I wanted to take a moment and wish each of you a very Merry Christmas! What a joy it has been sharing Christ and His Word with you this past year. Although it was a bit rough after the passing of my mother in February, and caring for my father until he went home to be with our Lord, this past July, I am thankful for the many folks who visited my site and read through posts or listened to previous podcasts.
I didn’t get to post alot this year but I am hoping that will change in the upcoming one.
There are many ways within our world and in our hearts and minds to view things. For example, “All of us view the world and perceive events around us from a unique perspective. The sights, sounds, smells, and feel of our environment create a clear mental image for us. However, most of the time we only experience a fraction of the information being transmitted in the world around us. Our eyes are capable of seeing only one thing: light. Our vision may be limited to the visible spectrum of light, but there are ways to enhance what we see and how we perceive things visually” (1). Thermography is one one of many ways as well as utilizing two different telescopes that combine infrared data with visible light observations. But what does all this have to do with Christmas?
I came across this interesting article the other day: “NASA telescopes capture ‘Christmas tree’ view of the universe,” By Emily Mae Czachor
“A dazzling new image produced using both the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed one of the most detailed views of the universe to date, NASA has announced.
Created by combining infrared data taken by Webb and visible light observations collected by Hubble, the resulting picture shows a distant pair of colliding galaxy clusters through a range of light wavelengths so vast it seems to sparkle with color.
The galaxy clusters, which scientists expect will combine at the point to form an even larger cluster, is located about 4.3 billion light-years from Earth, according to NASA. Although technically called MACS0416, experts involved in the massive study have colloquially named the bundle of celestial objects the “Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster” because of its distinctively polychromatic appearance.”
“This panchromatic view of galaxy cluster MACS0416 was created by combining infrared observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope with visible-light data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.. .”
“We’re calling MACS0416 the Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster, both because it’s so colorful and because of these flickering lights we find within it. . .”
Isn’t it interesting that these colorful lights in space led scientists to think of a Christmas tree? But I suppose that their “view” of that Christmas tree is vastly different than mine and perhaps yours.
Both have something to do with light, let me explain by sharing these scriptures with you from Luke 2:8-14.
“8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”
Did you see the light in verse nine? The light is the “glory of the Lord” and it “shone round about” those shepherds on that one particular dark night.
One writer helps us comprehend the brilliance of the event in simpler terms.
“The glory of the Lord” shone round about the shepherds in the field of Ephrathah. I cannot see this “glory” as being anything else than a brilliant light. God is light, says the Bible. He dwells in an impregnable light, and therefore his “glory” is also manifested in terms of “light,” an incomparable, majestic brilliance that makes everything in it glow and shine.
The darkness of the night was suddenly removed by the brightness of the glory of God. There was no gradual transition from dark to light, as in the early morning or evening, no dawn or dusk, but it was as if someone had suddenly switched on mighty floodlights. Dark one moment, light the next!
I suggest that the appearing of this light was an altogether unique and special event. It never happened in this way before Christmas, and it never happened in this way afterward” (Klass Stam).
This becomes more clear “If you go back and study the glory of the Lord, that is simply defined manifestation…the manifestation of the presence of God in light. Now God is not corporeal, He doesn’t have a body, and He doesn’t have a form, a physical form. He’s the invisible God. But when He reveals Himself He reveals Himself as light, some kind of…some kind of glowing, brilliant, shining, incomprehensible manifestation of light” (MacArthur).
My Christmas tree view is also surrounded by light! The beautiful muti-colorful array of lights wrapped around my tree has been replaced, in recent years, with strands of white lights. Lights, that at first were too hard for me to look at directly, but eventually became a pleasing reminder of the glory of God in the face of Christ!
When we think of Christmas our thoughts most often go directly to a babe in a manger, baby Jesus, as they should. But I find in recent years that my thoughts are more and more attracted to the glory that the triune godhead received and continues to receive as a result of God’s love for mankind being displayed, in not only “sending” His one and only Son, but also in that He “gave” Him to fallen mankind in need of redemption. A redemption that could only be satisfied in one way through one person, the babe in a manger (Galatians 4:4-6; John 3:16)!
Because of Jesus and His salvation, we are forgiven, we are reconciled with God, our Creator, and we are loved with an unrelenting love that was openly displayed upon the cross where that fully grown baby was nailed, taking our place, and paying our debt, so that we could be made righteous and therefore able to dwell with Him forever (2 Corinthians 5:21)!
8″and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and [f]full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of [g]your souls” (1Peter 1:8-9).
I guess you are a lot like me in at least one regard, and that is that you know of at least one person who has died within the past two or three years, not from disease, other natural causes, or even suicide, but from overdosing. Perhaps that person was in your immediate family context as it was in mine—hard stuff.
I have talked with various people throughout my workday who have told me their stories of addiction and how terrible it was, especially trying to get clean. The people I had talked with said how the journey down that dark road began with “prescribed” narcotics that were given to them for the pain they were dealing with due to surgery they just experienced.
They told me that the Vicodin or OxyContin worked great for a time, but then the prescription would have to be adjusted to a higher dose to achieve the same effect. Eventually, the doctors would want to stop the narcotic, but these people had now developed an addiction to it, and “quitting” wasn’t as easy a task as it sounded.
So bad became worse. Rather than saying no to what could eventually kill them, the pattern of saying yes had begun. Yes, to some other form of drug that would produce the same effect. Yes, to a behavior that would harm them.
But remember that using narcotics isn’t the only harmful activity or choice that can harm us, even kill us. Alcohol and pornography are up pretty high on the scale as well. Pornography may not kill us like a narcotic might, but it is “certainly lethal in its own way in that it kills relationships and deadens the soul.”
Hold on for a minute, just one minute, lest we begin to think this issue doesn’t relate to us. Sure it does. Our addictions may not be with a prescribed drug or an illegal one. It may not even be alcohol Or pornography, but ALL of us are dealing with some form of addiction: eating issues, social media, your particular brand of soda, coffee, etc. The list can quickly go on, but you get the gist. Like it or not-admit it or not, this problem of saying yes to what can kill you is more far-reaching than we’d like to admit.
“Saying yes to what can kill you” is the title of an article by Ed Welch. In it, he gives three aspects of our humanity that can help us with our addictive tendencies.
To be human is to say NO to temptation
“One of the first questions posed in Scripture is about temptation: When temptations come—and they will—will you trust in the words of the Lord and say no? The Wisdom Literature intends to help us with this question. The relentless message of the book of Proverbs is that our desires are not a reliable judge of which paths lead to life and which paths lead to death. In fact, our desires can suggest life is unexciting and that death can satisfy. Proverbs aims to sharpen our discernment. It helps us to consider the consequences of our decisions. We all need discernment and power to turn from temptations. We all need to see Christ as more beautiful than the beckoning trio of the world, the flesh, and the devil.”
To be human is to turn to the Lord during suffering
“Temptations are more pronounced when we feel discomfort or pain. The pain is actual physical pain among those who fight against narcotics, yet this is joined by the pain of broken relationships, dashed expectations, and other miseries that create a jumbled mass of hopelessness.”
If you have been a Christian for any time, you have learned, perhaps the hard way, that being a Christian (in Christ) does not mean that you will have fewer struggles, trials, or hardships. We may have more of them because of our relationship with Christ and His kingdom. But, as Christians, we have something the world does not; we have Jesus and the certainty of all His promises for us!
Rather than turn away from Him amid our troubles, we need to be calling out to Him. He is the ONLY one that can manage all our struggles, fears, and despair in ways that will conform us more to His image! We don’t usually fare well when seeking to control them independently.
To be human is to speak openly with each other about trouble and temptation
We struggle with this one, don’t we? I can write all I want to about it. Your pastor can preach many messages on the importance of it, but still, the thought of others knowing that we aren’t perfect, that we don’t have it all together, is just appalling to us, to our pride.
It’s hard to admit what we truly know about ourselves and everyone else-we are all broken! But God has instructed His people, His church, to be loving, compassionate, Christ-imitating people, which means that we need to open ourselves to God AND others. That truth is central to the scriptures (Romans 3:23, for example).
“We prefer to keep our struggles to ourselves, especially when they are shameful struggles. The kingdom of God, in contrast, invites us to be open before God and others. The challenge is that this is both alluring and impossible: to be known and accepted is peace, but who volunteers to talk about temptations and sins? And what if someone opens up to others and then is met with rebuke and unhelpful judgment?”
That is the challenge we face when being honest about ourselves with others. We need churches with pastoral leadership that understand these biblical teachings and work hard, with much prayer, to build an inviting and loving community of people who understand and care for the brokenhearted.
I hope this makes sense. I trust that if you are dealing with some form of addiction (saying yes to something that can kill you), you will follow God’s prescribed plan for overcoming it. Look to His Word. Call out to Him in prayer. Find a church where you can be open and honest with some mature Christians who understand brokenness and Christ’s compassion for the hurting.
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