Issue 942 – Upside Down – December 23, 2022
Over the next couple of days, the western church will be celebrating the birth of Jesus with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship services. The Ukrainian Church will celebrate January sixth and seventh.
Christmas and Easter services are the “playoffs” for the church in many ways. Like followers of sports teams who only show up for the playoffs, many nominal Christians or people with Christian heritage will attend church only on those dates.
I am not mocking those attending; I delight in the fact that they make an effort. I hope and pray that the Lord speaks to them through those services and they find salvation in Christ.
Those same seasonal services also represent a unique opportunity to invite friends and family to worship with us. Many people are more open to attending services during Christmas, particularly newcomers to Canada. Newcomers are often curious about Canadian values and traditions. They are often very open to new spiritual directions.
The seasonal worship services allow believers to reconnect with the Lord. They are a blessing in every way.
All the cute, sentimental stuff about Christmas aside, we celebrate one of the most momentous moments in history (even if it didn’t happen on December 25 or January 7). The creator of heaven and earth humbled Himself and was born through the womb of a Middle Eastern virgin girl.
The King of Kings spent His first earthly days and nights sleeping in an animal feeding trough. His first visitors were shepherds, unclean outcasts from society.
His arrival turned the world upside down. That’s the way of Christ. The first will be the last. The meek will inherit. The proud will be humbled. The innocent servant suffered. The only guilt-free one was executed by the guilty.
We can’t be saved by our efforts or any form of merit. Salvation is by grace through faith.
The upside-down nature of the Kingdom of God is illustrated in a familiar parable.
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14
We are so familiar with the parable that we cease to be shocked by it, yet it must have seemed almost blasphemous to the original audience. The outwardly righteous religious pillar of the community is denied, but the much-hated tax collector is embraced.
Celebrate the upside-down kingdom this Christmas by spending some time with the real reason for the season. Seek first His kingdom.
I will be taking a few days off at Christmas. Gleanings with return on December 27th.
May you and yours enjoy a blessed Christmas.
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
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