Tomorrow is the New Year! How quickly this seems to come around when you’re 75!

Will you join me in 2022 in reading the New Testament? Last year I read the whole Bible using the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. It’s still there for you if you want to read it all. But this year, I’ll go a bit slower and have my Daily Time with God in the New Testament, following this plan: 5 x 5 x 5: five days a week, five minutes/day, one chapter in the New Testament. 5 days x 52 weeks = 260 chapters in the New Testament! How easy is that?

⁷  The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
⁸  the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
⁹  the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
¹⁰  More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
¹¹  Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19.7 – 11, ESV)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3.16, 17, NIV (1984))

As we wind down the year, still in the glow of the Christmas celebration while looking ahead to the New Year, it might be useful to look at In Hoc Anno Domini by Vermont Royster, an editorial written in 1949 for the Wall Street Journal, and published by the Journal every year thereafter. I confess, this is the first year I’ve seen it in the five years or so I’ve been reading the Journal.

The main message is that Jesus’ coming made a difference. That Jesus came to offer light in a dark world.

It’s not very long and worth the read in its entirety. Here are a few excerpts:

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so. But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression…

…

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.

…

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

…

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

…

Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter’s star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. – Vermont Royster, 1949, the last paragraph quoting Galatians 5.1

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (John 3.19, 20, KJV)

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8.31, 32, NKJV)

P.S. I believe the editorial has something to say to us today. I also agree with WSJ subscriber Collin Hobbs who cautioned about politicizing Jesus’ message. Here is his comment:

I appreciate that WSJ continues to publish this piece each year, but Royster’s mashup of Christianity and American political ideals is just as poor theologically today as it was in 1949. Jesus didn’t come to save us from earthly tyrants, nor was Paul writing about freedom from oppressive governments in Galatians. Jesus came to save us from the tyranny of our own personal sins. Galatians is Paul’s plea to Christians to not fall back into the bondage of a works-based salvation.  The great enemy was not Rome or other oppressive governments, it was, and still is today, the darkness and oppression that comes [from] our own sins against God. 

Faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior has, throughout the centuries, led in fits and starts to systems of government that value individual freedoms. But that never was, nor ever can be, the central focus of Christianity. It is a happy by-product of Christianity, not its goal.

Speaking of Jesus coming into the world poor and starting off as a refugee, my friend and Greater Europe Missions (GEM) missionary Ted Cox has written an extraordinary book I strongly recommend: What You Meant for Evil.

The book centers around a young woman from Syria and intentionally (and very creatively) parallels the story of Joseph as told in Genesis 37 – 50. Hence the title from Genesis 50.20:

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50.20, ESV)

The book is a novel, but Ted told me that he has witnessed most of the scenes in one form or other. Some of this he explains in the What’s Next? section at the end.

As we celebrate the “baby born in a stable,” let’s remember that Jesus was clear that his followers care for the “least of these,” including the “stranger” – foreigner, refugee.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. (Matthew 25.35 – 36, ESV)

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10.18 – 19, ESV)

Yesterday we considered that Jesus’ life, for all the romanticism that comes with this time of year, was difficult. Consider, after the visit of the Wise Men, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were refugees:

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. (Matthew 2.13 – 15, NIV)

It’s hard for us to imagine (and even harder for our children) in this age of wealth and instant gratification that life has not always been as most of us experience it and still isn’t in most parts of the world.

I’m reading The Wizard and the Prophet, recommended by Seth Goden. I’m not all that far into it, maybe 20%. It’s a fascinating story of two men who have influenced thought in two different ways. What I want to draw your attention to now is the background of Norman Borlaug, born in northeast Iowa in 1914, just over 100 years ago. This section about his boyhood jumped out at me in our affluent age:

When not in school the Borlaug children did chores, rising before dawn and working until after sunset. Boys hoed weeds, dug potatoes, milked cows, stacked hay, hauled wood and water, fed chicken, cattle, and horses. Girls tended the vegetable garden, worked the washboard, cleaned house, mended clothing, cooked meals. The toil never ended but complaint was rare. The Borlaugs were subsistence farmers, and if they wanted to eat there was no alternative. Norm boy worked dutifully but without enjoyment. He particularly detested harvesting maize. Every ear had to be sliced from the plant, husked on the spot, and flung into a wagon. The sharp leaves cut through gloves and clothes; the boy was scraped and bleeding by the end of the day. According to Noel Vietmeyer, a longtime co-worker who wrote a biography of Borlaug, an Iowa family with a forty-acre maize plot, typical for the time, hand-picked half a million ears every fall. It was, Borlaug told Vietmeyer, a “two-month horror.” – The Wizard and Prophet by Charles C. Mann, page 102.

Jesus’ life was closer to what Borlaug experienced than the lives most of us are privileged to live.

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. (Matthew 12.1, ESV)

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9.58, ESV)

In keeping with the theme of Christmas as war, it’s good to remember that Jesus’ life wasn’t easy. A few verses in John’s gospel make this abundantly clear:

Born a KING…in a stable. Died a KING…on a cross:

Then Pilate responded, “Oh, so then you are a king?”

“You are right.” Jesus said, “I was born a King… (John 18.37, TPT)

Jesus carried his own cross out of the city to the place called “The Skull,” which in Aramaic is Golgotha. And there they nailed him to the cross. He was crucified, along with two others, one on each side with Jesus in the middle. Pilate had them post a sign over the cross, which was written in three languages—Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Many of the people of Jerusalem read the sign, for he was crucified near the city. The sign stated: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” (John 19.17 – 19, TPT)

Of course, we know the story doesn’t end there, but Jesus did not have an easy life! More on that tomorrow.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Philippians 2.5 – 8, NIV)

Here’s another blog worth repeating, from the day after Christmas last year: 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

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.

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)

He has come!

⁹ For the perfect Light of Truth was coming into the world
    and shine upon everyone.
¹⁰ He entered into the world he created,
    yet the world was unaware.
¹¹ He came to the people he created—
    to those who should have received him,
    but they did not recognize him.
¹² But those who embraced him and took hold of his name
    he gave authority to become
    the children of God!
¹³ He was not born by the joining of human parents
    or from natural means, or by a man’s desire,
    but he was born of God.
¹⁴ And so the Living Expression
    became a man and lived among us! (John 1.9 – 14, TPT)

We can think about the PEACE that the angels promised with Jesus’ coming and the peace he gives amidst our circumstances, but we have to read Revelation to see the ultimate peace – shalom. According to a wonderful Biblical resource that I highly recommend, stepbible.org, shalom carries with it the idea of completeness, soundness, welfare, health, safety… (To choose just a few of the words associated with shalom).

It’s in Revelation 21, part of the wrap-up of the Bible:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21.1 – 4, NIV (1984), emphasis mine)

There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. That’s shalom, yes? And the text is clear that until the old order passes, there will be death, mourning, crying, pain – our present state. But, at his next coming? PEACE.

We revisit the angel’s announcement:

Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men! (Luke 2.14, NKJV)

And in Jesus we have peace with God:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5.1, ESV)

Tuesday, we saw that prayer contributes to joy, but I cut the section off in the middle. Prayer also gives us peace…the peace of God.

The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4.6, 7, ESV)

Jesus is our peace.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. (Ephesians 2.14 – 17, NKJV)

When the wise men came to Jerusalem and inquired about where the King of the Jews would be born, the religious leaders knew – Bethlehem – from Micah 5.2. There’s a word for us about this week’s theme: PEACE.

2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be their peace… (Micah 5.2 – 5, ESV, emphasis mine)