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Matthew 21:16, 1 John 3:1

Innocent Worship

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 13, 2024

If the Kingdom of Heaven and Christmas are for kids, what exactly is it about kids that give them this honor? When Jesus was entering Jerusalem on what we know as Palm Sunday, the crowds were shouting and singing and praising God, for they had acknowledged Jesus as the coming Messiah. However, the religious leaders rebuked the crowds and called for Jesus to do the same. They asked Him, “Do you hear what these children are saying? “Yes, replied Jesus.” Then Jesus quoted an Old Testament passage that prophesied that upon the arrival of the Messiah, God made sure that “children and infants” would praise Him. (See Matthew 21:16). What kids do is worship! They especially worship at the coming of the Messiah, which is what we celebrate at Christmas time. Children always look up to those all around them.

I once got lost in Brandeis when I was 6 years old. Brandeis, for those of you who do not know, was the largest department store in downtown Omaha back in the 1950s. It would be compared to Higbees in the Christmas Story movie. I was on the 8th floor, where all the toys were, and I got disoriented, and my mother was waiting in a checkout line. The most frightening thing was that everyone around me was so huge, and I was so small. I felt helpless. I didn’t know which way to turn, and the big people were all too busy rushing past me to stop and help. It wasn’t until I began to cry that someone stopped and took me to a store employee who announced in the store that if anyone had lost a little boy to come to the lost and found. That was me. I was lost, but then Mom showed up, and I was found. That was me. Once, I was lost, but now I’ve been found.

Innocent Worship is worship that comes from that salvation experience. It’s what the Psalmist described in Psalm 95 when he wrote, “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.” God is big, and we are small. No matter how big we get as adults, there are ways that we should remain as children. John tells us in 1 John 3:1, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”

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Matthew 18:3, Ephesians 4:15

Growing Up

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 12, 2024

Christmas and heaven are both for children. Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom of Heaven was for kids. Several times, he said, “Unless you turn and become like these little ones, you will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3). The specific characteristics of children that are desirable have to do with their helplessness, humility, acceptance, and childlike faith. Unless we become like children, we can’t enter into God’s Kingdom. Yet, there are several passages that exhort us not to be like children. We read in 1 Corinthians 14:20, “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking, be mature.”

The scriptures are full of such paradoxes. We must give up our lives or die to ourselves if we are to truly live. We must give if we are to receive. We must become last if we wish to be first. We must lose it all in order to gain it all. We must become the least in order to rise to greatness. It goes on, but the point I want to make is that Jesus often taught us in paradoxes. Paradoxes are seen everywhere in Jesus’ life as well as in his teachings. He’s often proclaimed the son of Mary, yet he’s to be called the son of God. He was born in Bethlehem, the city of the kings, but lived in Nazareth, a city from which nothing good could ever come. He was born a king, yet born in a stable. He was worshipped by Israeli Shepherds and foreign Kings while the current King of Israel, Herod, sought to take His life. An angel announced His arrival, but there was no room for Him at the Inn.

Leonard Sweet describes this characteristic of Jesus’ life as being “surround sound.” It’s like stereo: two sounds, each coming from a different direction. We are exhorted to be like children but not to think like children. We need to think like adults. I’ve often been impressed with how children who grow up in the church have strong faith, participate in many church activities, profess faith, are baptized and partake of communion services, read their bibles, etc, and yet when they leave home for college, military, or a career, they often lose their faith. They have been taught the Biblical truths at home and in the church but haven’t learned how to think about the truths they have been taught as adults. A child might think Christianity has all the answers. An adult believer, on the other hand, wrestles honestly with tough questions, trusting that God has the answers even if we can’t come up with them. Paul taught us that “…we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…” Ephesians 4:15.

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Matthew 1:18

Born of a Virgin

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 11, 2024

Christmas and the Kingdom of Heaven are for children. Jesus made it clear that “unless you turn and become like these little ones, you will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3). At the same time, the Bible exhorts us not to think like children. Paul tells the Corinthians, “Do not be children in your thinking…but in your thinking be mature.” (1 Corinthians 14:20). Many who grow up in Christian homes and are taught the Bible from their earliest years lose their faith in School in the workplace, or in the Military. They become exposed to sophisticated philosophical systems that leave no room for what they’ve been taught at home or in the church. When this happens, the awe and wonder of the world goes away. Everything that captures the imagination and hearts of children is reduced to a scientific formula of what and how. There’s an obsession with the “what” and a passionate search for the rationale of “how” things work in the world. But the glorious Biblical “why” the world is as it is and why mankind, and ourselves as individuals, are in the mortal state that we’re in is left unanswered. The Message of the Bible is the only legitimate answer to the why questions of life.

Saint Augustine is famous for saying, “I do not understand in order that I might believe. Rather, I believe in order that I might understand.” It all begins with childlike faith, but it must go on to a mature understanding of the tenets of the faith. A child might readily accept the Christmas story of the virgin birth of Jesus as described in the Gospels, but it’s not until they understand the “why” that their faith grows to a mature level. We must teach our children the “whats and hows” of faith in their early years but then expand the teaching to reach them with the why level so that their faith will become stronger, not weaker when confronted with atheistic and agnostic doctrines in the world.

The virgin birth of Jesus was absolutely essential to the fulfillment of the role for which he came into the world. We are all sinners. The Bible presents the sins of mankind as blotches, stains, breaks, scars, flaws, welts, and numerous other images, all of which present the reality of man’s imperfection. Yet the only acceptable sacrifice for the sins of man must have been a perfect sacrifice. One commentator puts it this way, “He would be ‘holy’ from the womb.… His name was to be Jesus … denoting Him as Savior. The holiness of Jesus is here put in connection with His miraculous conception, and surely rightly. In no case in the history of mankind has natural generation issued in a being who is sinless, not to say superhuman.” Mary brought forth her firstborn son, but he was certainly superhuman. Matthew 1:18 says, “When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

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Luke 10:21

Who’s the Grownup?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 10, 2024

Christmas and the Kingdom of Heaven are for kids. Jesus made that point several times in the Gospels. I’ve been trying to capture the particular characteristics of children that are so meaningful to God. One of those characteristics seems to be a simplistic hearing of God’s teachings and open hearts to embrace them without the confusion of a personal agenda or a history that clouds the clarity of Jesus’ words. Grownups don’t always get it. I think this is what Jesus meant when he prayed, “Thank you, Father…that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” (Luke 10:21). One of the things that children seem to “get” when adults miss the mark is in the area of forgiveness. One Sunday School Teacher tells about picking up one of her students for Sunday school. She writes:

When I went to pick up Shanna for Sunday school one week, she was crying and had blood on her dress. “It’s my uncle Joe!” she said. I knew that her family was “going through changes” because of Uncle Joe and his drug addiction. Shanna had particular reason to feel bitter toward her uncle. For years she had dreamed of owning a bicycle, and that Christmas a donation from a church made her dream come true. Shanna rode her shiny, new blue bike everywhere, bragged about it, polished it, and treasured it. Within a month, her uncle had sold the bike to buy drugs—an ample reason to embitter a nine-year-old. Now, on this morning, there was one more reason. Uncle Joe had come home wearing a T-shirt that read, “Say No to Drugs.” Shanna commented, “Why don’t you read your own shirt?” He hit her, causing a nosebleed. The white collar and yellow lace of her Sunday dress were a mess. Nothing else was clean, and everyone else was still asleep. We went to church to wash out the bloodstain. When it came time in the service for individual prayer petitions, Shanna’s voice sounded bright and clear as a trumpet: “I pray for my uncle Joe. He needs your help, Lord. Please, Jesus, help my uncle.” What a privilege to drink from the same chalice as Shanna.

In the Lord’s Prayer, we’re taught to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” I think Shanna gets it while many adults still harbor bitterness and unforgiveness in their hearts. It’s only when we become like children and are able to forgive and let go that we experience God’s peace. Matthew 18:3 says, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

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Matthew 13:13, Mark 4:33

The Christmas Story

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 9, 2024

When I tell stories or use illustrations to clarify biblical truth in my sermons, I’m often told that even the kids understand them. Telling stories is the primary method that Jesus used to communicate truth to his listeners. I expect that even some of the youngest kids in his audience were able to understand much of what he taught, while many adults would miss the point. Jesus explained that he often taught in stories because “seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13:13).

Mental blindness and deafness are some of the most devastating effects of sin. Many people may hear the same story or parable and come away with different responses. Everyone will acknowledge that the Christmas story is a beautiful story. It’s eloquent, imaginative, and interesting. It will be told in thousands of churches across this country in the weeks ahead, yet many will not see the significance and will miss the personal point of application. It is the same today as it was in Jesus’ day. I’ve been occasionally told how appropriate my sermon was for some absent person. But, I always wonder if it touched them. We hear and yet don’t get it. We see, yet don’t perceive. It’s part of our fallen nature. We tend to hear what we want to hear, and we tend to see what we want to see. We become so single-focused that we miss the point. There are some fascinating pictures that are drawn in such a way that we tend to see it only one way. But the truth is, it has something more to it than meets the eye. We tend to see what we want to see. There have been several photos posted by my Facebook friends that tell you to close your eyes and open them again slowly. When you do that, you see something different. It’s usually a picture of what Jesus might have looked like.

The secret is that you look at the picture in a different way. When we learn to think outside the box or to look outside the framework of what immediately meets the eye, we can see it from a new perspective. This is why Jesus taught in parables. A parable is a picture that must be looked at in various ways to get the message. The value of a good story or parable is that they have a way of sneaking past the defenses of the heart and striking us with previously unseen truth. At the same time, the truths are hidden from those who cannot change their focus. They will always see just what they want to see and nothing more. The Story of Christmas is about my sinfulness, God’s love, His sacrifice, and my redemption! God so loved me that He sent the most perfect present of all times, His own son, to die for my sins. Mark tells us that Jesus often spoke to us in word pictures like this. Mark 4:33 says, “With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.”

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John 4:6

There’s No Place Like Jesus

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 8, 2024

The paradoxes of Christmas were to be revealed to those who could see and understand. One interesting paradox is the two cities associated with Jesus’ hometown: Bethlehem and Nazareth. Bethlehem, as you know, is the city of David. It was the city of the great king. Jesus was from the “house of David” (Luke 2:4). The greatest of all kings came from Bethlehem. Nazareth was the place from which “no good thing could come” (Matthew 2:23). The extremes of these two cities are significant. This paradox is educational for all who have ears to hear and eyes to see. They are not just geographical locations. To those who can think symbolically and look outside the box, it’s a powerful figure of speech called a “merism.” A merism is a phrase that involves two extremes and is intended to include everything in between. It’s similar to Jesus’ own use of “The Alpha and Omega,” referring to the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet. It’s not that Jesus is only one or the other. Rather, He is both and everything in between.

Jesus made it clear to the woman at the well in John chapter 4 that true worship was not at a geographical location. True worship was neither in the mountains of Samaria nor even in the mountains around Jerusalem. True worship was worship that was in the spirit and truth. A. W. Tozer observed, “I wonder why the Crusaders did not consider that. Why all the starvation, the suffering, the blood? Why the long, weary treks to get to where Jesus was born, where He was crucified, and where He died? There is no geographical advantage anywhere in the world. Not one of us will be a better Christian by living in Jerusalem. And not one of us is disadvantaged spiritually for living far from Judea or Galilee. Jesus Christ is in the very center of geography. Every place is just as near to Him as every other place! And every place is just as far, also. Geography means nothing in our relationship to our Savior and Lord.”

I truly loved my visits to Bethlehem and Nazareth in my tours of Israel, but the truth is they lend nothing of true spiritual significance in and of themselves. My son, Chuck, commented at our farewell dinner at the close of our last trip that rang true for all of us. He said something to the effect that he enjoyed the tour and will always treasure the places he has seen, but he knew that Israel would always be with him no matter where he was as he studied the word of God. The scriptures testify of Jesus, and Jesus is the hub, and geography is all around Him! John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

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Ephesians 4:14-15 1 Corinthians 13:11

Grown up Children

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 7, 2024

Christmas and the Kingdom of Heaven are for kids. It’s interesting that the Bible teaches us that we must have a childlike faith to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet, it also teaches us that we must grow up in the way we think. Ephesians 4:14-15 says, “that you may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine…rather…we are to grow up…” We also read in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”

It is well known that many teenagers and young adults lose their childlike faith when they enter into the secular world. We often think that it’s because of higher education, but more non-college-going kids drop church attendance (70%) than college-attending kids (64%). An earlier study determined that the loss of faith is “the result not of education, but …of processes set in motion long before young people ever set foot on a college campus: Those students who “lose their faith” in college or drop out of organized religion after high school are primarily those already at considerable risk of doing so for other reasons that predate these actions. To suggest the die is cast before the dorm room is occupied may be too strong a claim, but not by much…parents tend to “get what they are” when it comes to their teenagers’ religious sense. If parents do not actively affirm and transmit the oral and written traditions of religion, their failure to “teach the language” results in youth who cannot speak the language and are at elevated risk of shedding the religious value system altogether. For the full article, check out http://religion.ssrc.org/reforum/Regnerus_Uecker.pdf

We must have a child’s faith and an adult’s reasoning! These two aspects are necessary in our spiritual lives. When Jesus taught in parables, he expected the information or the stories to be processed intellectually and the implications of the stories to be understood. Still, at the same time, he knew that they would only be fruitful in an innocent, humble, and receptive child-like heart. In the paradoxes of the faith, it takes adult-like understanding, followed by childlike faith, to “get it.” Nicodemus asked, “Must I return to my mother’s womb to be born again?” Of course not! Jesus is not talking about physical birth. He’s using it as an illustration of a more important truth. Nicodemus was reasoning as an adult based only on the “what” and the “how” but has lost sight of the “why” or the purpose behind Jesus’ Words. Adults easily grasp the “what” and “how” in the world, but it takes the humble heart of a child to recognize and embrace the why. In Matthew 13:8-9 we read, the “seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

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Luke 2:10

The Shepherd’s perspective

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 6, 2024

Every Christmas pageant in the world has shepherds in it. What would a Christmas play be without shepherds? It would be incomplete. That’s what it would be! The Gospel of Luke makes a big deal out of the shepherds coming from the hills of Bethlehem to visit Jesus in the manger. The text of Luke 2 regarding the shepherds begins, “And in the same region…” That means Bethlehem! They are not just ordinary Shepherds. Bethlehem is the major suburb of Jerusalem. It’s where David, the little boy, was a shepherd. He was a songwriter and poet from his earliest days and did that in these very same hills. But more importantly, the hills of Bethlehem were occupied by shepherds who were assigned to care for and watch over the sheep being raised for one purpose and one purpose only. They were the sheep that were to serve as the sacrifices that were offered in the temple. There are several things worth noting about the Luke passage in this regard.

First, when the angels appeared to the shepherds, the text says, “The glory of the lord shone around about them.” That’s a clear reference to the Holy of Holies, where the “Glory of the Lord” was believed to reside. These shepherds were raising these sheep to be offered at the Temple as sacrifices to the Glory of the Lord. But, they themselves were never allowed to enter into God’s presence. That’s why they were “filled with great fear.” The angel tells them not to fear because he has some wonderful news of great joy for all the people. They were about to be introduced to the one great sacrificial lamb who would rend the veil separating God from the people. That’s why the angel added that this great joy will be for “all the people.” It’s not just for the religious elite who enter God’s presence. It was for them, too. It’s for me too! It’s for you too!

The angel told them, “This would be a sign to you; you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” How could that be a sign for shepherds? One of the toughest jobs of the shepherds was to protect the newborn sheep. The mortality rate of sheep (and humans) in those days was pretty high. But, even more important was the fact that when sheep are first born, they struggle and wiggle and strive to stand up and bump into things and very often break legs or cut themselves or hurt themselves in such a way that they are no longer “perfect” as a sacrifice at the Temple. Shepherds worked hard at watching the expectant ewes so they could be there for the delivery. They would receive the baby sheep right from the womb, and to ensure it would remain acceptable as an offering, they would wrap it up tightly and bind it so it couldn’t hurt itself. You guessed it; they would use “swaddling” clothes. Further, after wrapping the newborn sheep, it would be laid in the feeding trough so that the other sheep would not bother it until it had time to survive the birth experience without damage. The swaddling clothes and lying in a manger would assure the shepherds that this infant was the “perfect” sacrifice that would be offered for the sins of the world. According to Luke 2:10, the angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

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