Knowing

by Jennifer Smith

What is it like to wait for your whole life, but to never quite be sure what it is you're waiting for? What is it to look at the underside of the tapestry of your life and never quite be sure of the design God is weaving?

I know this feeling. You know this feeling. And most certainly, Anna knew this feeling:

In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God:

God, you can now release your servant;

    release me in peace as you promised.

With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;

    it’s now out in the open for everyone to see:

A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,

    and of glory for your people Israel.

 Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. 

Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother,

This child marks both the failure and

    the recovery of many in Israel,

A figure misunderstood and contradicted—

    the pain of a sword-thrust through you—

But the rejection will force honesty,

    as God reveals who they really are.

Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem.

Luke 2:25-38

Anna must have been someone of note because not only is she called a prophetess (the only woman OR man to be clearly given that title in the New Testament), but the writer of Luke assumes we know the identity of her father, Phanuel (His name, by the way, means "Face of God." Coincidence that his daughter would actually see the face of God? I think not.)

When we meet Anna she has lived and served the Lord in the temple for at least 50 years. She knows the stories, has memorized the scripture concerning the Messiah, and has praised and worshiped with all her heart, but God, her God, has sent no direct message to His people in over 400 years.

Anna is waiting, but she's not quite sure what she's waiting for. She knows her service to the Lord is vital. She knows that her walk with Him is special. But does she ever question the Why? Does she ever question the When? Does she ever question the How?

Well, if she's human, the answer is yes. Yes. And yes.

And that's where faith comes in. A.W. Tozer says that simple faith is the most often overlooked attribute of the servant of God, but yet it is the most vital. 

Neither Simeon nor Anna knew God's exact plan for the redemption of the world, but they kept their eyes opened for God's plan. See, Tozer says, "Faith looks out instead of in. Faith keeps an inward eye on the Father."

And with this sight, then, and only then, nothing else matters.

Not the Whys, or the Whens, or the Hows.

Faith answers these questions with, "I don't know, but I serve a God who most certainly does."

Hebrews 11:1 says, "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about the things we cannot see."

Y'all, I cannot see my Whys, Whens, or Hows, but I can always see My God.

Anna's faith was rewarded. Her steadfast trust in God's plan (that she had no idea of) was celebrated by God Himself when He allowed Anna to look upon the baby Jesus as He was blessed in the temple. 

Dear Sister, just as Anna's faith was rewarded, yours will be, too.

I cannot answer your Whys, Whens, or Hows. But I don't need to. I don't know the plans for your life, but God does. 

Live in faith, like Anna. Live in the not-knowing in peace because God does know.

The last verse of this passage says that Anna "talked about the child to all who were waiting for freedom."

You know, there are those around us now who are waiting for freedom. Freedom from sin and chains and hurt. So let's be like Anna and tell them.

Let's tell people living in uncertainty of a God who is certain. 

Let's tell of a Savior who knows the way even when we are lost.

Let's find rest in a Good Father and His good plans for us. 

I read this week that we don't get to know all the details about our life. It's just not in the cards for us to walk in full knowledge of what will happen today or tomorrow. And that's okay. Don't be afraid of what you don't know. 

God knows. 

That was enough for Anna. And that's enough for us, too.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

God rest ye merry, gentlemen

Let nothing you dismay

Remember, Christ, our Savior

Was born on Christmas day

To save us all from Satan's power

When we were gone astray

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

"Comfort, comfort my people,"

    says your God.

"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

    and proclaim to her

that her hard service has been completed,

    that her sin has been paid for."

Isaiah 40:1-2

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people."

Luke 2:10

I wonder what the world looked like on the night Jesus was born. Not the landscapes or the climates, but its heart. What was brewing inside the heart of men? Had God forgotten His people? The physical night was dark, but darkness was settling into the hearts of mankind, too. Whether a member of the Hebrew nation or not, I wonder if those living on the earth felt a lack of....something.

A lack of purpose or hope or redemption.

Or Comfort and Joy.

We've got some basic needs in this human shell we live in: food, water, shelter, oxygen, clothing. But there's something about the lack of comfort and joy that make daily living almost impossible. Without comfort and joy we have to remind ourselves to breathe or to get out of bed in the morning.

There are times when you're without comfort of mind and spirit as you walk through dark days and other times when the joy of your heart seems to have disappeared. Comfort and joy do not give us physical life, but friend, they most certainly give us abundant life.

And Jesus says, "I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." (John 10:10)

Our good and gracious heavenly Father sent His Son to provide even more than the salvation of our souls and He wishes to supply more than just our basic needs. He sent His Son to provide you with tender comfort for your hurts and doubts, and great joy for the beautiful hope that is ahead of you.

On that dark night when the angels appeared to the shepherds with their words of Good News, they were exclaiming more than precious eternal salvation, they were telling us that in this life, as we wander in this human form, that there is much to be had here, too. That comfort and joy are things God wishes to give us now.

My human shell walks through times of plenty, health, success, and prosperity.

But it also walks through times of sorrow, uncertainty, fear, and longing.

But through all these seasons there is comfort from a Good Father and joy in the hope of the Coming Christ.

So, this Advent, let me be the first to say to you, no matter what season you may find yourself, dear friend:

I bid you good tidings of comfort and joy from a Good Father and a Coming Christ.