2021 starts tomorrow! Let’s read through the Bible together. Reading the entire Bible in a year is not a requirement, by any means, but it is fun to do from time to time. I haven’t done it in several years, but when I have done it, I’ve used the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan, now available for download and printing.

As the introduction (above) explains, the plan is designed for success:

• Only 25 readings per month, so there is built-in slack.
• Reading from four places ensures that there is always something “interesting” to read.
• Three of the four readings are short so it’s easy to catch up if you happen to get behind.

I recommend that after you read, you pick one verse or thought from your reading and use it to meditate as part of your daily time with God. This journal, which teaches “Read, Reflect, Respond, Record” may help.

I’m anticipating that most of next year’s blogs will come from these readings. Join me! Join the adventure, and let’s see what God has to say to us.

Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it. Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For those who find me find life and receive favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 8.33 – 35, NIV)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3.16 – 17, NIV)

There are many lessons from the people involved in that first Christmas, as we’ve written here since Thanksgiving. Here’s a different one from my friend Henry Brown now living in Hilton Head, SC. He sent me this devotion, which I don’t think I can improve on. (I can’t improve on this one, but I can write my own…as you can, also. Please do! He uses a “Listen, Think, Go” format. Mine is “Read, Reflect, Respond, Record.” I’ll have something to say about that tomorrow.)

Now, to the devotion Henry sent me:

Listen

Then Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen since I haven’t had sexual relations with a man?” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God’s Son. Look, even in her old age, your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son. This woman who was labeled ‘unable to conceive’ is now six months pregnant. Nothing is impossible for God.” Then Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:34 – 38)

Think

Have you felt like nothing good comes from you? Sometimes we feel like we are unable to bring forth any goals or follow through with plans. Perhaps you have never experienced that your life has a meaning or purpose. This may be how Elizabeth felt as a childless woman in her old age, in a patriarchal society that measured a woman’s worth by her ability to bear children.

Today’s Scripture brings us guidance on what we can expect when the work of the Holy Spirit starts in our lives. Instead of feeling “unable to conceive” anything, God is sending support through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come and empower us, allowing us to live with purpose and able to conceive any goal.

What are you disappointed by? Do you want to experience the ability to achieve? Whatever it might be, know that nothing is impossible through God. – Israel Loachamin

Go

Where shepherds lately knelt, and kept the angel’s word,
I come in half belief, a pilgrim strangely stirred;
But there is room and welcome there for me,
but there is room and welcome there for me.
Can I, will I, forget how Love was born and burned
its way into my heart unasked, unforced, unearned,
to die, to live, and not alone for me, 
to die, to live, and not alone for me?
from “Where Shepherds Lately Knelt” by Jaroslav J. Vajda (1986)

Not one promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God! (Luke 1.37, TPT)

It’s a few days after Christmas…do you have what Eric, our youth pastor, called “Monday after Christmas syndrome”? As in, Christmas is exciting (also exhausting!); then we have to get on with life.

Eric suggested that Mary and Joseph must have experienced that, too. There’s a lot of excitement in having a baby, even more so when the birth is announced by angels, and you have middle-of-the-night visits from shepherds. Then, life with a new-born sets in. If you’ve had kids, you know.

We can be thankful that Mary and Joseph were faithful to their calling. They did the hard work of raising a baby, out of the limelight, without nannies and servants. They would have had to live just like the rest of us, doing the next right thing.

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2.21 – 224, NIV)

When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him. (Luke 2.39 – 40, NIV)

Continuing our theme of Jesus’ birth as an act of war, I want to talk about one of the most difficult songs I ever played on the piano. When I was a senior at Clemson University, I accompanied the Clemson Glee Club, and we did Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols. Carol #6 has the innocuous title “This Little Babe.” Here’s what John Stonestreet at Breakpoint had to say about it:

Now arguably, the most-loved carol [in Ceremony of Carols] is “This Little Babe.” Despite the sentimental-sounding title, the text is anything but. It’s about a battle between the Babe of Bethlehem and Satan himself.

The text, written by Robert Southwell, a Catholic priest, who was hung, drawn, and quartered by Queen Elizabeth I, reads “This little Babe so few days old, Is come to rifle Satan’s fold; All hell doth at his presence quake, Though he himself for cold do shake; For in his weak unarmed wise, the gates of hell he will surprise.”

Jeff Spurgeon of New York’s classical music station, WQXR, wrote that he finds himself “surprised” and “deeply moved” every time he hears Britten’s setting of “This Little Babe.” In Southwell’s words and Britten’s music, the battle between good and evil is won by “a baby born in obscure poverty” and that battle is depicted “not by a huge orchestra and massive voices, but by a harp and a choir of children.” And that’s Christmas in a nutshell. John Stonestreet, December 23, 2020.

What made the song hard to play was that my part had a repeating rhythmic theme to it – no problem – and the choir part had a repeating rhythmic theme as well…but the two patterns didn’t match! As I’ve reflected on it this week, maybe Britten intended the two parts to be at war with each other symbolizing the war the song talks about.

If you’re not familiar with the song, please take 97 seconds to listen to it. Yep. 97 seconds. It’s VERY fast. Here is a lovely rendition done by, as Stonestreet quoted Spurgeon above, a harp and a choir of children. Here are the words:

This little Babe so few days old
is come to rifle Satan’s fold;
all hell doth at his presence quake
though he himself for cold do shake;
for in this weak unarmèd wise
the gates of hell he will surprise.

With tears he fights and wins the field,
his naked breast stands for a shield;
his battering shot are babish cries,
his arrows looks of weeping eyes,
his martial ensigns Cold and Need
and feeble Flesh his warrior’s steed.

His camp is pitchèd in a stall,
his bulwark but a broken wall;
the crib his trench, haystacks his stakes;
of shepherds he his muster makes;
and thus, as sure his foe to wound,
the angels’ trump alarum sound.

My soul, with Christ join thou in fight,
stick to the tents that he hath pight.
Within his crib is surest ward,
this little Babe will be thy guard.
If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
then flit not from this heavenly Boy!

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2.10 – 12, ESV)

She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon… And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. (Revelation 12.2 – 4, ESV)

…The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3.8, ESV)

We started our advent series by reminding ourselves that this year we wait:

I strongly believe that this Advent season has the potential to be very significant. Why? Because we’re actually waiting for something. This is America. We don’t wait for anything. If we need or want it, we buy it. Long gone are the days of “Please allow 4 weeks for delivery.” Stuff we order comes in a day or two.

HOWEVER, this year we wait…for relief from COVID. We’re chafing against lockdowns and isolation. The neighborhood Jesus moved into was waiting, too. Jews were in permanent lockdown under brutal Roman rule.

So for the first time I can remember, ALL of us are waiting…in hope. It’s a good way to start the Advent season. Journey with me. (Ewellogy, November 29)

And now, a month later, we have two approved vaccines against COVID. Like Jesus’ coming, and like we wrote about yesterday, the vaccine is a beachhead. We’re not cured. Distribution takes time as does “herd immunity. But the day is coming when COVID’s rule will be over.

Jesus invaded as a baby, grew up, trained some followers, and left them to continue the movement. In less than 300 years, Jesus followers comprised half the Roman Empire, and, as Andy Stanley has pointed out, every building in Rome–the city that was headquarters of the brutal regime that persecuted Christians, executing Peter and Paul–every building in that city now has a cross on it. Don’t underestimate the power of a beachhead, and the power of small beginnings. And continue to pray:

Manifest your Kingdom on earth. (Luke 11.2, TPT)

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3.8, NKJV)

On this day after Christmas, it’s time to remind ourselves that Jesus’ birth was an invasion and Satan considered it just that.

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. (Revelation 12.1 – 4, NKJV)

Mike Metzger of Clapham Institute writes:

…look at the first Christmas from the vantage point of heaven. It’s in Revelation 12. A woman is about to give birth. She’s tortured with pain, a reminder of God’s oracle to the woman after the fall. Her pain is exacerbated by the appearance of an enormous red dragon. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. We see this in Revelation 12, where Lucifer is crouching greedily before the woman, seeking to kill the newborn. Miraculously, the baby is carried away to safety. A headlong flight into Egypt ensues, with hosts of demons on the tail of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus (c.f. Matthew 2). Foiled, the serpent scans the horizon, declaring total war on all who follow the infant child. This should give Christians pause… Mike Metzger, The Seriousness of Christmas (the entire article is worth reading)

Tim Lewis, son of lifelong friends Bruce and Elena Lewis, has written a song about this. He starts with a reference to the Normandy Invasion, D-Day, June 6, 1944. It’s worth listening to: Act of War, A Christmas Song.

I want to write more on the D-Day aspect of Jesus’ coming tomorrow.

Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent…And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12.13 – 17, NKJV)

Luke 2:1-20 (NIV)
¹  In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ²  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³  And everyone went to their own town to register. ⁴  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

⁶  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷  and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. ⁸  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵  When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” ¹⁶  So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸  and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹  But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

As we wrap up our advent meditations, it’s useful to remind ourselves that the Christmas story teaches us that God uses everybody! Here’s a partial list of players:

• Gabriel
• Zechariah and Elizabeth
• Mary
• Joseph
• Shepherds
• Simeon
• Anna
• Wise men

Look who is represented:

• Angels
• Old people
• Young people
• Men
• Women
• Working-class people
• Poor people
• Wealthy people
• People of differing ethnicities

It’s part of the good news. Jesus came for everyone AND everyone can participate!

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. (Luke 2.10, ESV, emphasis mine)

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2.1 – 4, ESV, emphasis mine)

As we approach Christmas Day (although I don’t think the Christmas blogs will end then), it’s instructive to think about all the responses that fit into God’s plan for Jesus’ birth.

• Zechariah: “Are you kidding me?” (Luke 1.18) “His name is John!” (Luke 1.63)
• Mary: “Let’s do this.” (Luke 1.38)
• Shepherds: “Let’s go see!” (Luke 2.15)
• Simeon: “I need to get to the temple!” (Luke 2.27)
• Joseph:
  • “Mary, will you marry me…anyway?” (Matthew 1.20 – 25)
  • “We’ve got to leave for Egypt NOW!” (Matthew 2.13 – 15)
• Wise men: “We have a Jewish king to find.” (Matthew 2.1, 2)

A book about Joseph, son of Jacob (Genesis 37 – 50), that I read a very long time ago, contained a sentence about responses that stuck with me:

You always have a choice. It always makes a difference. – Source forgotten, probably either Jerry White or David McCasland

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1.38, NKJV)

Did you see the “Christmas Star” last night? If not, there’s still time:

Skywatchers are in for an end-of-year treat. What has become known popularly as the “Christmas Star” is an especially vibrant planetary conjunction easily visible in the evening sky over the next two weeks as the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn come together, culminating on the night of Dec. 21…The planets regularly appear to pass each other in the solar system, with the positions of Jupiter and Saturn being aligned in the sky about once every 20 years. What makes this year’s spectacle so rare, then? It’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this “great conjunction.” The closest alignment will appear just a tenth of a degree apart and last for a few days. On the 21st, they will appear so close that a pinkie finger at arm’s length will easily cover both planets in the sky. The planets will be easy to see with the unaided eye by looking toward the southwest just after sunset. An Article on the NASA website, December 15, 2020

Here’s what it looked like from my house with some of my neighbors’ Christmas lights providing appropriate ambience:

We don’t know whether something like this is what the Wise Men saw or whether the “Star of Bethlehem” was a comet or what. But it was a nice Christmas week treat. Check it out!

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. (Psalm 19.1, NIV)

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. (Matthew 2.10, NKJV, the link goes to my blog of December 16, worth the read just to hear the song!)