He is Faithful (Part 1)
He is Faithful
'Tis the season' once again. Lights going up. Decorations surrounding us. Displays wherever you look. Christmas lists . . . enough said. Christmas is nearly upon us. And, if we are not intentional, that can be pretty much all it is about. But there is more. Much more.
Christmas is, in many ways, about God's faithfulness. Faithfulness. The reminder that in the midst of waiting, and so much in the world that does not seem to get fixed, and circumstances seem so overwhelming, God is indeed faithful. Faithful.
For many of us, we feel much like the lament from Isaiah 64 (see passage to the right). So did those before the first Christmas as they wondered where God was and if He was ever going to act. Christmas celebrates that, in fact, God has, and does, act. Not always as we expect, but in ways that are more powerful and transformative than we would ever imagine. God became present in a very profound way, and He continues to be, even in he midst of all that we might be experiencing - both the trivial and the tragic.
Take a few moments, not only to listen to the lament, but also to the words of Jesus in John 14 and 16. In the midst of it all, Jesus tells us to not live in anxiety, but to realize that God is here, in the midst of us. He has become one of us. He is wih us. and in Him we can find peace.
In the midst of a world that provides so many opportunities for concern and anxiety and worry, this season reminds us that we can live out of a different center - that of assurance, and hope and peace. That is he message of he season, and the experience we are invited to embrace. That is what Pastor Jon invites us to reflect upon this morning.
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Isaiah 64
NIV
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
2
As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you!
3
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
4
Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
5
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
you were angry.
How then can we be saved?
6
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
7
No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have given us over to[b] our sins.
8
Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
9
Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
for we are all your people.
10
Your sacred cities have become a wasteland;
even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.
11
Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned with fire,
and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
12
After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back?
Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
John 14 & 16
NIV
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. . . 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”