The Truly Miraculous Thing...

Those of you who know me well enough know my Christmas sentiment: honestly, if i had it my way, we'd have done away with the Christmas trees and the shopping sprees long ago.

I'm not even saying, "look at the real meaning of the holiday" as though it's about giving and loving and quality family time. If I had my way, we wouldn't be restricting these things to a single holiday. (It's like Valentine's Day -- why do you need to wait until February 14th to do something nice for your sweetheart?)

I'm not even pointing to the fact that it's "Jesus' birthday"! ... Because chances are, it's not. If we're completely honest about it, the pagans celebrated that day before we ever did -- in much the same way. Look at Yule, and Saturnalia (when the ancient romans worshipped Saturn) and their New Year, and you will find the origin of the great majority of our "Christian celebrations."

And I'm not saying all of this because of any denomination I'm a part of. Many Calvinists, in fact, celebrate Christmas with all of the customs of the rest of the world. (I would possibly say that our Puritan ancestors knew better, but anyway...)

Yet that's not the reason I'm writing. My preference would not even be to discuss Christmas, because it will be another dead-end discussion in which some of you disagree and percieve me as "too legalistic" and found your arguments on an ad hominem.

The redeeming quality is this: there are preachers out there, who, rather than preaching on the normal Christmas fluff, namely, "give generously!" and "donate to charity" and "hey, by the way, the tithing plate is coming around..." (And not to suggest there is something wrong with giving, but is "being nice" really the focus of the Christmas life?)

It is this. That, regardless of when it happened, there is something amazing about the birth of Christ. We are not focusing on "how cute and innocent" He was. And though it was important that He was born of a Virgin, as this fulfilled prophesy, even this is not the focus.

The miracle is this: That without unbecoming God, God became man.

You see, God is a perfect God. He is holy (set-apart and unlike anything else) just (His choices are absolutely fair) righteous (He sets the standard for what is good) .. These aspects were not taken from Christ. Indeed, Christ is GOD!

Yet mankind does not even hold a candle to this. Since the days of Adam and Eve, we have been fallen into a world set for destruction. We have been born with a nature that hates God and is always self-seeking. Because of our offense toward God, it is the penalty that every man pay what is owed. Because God is fair, he does not simply overlook these things; they must be punished. Thus, His wrath is owed to us, and because we are too sinful and far from perfect, we cannot ever satisfy that wrath. Therefore it is eternal: this is the lake of fire of prophesy. In laymen's terms, hell.

This is the price on man's head. It is owed by man, and yet no man is perfect that he can pay it.

And THAT is the remarkable thing!! Jesus Christ became man without unbecoming God. As a man, he was able be subject to the penalty; as God he was able to fully pay it. Being holy, and just, and righteous, he owed nothing Himself; therefore, the penalty was paid on behalf of a separate people. Those people were His, whom the Father gave Him, and they believed and continue to believe in Christ their redeemer, who was sufficient, being fully man and fully God, to take on Himself the wrath owed to man.

Do we mind these things when we look at a nativity? Does it even come to mind? Or have we reduced ourselves (like that God-forsaken movie, what was it... Talladega Nights) like to think of Him as "baby Jesus" in the manger and nothing more?

We think we lost our focus on Christmas when it became a bit too commercial. Friends, we don't even know the half of it. We lost of focus long before that. EVERYTHING -- from the conception of Christ right up to the resurrection, and all of the prophesy that came before it and all of the harvest that came after -- is so foundationally rooted in the gospel. It is a far more beautiful thing than any house ornament or carol or charity you can give to. The snow itself cannot compare to the righteousness of Christ ... the very same righteousness that is imparted to us when we believe on Him and are justified by His grace.

You really thought a holiday could do this kind of amazing Truth justice? There are not enough days in a year for a gracious, beautiful Truth as this.

His Will Be Done.

I sat down on the couch of my empty dorm room with my devotional, a collection of short writings by Spurgeon. Yet I could not focus. As I looked around my dorm room, at the clean floor, the fresh smell, the piles of packed bags and scattered things about the desks, I was reminded of the beginning of the semester, back in August, when things were still new. As with then, there was no anticipation of assignments now. No longer commanded by a schedule, a list of things "to do," I could relax. It has been a somewhat chaotic semester; I am still trying to sort it all out in my mind.

There is a sense that this should not be new. I have had full time jobs where my life was consumed for at least a third of the day. Yet when I went home, I went home. That was it. That was my time. It was my time to talk to friends, to go places, to hang out, to read, to write, to do as I wished.

Yet it is not so here. For classes give homework, and dorms give distraction, and it is an environment both educational and social, all tossed into a mixing pot of Christians from all kinds of circumstances. It is a bubble in one sense, an other-worldly cultural experience in another. And generally, I came into this wanting it. I came knowing it would be hard, but I came desiring a new experience. I desired discipline. I desired to grow and learn. And to some extent, these things have happened, and to some extent, I have caved in at times, and I have not approached everything with the patience and the love that I should have. It may have something to do with the fact that I prayed for humility at the beginning of the semester?

God-willing, I will be back in Waukesha next year; I will be back at NTBI, if He is willing. But I will not be living at the school. After several meetings with the deans, this decision has seemed best. I will be able to learn to live on my own, and hold a job, and it may potentially lower some costs.

Yet it seems to be, above nothing else, an answer to prayer. For long, I have not known whether to continue at NTBI; regardless, I have also come to a church that I love and would like to call my own. If for nothing else than for my church, I want to live in Waukesha. After meeting with my pastor at the beginning of the year, I realized that scripturally-speaking, the local church should be a believer's priority: over job, over hobbies, over everything apart from perhaps one's own family and personal relationship with God (for these are most important.) It does, hoewver, include my education: the church takes precedent over school, since it is a duty of the church to instruct in the word of God. Therefore, if I cannot return to NTBI as a paying student, then perhaps I will come to audit classes. If I cannot do that, then perhaps I am finished after all with this school. God will determine all. My first priority remains, to simply find a place to live in the town so that I can continue fellowship with my church. I am confident that if I put my effort to this task, God will place me where He wants me and provide what is sufficient.

For the time being ... I think it will be strange to go back home -- it always is. I seem to be forming a habit of not staying in one place for long, or in one circumstance, so going back to a familiar one is, in itself a foreign experience.

The flight leaves tomorrow afternoon. I'll be in Pennsylvania for about a month. God willing.

Shall see how it goes, yes?