On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

 
On the seventh day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Seven swans a-swimming

Seven Spirit Gifts
 
Romans 12:6-8:
“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:
1)     if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
2)     or ministry, let us use it in our ministering;
3)     he who teaches, in teaching;
4)     he who exhorts, in exhortation;
5)     he who gives, with liberality;
6)     he who leads, with diligence;
7)     he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”
 
While not an exhaustive list, Paul conveys here the diversity of abilities in the body of Christ, that each need to work together for the body to function as one and be effective.
 
There may be some overlap with natural abilities here, but the context of Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 makes clear that God intentionally by His Spirit gives us specific gifts and graces.
 
The practical point is to use them.  Do what you’re good at!

Those who have studied the biblical shepherd’s lifestyle tell me that shepherds threw rocks a lot.  Israel is a very rocky land, and sheep are easily frightened.  So an easy way to move sheep was to throw a rock to a place you want them to move away from.  They were precision rock throwers, often with a sling.  So when David stands before Goliath, he uses the gift he’s been given, instead of going with the world’s usual method (Saul’s armor).
 
What gifts has God given you?  How will you use them in 2022?

On the Sixth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 
On the sixth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Six geese a-laying

Six Creation Days
 
It’s in vogue today to see the creation week as poetry, not history.  And utterly unscientific.  How could there be light before there was a sun!  Ridiculous.  But only to the naturalistic mind that cannot accept a God with power greater than forces of nature.
 
The Bible actually tells us to rest one day every seven, because that’s what God did.  Our 7-day week comes from Genesis 1, and we ought to follow it.  “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.  In it you shall do no work…” (Deut. 5:13-14).
 
This isn’t to say there is NO poetry to the creation account.  There certainly is.  The first 3 days, God creates a three-story world on three canvases, or spaces: sky, sea, land.  The next 3 days He fills each of them. 
 
At the end, instead of saying “Let there be,” He says “Let Us make man in Our image.”  Humans are uniquely God-like in the world, and called to rule the world faithfully in His stead (Gen. 1:28).  This view has been under assault the last few decades with the environmentalist movement, which sees man more as a violator of nature, and just one part of it.  Who’s to say a human life is worth more than a whale or a deer?  God says it.  Here.  At the very beginning.
 
This is not a license to trash the planet.  Just the opposite – we are to care for it.  But the earth is a garden God gives for us to use wisely.  We may not abuse it.  But we may also not preserve it untouched.  We need to cultivate it, as a garden.  It’s a tool in the workshop, not mom’s best china that we may never touch.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 

On the fifth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Five gold-en riiiiings!

Five Books of the Law
 

The Jews have an annual feast to celebrate God’s giving of the Law: Shavuot.  It remembers Moses coming down Sinai with the two tablets of the Ten Commandments.
 
Christians tend not to celebrate the law as they should.  We have largely lost the Psalmist’s heart cry, “Oh, how I love your law!  It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).

 
It can be helpful to read the Ten Commandments as God’s wedding vows, as He takes Israel as His bride.  “I have done this for you; you be faithful to Me in these ways.”
1 – no other husbands/gods
2 – no pictures, either, to run after them
3 – take My name and wear it well
4 – spend time with Me
5 – honor your ancestors and authorities
6 – no physical harm
7 – obvious
Etc
 
All those obscure Levitical laws were specific things God gave us to do to show that we are set apart as His bride, and no one else’s.
 
So cherish all of the Bible in 2021, as coming from the God who loves you.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.
 

On the fourth day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Four calling birds

Four Gospel Books
 

Just as there are two creation accounts in Genesis 1-2 (the second starts at 2:4), so God gave us four accounts of Christ’s earthly ministry.
 
Matthew gives us Christ as King, fulfilling the Scriptures
Mark gives us an active, abrupt Christ, in Peter’s blunt style
Luke gives us a Christ for the whole world, from a Gentile doctor’s view
John gives us Christ as eternal Word, who is our bread, shepherd, way, truth & life
 

Fools seek contradictions among these to debunk Jesus, while the wise know that multiple portraits are needed to round out any one author’s portrayal of any life, much less the most unique life (the only God-man ever) in history.

On the Third Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

 

On the third day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Three French hens

Faith, Hope and Love
 
“So now faith, hope and love abide, these three” – 1 Corinthians 13:13.
The capstone of Paul’s great “Love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13, the context is really interesting.  The Corinthians put too much importance on knowledge, abilities/gifts, powerful speakers and their reputations.  Paul points out there are far more important things.  The mark of a spiritual person isn’t impressing others with speaking in tongues, how many books you’ve read, how impressively you can preach.  Sensationalism and spirituality don’t go together well.
 
Simple trust in God with your life, hoping in His work in the future (including 2021!), and love of God and neighbor, sum up the essence of the Christian life.
 

FAITH
People put stock in faith, in itself.  Faith in faith.  It’s nice to be people of faith.  But in WHAT?  “Whoever believes IN HIM [Jesus] should not perish…” (John 3:16).
 

HOPE
People right now seem to have a “fingers-crossed” attitude toward 2022.  This is not biblical hope.  “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:19).  Biblical hope KNOWS God will arrange everything in His world for the good of His people (Romans 8:28), regardless of how much disruption that may bring to our lives.
 

LOVE
People tend to see love as good feelings or a close connection toward others.
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10-11).  Love gives drastically of itself for the good of others.

On the Second Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings
 

On the second day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Two turtledoves

Two testaments
 
God has revealed Himself in His Word, and we divide that into Old and New testaments.
“The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.”

It has become politically correct to only refer to the Old Testament as the Hebrew Bible, out of sensitivity to Judaism, to not call their Scriptures “Old.”  But this is a mistake.  The Old Testament is Act One and Two of God’s grand play: Creation and Fall.  It does NOT stand on its own, but calls for more.  

The New Testament gives us Acts Three and Four: Redemption and Completion.  I’d encourage you to read some from each testament every day of 2021.

On the First Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas with Christian meanings
 
On the first day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

A partridge in a pear tree
Jesus Christ our Savior, baby
 
Jesus of course is God’s first gift to the world.  God spoke the eternal Word, and by Him created the worlds in Genesis 1:2-3.  “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made” (Psalm 33:6).  They were made by Him and FOR Him (Colossians 1:16). 
 
God spoke again, and the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary.  The Word entered her womb and took on the flesh of a human embryo: Jesus of Nazareth.  God became a man to save men.
 
“God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” – John 3:16.
 
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” – 2 Corinthians 9:15

Turning the Page from 2021 to 2022

I wrote this last year at this time, and it's still relevant today...


Throwing out the tree and garland on December 26 is probably normal for many people.  It’s even a holiday of its own – Boxing Day – for some.
 
But it troubles me.  And at the end of 2021 it indicates a deeper problem.
 
This year, it seems people want 2021 to be over, more than they want to observe holidays.

It’s a spiritual problem.  We are like the Stoic fatalist who breaks his leg and says, “Well, glad that’s over.”  Hm.  NOT a Christian view of life or God’s providence.
 
In the church’s calendar, Christmas BEGINS on December 25, it does not end then.  The twelve days of Christmas is not just a song, but a steady, festive march to January 6.  That is the holiday (holy day) of Epiphany, when we celebrate the magi coming to worship Jesus, when we recall the light of the world coming to Gentiles and the whole world, not just to Israel.
 
When we call out “Happy Holidays!” today it is often a substitute for the too-Christian “Merry Christmas.”  But Happy Holidays for the thoughtful Christian can pull together Advent, Christmas and Epiphany all in one, and keep our observance balanced, and more helpful than the world’s.
 

The world’s rhythm is very different.
Store decorations come out right after Halloween. 
The hustle and bustle builds to a climax around December 23-24.
Then all goes quiet for time with family December 24-25.
The next day the decorations come down.
The next Monday we go back to work, or away on vacation, and think about a New Year.
 
In 2021, this is even more pronounced.
There has been much talk about wanting 2021 OVER, and little talk of holidays, beyond how to [not] gather.  The hopes and fears of 2021 are on a stupid calendar square and a number: 2022.  Or our hopes and fears [at the end of 2020!] were on January 5 (Georgia elections) or 6 (House vote on the electoral college) or 20 (Biden’s inauguration), depending on your politics.
 
But on Christmas Eve, we sang together as a church a truth that exposes and rejects those hopes as false or fleeting:
 
“The hopes and fears of ALL THE YEARS are met in Thee [in Bethlehem, in Jesus] tonight.”
 

 
How can we live out this truth?  Here are a few ideas.
 
1. Don’t make new year’s eve such a big deal this year.
Resist the urge to celebrate with the world a calendar turn, as if that has any effect at all on events.  “If we just turn the page to 2022, Covid will go away!”  What kind of weird superstition is that?  God’s providence rules the world, not a Julian calendar.  Not a change in the American presidency, not the rollout of a vaccine.  But this year we’re leaning on a new year to give us hope, more than we are on the reality of Christmas.  And this is not just a 2021 phenomenon, but part of the overall growing secularizing of our American culture.  Resist it.  Christians don’t lean on the same things the rest of the world does.
 
 
2. Keep giving gifts.
I’ve reserved a few gifts to give to my family throughout the 12 days of Christmas, leading up to Epiphany.  The world sees this as a faux pas - as if you forgot their birthday.  But that’s the wrong way to look at it.  Jesus is truly the “gift that keeps on giving.”  Forever!  Why not observe His Incarnation, not only in the act of giving gifts at all, but in the WAY we give them?  God gave Jesus on Christmas, but He kept giving in Christ’s earthly life of 30 years, and obedient ministry of 3 years, climaxing in His gift on the cross.  And then God kept giving!  The resurrection.  Pentecost, when the gift spread to the nations.  The ministry of Paul of Tarsus, when the gift spread to the Gentiles, and the world, even to the Roman emperor.  Keep giving to your loved ones, in the same spirit.
 
 
3. Find ways to remember God’s gifts to you.
We tend to use our extra time from December 25 until work restarts to enjoy the gifts we received.  What if we also keep remembering God’s gifts to us?
 
Here’s one way my family has done that.
The song “The 12 days of Christmas” may have started as a code song for persecuted Christians to sing of God’s love to His people.  Even if not, my family has profited from singing this adapted version throughout the 12 days of Christmas.  It mostly fits the meter of the song, so you can sing it.  This is the same pattern as the Jesse Tree of Advent, remembering each day a particular part of God’s redemptive history leading up to Christ.
 
On the x day of Christmas, my True Love [God, Jesus] gave to me:
Jesus Christ our Savior, baby
Two Testaments [Old and New, the Bible]
Faith, Hope and Love
Four Gospel Books
Five Books of the Law
Six Creation Days
Seven Spirit Gifts
Eight Beatitudes
Nine Spirit Fruits
Ten Good Commandments
Eleven Faithful Apostles
Twelve Tribes of Israel
 
And the focus on Israel on Twelfth Night, January 5, can lead naturally into the Epiphany celebration of God’s revelation to the Gentiles, too.
 
 
4. Pray as you consume news – hope in the Lord for good!
To have your hopes and fears of all your years meet in Jesus today, takes work.
It seems to me that the news, from every political bias, has become more aggressive in pressuring its viewers what to trust in, as a result of the bad news they report.  And it's never Jesus.  Science, Trump, not-Trump, Build Back Better, etc.  This all reinforces their audience’s counterfeit “HOPES AND FEARS” thus bringing them back for more viewing and ratings.  (Tim Keller's "Counterfeit Gods" is good on this.)  One newspaper's Digital Word of the Year in 2020 was “Doomscrolling:” being obsessed with taking in bad news, such that you can’t stop scrolling.  Don’t get sucked into this.  As the media casts cares on you, cast them on the Lord.
 
Use His Word to help in this.  It is a needed counterbalance to consuming news.  If you read through the Bible in a year, a practice I highly recommend, you’re coming to the end of Revelation.  There’s a LOT of bad news in there – far worse than 2021!  But Christ’s power and His return resolve it all into a coming world with no tears, pain or death.  Plan your Scripture reading for 2022, to give God’s news more weight in your heart and mind than the world’s.
 
A fearful populace is an easily controlled populace.  I think 2020 shows this to be true.  So don’t let the news drive all your emotions and thoughts.  Reject fear, shame and guilt, casting them all on Christ for your atonement and vindication.  Then stand free before the Lord, even in a world of bad news, knowing Christ has triumphed and will redeem this world.  We will live forever where truth, goodness and beauty are unhindered by any evil.  The kingdoms of this world will have become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.  And He shall reign forever and ever.  Amen!

More on Grove City College

As the parent of a freshman at Grove City, I was concerned when I became aware of an article asserting Grove City was going woke.  My student had independently told me of a chapel talk or two that seemed off to him.  When I read the president’s response, I had a very different reaction to it than the American Reformer article.  To me, it seemed solid, not “limp.”  I wondered if I was missing something.
 
Now with Carl Trueman’s article, I’m confirmed in my continued trust in the college’s direction.  He clarifies even how the mistake was made in the chapel talk speaker.
 
This is an important lesson for conservatives, who tend to shoot their wounded.  It’s a lesson I’ve re-learned recently in my own ministry.  When we are afraid that the whole world is going woke, we are too quick with accusations and mistakes made by “our guys” when it even SMELLS like wokeness to us.

Let’s not turn on each other.  Be careful not to circulate false reports (Exodus 23:1).  There is a whole cottage industry of ANTI “social justice warriors” cropping up on the right.  These "discernment bloggers" often seem more interested in raising an outcry, or making a name for themselves, than in getting at the truth.
 
Especially on a college campus, beware of accusations that CRT is being discussed in book studies, classes, etc.  Of COURSE it is – it should be!  But the accusations are usually made with the insinuation that the admin or faculty involved are advocating it.  On 90% of campuses, that is probably true.  But why would we get upset when faculty like Carl Trueman raise the issue with students?  I think it’s wise to “ban the teaching of” CRT in high school.  But do we want to cry foul when it’s even raised on a solid college campus, even if the goal is to refute it?
 
Again, it seems there is a kernel of truth among the avalanche of assertions.  Tisby should have been disinvited.  The president could and should still say so.  But I’m going to be gracious, knowing they probably vetted him before he went crazy woke.  Unless more Tisby types keep speaking at chapel, I’ll hold off making such assertions against Grove City, and encourage others not to slander the name of a good institution that we should be cheering on, not cutting down.

The Supreme Court Considers Abortion

Two days ago, I listened to the oral arguments before our nation’s Supreme Court regarding abortion.
 
Mississippi has enacted a law banning abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation.
Abortion advocates have challenged it.
 
At 10:00am sharp Wednesday, the court heard an argument from MS, for the first time I believe in almost 50 years, that Roe v. Wade should be overruled, and that the states should be able to decide the issue themselves.

 
Some observations:
 
1. The liberal justices used irrational emotion to make their case.
They were appalled, incredulous, that this was even being argued.  Such a basic right!  Their tone and rhetoric was emotional.  I think they are on the defensive know the majority of justices may go against them.
 

2. They also pointed to precedent.  Overturning precedent (Roe) will make us seem political and corrode the authority of our institution.  This is a play at the chief justice’s vote.  His priority is to maintain the prestige of the institution, more than anything.  Since that should not be the ultimate priority of ANY institution, he is manipulable, and will wind up corroding the authority of the institution, by his own decisions.  (This happens everywhere in life: if you idolize the church, you’ll warp its shape and function into something it shouldn’t be.  If you idolize the family, you won’t raise your kids rightly.)
 

3. Sotomayor’s argument was the most gruesome: brain-dead people respond muscularly to pokes, so why is fetal pain relevant?  God will judge this with His vengeance, in His time.  As He will the court’s past declarations in Casey and Obergefell, that people have a right to define life and its meaning as they want to.
 

4. The conservatives are divided between overturning Roe, or just adjusting its criteria of when the timeline of gestation in a law becomes unconstitutional.  Alito and Thomas’ line of questioning showed they are willing to overturn an “egregiously wrong” decision, regardless of recent precedent, as the court did against Brown and Plessy.  But Roberts wants a narrow ruling, as always, just deciding if MS’s 15 week rule is constitutional.  This will likely result in Roe NOT being overturned, I think.  Gorsuch will follow Roberts, Barrett will side with Alito and Thomas.  The 6 of them WILL uphold the MS law, which is a good thing.  But only 3 are willing to overrule Roe, outright.
 

5. Don’t forget the political fallout from this.  I believe it will galvanize the left to come out in force in the mid-terms next year.  The coming red wave everyone is talking about will be blunted by this decision, which will be revealed in June – perfect timing for elections in November.  People tend to vote AGAINST what just happened, not so much FOR what they want.