Last month, I celebrated my 60^th birthday. In case you’re wondering (and even if you aren’t), that is 35,040,000,000 miles around the Sun.  Yes over 35 billion – with a B.  That’s a lot of mileage. No wonder I am so tired all the time!  But like my dad always said, “Birthdays are good for you, the more you have the longer you live.”

Birthday Contemplations

Speaking of my dad, he went home to be with the Lord 2 months after his 73^rd birthday. Relatively young.  On my 58th birthday, I realized that if I died at the same age, I had 15 years left.  Now two more year has expired, and only 13 remain – should I live to the same age as he. I am not guaranteed as many as he lived. Conversely, by God’s grace I could have a few more than he did.  Only God knows.  But last year’s birthday started me thinking about something.  And this year’s birthday has pushed the thinking into mach-drive.

I share my thoughts with you in hopes that God will use it to spur self-evaluation in your life as well.

Numbering Days

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

Psalm 90:12 encourages us to pray that God would help us to “number” our days.  This psalm was written, ironically, by Moses who lived only 120 years.  This Old Testament concept of numbering days goes beyond merely counting how many of them there are. In case you are wondering, as of December 9, 2024, I had lived 21,915 days.  That includes Leap Days.  

In the Old Testament, numbering was counting and dividing into organized parts.  The Old Testament book of Numbers is the record of Moses counting and organizing God’s people into groups. Moses encourages us to ask God to help us evaluate and organize our days.  The goal of such consideration is to help us live our remaining days in a wise manner.

Numbering Questions

Praying and meditating over three questions can help us in this task.  

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Author Gary Chapman famously wrote a book titled The Five Love Languages. In his book, he describes 5 primary ways everybody gives and senses love.  His premise is that everyone speaks at least one of those languages; some are multi-lingual.  One of the ways people express love is through giving gifts.  We demonstrate our love by carefully and thoughtfully choosing what we think is the perfect gift.  We feel love when the giver has paid attention and given us exactly what we wanted or needed.

I am sixty years old, and I still get a thrill out of opening presents on Christmas morning.  I love the surprises in the boxes with my names.  But I love even more to see the joy on my family’s faces when they open theirs. I hope when they open gifts from me, they sense the love I wrapped up in the box with the gift.

The theme of Advent this week is LOVE.  We take time to reflect on the greatest demonstration of love ever experienced. Consider this truth from God’s Word:

But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8

Love Past

Advent reminds us that God showed how deep His love was for us by sending Jesus to die for us even while we were still sinners unworthy of saving. As you worship this Christmas, bask in the reality of God’s faithful, never-ending, unconditional love for you. Undeserved, yet lavishly given in His Son Jesus.

One of the most well-known Bible verses is John 3:16.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.

If we are ever tempted to doubt that God loves us, all we need to do is look to the Cross.  God invested the life of His Son to redeem us.  That must mean we are deeply loved.

Love Present

God not only loved us, He also loves us.  Present tense.  Today.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:31-32; 38-39

We are inseparable from God’s love.  Nothing can come between us and Him.  Because God is good, and because He loves us, we can trust that He will give us everything that is good for us.  And the love He has for us shows itself in the way He sovereignly arranges the events of our lives. 

And we know for those who love God, all things work together for good; for those who are called according to His purpose. – Romans 8:28

Love Future

Advent also reminds us that Jesus not only came once to redeem. He is coming again to bring us into His presence for eternity. Just as His people expectantly waiting for His coming then, we also now expectantly await His second coming.  Then, we will be with Him forever.  And He will complete His work of salvation in us.

¹ See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. ³ And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. – 1 John 3:1-3

This week’s Advent Prayer

Heavenly Father,

You demonstrated your love for us in a way we could never have imagined. You sent Your Son, Jesus to die for our sins. 

And Your love continues even to this day through the presence of Your Holy Spirit in our lives. Forgive us for allowing competing loves in our life. Help us to love you faithfully and fully. Knowing all the while that no matter how our love for You may fluctuate from day to day, Your love for us never fades.

Help us to long for Jesus’ return when we will be united with the Lover of Our Soul and live with You forever in Heaven.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Click here to view this year’s Advent Sermon on Love

Good news.  That is what our word “gospel” means.  And it is not only good news; it is the BEST news.  It is good news of great joy!

The Gospel is a departure from the glow and doom newscasts of our day.  Reports of violence, hatred, and corruption.  But the newscast from the angels to the shepherds was the best news ever.  And if ever there were people who needed some good news, it was those shepherds. That message reminds us that no matter our circumstances, we can find JOY in Jesus.

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I hate to wait as much, maybe more, than anybody. Red lights don’t turn green quickly enough.  The line at the grocery store moves way to slow. And don’t get me started on the doctor’s office waiting room.  A whole room devoted to just waiting. Then there are those seasons of our lives that are extended waiting periods.  

But waiting often involves things way more serious than traffic lights, store lines, and doctors’ offices. Sometimes we find ourselves in a season of waiting on God to act.  We know that He knows what is going on, but He seems to be taking His ever-loving time.  I am in such a season of my life right now.  But what we forget in our seasons of waiting is that “nothing is never happening.”  God is always doing something even when we don’t see it or sense it. God is constantly in preparation mode.  While we wait He prepares us and His solution for our need.

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The 1977 blockbuster Star Wars: A New Hope contains one of the most often quoted lines of any movie.  Princess Leia Organa sends a desperate message to Obi Wan Kenobi in hopes that he will hear it and come to her rescue.  “Help Me Obi Wan Kenobi.  You’re my only hope.”

The first week of Advent focuses our attention on the theme of HOPE.  Many people are looking for someone or something in which they can place their trust.  So many are looking for an Obi Wan to come and rescue us from this mess.

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Ah, November! Erratic weather, premature Christmas decorations, and college football.  College football manages to elicit incredible passion from a lot of people.  People like to wear their favorite “team gear” and display their team banner on their property.   You can usually identify a household’s allegiance by the flag they fly somewhere on their home or in their yard. 

Banners were important in the Bible, too.  One example can be found in Exodus 17:8-16.

The Story

While wandering through the wilderness, the Israelites came to a place near Mt. Sinai called Rephidim.  There they complained about having no water, and God miraculously supplied it from a rock. While camping at Rephidim, another nomadic group, the Amalekites, came and threatened them.

The father of the Amalekites, Amalek, was the grandson of Esau. The wandering Israelites were the descendants of Jacob.  Centuries before, Jacob deceived his brother Esau and cheated him out of both the family birthright and their father’s blessing.  So years of family turmoil and hostility were about to boil over.

A fierce battle ensued.  Moses stood atop a nearby hill and raised his staff over the battle.  As long as he held the staff high, the Israelites prevailed.  But when his arms grew weak that he could not hold up the staff, the Amalekites prevailed.  So Moses’ two assistants, Aaron and Our, sat him on a rock and held his arms up.  After an all-day battle, the Israelites prevailed.

To commemorate God’s miraculous help, Moses set up an altar and named it in Hebrew Yahweh-Nissi.  In English that name translates to Yahweh Is My Banner.

What Is a Banner?

This banner concept was possibly something the Israelites learned from their years with the Egyptians.  When we think of a banner, we think of flag or pice of cloth flapping in the breeze.  But in the Old Testament times, a banner was a very tall poll that was vividly decorated at the top.  During troop movements and especially during battle, the banner served several important purposes.

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In the United States, we are in the middle of what best can be described as “silly season.”  This is a presidential election year, and so politics is the overwhelming topic of public discourse right now. Everybody has an opinion. The opinions range from strong support of a side to “I wish we could just get this over with.”

I recently made a social media comment that garnered a fair amount of discussion. “I wish people were as passionate about Jesus as they were about politics and college football.” 

Surprisingly, the politics portion of the comment raised more of a ruckus than the football part.  If you are from the south, you know how passionate Southerners are about their football.  Most of the comments agreed with my post.  I think more and more people have grown weary of the hypocrisy that permeates politics.  The good guys no longer where white hats.  Seems they all wear hats with varying shades of gray these days.

So I want to expand my thoughts on what I believe to be a healthy Christian engagement of politics.

What I Am NOT Saying about Politics

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“Faith” is one of those words that we often use without thinking about what we mean when we use it.  Some will say, “You’ve just got to have faith.”  Others talk about choosing “faith” over “fear.”  People are often describes as being a “person of faith.”  And there are those in the public spotlight who speak of how their “faith” gets them through life’s difficulties. But what about Biblical faith?

Understanding the true meaning and nature of faith is critically important.  Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that we cannot please God without faith.  Not our behavior nor our word.  Neither our religious practices, nor our principled stances. We can have all of those things and lack proper Biblical faith.

A Prophet’s Faith

One of the most overlooked Scripture passages that teaches us about faith is found in Habakkuk.  We find a powerful statement in the middle of an ongoing dialogue between the prophet and Yahweh.  Yahweh contrasts the an arrogant man living for his own pleasure with the heart of a truly righteous person.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.” – Habakkuk 2:4

So at its core, we see that faith is not living according to our own understandings, abilities, and desires.  Faithful living operates from a different realm.

We see a further clue at the end of Habakkuk as the prophet pledges to live by faith. Habakkuk makes a list of some possible devastating circumstances.  Trees and vines not producing fruit. Fields not producing grain.  Livestock not producing milk not meat.

But in light of all of that, Habakkuk issues a faith statement.

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As I drove into work this morning, I passed several Northbound power company trucks from around the Southeast. They had been to South Georgia and Florida to help restore power in the aftermath of Hurricane Debby.

I thought about the selfless linemen, law enforcement officers, emergency responders, and disaster relief “angels” who respond in these situations.  They do not care if you are black or white.  Nor do they poll to see if you are blue or red.  It matters not to them if you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, any other religion, or no religion at all.  

These public servants leave family behind at home.  They work exhaustingly long and difficult shifts. Their mission is to SERVE.  Serve and help anyone in need.  

They stand in contrast to so much of the partisan attacks and mob mentality that we see in our culture today.  They are the antithesis of an archaic word, “civility”. 

I wrote about civility several years ago, and I feel the need to refresh that article for today’s context.  We probably cannot change 

Yes, civility is on the decline. Dictionary.Com defines civility thusly:

1. courtesy; politeness.
2. a polite action or expression: an exchange of civilities.
3. Archaic. civilization; culture; good breeding.

Where have our manners gone?

Why the Lack of Civility?

It seems these days when things do not go someone’s way they default to name-calling, riots, protests, and mob scenes. Several factors have brought us to this point in society.

1. The rise of me-ism. Individual rights now seem to matter more that the good of the whole.
2. The absence of self-discipline. Many are accustomed to getting what they want when they want it.
3. The glorification of chaos. Let’s face it; trouble makes the news. Want to get your 15 seconds of fame? Start a riot or protest.

How May We Regain It?

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