Author

TerryLema

Immanuel

by TerryLema

Matt 1:20-23:  “’Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’-which means, ‘God with us.’”

The prophet the angel referred to was Isaiah. He lived about seven centuries before and foretold of the birth of Christ Jesus. “The virgin will be with child and give birth to a son.” [Isaiah 7:14]

That alone is miraculous, but then Isaiah said something even more miraculous … “they will call him Immanuel.”

Immanuel means God with us. One author called that “The Glorious Impossible.”

God with us. Of all the names of God, this one may be the most amazing. God with us. The Almighty, Holy, Uncontainable, All-Knowing God, the Great I Am, set aside His Glory and Godly Prerogatives, and “contained” Himself in the body of a baby, totally dependent upon a teenage mother for life and a simple village carpenter for protection.

How? That’s the part that cannot be completely understood and must be accepted by faith.

Why? Because He loved us and was not willing to see His creation condemned and separated from Him.

God with us, Immanuel. He came to be with us. HE HAS NEVER LEFT US. He is God with us, Immanuel.

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The LORD Himself

by TerryLema

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” [Isa 7:14]

Immanuel, God with us. That’s the old, old story. God came to us so that we could one day go to Him. He wanted His children around Him, but we had rebelled, shaken our fists at Him and declared we didn’t want Him to rule over us. We became His enemies. We didn’t want His laws or His moral obligations. We wanted to do things OUR WAY without interference from His Holiness or His Righteousness.

But God was relentless. He pursued us until one day the time was exactly right. One exact moment in time, God entered the world through a humble, obedient servant who found grace, favor with Him.

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” [Gal 4:4-5 NKJV]

Immanuel, God with us. I am always undone by the thought that the God of the universe wants me. For God doesn’t just love people, He loves PERSONS, individuals, you, me, our neighbors, family, friends, and yes even our enemies. He loves us with a sacrificial love that spans the millenniums from eternity past to eternity future. It is a love that is as boundless, as glorious, as He is.

And on that day so long ago – in the fullness of time – God proved that love and glory and grace when He sent His Son to redeem lost mankind.

Immanuel, God with us.

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Mary’s Treasure

by TerryLema

You’ve traveled far. It’s not like you really wanted to, after all you’re very pregnant. You have to, however. The government says you do. The top guy (Caesar) has decided he wants a census of the entire Roman world, and that includes you and your betrothed husband Joseph. So heavily pregnant, you travel from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea because you and Joseph are from the lineage of King David.

When you arrive, the town is bustling with all the others who were doing what the government commanded. There’s no room anywhere to rest. Finally, Joseph secures a bit of privacy in a place that houses the animals. The time for your baby to be born arrives. No family. No friends. Maybe no mid-wives. One nervous husband. You give birth.

You’ve brought wrapping cloths for your newborn. Exhausted you put him to sleep in a feeding troth while you rest a bit. Joseph keeps watch.

Suddenly a bunch of rough men show up with a story almost beyond belief. Angels appeared to them and told them that they would find a baby in a manger that was the Savior, Christ the LORD.

Such a story would be almost beyond belief, but not for you. You remember the angel Gabriel and his sudden appearing and the words he spoke to you. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” [Luke 1:35]

One amazing night to be remembered forever.

“Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” [Luke 2:19]

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Joseph

by TerryLema

When we think about the birth of Christ Jesus our LORD, we don’t usually think about Joseph. In a way, he’s just there, rounding out the “Holy Family.”  We set his statue out in our nativity sets, but he’s not the center of attention. That honor rests with the Christ Child and His mom.  Even the shepherds that came that night and the wise men who showed up later get more attention than poor Joseph.

Joseph is just the background. He leads the donkey from Nazareth where he was a simple carpenter, to Bethlehem. He finds a bit of privacy for his expectant betrothed. Maybe he helps deliver her baby, although I’m sure he was fairy clumsy in his efforts. And then he retreats once again into the background.

Yet, God chose this man to be the protector, the guardian for His Son’s early years on earth. He chose him to teach Him a trade, to raise Him in the admonition of the LORD, to teach Him the Word of God.

The Scriptures describe him as a righteous man. We know he was kind and compassionate. Before God informed him by an angel in a dream that Mary was pregnant not because of infidelity but because of the miraculous working of God’s Holy Spirit, he was going to put her away “quietly” rather than expose her to ridicule or scorn. [Matthew 1:18-22]

We know Joseph was obedient. He did what the LORD commanded him to do. When it became necessary to leave Jerusalem after the visit from the wise men and Herod’s avowed attempt to kill the newborn king, Joseph gathered his wife and child and fled in the middle of the night to Egypt and stayed there until God told him it was safe to return. [Matthew 2]

Read the account of Joseph in Matthew. Matthew must have thought him important for he concentrates on this man in the background more than any other aspect of the birth of our Savior. There were so many ways in which this all could have turned out differently if Joseph had not been a man of compassion, obedience, and quiet strength.

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The Grand Plan

by TerryLema

I have another thought about the Christmas season. There are those who love to debate over just when Jesus was born. Some groups say April is a better option. Others says Jesus was conceived in December.  I say, who cares.

I mean does it really matter WHEN God came to be with us, Immanuel. What matters is that HE DID COME. He did live and die and was resurrected the third day. He did ascend into heaven to be seated at the Right Hand of the Father. And He is coming again to receive His own.

 I think sometimes the enemy of our soul loves to get us down in the weeds arguing over some trivial fact rather than focusing on the grand scheme.

God sent His Son to us, in the fullness of time, meaning at just the right time. If that’s April, great. Or July, great. Or December, great.

What is important to me at least, is not which month, it’s the why. “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” [Gal 4:4-5 NKJV]

God sent His Son so that I might be redeemed from the marketplace of sin to be adopted as His daughter. If the world wants to celebrate that fact on December 25 each year, I’m fine with that … because I’m celebrating that every day in every month in every year. I’m bound to get it right at least once a year!

Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.

 

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From Generation to Generation

by TerryLema

I was reading again this morning in Luke 1, focusing on Mary’s Song, “The Magnificat.”  We are probably all familiar with her opening statement, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” [vs 46-47]

Mary shows an abundant knowledge of the OT Scriptures. Her song is much like Hannah’s Song in 1 Samuel. In her song, Mary expresses God’s work in Israel, His character, His might, His care for the humble, His Holiness and His grace extended to her personally and to all of Israel.

One verse caught my attention.  “His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.”  [vs 50 NKJV]

God’s mercy isn’t unpredictable or haphazard. God’s mercy is an attribute – meaning it is what is true about Him. Just as God never changes, so His attributes remain secure in Him.

As God displayed His mercy to the people of faith who came before Mary, Mary acknowledged that God’s mercy will continue to flow out to people of faith who will come after her – or as she says, “from generation to generation.”

What God has done before God will do again. Man’s ways are changeable … God’s ways remain as true as He is, as secure as He is, as amazing as He is. Habakkuk reminded us that “God’s ways are everlasting.”  [3:6]

I think each of us one day will sing a “Mary’s Song” – one of very own that acknowledges that our souls, like hers, magnify the LORD and our spirit, like hers, rejoices in God our Savior. 

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Darkness and Light

by TerryLema

A few years ago, I took my then 18-year-old grandson to Washington DC. One of the places we toured was the National Art Gallery. There was a display of an artist I particularly wanted to see in Gallery 50-something. Carter, however, wanted to start our tour in Gallery 1 and hit every gallery in between, which we did.

One thing I noticed was the way ancient artists displayed the Christ Child, usually with a halo, but always with a glorious light surrounding His face, or His manger.  In many paintings, He looked like a glowing little old man sitting on Mary’s lap.

I’m not sure that’s what Mary saw that night.  I think she saw a newborn baby, common in every way. There was no halo, no supernatural light in that stable or around that manger. That perhaps is the most miraculous thing about this child. God with us. Housed in a common body. Born in a common way. To common everyday folks.

But with that common birth, everything changed. Darkness was doomed. Light now broke through the darkness that had permeated the human race since Adam was banished from the Garden.

Light, God’s light, would soon take up residence in the hearts of men and women who would come to Him through His grace by faith.  For through this little common newborn, God would redeem mankind and give us light to behold His glory.

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” [2 Cor 4:6]

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Cheers!

by TerryLema

Recently I wrote that the world has added many things to the Christmas Season, “food, drink, shopping, partying, and cheer.”

Christmas Cheer! The demand for Christmas Cheer(!) is all around us. The world wants to see massive smiles and hear lots of laughter. But sometimes that is difficult to do. It is tough to try to put on a face of cheeriness when inside we are lonely, sad, grieving, or afraid.

While we see others surrounded by loved friends and we are not. While we see others happy and excited about their prospects, and we are not. While we see others embracing loved ones and we have lost ours. When we see others bravely facing life and we are facing financial problems, relationship difficulties. – All these things make Christmas Cheer(!) challenging.

I am reminded, however, of that first Christmas night when the angels appeared to those shepherds. They did not proclaim good news of Christmas Cheer(!). They proclaimed good news of Great Joy!

“But the angel said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.’” [Luke2:10 HCSB]

We can have Joy(!) even when we do not have Christmas Cheer(!). Cheerfulness is usually determined by our outside circumstances. Joy(!), however, is a condition of a heart that has been strengthened by the power of God because of what Christ Jesus has done for us! As Paul prayed,

“May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.” [Colossians 1:11 HCSB]

So, if this Christmas Season you are experiencing circumstances that dampen your Cheer(!), take heart child of God, He has given you Joy(!) and that Joy(!) is your strength. Amen

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Wondrous Grace

by TerryLema

“God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary…. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.’” [Luke 1:26-32]

“You have found favor with God.”  The word favor is charis in the Greek. It is usually translated as grace.

Mary found grace in the sight of the LORD, just as so many before her had … people like Noah and Abraham, Moses and David. Grace. God’s good favor.

Grace is an attribute of God. In God grace and mercy are one, but as they reach us, they are seen as two. Mercy is God’s goodness confronting human misery and guilt (He doesn’t give us what we deserve—judgment). Grace is His goodness directed toward human debt and demerit (He gives us what we don’t deserve—salvation, redemption, love).

John 1:20 tells us that “…grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”

 Grace didn’t suddenly come into existence when Jesus Christ was born on earth. Grace, God’s good favor, has existed for all time in the heart of God. It is as boundless, as eternal, as He is. Everyone who has ever come to God has come though His Divine Favor/Grace, whether in the Old Testament or in the New.

The wonder of Mary finding favor/grace with God is that she is going to give birth to the very means by which grace is going to come to all mankind.

That included Mary. That includes us!  What a wonder!

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by TerryLema

One last look at Christmas songs this morning. While I love the old carols, there is one new song that I find absolutely amazing. The words were written by Mark Lowry, a Christian singer and comedian. The music was written by Buddy Greene, who usually plays a harmonica.

The song is simply a series of questions for Mary.

“Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water … That your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters … That your Baby Boy has come to make you new? This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you?”

That was just verse one. The other two verses ask even more profound questions. “Mary, did you know … When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God … That your Baby Boy is LORD of all creation … that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations … That your Baby Boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb? The sleeping Child you’re holding is the Great, I Am”

I do not know just how much Mary did know. She knew her baby was different, that His conception was miraculous. I am sure she remembered all the angel told her about Him.

Did she understand it all? Probably not. The greatest theologians who have studied for decades cannot really say they understand it all. It is a Glorious Impossible!

“Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” [Philippians 2:5-11 HCSB]

Amen & Amen

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