Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Selah.
Mystery. Jerome was asked in the 4th Century to put the Bible into Latin. The Septuagint, Symmachus, and Theodotion translate διάψαλμα—a word enigmatically in Greek as is "Selah" in Hebrew. Jerome translates this as the musical direction for pause, stop and forever. Always.
Always... the Alleluia we can mark in our lives when we have been transformed, redeemed, renewed, strengthened and changed as God's Spirit brushes ours.
Romans 12:2 is Selah. God will always be with us. Emmanuel!
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I listened once to a room filled with regular Christmas party-goers sit down and answer the question: "What is the most remarkable, memorable Christmas memory you remember?"
Instantly the Holy Spirit prompted the room to remember what Christmas and God's Child have brought to your heart and your life.
A 90-year-old gentleman recalled being a very young boy and with his great-grandfather. They were climbing stairs, going into Midnight Christmas Eve Service and the Great-grandfather gently squeezed the then young boy's hand and told him this was his Best Christmas Memory of the Delight of his life culminating to this joy and glory. His young great-grandson filling the joy in his life.
And a woman asking him the Church, which was far, far away. It seems they had attended the same Church many states away. And she remembered the Christmas Evening she knew to pursuit playing the organ for the Church and had done so for 30 years.
I recalled another little town where the residents all stayed up late to keep the Christmas Lights on, so those going to Midnight Services of different congregations would have the joy of a Christmas Lighted town going to Christmas Eve Midnight Service. Walking with my father to Church in the snow to see the Lights.
1 Timothy 3:16
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of faith:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.
These fill our lives when pressed down in this life, we will have our troubles, yet not overcome. Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
If we fill our heads with visions of dancing sugar-plums, we will end up believing the Hap, Happiest non Season of all. Where real Joy is not found as steadfast.
There is a definite feeling of 'outside' in Faith. God is our refuge and strength! People experiencing near-death report being 'outside.' A Visitation of Greater Glory. The pause that will become Always. Alleluia.
Christmas exists for this, His Glory. The Glory of Outside. Not of inclusion, instead the hard-won greater depth of Love. Then with Greater Understanding, not just inclusion but Eternal Love. The Glory of our Father, God of All.
A young couple begins with love. A marriage of advantage and expectation.
A problem of Life? Creation, new beginnings... Surely this would not be a problem? Instead, a young mother flees her family in great haste. To another remote location. The family left in great haste is not recorded again until a very heavily pregnant, young woman travels 80 miles, in winter, still unwed. Not the beloved child bride.
No room in the Inn. To record lineage and family, to travel alone and unwed. Surely this is not going well to deliver a baby, a small, innocent baby in a barn. Nothing appears to be hopeful.
Not something anticipated for millenniums. In come the Shepherds. More than barn decoration of career-oriented Shepherds! Shepherds proclaiming the Visitation of the Heavenly Host. To a yet unwed mother and her betrothed, a message His Mother would Ponder in her heart. Not Schooled, these Shepherds, by Gamaliel of the Temple.
Nations would come to His Brightness according to Isaiah.
Before the destruction of David and Solomon's Temple, Isaiah was telling about Noble men attending the Birth of the Christ Child. The Wise Men from far off Nations arrive. Dreams. Joseph has given up his dreams, is prepared to take flight where the Children of Israel were mere slaves. The Davidic Line in hiding in a Foreign world. Mary would sing of fame and of inclusion and exclusion. The Wise Men would dream about Herod's inclusion and change direction.
The Meaning of Christmas:
Great Joy. Nazareth asks - “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother’s name Mary, and aren’t His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Aren’t all His sisters with us as well? Where then did this man get all these things? Surely this was the Son of God! Weren't our hearts strangely warm? Fear Not Little Flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Fear not.
Good Tidings of Great Joy for All People.
Families live on earth and in Heaven. They went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.
Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength
Micah 6:8
"What does the Lord require of you?
To act justly, and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
In Christmas...
In Christmas...
Luke 1
For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
Jesus gave us the advice for us to live in expectation of God's Mercy and Love. And He gave us the illustration of young virgins trimming their lamps. Surely Mary's father would just have fallen over. The Christmas story is believing in Selah - the pause is leading to the fruit of Always and Alleluia.
Holding human flaws and frailty to God. Allowing us to have the Strength to find mercy for ourselves and our expectations and for others.
Christmas does hold all the frailty life has and as many processes.
The process of life, waiting for the child to be born.
The process of engagement leading discovery in the path of Life to Love.
The building of a family in faith.
The Shepherds left their flocks to discover God's Glory.
The Wise Men looked unwise to travel great distances following a Star. And proving the wisdom of man, to knock at Herod's Palace.
Repeating Family history, Mary and Joseph return to the slavery of Egypt. Mary greatly wondered at the words of Gabriel. Mary's heart is recorded as pondering. When His parents saw Him, they were astonished. “Child, why have You done this to us?” His mother asked. “Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You.”
Christmas
Becoming a time for every purpose under Heaven, Acts 1 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Merry Christmas.
Not conforming to this world.
Preparing the work of Christmas to come. Fighting the Good Fight of faith and remaining in the Steadfast Love Father God has planned for your hope and your future.
Be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Abba!
Our Merry Christmas! O LORD, for Your loving kindness is good;
Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies!
We would dwell in the shelter of the Most High
and abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
We will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will deliver us from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day.
For by grace I have been saved through faith. And this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God.
Thank You for Your Great Mercies and Willing Blessings, Father God. Tenderly You hold us in Your Wings as a mother cares for her chicks.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
We ask Your Word of Your Prayers to Encourage us to Your Plan. Your Word to make us wise and strengthen us. Your Word to fan flames of Love and keep us tender hearted. Your Courage to keep us bold in the hope and future You have Planned.
Your Word to lead those we Love sealed in Jesus Christ. Our cares lifted far as You care for us. Strengthen the Nations coming to Your Brightness and trusting in Jesus Christ.
Our Refuge and Strength! To Your Glory we would live and have those we Love
Live to Jesus. Amen.
♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †
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