Saturday, December 31, 2016

Counting the Waves of the Incarnation.

Athanasius, the 4th century Church father, wrote, “The achievements of the Savior through His Incarnation are so astounding and so numerous that any one wishing to describe them in detail would be like one who gazes at the expanse of the Sea, and attempts to count its waves.”

Almost 800 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the prophet Isaiah said, “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given....”  The Prophet is speaking of the long-awaited Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the King of all Kings, and notice the verbs he uses.  The child is born;” but the Son who rules the Kingdom of His Father is given.”  One emphasizes His humanity, the other demonstrates His Deity: the Child is born, but the Son is given.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son [Monogenes- ‘uniquely born,’ there is not another like Him and there never will be!] that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have Eternal Life” {Jn. 3:16}.  “And the government will be on His shoulders.  And He [Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah] will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace....”  Each of these Hebrew phrases is a Messianic title, names to be borne by the Great King who would one Day sit on David’s Throne.  “Wonderful Counselor” is the wisest Ruler; “Mighty God” is the greatest Warrior; “Everlasting Father” stresses His eternal nature as Provider and Protector; and “Prince of Peace” means His rule will bring “healing” to “the nations” {Rev. 22:2}.

Isaiah say’s, “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end [Notice, just as the prophet Daniel would affirm two hundred years from this day, ‘His Dominion will be an everlasting dominion ...and His Kingdom is one that will never be destroyed,’ 7:14c].  He will reign on David’s Throne and over his Kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.  The zeal of the LORD Almighty [Yahweh Tsevaoth- ‘Lord of the Everlasting Armies’] will accomplish this,” 9:6-7.

In this passage God becomes human.  Our God became one of us, just like you and I.  Every part of Him as human as every part of you.  Our forefathers in the Faith called Jesus “very God and very man.”  By this they meant ‘undiluted divinity, unadulterated humanity.’  In Jesus we see the Creator of All That Is laboring in and among us {very God}; but blink your eyes and look again and you see the Creation to which we are bound in these bodies {very man}.  Theologians call this hupostasis: infinite Deity and sinless humanity welded as One forevermore!

Jesus’ equality with both parties— holy God on one side and fallen man on the other— means He can stand as the Mediator between us.  As Job longed for in the midst of his anguish, “If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay His hand upon us both [See this?  A Mediator is someone to ‘arbitrate between us,’ someone equal to both parties.], someone to remove God’s rod from me [His wrath], so that His terror would frighten me no more,” v. 34.  The apostle Paul declared triumphantly, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men— the Testimony given in its proper time” {1 Tim. 2:5-6}.  A mesites, a “mediator,” is one who arbitrates between two parties to remove a disagreement— what we call ‘reconciliation’— and to reach a common goal— which we call ‘redemption.’  By the grace of the God-Man, the unique and only Son of the Father, we have been reconciled to our Creator, redeemed from the slave-market in which we were born, and set firmly in the Fields of Freedom, under the care and protection of His eternal Kingdom {cf. Col. 1:12-22}!

A glorious End to an inglorious beginning.  Indeed.

HJC
Ric Webb  |  Shepherd
Heart’s Journey Community
9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204
t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously


Thursday, December 22, 2016

The Incarnation Is Meant to Continue.

Paul say’s Jesus’ Life, His love, and His labor were so the Incarnation could continue... in us!  “My dear children,” Paul calls the Galatians, “for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,” 4:19.  You picking this up?  Until this Man and His Life is formed in you.  Jesus’ humanity was formed in Mary’s womb; Jesus’ spirituality is now being formed in us!  The Word becomes flesh, once again.  Utterly phenomenal.  It is a truth unique to Christian spirituality, to the Faith of the Apostles and Prophets, and to the worship of the One True God.

Athanasius wrote, “Christ became what we are, so we might become what He is.”  Could this possibly be true?  Well, what do the Scriptures say?  Jesus is the Son of the Most High God; Paul, His apostle, said, “You are all Sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” {Gal. 3:26}.  Jesus is the sinless Son of God; 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us [‘in our place, on our behalf’], so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Or as Wycliffe Bible Commentary puts it, “The Sinless One became {by imputation} sin for the sinner, that the sinner might become {by imputation} sinless in the Sinless One!”  Jesus is the Heir of the Father’s Kingdom; Paul wrote, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s Children.  Now if we are children,” reasons the Apostle, “then we are heirs— Heirs of God and Co-heirs with Christ....” {Rom. 8:16-17b}.

Imagine this.  God set about in His Son the restoration of your humanity and the fallen image of Himself which lies buried in the deepest caverns of the heart.  To rescue and redeem, to heal and restore, that’s the Mission.  What could bring more hope to the faltering heart, more security to the souls of men, than this?  Most people cannot even imagine this, most of God’s Children have never even considered it.  “Yeah... I mean, it sounds good but.  Real life is working, striving, struggling, climbing the ladder of material success and making a mountain of money.  Cash, cold hard cash, is where my hope is.”  There is so much astoundingly bad theology in this, and so many false images of Abba crashing around in our heads, it’s staggering!  Literally.

But what if the very passion and personality of Jesus could be rebirthed in you?  What if His graciousness and generosity could spring forth in your actions and conversations?  They can.  And they must.  The Incarnation is meant to continue: in our lives today.  “God knew what He was doing from the very Beginning.  He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love Him along the same lines as the Life of His Son.  The Son stands first in the line of humanity He restored.  We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in Him.  After God made that decision of what His Children should be like, He followed it up by calling people by name.  After He called them by name, He set them on a solid basis with Himself.  And then, after getting them established, He stayed with them to the End, gloriously completing what He had begun” {Rom. 8:29-30 The Message}.

And so, on this day in which we’ve chosen to celebrate our Savior’s birth, the most mind-boggling act of humility the world will ever witness, the Creator becoming one of His very own creations, we can rejoice with hope renewed in those lines from ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today


HJC
Ric Webb  |  Shepherd
Heart’s Journey Community
9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204
t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously



Saturday, December 17, 2016

The Savior’s Silent Night Was Really the Great Invasion.

We’re one week away from the Day when we, as Students of the Master, will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our King.  Scripture reads like this.  “And the angel said to them [‘to’ the shepherds in the field], ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you Good News of great joy which will be for all the people.  For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” {Lk. 2:10-11}.  This sentence in the original contains three gorgeous Greek words which define for us the Mission and Ministry of the Messiah: Soter = ‘Savior,’ Christos = ‘Anointed One, Messiah’ {showing Jesus as fully man}, and Kurios = ‘Sovereign Lord’ and ‘Master’ {showing Jesus as entirely God}, all wrapped up in one.  He is the Savior of Man and Anointed One of God, the long-awaited Messiah of Israel; He also happens to be very God of very God— undeniable Deity and sinless humanity welded as One forevermore.  What incredible news this is: wonderful, soul-saving, kingdom-crushing News to the nations of this Earth.

But there is another side to the Story.  The Birth of Christ was much more than a picturesque event witnessed and watched by a motley assortment of Temple animals, faithful shepherds, and kings from afar.  I think you know this much already.  What you may not know is what unfolded according to Revelation 12:1-2, 4-5, and 7: this was the moment of the Great Invasion, of Eternity into Time, of Creator into the realm of Creation, our God choosing to take upon Himself the mantle of human weakness {a body} and defeat Satan on his own turf.  The angels in appearance this night were the angelic Armies passing in review as their King, Creator, and Commander lay crying in the fodder {Lk. 2:13-14}.  It was as Christian author Phillip Yancey has said, “a daring raid by the Ruler of the forces of good into the Universe’s seat of evil.”  This is no ‘silent night’ for the enemies of God; this is D-Day times infinite.

The apostle John told us, “the Son of God appeared for this purpose [this sole and solitary ‘purpose’]: to destroy the works of the devil” {1 Jn. 3:8b}.  I.e., to do Battle for those He loved {4:19}.  And, my oh my, how He loves us.  Scripture tells us He came to battle for the hearts of men {Isa. 61:1} and to offer us the Gift of Life— both eternal and abundant {1 Jn. 3:1-2}.

My prayer, as the shepherd of a flock I deeply love, is that this perspective be ever present in our minds as we live out our days in a World long at War.  One half of life is the physical, the temporal, and the transient; the other half, which the Word enjoins us to accept as the real half, the weighty half, the most crucial component of reality, is the spiritual, the Eternal, the everlasting.  We must choose to live every moment with one foot in each, simultaneously in both the temporal and the Eternal, with the latter dominating the former.  And we must rivet the eyes of our hearts on the Lord Jesus Christ.  For the Mission He came to accomplish, my friends and fellow-soldiers, is a done deal: “It is finished” forevermore! {Jn. 19:10}.  The Battle has been won and the Ultimate Victory {the Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension} already achieved.  Don’t forget this; don’t ever forget this.  We are what He is— Victorious!  If you will choose to ‘wage war’ from that position, neither you nor your life will ever be the same.

May the blessing of His grace, the peace of His presence, and the power of His Life rest upon you, your family, and your ministry to a fallen world full of broken people.  The year which lies before us is filled with promise and with hope for those who live in the Light of Jesus’ Love.  May we embrace it, and all its opportunity, like we embrace our Lord: with the passion and hunger of a long-awaited lover.  Amen and amen.

HJC
Ric Webb  |  Shepherd
Heart’s Journey Community
9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204
t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously


Friday, December 9, 2016

Jesus— the New Creation.

C.S. Lewis once said, in Jesus God “was creating man anew: was beginning, at this divine and human point, the New Creation of all things….  The miraculous conception is one more witness that here is Nature’s Lord.  He is doing now, small and close, what He does in a different fashion for every woman who conceives.”

Most of us lovvvve new things, especially this time of year— new cars, new clothes, new homes, new hair, new anything, right?  We like shiny new things on Jesus’ B-Day, new outlooks on life, new beginnings, new restaurants, new relationships.  We like the newness of Spring, the freshness of the morning.  Now, consider the ultimate purpose of God’s Grand Miracle was to make all things new, including you and I.  And this is the greatest gift of all— if we have the eyes to see it.  Jesus came for us and became one of us, so that we might become like Him.  As Lewis wrote, “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God,” not one of Him but one with Him.

Jesus became human, perfect humanity, to show us what we could become in Him.  Not only is He the ultimate Example, the Master in whose footsteps we are to follow in faith, but He became a man in order to recreate and renew a fallen Creation, to restore and redeem every soul gone astray.  He came in humility, veiling His glory and the prerogatives of unlimited power.  One Day He will come again, in power and glory unveiled, to make all things new and set the world to rights!

Jesus, Lord of All Creation and Creator of All that Is, came as John said to make all things new” {NAU}, not all new things.  The life we now have with the people we now love in the body we now inhabit will be ours again, only this time perfected beyond all imagining, every ounce of imperfection removed.  We will dwell in a glorified Universe, as God originally intended, ruling and reigning with the Righteous King, Jesus Christ, the stain of our sin and shame gone for good.  And never to return.  What joy, what glory, what utter relief in the holiness which will permeate our hearts, in the purity, the power, the presence of God unrestrained, flowing like a river over us, around us, within us, between us.

This Advent Season, this B-Day of the Great King {and every day we worship Him}, let it start within us, one by one by one as we sing words like…

Joy to the world!  The Lord is come.
Let Earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and Nature sing….

…No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground.
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found….

As Martin Luther wrote in From Heaven Above,

Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.

Son of the Father, now in flesh appearing!  O come, let us adore You, Christ the Lord.  “Therefore, is anyone is in Christ, he is a New Creation” {2 Cor. 5:17}.  Amen and amen.

HJC
Ric Webb  |  Shepherd
Heart’s Journey Community
9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204
t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously


Friday, December 2, 2016

God’s Love Never Fails.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, in the preface to his book The Life of Christ, wrote, “Christianity, unlike any other religion in the world, begins with catastrophe and defeat.  Sunshine religions and psychological inspirations collapse in calamity and wither in adversity.  But the Life of the Founder of Christianity, having begun with the Cross, ends with the empty tomb and victory.”

When Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 states for us how “love is patient” and “is kind,” how it “does not envy ...does not boast” or brag or inflate itself with arrogance, how it is neither “rude” nor “self-seeking,” how it is “not easily angered” and “keeps no running record of wrongs,” when he speaks of how “it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” and how it never fails” {vv. 4-8a}, he is stating for us the reality of the Resurrection, a power beyond our ability to imagine.  For the only One who can weave this kind of love into the fabric of our lives is the Spirit of Christ, the power who conquered the grave and raised up the Lord of Glory {Rom. 1:4}.

Therefore, when all seems lost and the night is at its darkest, remember …love never fails.

When the demons of doubt, disappointment and despair are railing at your soul, remember …love never fails.

When the times are tough and the Battle is raging, remember love never failsAnd a love which refuses to speak up and speak out, to wage war against the agents of evil, is nothing more than sentimental nonsense.

When the motivation to walk “in step with the Spirit” is gone, when the hope to live as a Child of the King is fading, just remember… love never fails.

When there’s no passion left for prayer, no hunger to see a death-bound world brought roaring to Life, a dying Christian Community renewed and restored by the Spirit of Grace and Glory, remember love never fails.

When fear overrules faith and those we love desert us, remember love never fails!

We serve a God who has promised, sworn on the Life of His Son, to “never leave” us nor “forsake” us— Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5.  Because He has sworn never to forsake us, because He has sworn His “love” will never fail us, we are to “say with confidence, with boldness, ‘The LORD is with me….  The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid.  What can mere man do to me?’” {Heb. 13:6}.

God’s love never fails— which means He never fails.  Our hearts rest in the hands of a Father who never fails!  My friends, that is gloriously Good News.  And the world needs to know it.

HJC
Ric Webb  |  Shepherd
Heart’s Journey Community
9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204
t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously