December 11

John 1:14: The Word Became Flesh and lived for a while among us……

Dear Jesus, As I begin to ponder the wonder of God in human form I am reminded of , the first moment I saw my son. This miracle of New Life changed me forever, for a piece of me and my wife was now crying and moving and living in front of me. To think that you became such a child just so you might show us the full extent of your love, voluntarily becoming a weak and dependent child just like my son, is almost too much to fathom. I wish to give you thanks today for such an unspeakable gift. Amen.

AS we take time to remember the Truth that the “Word has become flesh” it will not take very long in John’s Gospel for our Author to begin highlighting what this means for the world. In John 2 Jesus is going to visit the Temple. When he arrives he is stirred in his Spirit and seething with anger as he witnesses the mockery of His Father’s House. It is one of those glimpses inside the heart of God that many of us would edit from the Text if we could. Turning over tables, shooing animals from their cages, shouting, waving a whip around his head as he throws what would look to us as no less than a temper tantrum. Jesus is peeved. Jesus is ticked. Jesus is beyond angry. Passion is passion, and on this occasion we begin to get a real life glimpse of the Old Testament God some like to deny - Passionate anger for a cause!! The same God who was angry with Moses, who swallowed up Korah and his followers in their rebellion (Numbers 16), who time and time again gave Israel over to their enemies, and who would eventually tear down the walls of the Temple gazed upon here, is the same God who stands in front of the temple walls in John 2. In Jesus, the Temple that God lives in, the place where God’s presence is known and most pronounced is being transferred. “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will build it again.” (John 2:19) They have no clue Jesus speaks of His Body, but the message of the Incarnation is precisely this – Jesus become the walking, talking, very Presence of God on Earth. He who lives in the Temple is now among us in the Person of Jesus. And the Passion Jesus has for His Father’s Temple is to become the very same passion that burns inside of Jesus for me and for you – His New Temple. (See Eph. 2)

House of God

There was a Temple.

Dream of King David, Heart of Solomon

Smoke rising from the God who is One

Fashioned for sacrifice, home of the Priest

Temporary door through which sin is released

House of God.

There lay a Man.

Born of a Woman, Gift from His Dad

Growing and Learning like any good lad

Fashioned for sacrifice, Love in His eyes

Tear down the Temple and watch Him arise

House of God.

Here sits a Steeple.

Tied to her Founder, Framed with Living Stone

In front lay an alter where the lost find a home

Fashioned for worship, Praise fills her halls

Open the Door for He’s torn down the walls

House of God.

Here lives a Body.

Filled with His Spirit, birthed through His death

Mouth, eye and hand are moved by His breath

No standing or status for a servant is King

Into all nations His glory to Bring

House of God.

(A Poem By Pastor Rick Farmer)

December 12

John 1:14 b: “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Dear Jesus, There are times in life I sense a glimpse of Glory. They are few and far between, but when they come I imagine myself receiving a little taste of all you have planned for us. Teach me daily to keep my eyes focused on the prize, seeing the reality of your glory through the eyes of faith, and making every effort to live into that which you allow me to see of you. Amen.

Today’s world finds itself reaching for Glory. The Post Modern person is tired of a world where science and technology reign supreme, and spirituality is on the rise. Our bookshelves reflect this trend, as people are drawn to spiritual messengers and enlightened visionaries and near death experiences and the like. You see, glory has become yet another earthly experience for the postmodern person. We have lost sight of the Biblical declaration that a real search for Glory means to seek something beyond the day to day experiences of a closed universe. Glory is separate from, apart from, and eternally transcends the experience of day to day life in this post modern world. Our gadgets and our technology and our media miracles focus our attention upon things that inherently lack glory. They might be beautiful, consuming, and somewhat awe inspiring, but they lack the essential essence of that which highlights the reality we call glory – The presence of God. It is not so much that they cannot point us in the direction of the Creator, for all creation has this potential. It’s just that they most often distract us, from Truth, from Life, and even from ourselves. By redirecting our attention, much like a search engine on the internet might do, our focus is left to floating from place to place, image to image, with very little training in the art of “connecting the dots”. A people who are not interested in connecting the dots of life are not a people interested in Glory. Our world has become so keenly in tune with meeting the felt needs of consumers that pausing to search for Transcendent Reality becomes an exercise for the elite, and seems for most a colossal waste of time, inside and outside the church. Pragmatism is chosen over Glory without so much as a question, as if the thing that works best for me can somehow be determined by modern guidelines rather than The Creational Norms set forth from eternity by the Designer Himself.

On small example helps to illustrate: What should we get for the person who has everything this Christmas? Most of us will shop until we drop in search of that one thing nobody has and spend our money to buy that special something that nobody needs for the person who has everything. We do this in the name of capitalism. Our system only works if we buy stuff. So, If I am a business person in today’s society I must figure out a way to sell my product around Christmas, and anything I can do to make Christmas a consumer holiday will enhance the likelihood that I will be able to have a great Christmas with my loved ones as well, pragmatically speaking. But what if Christmas is not about consumerism? What if the true meaning of Advent gets covered over in my postmodern approach to a wonderful Christmas, largely determined by the success of my business and my ability to meet (and have met) felt needs? What if Advent loses connection to the Devine in the midst of my approach to the season? The Glory of God sacrificed for the product, the Advent of the Christ lost in the necessary merchandising of my culture. After all, what should we buy for the person who has everything? The Babe in the Cave would proclaim – Nothing!! Let the joy of the season itself become the cause of celebration and family gatherings. Let Glory shine through in the face of the Son rather than a new X Box 360. Let the Love of the Creator touch our lives with a glory that will carry us through life well beyond what a new coat might warm us or that new gadget might entertain us. What must I do to consign myself to a quest for the Glory of God, over and above my yearly desire for Christmas trees and new toys?

Into just such a world John speaks: “We have seen His Glory!!!” His Glory!! His Glory!!” “ Can I interest you in a little of my Father’s Glory?” asks the Messiah. Lady Gaga might take us to “the edge of glory”, but we can never cross the edge without the Light of Life to guide us to the one true source of all Glory.

I ask you to pause for one second each day during this Advent season to consider the world in which we live, so that you might recognize the Glory of the Visitation, the reality of the other worldly presence in our midst. For starters, let’s understand what and who is hiding the glory from our sight, the all-consuming post modern world we eat and sleep and raise our families within. Then let us join together in celebrating The Glory of God who has come to us in the Person of Jesus our Lord, embracing a new reason for the season which really is not new at all, only covered and forgotten by those who have for too long neglected the true place Glory is to be found – The Life and the Face of Jesus the Christ.