Romans 11:1-6

Today is the final day of 2022. In less than 12 hours it will be 2023 and we will have a new year to step out into.

I don’t know what the new year holds. 

I don’t know what I am doing in this new year.

Right now I am resting and waiting.

This is the last of the verses God directed me to save some months ago.

It is interesting. Paul refers to Elijah at the lowest point in his life. He has fled in fear and exhaustion from Jezebel and her plans to murder him. He has travelled a long time. God sent an Angel to give him rest. Then God revealed Himself to Elijah.

As Elijah reveals to God how the prophets are killed and he is the only one left, God replies that He has reserved 7,000. This remnant is chosen by grace, not works. 7,000 who are loyal to the end and won’t quit.

Paul reminded the readers that, just as in the time of Elijah, there is still a fiercely loyal minority who are holding on to faith. They hold on, not because of what they believe God will give them but because they see God’s immensely priceless grace in choosing them.

This remnant stay because of God’s grace, not out of self interest. 

I don’t know what 2023 will bring.

In the past some years have been so dreadful I didn’t think I would ever get to the end of them.

Maybe the coming year will be one of those? Or maybe it will be a wonderful year.

What I do know is that I stay with God because of His Grace in choosing me.

May God sustain you throughout 2023 and may there be many opportunities to sit in the awareness of His grace in choosing you to be His remnant.

Romans 10:13-17

In that quiet time between Christmas and New Year it is a good time to reflect on what Jesus’ coming to earth meant for us.

Continuing on the theme of following Jesus versus legalism, I am reflecting on this passage from Romans.

We call on the name of the Lord and we are saved.

How can we call on what we don’t believe in?

When a person in desperation calls out to God, do they do it because they are clutching at straws? Or do they do that because deep down they believe God does exist?

Having being helped by God do they continue to believe in God?

WE ALL BELIEVE IN GOD AT SOME LEVEL

I believe that at some deep level everyone believes in God. They may not want to admit it, but when things are desperate people tend to ask God for help.

Whether they are grateful to God and acknowledge what He has done after the crisis is over is another matter.

WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT HIGHER POWER YOU BELIEVE EXISTS?

It is interesting that people have a concept and belief in a higher power, but don’t know what to call that higher power. Some will admit it is a “god” but others will not.

There is a difference between those who have been taught the good news and those who have not yet heard it.

In a world where the majority of people are Christians it is sad that so few people know about Jesus.

OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO WITNESS TO THE GOOD NEWS

What are we as Christians doing to inform people about Jesus?

I am not advocating standing on a street corner and haranguing people with the aggressive message about how they are all going to hell unless they believe in Jesus. A heavy stick never wins converts.

I am not advocating harsh judgementalism and legalism that randomly judges some and ignores the glaring sins of others. Judging people who are gay, lesbian, transgender, addicts, homeless, sex workers, refugees and those who seek abortions for whatever reason while applauding those who defraud others, incite violence against minority groups, exploit their workers, even use slave labour in their supply chains is wrong. It also sends a negative message about God and brings His name into disrepute.

LIVING FAITH IN JESUS

From my observations in life it seems to me that the best way to inform people about Jesus is to live in the footsteps of Jesus. To be loving, joyous, serene and peaceful, patient, compassionate, good, faithful, gentle and self controlled. To be ruled by love and to live a life of love and acceptance of others. 

Ramming Jesus and legalism down people’s throats never succeeds, but being Jesus’ hands, voice, feet, care and concern does work. Being there for people. Accepting and loving them. Never being afraid to speak about Jesus in your life, acknowledging what He has done according to the prompting of the Holy Spirit is the best way to teach them about Jesus.

Being seen to genuinely pray and not be a hypocrite is also important. 

THE SAD WAY CHRISTIANS ARE PERCEIVED

I once heard a sad story about a woman whose child was killed in an accident. The first thing she did was find a Moslem so that they could pray. In her perception Moslem’s prayed and meant it. She had no Christian witness to fill her with the perception that Christians prayed.

When politicians parade their supposed faith in Jesus as a vote winning exercise it is hard to conceive of a God worthy of faith.

When politicians and others within the community use their supposed faith in Jesus to judge others and put them down, to be harsh and uncaring. It is hard to conceive of a God worthy of faith who cares for you.

TURN BACK TO GOD AND THE SIMPLICITY OF FAITH IN HIM

Christians need to stop relying on judgementalism and unhealthy adherence to legalism that becomes their God. Christians need to turn back to God and His love. To listen to the teachings of Jesus. To witness to the true God. The God of love, joy, peace, patience, compassion, gentleness, faithfulness, goods and self control.

We need to show those still stumbling in darkness the true light of Jesus so that when they call on the higher power they will realise that higher power is God.

Then when people call on the name of the Lord they can know who they are seeking, turn and be saved.

Romans 9:30-33

Today is Christmas Eve. As I sit writing this, bible verses I saved for this day are directing me to write in ways I did not think I would be writing about today.

After all, tomorrow is when we remember Jesus was born as a human being. Jesus came into the earth as a human child. With all the frailties and weaknesses of humans. He arrived to be perfect, to teach us about God and to redeem us from our sin.

A DEEPER MEANING OF JESUS BIRTH AND BIRTH PLACE

This morning I was watching the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Breakfast Show. On the show was the host of the ABC RN show Soul Search. She spoke of the significance of the birth of Jesus around the Pacific nations, where at least 80% of the people identify as Christian. For these people, many of whom are not from Western Cultures, the birth in the stable is seen differently. 

The most amazing and profound difference was in the identification of the importance of the animals in the stable. Where else would the God of Creation be born but in the presence of animals, part of His creation?

WE ARE PART OF CREATION

For the pacific nations around Australia, Climate Change has a very real impact on them with rising sea levels making parts of their nations uninhabitable. In fact some nations will disappear under the water and will have to find a new land on which to live. So creation and our custodian ship of it (not exploitation of it) is of vital importance.

This is a lovely contrast to the way many people in Western Cultures see Jesus and Christmas. Many just see the buying of presents, family get togethers, special food, a day of rest at the end of a busy year. I saw a post on one social media site this morning that spoke of the true meaning of Christmas being about getting together with family!!!

JESUS IS THE MEANING OF THE SEASON

Funny, my impression of the true meaning of Christmas is about Jesus being born as a helpless baby in no residence, homeless, later to become a refugee, then an outcast and then to be killed unjustly on a cross for our sins. 

THE LEGALISTIC VIEW OF CHRISTMAS

There is another faulty way of seeing Christmas and the entire faith in Jesus.

That is the way of legalism, where people are welcome in church if they are nicely dressed and observe all the social niceties. Where there is more emphasis on celebrating wealth and comfort than on caring for those who are struggling, who are the working poor, who cannot find affordable housing, who are homeless, who are alone, who don’t fit the legalistic ideal of acceptable.

Yes, churches support charities, but I have observed so many who piously put their money towards a homeless charity then vote for a political party that demonises and marginalises the homeless.

Yes, there are many people out there who genuinely care, and some of them also have faith in Jesus. 

THE STUMBLING BLOCK

This passage from Romans is about the legalism held by many Jews. It was the stone that caused people to stumble. That rock that made them fall. The way to destruction not salvation. It was only those who trusted in Jesus and sought to follow him, no matter how much outside their comfort zone they had to go, who were saved.

REFLECTION POINTERS FOR YOU THIS CHRISTMAS

This Christmas reflect on the baby who was born to all creation.

Reflect on how this baby grew into the man who redeemed us. 

Reflect on how He came to save us, not by us observing the law, not by our endless works, but by our faithful trust in following Him, in reaching out to Him when you stray off the path, in trusting His love, forgiveness, justification and guidance.

Lay aside the easy judgementalism we all succumb to and focus instead on that baby.

This Christmas celebrate the God of creation who came to live amongst creation and redeem creation.

Romans 8 1-4 The Message

“With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

“God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.

“The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.”

As we count down the days to the celebration of Jesus’ birth it is timely to consider why God sent Him.

As we know, Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. As a result all humankind was condemned to die in sin.

But God had a plan already. He planned to send His son to redeem us from sin.

In our humanness we always try to make things harder than they need to be. 

It seems unbelievable that God could give us so “simple” a solution.

He sends his son.

His son grows up, educates people about the way to truly follow Him, then dies on a cross for our sins.

Easy.

So why do we make it so hard?

Before Jesus arrived the Jews had over 600 rules people had to obey in order to be acceptable to God. That is, according to the Jewish leaders.

But God gave only 10 commandments.

Jesus gave 2. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. And to love your neighbour as yourself.

Easy.

But we in our unbelief make it so hard.

It can’t possibly be that simple! Can it?

In Romans Paul devoted a fair amount of time to teaching people that it was that easy.

This is what he is saying here in the first 4 verses of Romans 8.

I love the way The Message puts these verses.

Particularly important is verse 4. In the NIV it refers to the righteous requirements of the law. 

Paul reminds the readers of this letter that the law is still in our lives. But it is different. It is no longer there to save us, but to act as a moral and ethical guide. The law is there as a guideline for us to obey out of love for God and with the empowering of the Holy Spirit to achieve.

God sent Jesus to fully meet the requirements of the law in us. 

God intended that we would be able to embody the true and full intentions of the law.

And we live now not according to our sinful natures, but according to the empowering ministry of the Holy Spirit.

As you prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, spend some time examining your life. How much are you living according to the empowering of the Holy Spirit? Or are you still caught up in legalism that traps you in sin and leaves no room for the redeeming act of Jesus?

May this Christmas time fill you will the joy of knowing the law no longer binds you in sin. Instead you are held in the love of God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit through Jesus being born into this world.

Today I am marking Advent with the Love Candle.

And I am continuing on my discussion of Abraham as laid out by Paul in Romans 4:22-25.

Abraham had faith in God and it was credited to him as righteousness. 

But Paul continues by saying that the words “it was credited to him” were not just written for Abraham, but also for all those who believe in God. 

We also are credited with righteousness. 

We believe in God who sent Jesus to earth as a new born baby, allowed him to grow into the man who would die on the cross for our sins and then be raised to life for our justification. Because our justification comes through His gift of His life and his resurrection and ascension to heaven. It is our belief in Him that, like Abraham, is credited to us as righteousness. 

We don’t have to complicate our faith in God and our salvation. We are saved because we believe in God and Jesus. We are saved because we believe Jesus saved us because He is the Son of God and He can save us.

So today, as you light the Love Candle, remember that you are saved by your belief in the Son of God, not by anything you do or say.