"I don't know how to worship You, Lord."

Confessions like this are powerful and transforming. I haven't just confessed that I don't know how to worship Him, but that I don't know how to love Him, serve Him, offer Him to others, live for Him, or trust Him. Each time I make such a confession I sense God's presence and blessing. God loves the truth more than anyone I know. When I tell Him the truth, no matter how hard it is, I feel His pleasure and am assured of His love. In Luke 2:9 it says, "An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified." I've often been completely taken by the glory of God in such scenes, but I realize lately than the terror of the shepherds was truth-based and, therefore, had to be pleasing to God as well. The shepherds knew God and knew their own hearts. It wasn't just the appearance of the angel, but how they, the shepherds, appeared and were revealed by God's light that got to them. No one can hide anything from God. To imagine things from God's perspective, our attempts at hiding from Him must be deeply offensive to Him. We actually have record of this in Genesis 3:9. I can still hear The Father in my own life asking, "Where are you?"

Have you told the truth to God this morning? If not, what's keeping you from doing so? Where are you?

The First Day of Advent

Advent means arrival. When we celebrate Advent we celebrate the arrival of Jesus Christ into our world. It is not a one time event, but a continuing event. We continually need God in our lives. We need Him to make an entrance and change the core meaning of everything. I remember my first Christmas as a believer. I insisted on attending church, but had no idea how. A friend of mine was Catholic and agreed to take me to "The Midnight Mass." I remember being lost in the service and in the community within the church. I was 19 and had never attended a church service in my life. The elements of the service were entirely mysterious to me. It seemed like so little was connected to the little I knew about God and Jesus. It was a blur of standing, sitting, and waiting in a line to see the priest up front. I don't remember anyone singing or smiling. The service, which would certainly qualify as beautiful to me now, was simply alien. This, however, was somehow appropriate. Jesus was indeed an alien who had arrived in my life. He seemed to never stop doing strange things and making strange requests of me. (I later learned these were demands.) Some of this initial strangeness has never left me. Jesus never intends to visit with people, but to move in. In Luke 2:11 it says, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." He wasn't voted in. If people didn't think they needed a Savior, Jesus doesn't seem to have cared. He came to take over. He always does. To mention David is to bring up the idea of a king. This is what Jesus is. At advent we celebrate the arrival and Heaven-imposed reign of The King of Kings, Jesus Christ.

How is He a King to you today? Will you serve Him or someone else today?

Capture Your Holiday in a Havahart Trap!

It's here! It has been marching your way all year. There's nothing you can do to stop it. It is one week before the end of the year. (My calendar runs out a week later, which, according to our culture's logic, means the world will end even before 2012.) The Biblically dubious season of Advent and Christmas, upon arrival, will do everything possible to chew through December and disappear into 2010. You've got to capture it in a Havahart trap. Who cares if it's more secular than sacred in origins. (I'll explain all this in future postings.) Jesus owns it now and most of us have seen Him use this season to draw hundreds of millions of people all around the world closer to Him. May He do just this with each of us and our families. May he slow down all that typically races by. May we remember the worship services, songs, laughter of children, food, and the things we did for others that blessed them deeply.