My new website is up and running and this blog will soon go away … so, please go to

http://www.margaretmontreuil.com and sign up for email notification there.

Last week I mentioned the eBook I’m hoping to publish. The following is Chapter 5: Heaven’s Carpenter

Jesus was More Than Met the Eye

Jesus left his glory and home in Heaven

thirty years before he left house and home in Galilee.

Leaving everything behind once more,

the carpenter of Nazareth,

a master in his trade,

a creative artist at best,

with an eye for beauty

and a knack for practicality,

laid aside his hand-tools one day

to build God’s kingdom on earth.

***

It’s hard for us to grasp the reality that the Creator of all things was really a working carpenter who dirtied his hands, worked up a sweat, took time to measure, probably made mistakes, and felt the weariness and need to make a living.

And, at the same time, it’s mindblowing to realize that the stone, metal, and wood he worked with were things his God-hands had made. There is just so much to consider, things we just don’t think about — but, really, if we did — the love of God might begin to dawn on us a little more deeply.

Who was Jesus, really, when he lived as one of us? What was he like? So often we neglect to remember that he led a normal, human life like we do for thirty out of the thirty-three years he lived.

Was he gentle with his customers? Did anyone ever complain about his work, or his prices? We don’t know what his hands fixed or made during his years in Nazareth; we can only imagine. Perhaps it was yokes, tables, doors, and such. He most certainly was handy.

And then there is the spiritual realm in which he worked … In three years of public ministry, look what came from his creativeness: Love, forgiveness, new beginnings, hope, grace, freedom, joy, truth, peace, and eternal life (which is the ability he gave us to know and enjoy God). In truth, this list is endless. Jesus was far more than a carpenter. He recreated and changed our world.

What a wonder . . .

Have you ever considered that Jesus likely, at one time or another, hung a door?

A door made of wood. As a carpenter.

Have you ever considered that Jesus hung as a Door?

On a beam of wood. As Savior.

He could have worked on a bridge.

Why not? He built things.

About that bridge . . . He built one between heaven and earth.

What about gates for sheep? Well, by now you see what I mean.

Then there are the nails to consider.

Isn’t it something that he let someone pound those crude spiked objects of his trade into his own eternally capable hands?–Hands more than familiar with what to do with a nail. And, what about his love — that’s what bound him fast to the wood more so than the nails. It’s true.

We didn’t recognize him. No one knew at the time he was Heaven’s carpenter, or that he’d come to rebuild a whole new world out of the dying one. Let’s consider the One he truly was, the One we missed seeing … let’s consider his earlier works.

The Creator enjoyed himself when he made our world. His creation shows his glorious beauty, love, humor, majesty, and intelligence—and his personality. It’s true. Just like any artist, there is a reflection of the person in his work, especially in creative works.

Here’s just a few of God’s originals.

Stars. Millions of them. Totally out of reach. The moon and sun—they are wondrous things to look at, plus depend on. He hung them and told them their jobs. He made high, snow-capped mountains—ever wonder why? Flat ground would have been simpler. The jungles. The glaciers. Overhead he placed a vast canopy called “sky,” making things beneath it ever changing. He made the wind to use, but never control.

Flowers. Oh, the many kinds. Such artistic, beautiful designs! Red poppies, little white bells on the lily-of-the-valley. Roses, lilacs, petunias, daisies, carnations, tulips . . . the colors, the shapes, the fragrances. They are lovely. And that’s what they’re for—to be lovely. Even if a valley full of them is never seen. It’s that extravagant way of his with beauty.

Oceans. For those magnificent bodies of water, he gave rules to follow. Underground rivers and lakes, with secret passageways and storage places that only he knows about. The teeming-with-life rainforests. The wind-swept deserts. And these are just settings for the creatures he came up with.

He put the roar in a lion, and fitted him with a handsome mane. On a gentler side, he put the mew in a kitty and told her to be independent and to take lots of naps. He laughed out loud when he made the ostrich, knowing she would need a small head with which to hide. When he got around to making the penguins, he was still in a humorous mood. Not meant to be funny or odd, he cleverly stretched the neck of the giraffe—it was actually the trees that influenced him on that. The camel’s hump wasn’t an accident; it was a bit of ingenuity. He spotted ladybugs, striped the zebras, made a gorgeous spread of feathers for the peacock—a flair of grandeur having taken his fancy at that moment. And the spider—her strong, yet delicate, intricate web—what surprising engineering went into that little creature! Oh, the Lord had an amazing time in his workshop in heaven.

When he made the oxen—those large beasts that would bring ease to mankind’s labors—he thought ahead to the hand-made plows and yokes with which he would fit them.

He taught the ants to build cities, instructing them to live an orderly life, and to be selfless. With a chuckle, he gave the green frog bulging eyes on the top of his head. Just for fun, he made monkeys, and told them to play all day, every day.

He put the delicate artwork in the wings of the butterfly. But, amazingly, he started out with a worm and a cocoon. It does seem strange. He showed the birds how to fly. He encouraged them to come up with their own songs. Porcupines were made not to cuddle, nor were the jellyfish meant to hold. Turtles and horses—could creatures be any more different? What a wild imagination!

Then, after all this, the grandest of all moments arrived. Pensive but joyful, he took dirt. Bent over the ground, with loving hands, he formed a person. And he breathed into his nostrils, imparting his own life into a man.

It was thousands of years later, in a workshop in Nazareth, that the Creator busied himself with wood, nails, and such. And, although he was a skilled, conscientious, hard-working carpenter, fair in business, gracious in manner, and true to his word, it wasn’t until years later that anyone realized that he was much more than met the eye. He was, in reality, Heaven’s carpenter.

Just imagine . . .

Picture the day Jesus put away his tools for the last time in Nazareth. Imagine what he might have been feeling at the time. Can you see his hands, his face? Can you see him as he considers what lies ahead of him? What do you think he thought regarding his cousin, John? Do you think Jesus was excited to “receive” what his Father had to say and do through his fiery prophet, his cousin John? Jesus knew what was going on in the desert of Judea, and why multitudes, thirsty-for-God, were going out to hear him. He was his forerunner … and Jesus’ quiet, normal life of thirty years was about to end. He would no longer live an obscure, hidden life. What might he have felt as he left?

Journal exercise . . .

What are your thoughts as you ponder how the Lord lived as a down-to-earth, hardworking carpenter? Of all the ideas in this chapter, what stirred your heart the most? Tell Jesus and let him show you how he feels at this moment too. How he must enjoy it when we begin to see him in truer reality. Why do you think he chose to be a carpenter when he lived on earth? We simply don’t let the wonder of things enter in deep enough to appreciate the mystery and reality involved. We are way too numb. When we do open our eyes to see, Jesus is there to enjoy the moment. You can be sure. Share the joy with Jesus now.

Pray for DESIRE for God

Have you ever noticed how sunflowers bend or turn to face the sun? It amazes me how much our hearts are so inclined to face the Son. We simply want Him and need Him.

A while ago I felt dull towards God and said a simple prayer about it. Just mention this to Him and you can be sure … it is a prayer He will quickly answer.

Once Jesus gave me an illustration of a fireplace with coals, a fire that looks to be nearly spent. He said all He need do is blow … a quick puff from His mouth and the fire flares up. He said His beloveds have hearts that might appear to have no fire left, until He gives a bit of a blow and everything is red hot again.

I suppose You might wonder — what form does this quick “blow” take; how is it He can so easily ignite us? Well, it could be anything. He’s quite creative about it. This time, for me, a friend called me to talk because the Lord had put me on her mind … while we talked He gave her a vision. It was of a sail boat, and He was showing her that He was about to fill its sails…

Me. I’m the sail boat. Little did she know that the Lord and I have used the sail boat imagery about my “writing life” and, in fact, I used to put a little motto on my email signatures that went like this: “We set the sails, God sends the wind.” I have been sensing God’s favor lately and it comes hand in hand with how close I really am to Him.

Well, my friend didn’t know that I’ve been working and praying about getting more serious with my writing … in fact I’ve been working on getting my website up and running. She didn’t now that I am thinking about publishing an eBook soon, or that I am sensing that it is time to get more serious about my writing life in general.

But what I want more than all of that is more of God. I want to be closer to Jesus, so close that my face is facing the Son every moment I’m awake.

I have desire for God again and it feels so wonderful. I think my next post is going to be a “going deeper” lesson in experiencing God. I might start blogging part of the eBook I’ve a mind to do.

So, if you would like to SEE Jesus in a new way, a personal and creative way, please come back soon. If you subscribe to my blog, you’ll know when I’ve posted it. Stay tuned ….

The name of my new devotional book is called COME AND SEE – (come and see Jesus).

It will be a contemplative, experiential journey through the Gospel stories of the life of Jesus.

Below is a beautiful video — Come and See the Glory of the Lord – just to kindle your heart to love Him a little more intentionally right now. He’s so, so wonderful and worth it! His love is so amazing .

http://ahref=

 

 

 

 

<a href="” title=”Come and See the Glory of the Lord” target=”_blank”>

What it means to live for God …. (from His perspective)

One of my favorite authors is Brennan Manning. His books are filled with deep understanding of God’s love—and I don’t just read his books once—I return to them over and over again. He knows how to take the words of Scripture and make them apply to my life in ways that reach down deep inside me. 

Something I read today in his small, but powerful book, The Rabbi’s Heartbeat, went hand in hand with a Scripture verse I also read today. Here are the two quotations:

John 10:10

“I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

When Jesus uttered these particular words, I can imagine the angels of heaven standing in awe as they listened—because they knew what it cost Him in order to personally say them:

Brennan writes:

“The sorrow of God lies in our fear of Him, our fear of life, and our fear of ourselves. As a father gathers his children into his arms at the end of a long and tiring day, so God longs to draw us into His embrace. No matter what your past or present, come; lean back in the shelter of His love and listen to the Rabbi’s heartbeat. Let Him teach you about life, death, and eternity as Abba’s beloved child. Take an unflinching look at yourself as you really are. Then look at who you are meant to become as you travel this earth as a child of God on the journey called life.”

 

This is a little conversation, as recorded in my prayer journal tonight, that I think illustrates these things.

The Lord: “What does it mean to live for Me? I am asking what it means to you. “

My reply: “It means that everything I do is for You—that I belong to You and want to please You—because I love You.  And now that I am saying these words, I realize I don’t live for You in realty, do I?“

The Lord: “This is what it means to Me.  If you want to live for Me, then do this: Be yourself fully and let Me love you. Then, when you begin to grasp what I love about you, and when you discover how much I love you, and when you can see that I would do anything for you, perhaps then you will know that you are living for Me so that I can enjoy you.”

“Lord, this is astounding. I can hardly take in what You just said.  I need to think about the fact that You desire me to be more attentive to your Presence … to share my life with You as though we walk side by side. I am not mindful enough of You.”

“If you realized my Presence moment by moment, our relationship would be beyond what you can imagine. And, it is possible, it is so possible.”

After this, I read the next few pages of Brennan’s book, and amazing enough, it is an excerpt from his prayer journal:

 

 “To feel safe is to stop living in my head and sink down into my heart and feel liked and accepted … not having to hide anymore and distract myself with books, television, movies, ice cream, shallow conversation … staying in the present moment and not escaping into the past or projecting into the future, alert and attentive to the now … feeling relaxed and not nervous or jittery … no need to impress or dazzle others or draw attention to myself… Unselfconscious, a new way of being with myself, a new way of being in the world … calm, unafraid, no anxiety about what’s going to happen next … loved and valued … just being together as an end in itself.”

 

If we could just focus on being with God and not let so much in our lives distract us FROM Him, perhaps we’d grasp what it really means to live for God. Imagine how different our lives would be.

Wow! So much to absorb—It’s simply amazing. God is here!  Now.  Always. What He wants most is to enjoy me being me with Him. He wants us all to realize His love, His particular love.

I have a new website about my books – you can download samples, listen to the audio book GOD IN SANDALS, read 100 pages of HIS KINGDOM COME…http://www.wix.com/mmontreuil/author-site

We are Meant to Do Wonders (God Cares About Your Dreams for His Kingdom!)

“God cares for us more than what we do.”

I said this to a few people the other day after hearing that a mutual friend of ours had decided to take a rest from something she’d passionately hoped to accomplish for the Kingdom. Our friend felt she needed to focus on something else and let the vision go, at least for the time being.

Death to the vision, even if temporary, is what happens when we become convinced God wants us to give something up that we thought He wanted us to do—or it’s an instance in that we didn’t succeed in what we’d felt strongly called to do—or when our mission or dream for God is stopped by circumstances beyond our control. This can be devastating and sap life from us. Really, death is the best way to describe it. Often a death to vision happens just before for a resurrection, but sometimes the experience is final, when we are forced to give up with no seeming resurrection sight—only time will tell in some cases.

I’ve experienced seasons in my life when I strived and worked hard to do something I felt God wanted me to do and then have it all come to unfulfilled dreams.

Many years ago, a friend told me: “God is concerned about you more than what you do for Him.” She meant to comfort me because I’d just received a rejection, which was unexpected news from an acquisitions editor—a month after my novel God in Sandals, about Jesus, had been accepted by a highly respected publishing house–I got a call saying they’d changed their minds.

At that moment, hearing my friend’s words that God cared more for me more than about what I did for Him, actually stung. I wanted my work and success for God to be equally important to Him as His love for me. My dashed hopes far outweighed the words of grace she’d given me. Since then I’ve come to appreciate the idea a little more, but I question why unfulfilled dreams are a part of Christian experience at all. And I think I have my answer.

Perhaps God was not the one to bring the disappointing news. Perhaps the decision that was made by the publisher was not what God wanted. I remember, at that time, God had whispered in my heart, that very thought. And that brought me comfort in the midst of pain. I actually felt He told me He felt the pain too.

What if the setbacks or the “death to a vision” is not from Him at all? I have heard too many teachings that we must “lay it all on the altar” and let go and trust God. What happens is that we walk away from it in our hearts and expectations, the opposite of faith.

I know there are times we must wait, but there are times we must rise up and chase after what we want more than before—to take what is ours. I need to stop feeling passive about the dreams God has given me. I’m done accepting defeat. I am finished thinking I’m not qualified to do something, or not good enough to succeed. With that said, I am looking for creative ways to accomplish impossible things that still reside deep within me because God has promised things to me.  He does not give us a calling and then take it back. He’s promised as much in His Word—He honors His words to us.

Now, I see God smiling.

God wants us to do great things for Him—especially to do impossible things. Over and over God performs miracles on our behalf. And, our faith is what blesses Him the most, more than whatever it is we actually accomplish. This is true. But God cares more about what we care about and what we want to do for Him than we can imagine. The reason is because He deeply cares for us. He’s crazy about us and wants us to be happy and do things for Him. He’s designed the world to turn and He’s given us the world to possess.

God cares about what we do BECAUSE he cares for us so much.

On the other hand, if we think God cares about what we do in order to please Him—that is, if we are trying to win God’s favor by doing certain things for Him, this is false. God loves us unconditionally and particularly. We cannot do anything to change how much He loves us. So, in that sense, God cares more about us than what we do.  

Let me quote Madeleine L’Engle, a very wise, creatively gifted woman who knew God intimately, knew His creative power and took hold of it (from Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art):

“We are all asked to do more than we can do. Every hero and heroine of the Bible does more than he would have thought it possible to do, from Gideon to Esther to Mary. Jacob, one of my favorite characters, certainly wasn’t qualified. He was a liar and a cheat; and yet he was given the extraordinary vision of angels and archangels ascending and descending a ladder which reached from earth to heaven.

“In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, Nathanael is given a glimpse of what Jacob saw, or a promise of it, and he wasn’t qualified either. He was narrow-minded and unimaginative, and when Philip told him that Jesus of Nazareth was the one they sought, his rather cynical response was, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ And yet it was to Nathanael that Jesus promised the vision of angels and archangels ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”

If you think about it, God prefers to use the unqualified; it’s all over the Bible. Jesus chose twelve quite poor, uneducated men, the leaders of whom were fishermen for crying out loud, these were the ones to whom Jesus conferred His Kingdom at the outset. So much depended on them—what qualified them was that Jesus chose them, spent time with them, and He believed in them. Period.

David became a great king, not right away, but his destiny, what he would do for God, unfolded over his lifetime. I think what we need to realize is that one must be brave and humbly and faithfully accept what God puts in us to do. We must not draw back unless God says so (as in the friend I mentioned at the beginning). We must believe God will accomplish anything He wants to do through us, even if it takes a lifetime—and this, this is the faith that moves mountains. It is a decision to believe and act, even if it is a choice as small as a mustard seed, we can do miraculous things because God is with us and believes in us. This has nothing to do with being qualified and everything to do with God’s faithfulness to us—and His delight in us.

What I think is true is that God shares our disappointments and setbacks when our dreams are dashed or thwarted, when hope for our vision dies or darkens. He feels the pain, too. I believe what we do for God greatly matters to Him as much as we matter to Him, because He loves us so much. We are meant to do wonders and share in God’s amazing plans for our world.

I’ve been working on a new author website, although I’m having trouble with getting my domain name “MargaretMontreuil.com” transferred. However, you can view it by clicking on the link above to get to “Author’s Website”… would love to hear from you!

Oh, How God Loves Us!

Measure your life by loss instead of gain
Not by the wine drunk, but by the wine poured forth
For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice
And whosoever suffereth most hath most to give. –Hudson Taylor

God has the most to give, has sacrificed the most, and loves the most.

I just returned from a late evening walk in the park down the street. The moon isn’t full yet but it’s only Tuesday night. By Friday night it will be a brilliant globe of light, whether visible or not. The moon is full every year at Passover. It was full the night Jesus led his band of closest men outside to await arrest in a garden.

When we remember the Passover Lamb of God, the horror of His suffering, the amount of love He poured out for our sakes, and the fact that He gave up the glory of Heaven, and took on the sins of the entire world to save us . . . it is unfathomable.

Seeing the human side of Jesus brings perspective and a deeper understanding of the love He has for us and is why I wrote the devotional book, God with Us. My effort was to create a contemplative “journey through the Gospels” and, so, I imagined that dark, moonlit night in the Garden of Gethsemane through James’ eyes, one of the three men Jesus invited further into the garden with Him to pray; it was a good distance away from the others for good reason. Here’s an artist’s creative rendering, so to speak, as I prayerfully imagined the meaning of that night about two thousand years ago.

James, son of Zebedee . . .

The soft glow of the oil lamp gently lit the face of our Master. We were about to leave the upper room. His expression was warm and serene when He said, “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

After He said this, he looked up toward heaven and prayed. Whenever Jesus prayed out loud in our midst, I was transported. At those times, it felt as though He took us to heaven with Him. I can still hear His fervent voice as He prayed that last time with us. Intimate and beautiful, His words of intercession and communion with His Father revealed a heart full of hope, vision, and care. First, He prayed to His Father for His own glorification, then for us, His disciples, and lastly, for all those in the future who would believe in Him.

I’ve come to see His prayer at that time as a bridge He was crossing. He was leaving us to cross over to His Father and return to His heavenly glory. But during that moment of prayer, we stood on that bridge beside Him. WE looked into heaven with Him.

I know that He always intercedes for His own–and will continue until we all become answers to His prayer. For He prayed that we who were His would see Him in His glory and be there with Him. Yes, He prayed that we would rejoice with Him in His glory–I know He prays this still, for those yet to join Him.

And He prayed that we would all become one, even as He is one with His Father.

Our hearts had soared during His prayer.

But everything changed suddenly in the darkness of the olive grove. His prayers changed just as drastically. We could hardly bear to listen. After hearing His anguished cries, John, Peter, and I fell asleep during the long stretch of lonely silence that followed.

We know now that His agonizing prayer in the garden was another bridge: between our damnation and God’s salvation. This was a bridge we could not bear to share with Him. He had thrown Himself down upon that bridge–and He was alone. In our despair, we could not bear to keep watch with Him, so we fell asleep.

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He had confided to us as He took us deeper into the garden–so that He could pray privately. He knew we could hear Him. Surely, He knew. And I don’t know why or how we could have fallen asleep. But in doing so we added disappointment to His terrible grief.

The garden was so dark. Gloom and despair hung heavily in the air all around us. We were hiding from the authorities, or so I thought. But Jesus wasn’t hiding–He was waiting. He knew His betrayer would lead the rulers and soldiers to arrest Him in the garden, just as He knew the rest of us would desert Him–and scatter to safety. That is why He brought us to the garden, away from the upper guest room. If we had stayed there, surely, we would have been arrested with Him.

“Are you asleep?” Jesus sadly asked us, not once, but three times, each time stepping away from His prayer-bridge to check on us. He wanted us to be near Him. He didn’t want to be alone.

What good were we to Him? I don’t know. As a man, He needed us. As God, He knew the terror that faced Him. We didn’t know–so we left Him there on that terrifying bridge.

Finally, Jesus’ prayer ended and He crossed the bridge. “Not My will, but Your will be done.”

The night has changed as I finish writing this. Dark, stormy clouds have moved in. It’s thundering softly. I am thankful that the Holy Spirit quickened my thoughts about Jesus in the garden, in weather probably simlilar to this in Charlotte. When I glanced up into the moonlit sky earlier, I felt the presence of Jesus. We’re in communion now because of the decision He made that night. I am so blessed to remember what He has done for me, and to thank Him for the bridge of sacrifice He crossed so that I could know Him and His extravagant, limitless, unconditional LOVE.

Watch this and be blessed — it is called How He Loves Us – Kim Walker/Jesus Culture.

True Love

I am often enthralled by the ideas presented by mystical theologians. John Crowder writes like one in The Ecstasy of Loving God, a book I just came across the other day. What he says, and he quotes ancient and modern Christian mystics throughout the book, is that we are designed for bliss. Here’s what Bernard of Clairvaux writes of the Bride and the eternal Bridegroom: “She loves. He is love. She is thirsty. He is a fountain.”

I’ve been praying to not settle for anything less. God wants to give us a life of joy unspeakable. This entire generation is moving into this realm. It is because we are being prepared to be the Bride we’ve always been meant to be.

Unpredictable Beauty and No Worries!

It’s funny, my life is in major flux, including the mystery about where I should call “home” and I am back to living day by day in financial survival mode without a job, and the amazing thing … I haven’t laughed more in years.  Joy surrounds me. Love holds me. Really, all is good with my soul. I know God has good things in store for me and delights taking care of me. I attest to the truth that Jesus gives us peace that surpasses understanding no matter what our situation is. His track record with me is perfect: he’s never failed to provide for me. I am simply waiting to see what’s next. I am living a big adventure with surprises at every turn.

Once on a road trip, driving alone on a beautiful, windy, hilly, somewhat less-traveled highway through Wisconsin, I learned a wonderful lesson. Life is like a roadtrip with unpredicable beauty at every turn – and there is nothing to worry about. The changing landscape was breathtaking.  I’d reach the top of a hill and before me would stretch out the most spectacular scene. This repeated itself over and over, and I’d try to guess what next work of art might fill my eyesight over the next hill and then the next. Trees, rivers, meadows, the changing terrain was completely unpredictable. I’d take several curves in the road that would suddenly open up to a lake view, or perhaps it would be rolling farmland, perhaps a forest, or a country bridge. I didn’t know what was in store for me around the next bend or hill. I remember thinking how very much my life was like that. I couldn’t guess what was coming next but when I’d get there my heart would fill up with the beauty of that particular place.  I couldn’t help but smile with the idea that God was watching me and enjoying my discovery at every turn. It feels much the same right now.

I don’t mind my unpredictable circumstances; logically speaking, I should be afraid, but I’m not. I know God loves me and enjoys my childlike expectation I have in what beautiful new thing I’m about to come into. I’ve learned God is trustworthy, kind, and quite capable of taking care of me. So, I can laugh at setbacks, they just help nudge me along the right path. Since I’ve been in Minnesota, looking for a new job, I had some surprising, beautiful opportunities. One was to help save a dear friend’s life a couple of weeks ago. All I did was call 911 and hold her hand in the ICU as the doctors and medicine did the rest of the work. What a privilege—God gave me something important to do. Oh, and I have fallen in love with a small angel—a granddaughter I’d never have had the chance to know if I hadn’t lost my job in Charlotte and driven to Minneapolis. So, this in-between time, and the meeting of new friends and old ones have done wonders to delight me.  Who knows where I will be living next month. I’m on a kind of road trip, not sure what I’ll see around the next curve.   I can tell you this—the journey is beautiful.

The Great I AM – A tiny, helpless infant.

A couple of nights ago I attended a Christmas concert at Vision of Glory Lutheran Church in Plymouth, MN. One of the vocalists sang the beautiful song “Mary Did You Know?” It is my favorite Christmas song by far. Every time I hear it I am deeply moved by the reality of the words. Here they are, for those of you unfamiliar with the lyrics:

“Mary Did You Know”

[Originally written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene]
Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your Baby Boy has come to make you new? This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.
Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man? Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand? Did you know that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod? When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God?
Mary did you know.. Ooo Ooo Ooo
The blind will see. The deaf will hear. The dead will live again. The lame will leap. The dumb will speak The praises of The Lamb.
Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation? Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations? Did you know that your Baby Boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb? The sleeping Child you’re holding is the Great I Am.

The song’s last sentence transfixed me.

I self-published a book entitled “God with Us: A Walk Through the Gospels” about nine years ago and in the chapter “Mary’s Son” I, too, contemplated some wonder-filled thoughts. As a little devotional piece in keeping with this time of year, I’d like to share an excerpt of my ponderings.

“Wonder Just a Little …
…”Why did God choose to come to earth as a baby? Why did He become a vulnerable, needy, baby boy? What motivated Him to do this? What purpose did it serve that He became one of us–including the need to cut teeth? He learned to crawl, walk and talk. He grew in wisdom–which means He learned.

Can you imagine the Word of God eventually picking up words of Aramaic from His parents in order to speak? He is wisdom itself. By His Word, all things exist.

Can you see His parents’ delight in their small child’s first steps? Imagine, the engineer of the universe toddled. It’s simply too overwhelming to comprehend.

This mystery of God’s incarnation is far too comfortable a notion in our minds. We are way to numb. Once in a while our hearts are awakened with wonder [like what happened to me during those transcendent moments the other night during the Christmas concert]…A shock of truth makes its way through the layers of indifference.

When Jesus walked on water, He shocked a few people. He did this after thirty years of being an ordinary person, hidden in the ordinary lives around Him. But Jesus was no ordinary human being. He was fully God and fully man. This is why He came the way He did.

He wanted to be fully human. [Even an ordinary human being.]

Why? Why did He live that hidden ordinary life for so long? Thirty years. What does this tell us about God’s inner life–His heart–about His motives?

Is it possible God simply wanted to love and be loved? He wanted to be known, and He knew we couldn’t know Him because He was too far above and removed from us. Did He want to be handled and held?

[The sleeping Child you're holding is the Great I Am!]

Did He simply want to be intimately known? There is something very tender about God’s desire to be loved in this way. Why did God desire to experience all that we experience?

Imagine what this meant to a simple carpenter named Joseph. The Lord of heaven and earth, as a baby, began a face-to-face, long term, intimate relationship with Joseph as “his son.” Vulnerable for the first time, God completely entrusted Himself to the very creatures He made. Mary and Joseph were chosen for the most privileged roles of the Ages. How could an ordinary man, called to be an ordinary dad, be the “dad” to Divinity? How could a young woman bear the Creator in her womb?

Did Joseph and Mary know they held their own Maker when they held little Jesus? Did Joseph realize that when he taught Jesus how to work with his hands, that his son’s hands had made him? Did Mary and Joseph ever tremble at the scope of responsibility placed upon their shoulders? Perhaps Jesus’ full identity remained a mystery to them during Jesus’ life. This same great mystery–the earthly life of and mission of Jesus–was the drastic means God took, the tremendous lengths He went to, to bring “Eden” life to us. Eden means delight.

How God longs for intimacy with us. He couldn’t give any more of Himself than He did in the WAY He came to us, and He couldn’t have better proved His love to us than the WAY He showed it to us. Now we know God’s unrelenting, surpassing, surprising, everlasting, love.

Good News! Many are Following Jesus Here

As you can see from the FOLLOW video located at this website http://www.elevationchurch.org
, something quite extraordinary is going on at Elevation Church in Charlotte. I’m seeing that more each week.

My daughter, age 28, had been through life-threatening lows lately and recently gave the direction of her life to Jesus. She found this rather “new” church, which started I think less than five years ago, and asked if I’d like to go with her. I happily went along to support her. Oh my … words cannot express the amazing things going on there and how PERFECTLY-TIMED the messages and such have been for my daughter.

Far from being “typical”, the vibrant church uses cutting-edge technology and media, plus “Rock Concert” worship, passionate and gifted talent that is reaching and connecting people with God’s powerful, relevent message of life-transforming, inclusive love. This church gets it – this isn’t tame, nice people simply following the traditions they’ve been brought up with … this is what Jesus was like — shaking things up, making a big noise, not mincing words, not watering down the Gospel. This is what Jesus died for – people who know what it is to be SAVED and act accordingly. What a dynamic thing to be caught up in and be a part of!

My daughter is among those who spontaneously answered the call to be baptized on the spot after a sound, short teaching on what BAPTISM MEANS TO JESUS. The Baptism event wasn’t even announced beforehand. See what I mean about not being typical?

Besides the free T-shirts, towels, and necessary hygiene products freely given to those ready to obey the timeless call of Jesus to follow Him and publicly proclaim it through water baptism, the entire event struck me as being so relevent. Jesus is RELEVENT.

I hope you will feel the tangible joy of that morning.

A week before the baptism event, the church was featured on prime time news. The news crew visited and documented the church’s “growth explosion” and aired the story with wonder. God is celebrating and is spreading the Good News of what it looks like to follow Jesus in our days, in our city.

A Time for Faith – for Lovers of God

For the last month I’ve stepped into another unwanted transition. It isn’t the first time I’ve been in survival mode within five years, but this might be the bleakest. Things could be worse, of course, so I count my blessings, but not without questioning the Lord in my prayer times. Hmm…I’ve wondered, for example, why I’m encountering what begins as particularly well-suited opportunities, that turn into closed doors and deferred hope. Knowing the particulars involved, I can easily blame our hurting economy, which is also in survival mode.

The timely sermons at church encourage me not to worry but trust in God, to make Him my one and only. He’s the Source of all we need. The Lord continues to get His point across to me. His mercy and understanding is a flood of grace whenever needed. It comes on an “as needed basis” for those He calls His own. I am also looking hard to find a job, but I start to worry if I think too much about how and where to live, and about those who need me. I try to keep focused on Jesus, who walked on water to get across a stormy sea and to the place He was heading.

It seems I am sitting in a boat, it’s terribly dark, stormy, everything is tossing and heaving, and I don’t even know which shore I should head towards.  At this moment, all I see is Jesus and He’s  barely within sight of my pitching, frightening situation. So, I live these days in faith and trust, but not without occasions of panic.

Putting the present aside for a moment, I perused some of my earlier blogs here. I read the one “Mountains of Glory” which, by the way, gets the most hits. I reminisced about my mountaintop experience with the Lord when I went to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and the Mount of Beatitudes along the Sea of Galilee. That was in 2009. In 2010 I completed the novel the Lord inspired me to write: His Kingdom Come. It turned out wonderfully. 2011 hasn’t been so kind.

My past blog helped me remember the beauty of Jerusalem and the Galilee area, Israel’s two sacred mountains, the inspiration I experienced and the acute sense of the Lord’s presence I felt there. The holy ground of those mountains beneath my feet, the view my eyes beheld . . . the memory is still vivid. I felt on top of the world there and God’s Spirit burned true and real within me. Those were bright, heavenly places. And I knew then that we live in the days ushering in the climax of the Ages – the nearness of our Beloved’s return. So, although I am in a different place right now, I know it’s not forever and God will intervene for me. 

The other day I read Luke 18:8 in which Jesus unveiled His heart so poignantly: “…When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

Faith means everything to the Lord. I’d like to live this time of uncertainty and at least give Him a little pleasure – if nothing else, that He will see my faith and smile.