Heaven's Sweet Answer

Happy New Year, Friends.

I’m reminiscing about 2012 today: the friends I made in California (Love ya, Cornerstone!), the incredible opportunities I had to preach around the country (165 messages in 16 states, whew!) and the fantastic people I met along the way, the rewarding stories of how God has been using the first book and now good reports are coming in from readers of the second (In the Midst: Treasures from the Dark), the joy of being part of a local church here in Wisconsin (You are an encouraging family, Jacob’s Well!), a pleasant family reunion (complete with great fishing), the surprising phone call requesting that I serve as an acting District Superintendent and the even greater surprise of how much I’m enjoying the privilege, the sweet return to Salem (Life-giving. Thank you!) and to top the year off, our home remodel project was sufficiently complete for a joyful Christmas move-in (Mt. Lake crew, you are awesome and skillful servants!) and, what could be better, all of our kids came home to celebrate.

I’m blessed.

The life—the years, the strength, the joy—the “locusts” ate is being restored. Your prayers on our behalf continue to be answered. Bless you and thank you.

A Devotional Thought to End One Year and Begin Another

Didn’t someone, somewhere have to wonder?

Certainly some reflective soul looked deeply into the not-yet-polluted night sky searching, asking: What did our Creator think of us?

We had rejected His plan in the Garden. The earth’s first two offspring—two brothers—shed blood. The first death on this planet was a murder. The story—mankind’s story—does not begin well.

The ongoing chapters don’t paint a much better picture. Thankfully, occasional rays of light give hope in the darkness: Abraham believes, Moses leads, David sings, Jeremiah perseveres. But for every Abe and Dave is a Saul who serves himself, a Solomon who implodes or a Jonah who runs.

As the story unfolds, what is the God of heaven to think . . . to feel . . . to do with such a place—a race—as this?

His values—clearly communicated—are not owned by the majority. His heart ignored. His causes opposed. The poor are scorned, the vulnerable abused and the prophets killed. Wars rage back and forth across the landscape. Morals are reinvented to suit man’s most vile desires. The human population staggers from the strong drink of its own brewing: a deadly concoction of greed, lust, pride and revenge.

Would it not have been appropriate for the thinking person to conclude that God was utterly disgusted and completely done with this world? On what basis could we hope that He still had heart for a people like us?

Yet, what is heaven’s response to century after century, generation after generation of rebellion? Christmas!

Christmas is heaven’s stunning and beautiful proclamation that God loves this world . . . yes, even a world as devolved as ours. This wandering, wondering world—if she can only hear—will have the answer announced by angels and delivered through a virgin’s womb.

In a single word, heaven’s answer to the world’s question is “love.”

For God so loved the world—this broken, mean, rebellious world—that He gave us His one and only Son.

My Application
Another Christmas has come and gone. And, for some of us, the story of the Christ-child has become as ordinary and expected as another sunrise. But, today, I say, “Wow! Amazing! I wouldn’t have seen it coming. I couldn’t have written the storyline.”

What is the God of heaven’s word to this world? Love. Love, perfectly lived out in a human life so we could see what it really looks like.

As Paul, my local pastor friend, explained in a recent sermon, “Jesus, the Word, is the exact expression of what God desired to say to this world.”

My desire for 2013 is that I would leave expressions of love wherever I go. It really doesn’t matter how many sermons I preach or what titles I have or how far I travel in 2013. If I don’t love, it’s all just wind and waste. But with love—in love—our words and wanderings can have genuine meaning, genuine life impact.

After all, people still wonder what heaven thinks of us. We—commissioned Christ-follower—have the privilege of letting them know.

For God so loved this world, He gave . . .