Tag: Advent

Jesus: The Gift of Unconditional Love

How is our deepest need met through the promise of our Savior?

Deep down, every single one of us longs for unconditional love.

That’s why the sting of rejection or unsatisfying interactions cause us to grieve. When we experience conditional love–when people only show us love when we perform well or please them–we may feel tempted to walk away from relationships altogether.

And while we can strive to love others unconditionally, we will never be able to love perfectly on this side of Heaven. So how can our deepest need be met? How can these two opposing forces be reconciled?

Through Jesus.

But before you roll your eyes at the standard Sunday school answer, bear with me through a few ponderings. As someone who grew up in the church, it’s been ingrained in my brain that only Jesus loves us perfectly because He is God and God is Love.

But what does that really mean? How can this incredible promise come to life for us this season?

Consider these verses with me:

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

John 3:16-18 (NIV)

What does unconditional love mean?

For God, it meant giving up His very own Son in order to save us and be with us.

Reflect on that for a moment: Through Jesus, God gave up His very self–His very life–in order to demonstrate His love for us.

And the gift doesn’t end there.

Consider this passage with me, titled in my Bible as “Jesus Prays for All Believers”:

“My prayer is not for [my disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

John 17:20-25 (NIV)

Through this passage, we learn that God loves us so much, He wants to be with us all the time. That’s why we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that even after Jesus returned to Heaven, the Spirit resides in us to remind us of God’s love and promises. When we invite the Spirit into our lives, we are guided on the right path, comforted in affliction, and refined in godly character.

This verse in particular really stands out to me:

Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

God loves us as much as He loves Jesus–as much as He loves His very own self.

There is truly no greater sacrifice than to die to yourself so that another may live.

No matter what mistakes you’ve made, what regrets plague your mind, what dreams you wish to pursue–God is offering you the gift of unconditional love.

You don’t have to change before receiving this love. You simply need to open your heart and accept it–and the transformative work that will follow.

Because once you receive Jesus’ love, you won’t want to stay the same. You will want to grow in the fruits of His Spirit, especially in how you love others.

When you fully recognize the unmeasurable gift of Jesus’ love, your heart’s new longing will be to worship Him.

And how do we worship Jesus?

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Matthew 22:36-39

As we strive to worship Jesus with our whole selves, we must also have grace for the journey.

It’s okay if you mess up. It’s okay that you can’t love others perfectly. But take every opportunity you can to love others–not out of obligation or guilt, but because you are satisfied in Jesus’ perfect love for you.

If you’re struggling to find something to celebrate this Advent season, take a moment to experience the joy that comes in knowing that you, in whatever state you find yourself in today, are fully known and fully loved by the wonderful God who created you.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:8

Why Does Christmas Feel Magical?

Appreciating Christmas requires belief in the supernatural power of God.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. The colorful lights, the uplifting music, the excuse to give loved ones presents and handwritten cards. There’s just something that feels magical about the holiday.

As Christians, it may feel sacrilegious to call anything in the natural world “magical” because of the connotations surrounding the term “magic”. If you do a quick Google search, magic is defined as “the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.”

Without getting into the darker definitions of magic, by this definition alone, I do believe Christmas has magical elements to it. Though they are far deeper, and more incredible, than the secular ideas of the magic of the season.

While I don’t believe there are flying reindeer or jolly elves delivering presents, there is definitely a supernaturalness to the true meaning of Christmas. Only as Christians, we can replace the word “magic” with the word “miracle”.

The difference between magic and miracles is that miracles require intention and care, whereas there’s a sense of spontaneity and luck associated with magic. More importantly, God is the one who orchestrates miracles and the only one with the power to make them happen. Only He is worthy of our praise.

God had been planning to send His son to save us since the beginning of the world, even foreshadowing this promise throughout history. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He fulfilled each of the descriptions of the promised Savior from the Old Testament. This certainly required much forethought!

However, I don’t think it’s wrong to appreciate the magical feeling of Christmas. In fact, I’m not sure if we can really understand the true meaning of Christmas until we believe in the supernaturalness of it.

Let’s read through Matthew’s depiction of the Christmas story together:

18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

~ Matthew 1:18-25

Now go back and take note of all the unnatural happenings within this story. Here are a few I noticed:

  • a virgin being with child
  • an angel of the Lord visiting Joseph through a dream
  • God taking human form
  • God wanting to be with us
  • two regular humans changing the entire trajectory of their lives in obedience to God the moment they received their callings

Christmas feels magical because it requires a belief in the supernatural, especially for Christians!

If you think believing an elderly man and his elves spend the year creating presents in the North Pole in order to deliver them all in one night is unrealistic, consider what we believe! The almighty God came down from Heaven in human flesh through an unnatural birth because He desired to be with us, His lowly creation.

Not only that, but from the moment God created this plan, He knew that He was sending His Son with a death wish. Jesus’ ultimate purpose was to die for our sins (and thankfully come back to life!) in order to break the barrier between God and man forever.

There is no greater Christmas miracle than Jesus.

What a gift it is to serve a God who loves us so wonderfully! His love is truly beyond human comprehension.

And that is what we must celebrate this season–and all year round. When we accept Jesus’ love for us, we will notice more clearly when we are being called to share that love with others. Christmas is an excellent excuse to be generous and caring to those in our lives, and share with them the good news of Jesus’ great love.

This Advent season, I encourage you to take a moment to rest and reflect on the miracle of Jesus’ birth. Allow yourself to pause long enough to be filled with awe for all God’s done to be with us–to be with you. ❤

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

– 1 John 4:9

Fourth Sunday of Advent: God’s Faithfulness

Merry Christmas Eve! As we draw close to Christmas, let’s remember God’s faithfulness, even in the waiting seasons.

Read: Luke 2:22-40

Devotional:

Each Christmas, a different set of characters stands out to me, often based on my emotions and experiences from that year. Perhaps you can relate. There are years of abundance and joy, when you feel like the shepherds, ready to share the good news with others. And then there are years of waiting, discouragement, and loneliness. In today’s passage, Simeon and Anna experience the fulfillment of long anticipated promises, though they also provide solace and company in times of sorrow or impatience.

From the start, we learn that Simeon and Anna are both people who have an intimate relationship with God. Simeon has opened his heart and mind to being moved by the Holy Spirit while Anna, being a prophetess, is also used by the Spirit to speak God’s truth. What makes their faith remarkable is the way they’ve grown while experiencing immense trials and disappointments.

I am deeply comforted by these characters, particularly in how they must’ve stood out from the people around them. Simeon must have sounded crazy by being so firm in his belief that he would not die before meeting Jesus, the Messiah. He likely was laughed at by others, especially in religious circles, and made to feel like he didn’t belong. Meanwhile Anna experienced heartbreak right at the point when her life should’ve been at its peak. This led her to spend the rest of her life widowed, likely with many moments of wondering and loneliness.

Though they may have wanted a more “normal” life at points, they embraced the path God had for them, through which they were filled by the Holy Spirit and blessed with remarkable gifts that opened their eyes to who Jesus was before many of the more popular and scholarly religious leaders. Their faithfulness to God is admirable, a reminder for us to trust God and focus on Him rather than others who bring us down or treat us poorly.

What I love most, though, is witnessing God’s faithfulness through this passage. The entire world had waited a long time for the promise of Jesus to be fulfilled, the only possibility for us to have complete connection and access to God and to be with Him forever. Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection is the most profound testament to God’s faithfulness and love for His people. And when we think about it as such a vast, worldly event, it can feel so far away despite being so incredible.

But when we zoom in on God’s faithfulness to Simeon and Anna, people He specifically chose and remained close to as they experienced hardship and disappointment, it’s so evident that God is as much a personal God as He is soveriegn over everything.

God cares about the burdens on your heart. He didn’t only send Jesus for everyone else — He sent Jesus for you. He believed that His love for you was sacred enough to sacrifice His own Son to pay the price you owed simply by being human so that He could love you forever and ever.

No matter how you feel this Christmas, whether you are isolated or surrounded by loved ones, take the time to remember and thank God for His love. Realize that you are worth dying for! Being in relationship with you matters immensely to God. He doesn’t need you and He doesn’t need me, but He so desperately wants us because He created us and delights in us. Nothing you do will ever change how much God loves you.

We can’t earn this love or sacrifice, but we can honor this gift by spending time with God and making the most of this incredible opportunity to be with Him. After all, that’s what the ultimate meaning of Christmas is, right? God is with us. And that news is worth getting excited about!

Questions:

  • When’s the last time you really thought about how much God wants to be in relationship with you?
  • Do you want to be in relationship with Him?
  • How can you build more time in your life to be with Him this year?
  • How do you hope to grow in your faith through your relationship with Jesus?
  • Thank God for His grace and faithfulness, remembering all He has done in your life, and trusting all that’s to come.

Sing:

O Come All Ye Faithful

In The Bleak Midwinter

Silent Night

First Sunday of Advent: God’s Call

Join us on this first Sunday of Advent as we explore the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s call.

Read: Luke 1:5-25

Devotional:

Have you ever been asked to do an “impossible” task? Perhaps your boss asked you to perform a task that you weren’t trained to do. Or maybe in a relationship you had to make a decision or have a conversation that you didn’t feel ready for. Sometimes, tasks are impossible for us to perform alone and it’s unreasonable for us to be expected to perform it well.

As someone who has always worked in a teaching-related role, I’ve had students whom I’ve (admittedly…) felt unsure would ever improve under my instruction. Usually this level of defeat or doubt comes after I’ve tried everything I know how to do to train them, whether in social skills, horse riding abilities, or academic concepts. But they just keep going back to the same bad habits. Change seems impossible!

In our passage today, Zechariah and Elizabeth certainly felt that having a child was an impossible task. A task that had far greater implications than most, given that their community status, lineage, and perhaps even view of themselves was tied to being able to have a child of their own. If a neighbor or friend said to them, “Hey, you guys should still try to have a baby even though you’re old and wrinkled and you’ve been trying without success for your whole marriage”, they would understandably be hurt, offended, and frustrated. A human giving them this advice has no place to judge or correct their behavior, nor determine the outcome.

However, it isn’t a person who informs them that they will have a child, a very special child. Gabriel, a messenger from God, delivers Zechariah and Elizabeth’s call to them. The only actions they need to take in response to this call are trust in God’s plan and let the events unfold before them.

Let’s take a look at how they respond: Reread Zechariah’s response in verse 18 and Elizabeth’s response in verse 25.

Zechariah responds in a very human, natural way. He questions this news and he’s unable to move past his own shortcomings in order to embrace the calling God has on his life. Meanwhile, despite not even receiving the message personally, Elizabeth praises God and fully embraces this call, an answer to a long-term prayer.

God is the most qualified to give us our callings. He knows us better than we know ourselves — after all, He created us with our purpose in mind! Therefore, we can trust Him to help us follow our callings even when it means relying on Him to make the impossible happen.

Thankfully, both of them are able to enjoy the gift of this call when their baby, John the Baptist, is born. After nine months of silence, Zechariah has a renewed relationship with God. Through her faithfulness, Elizabeth not only becomes the mother of Jesus’ cousin; she is able to provide support and comfort to Mary, who is also going through a sudden change in circumstances, as we will learn next week.

I don’t know about you, but I often use my human limitations as a reason to doubt God’s calling on my life. The irony is that I still desire to know what God’s call is, but it’s much harder to hear it when I’m drowning out God’s voice with my own insecurities and misbeliefs. Thankfully, God is made perfect in our weaknesses, and even if we are reluctant to embrace our calling at first, God will help us grow through the experience to trust in Him more deeply. No matter what, we can do nothing to thwart God’s plans, though the journey is more pleasant when we trust Him.

Our callings don’t have to seem big or important, even though every calling from God is used in profound, unimaginable ways. Perhaps you are called today to reach out to an isolated neighbor or forgive a loved one who has wronged you or perform an act of kindness for a stranger. Whatever God is leading you to do today, perhaps even resting in His presence, I pray that you are able to accept this call with grace, humility, and confidence that nothing is impossible for God.

Questions:

  • Can you think of a time when you felt like God was calling you to do something? How did you respond?
  • Have you ever been in a situation where you thought nothing would ever change? How did that make you feel?
  • What helps you remember that nothing is impossible for God?
  • What is one thing you can do this Advent season to show God’s love to someone else?
  • What are three things you are grateful for this year?

Sing: Let’s close our time together in worship.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

The First Noel

You Won’t Miss What’s Meant for You

Are you tired of trying to figure out what God’s will is for your life?

God’s will. Two scary words for anyone in a season of waiting, transition, or decision-making.

Every time I’ve made a life decision over the past several years, I’ve been asked, “Is this choice within God’s will?”.

Usually it comes after I’ve asked for advice, when I’m not sure what is the “right” decision. In these moments of overwhelm and confusion, being thrown this additional component makes the process even more daunting.

Perhaps you’ve been in that situation. You really want to please God with your life, use your gifts for His glory, and live with purpose. But…the will of God can seem so broad and significant that even thinking about it results in a headache.

Here’s the thing: We have no control over God’s will. It will happen regardless of what decision we make. One yes or no isn’t going to ruin God’s plan for our lives.

This news might be a relief, or it might be frustrating to hear. We’d like to think we have some sort of handle on what happens to us, right?

I was rereading Luke 1 today, and a new detail caught my eye. For those of you unfamiliar with the beginning of the Christmas story, it starts off with Zechariah the priest in the temple receiving a message from the angel Gabriel announcing the promise of Zechariah’s son, John the Baptist.

However, what I never noticed before was this detail:

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 

Luke 1:8-9 (added italics)

It was beyond Zechariah’s control to be in the temple that day to receive that message at that specific time, yet God orchestrated it in a way to uniquely speak to Zechariah. Even when Zechariah didn’t believe the angel (and received the consequence of losing his voice for nine months), God’s will was done. No matter what, God knew He wanted to use Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, for the key role of raising up an important leader.

No person, thought, fear, or feeling could remove God’s divine purpose from this family.

God’s will isn’t supposed to be a scary thing that we have to figure out. By prioritizing our relationship with Him and trusting Him with every detail of our lives, we will be able to witness God working even in the most troubling of circumstances. Most of all, as we grow to become more like Him, it will be easier for us to understand how to react when difficult situations arise.

But through it all, even when we make mistakes, God will use you and your special gifts no matter what. He will never leave you alone. ❤

But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth.”

Luke 1:13-14

Making Room for Jesus

What can we never have too much of?

A friend of mine recently gifted me a beautiful Christmas book that contains ornaments with names of Jesus to hang on the tree each day of Advent. This gift was certainly thoughtful and well-appreciated.

The thing is, though, my tree is literally leaning by the weight of decades of passed-down ornaments. My parents had boxes of childhood and young adult belongings stolen years ago, but what was left behind? All those ornaments!

Tonight, as I placed one of the final ornaments on the tree, a snowflake with the words “Light of the World” on it, I joked, “I don’t think this tree has room for another Jesus ornament!”

Hmm…

So often in our lives we shut Jesus out because we don’t think we have room for Him. Our jobs, our relationships, and our well-being have to come first. And while I’m certainly an advocate for taking care of those aspects of our lives, I believe that when we center our lives around Jesus, everything else falls into place.

We can definitely have too much of most things in life, whether it’s old furniture or cheap knick-knats or our favorite snack. We can even have too much of our loved ones, requiring us to take some space away from them to appreciate them again.

But we can never have too much Light. In fact, love, peace, and hope aren’t in abundant supply these days either. Does anyone complain about an overflow of joy or contentment? Nope.

The only way we can truly have these things is through Jesus. He is the embodiment of anything lasting and worthwhile.

Now, I won’t pretend like dedicating our lives, or even simply our Christmas season, to Jesus is easy. It takes intentionality and grace, mostly grace for ourselves when we find ourselves slipping away.

And it doesn’t mean we will always feel wonderful or close to God. It means that we are willing to stick through the tough times and make sacrifices.

But it will all be worth it.

This Christmas, make room for Jesus in your life. He desperately wants to be there for you. All you have to do is invite Him in.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

John 12:46