In the Beginning

Many months have passed since I last wrote. As I sit to write this Christmas Eve day, a strange angle to the Christmas story comes to mind.

Blame it on my pastor, Dr. Rich Liverance. He's been preaching a series on Genesis. This has been a literary, scientific, and theological lesson. Though my brain has flashbacks to high school science class as he elaborates on Periodic Table of Elements and shows the interaction of these elements, I can appreciate the gist of the laws set up in nature.

In the Beginning...

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Genesis 1:1a states: "In the beginning God created..."

As we've studied the literary writings of Genesis and other Scripture references to God creating the world and as we've analysed scientific theories for a young earth created in six days or an old earth slowly evolving to what we have today, it has become very clear that it takes faith to believe either theory.

You either believe that the conditions of the earth today have been constant for billions of years, therefore making it possible to test the existing minerals, etc. and know that they are so old. However, if the rocks, for example, were formed in conditions that would not be known unless you were there to observe, then the testing of them would not reveal an accurate age.

If you believe in the six days of creation, you have to have faith that the way God stated things was literal. In today's climate, you are a fool for believing this, as evolution is no longer consider theory.

None of this, however, matters as much as one huge theological point.

And God saw that it was Good...

Beginning on the third day, the Bible shares God's thoughts on His creative work.

10God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

God called the earth "good." He called all He was creating "good." The important fact is that God looked down on a perfect world, one without sin and without death; a world filled with new beauty never imagined outside His own imagination. Proudly He admitted that His masterpiece came to life as He declared it should.

Sure, He could have had it take millions or billions of years. If you believe that God loves the earth as much or more than He loves mankind, He may have wished to see its forming and postpone mankind. Or He may have wished to savour His creation, knowing what a mess we'd make of it.

There is room to believe in large amounts of time passing and the Creator setting it all in motion like a set of dominoes. There is room until you realise one major fact that makes it impossible.

To Be or Not To Be...

Death. Evolution must include death. You cannot have evolutionary progress without survival of the fittest. In order for a species to evolve from sludge in a pond all the way to humanity, death had to happen over and over and over for billions upon billions of years.

If this was true, then Adam and Eve truly are a myth. God either created mankind as sinners or there really is no sin. Death couldn't be a result of sin, since death came unimaginably many years before there was a man or a woman.

So, there either was no sin or God endorsed it through creation, and God called all that and death good as the world evolved.

If God endorses death and the way we've lived (think back on your history books or listen to the news) since time began, there is no need for a Saviour.

Definitely, don't concern yourself with Christmas! Celebrate the holidays and the jolly old Saint Nick. Focus on love and giving, because you're as good as you'll ever get. There is no hope for you outside yourself.

Unto Us is Born This Day...A Saviour, Messiah God

If, however, God endorses perfection and eternity, then how grieved He must have been for centuries as He called out to people, who He made with such care, molding us and placing us specially in a world where all our needs and wants could be met.

There, in the perfect world, we listened to one voice saying that maybe God wasn't telling us the whole truth. Maybe there was something better than God. We listened. We responded. We doubted. We acted. We sinned. We lost. We died—first to the ability to choose God and then through physical decay.

God did not sit idly by and let us destroy ourselves as we deserved to do.

• At just the right time, He pierced through time and placed Himself in the womb of a woman. 
• He learned our struggles with sin firsthand, yet never sinned.
• He wept at the grief of death.

He declared Himself to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life, saying that unless we know Him, we would not know life again.

With one man—Adam—he brought sin in the world with his choice of one tree from which he could not eat. Believing Satan's words, he had faith that he'd have the best by this choice.

With one man, Yeshua, He brought righteousness into the world and life by one choice—following Him. By faith, we are asked to believe that this path, though painful, is better than life as we used to live.

God, promised Redeemer since the beginning of sin—He came to die that our sins might die. He came to rise from the dead, that we may die to our old life and live in Him.

This holiday isn't about gifts given, used, returned, forgotten.

This is an eternal Gift. This Gift begins in opening our hearts and ends in living for eternity. It begins with me and must be shared with you. It's a Gift that gives more and more the more it is embraced. It is THE GIFT that would be worth giving our physical lives for, because the life that comes from shedding our flesh will be never destroyed.

May you know this Gift this Christmas and in the New Year. May God grant us faith to live in this new Life the next 365 days.

I wish nothing more for you this Christmas than Yeshua.

How the Blood Works

I've often wondered why God made the payment of sin to be death when He knew He would have to pay it in order to have any relationship with us at all.

Recently, my Pastor preached on the biblical covenants. Last week he reiterated God's covenant with Abraham. All these covenants were made directly to the Jews, but the Abrahamic covenant promised to spill over to the rest of the world through Abraham's Seed—Jesus.

Another unique distinction in the covenant with Abraham (here still called Abram) is how the oath was sworn.

Yahweh said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

Abram brought all these to Him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.....

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram... (Genesis 15:9-12, 17-18a)

In the ancient Near East when a covenant was sworn, both covenanters would walk through an aisle of dead animals, such as described in Genesis. The purpose of doing such said, in essence, that both were agreeing to fulfill the covenant or sacrifice their lives.

Throughout the Old Testament, Yahweh was always the One reaching out to mankind. With Abraham, it was no different. Yahweh desired to fulfill a promise through this man. Being a man, however, Abraham would not be able to keep his end of the contract, perfect obedience to Yahweh's covenant, for himself or for his descendants; therefore, all of us would be condemned to eternal punishment...the sacrifice of our lives.

Because Yahweh desired a relationship with the human race, He took the fulfillment of the covenant upon Himself. He alone walked through the dead animals, guaranteeing the covenant at the sacrifice of His life.

Humans, Abraham and every person throughout time, has failed to keep the requirements of God, as Yahweh had known. To remind us of the horror our sin is to Him, He required that the Jews sacrifice animals. The lambs, goats, cattle, etc. took the death that we deserved. This did not cleanse us of our sin. It only reminded us of the blood that needed to be shed because of our faithlessness.

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:22)

As Yahweh foreknew, a time came when sacrifice had to be made. He came in flesh. He came to be one of us, to experience the temptations, yet to resist them. Someone once pointed out that His withstanding the temptations were a greater test of His empathy than if He had given in to them. Because He resisted, He knows the extent of temptation's strength.

For thirty-three years as a man, He completed our half of the covenant, which not one person in thousands of generations had been able to do. At the same time, as God, He fulfilled His promise to sacrifice His life because of our breach of the covenant.

Jesus blood became the entrance into the New Covenant. The cost is incomparable. Because it cannot be matched, any who refuse to enter into this covenant through Jesus will never find peace with God. Any who refuse to accept Jesus death as their payment will be required to pay with their lives...for eternity.

Each Easter we remember again, not just the sacrifice, but that Jesus rose from the dead. His resurrection placed Him at the right hand of Yahweh to interceed for all who come before God in His Name.

Are you trying to arrange a covenant of your own, which will leave you the sole fulfiller and the one responsible for a perfect life?

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6)

God paid it all. There is no greater insult to Him than to say: It wasn't enough.

(Picture curtesy of http://www.freefoto.com/)

Magical: Mysteriously Enchanting

What is it about childhood that makes this time of year so magical?

While I was growing up, from '77 to '84 we lived in Minnesota. For me, those are my favourite memories of Christmas. We have a large family. In MN, all the family was together. This spelled lots of laughter, as my older siblings are some of the funniest people I know.

Around this time, we'd assemble our fake Christmas tree. It may not seem magical to you, but as a family activity, it was one of the best.

Christmas morning, my parents made a rule that Kevin would get up first and make the fire (that kept us from waking my parents too early). When it was going, he'd come up to get me (I remember laying awake listening for his footsteps coming up the stairs), and we'd sit before our stockings (me peeking, but Kevin much more disciplined). At a set time, 7:00, I believe, we'd wake Mom and Dad and, eventually, the rest of the family.

Mom always made fresh sticky buns for Christmas morning, and, later in the day, Dad made the egg nog. We'd open our presents. And an aunt, uncle, and cousins would come for dinner. There was snow, Christmas carols, and lighted services at church. The atmosphere smiled around you.

There was a suspense building up to Christmas day that went far beyond the gifts.

Jesus understood the ingrained mystery that children accept about Him, but we, who have to have all the answers, often miss.

"But when Jesus saw [His disciples turning the children away], he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.' And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them." (Mark 10:14-16)

Jesus- mystery in the flesh, God made man; Immanuel, God with us!

Scholars in ancient times understood many things about the prophecies of Jesus coming, but they also confused details of the Messiah's coming, so much so that they missed it. Even the disciples, with Him everyday, misunderstood numerous teaching of Jesus until after His resurrection.

Scripture clearly teaches essential truths that we can know about our Messiah. However, much mystery still enshrouds our Saviour; mystery which excites expectation of things yet unseen. Our hope!

My wish for all of us this Christmas is that we may return to the joy of God sending the long-promised Messiah, and that we may also embrace the mystery of our Lord and return to the magic of Christmas.