Throughout our lives we have been so blessed with friendships and ministry opportunities.
This blog is meant to share what God has been doing in, for and through us.
It is also used as a resource page for teaching and preaching Dave has had the opportunity to do.
We do this for the purpose of GLORIFYING GOD and HELPING OTHERS GLORIFY GOD.
A prayer I wrote using quotes from chapter 6 - War - of Paul Tripp's Lead:12 Gospel Principles for Leadership In the Church
Lord, the victorious one,
Remind me that I need to battle for theological faithfulness, gospel purity, and methodological integrity but even more than that I need to remember that Gospel ministry is a war for leaders' hearts.
Help me and the leadership community I am part of to be always watchful and alert to the spiritual dangers of life in a fallen world and life as a church or ministry leader. Don't allow pride in ministry achievements to put me in danger.
Thank you for suffering for our victory and for caring more about the health, safety, and success of his church than we ever will.
Help me not be satisfied with a certain level of spiritual growth in the people you have brought into my life. I pray that I, and those I lead to long for more people to come into the kingdom.
God, I pray that you would help me stand against a leader whom we have regularly stood with when needed to protect the gospel, the church, and the leader. I also pray you would bring people into my life who would be willing to do the same.
Finally, I pray that my desire for good things will not morph to become dangerous things because they have become ruling things.
Amen.
"Leadership in the church of Jesus Christ is not just a battle for theological faithfulness, gospel purity, and methodological integrity; it is also a war for the heart of every leader." (116)
A spiritually healthy leadership community is always watchful and alert to the spiritual dangers of life in a fallen world and life as a church or ministry leader." (122)
"Pride in ministry achievements puts you in battle danger." (123)
"Any failure in a leader to live in a way that is humble and alert leads that leader nowhere good." (123)
"We have been called to lead by a victorious Savior, who suffered for our victory and who cares more about the health, safety, and success of his church than we ever will." (123)
"Gospel dissatisfaction - not satisfied with a certain level of spiritual growth in the people God has called us to lead, longing for more people to come into the kingdom, and working to see more churches planted." (124)
"There are moments when, because of what we have heard and learned, we need to lovingly stand against a leader whom we have regularly stood with. With the goal of protection, we must stand in his way, refusing to endorse or support something that is either spiritually dangerous or evidence that the enemy has already won a victory in this leader's heart." (125)
"Spiritual warfare, if it's as normal as the Bible presents it, must always be on our ministry agenda." (125)
"Desires for good things morph to become dangerous things because they have become ruling things." (126)
A prayer I wrote using quotes from chapter 5 - Character - of Paul Tripp's Lead
Lord God, may what is important to you be important to me. Help us find a ministry that is functioning with you as the most important goal and audience. We are very thankful to be at Trinity, where this is the case and help us in making decisions about the future.
I pray the church you would have us at would be shaped by Gospel values not merely the gifts of its leaders or their strategic plans but by you.
Help me and your church regularly ask "Is what's important to God still important to us?" May we not only ask the question but also take the time to honestly evaluate life and ministry with this question and the Bible.
God make me into a leader who is more concerned with godly character rather than results production. God, my hope is not in me getting it right but in you, who never forsakes your sanctifying work.
Amen.
Quotes from Chapter 5
"The values of a leadership community shape the way the community thinks about and approaches its work, and, more importantly, the way each member views and relates to all the other members." (101)
"A leadership community is spiritually safe and prepared for a long term and productive life of ministry only when what is important to God is not just theologically important to them but also functionally important." (102)
"The life and work of a leadership community is shaped not just by the gifts of its leaders, their vast experience, the force of their public personalities, entrepreneurial skill, or vision and strategic planning, but most importantly by their values." (101)
"It is important for a ministry leadership community to keep asking the question, "Is what's important to God still important to us?" (101)
"There are times when we are more attracted to big personality, powerful communicating, and result-producing leaders than to persons of beautiful character." (104)
"No matter your ministry, your leadership position, the daily tasks that have been assigned to you, or you, or the leaders who stand and work with you, it is this gospel that must be in your mind and fill your heart moment by moment as you do your work." (107)
"Leaders can't think of themselves first as ambassadors of the church or ministry they lead or as ambassadors of a particular strategic plan or as ambassadors of personal ministry career goals. They must lead with the knowledge that the thing God values most in a leader is that he or she represents him well. In every task, in every relationship, in public or in private, we are called to an ambassadorial mentality, to ambassadorial values, and to ambassadorial functioning." (107)
"All our attitudes and actions must be measured by our call to faithfully represent the character of the one who sent us." (108)
"Every leadership community needs to recognize that ministry is an intersection of many competing and conflicting motivations." (109)
"A leader whose heart has been captured by other things doesn't forsake ministry to pursue those other things; he uses ministry position, power, authority, and trust to get those things." (110)
"The reason we are often way too passive in the face of troubling evidence in the attitudes and actions of a leader is that way too often, performance trumps character." (111)
"No leader should be permitted to drive away fellow leaders who have godly concerns." (112)
"Our hope is not that we will always get it right but that God will never forsake his sanctifying work." (113)
A prayer I wrote using quotes from chapter 4 - Balance - of Paul Tripp's Lead:12 Gospel Principles for Leadership In the Church
Lord, God, the one who alone is worthy of our worship,
Help me find important what you find important. Help me trust you for what you know I need, not what I think I need. May my treasure be what you treasure, God.
Lord, help me not exchange your glory for the glory of the things you created. I don't want the good things you have given to become the rulings things. I pray that I would not work longer, try harder, control more, delegate less, and take more credit, in my attempts to get from ministry what it is not meant to provide
May the leadership communities I am and will be part of always consider and regularly discuss the question of balance in the lives of its leaders. I pray these communities would have God in his rightful place and people and things are in their appropriate places in our thoughts, desires, and actions. Help us remember the appropriate place of authority, money, power, position, gifts, marriage, children, theological insight, and biblical literacy.
God, thank you that Jesus' first act of restoration was to restore our relationship with God. Because of this great truth help me and the leadership communities I am part of to put everything in its right place.
Amen.
"What is balance? It is everything in its right place doing what it was meant to do." (87)
"What is important to God isn't always important to us. What God knows is needful for us isn't always needful to us. What God says we should treasure, at street level we don't always treasure." (88)
"Idolatry is when the glory of God the Creator is exchanged for the glory of the created thing." (89)
"In ministry good things become ruling things." (89)
Leaders are tempted to look to ministry to provide for them what it was never intended to provide. Leadership position, power, respect, acclaim, and success begin to take on more weight in our hearts than they should ever take." (90)
"In the fear of not getting things we think we need, we work longer, try harder, control more, delegate less, and take more credit. Good godly habits get left behind in our ministry drivenness. Necessary relationships are not properly maintained. Private worship becomes perfunctory, if not abandoned altogether." (90)
"A spiritually healthy leadership community should be always considering and regularly discussing the question of balance in the lives of its leaders." (91)
"It is only when God is in his rightful place in my heart that people and things are in their appropriate place in my thoughts, desires, and actions." (95)
We've seen shocking materialism; abuse of authority; misuse of God's money; love of power and position; the use of gifts, power, and position to seduce and misuse others; the hiding of wrongs; the building of cults of personality; broken marriages; angry children; beaten-down fellow leaders; unwillingness to submit to counsel, confrontation, and loving discipline; using theological insight and biblical literacy to defend what should not be defended; etc." (95)
"[Jesus] first act of restoration was to restore us to God, because it is only when God has his rightful weight in our hearts that everything else is appropriately weighted." (98)
A prayer I wrote using quotes from chapter 3 - Limits - of Paul Tripp's Lead:12 Gospel Principles for Leadership In the Church
Lord, God, our creator,
You have created me with limits. Help me understand that I cannot do more than I can realistically and healthily do.
God, you don't send us out on our own. Where you send us, you also go. I am thankful for this fact. Help me live in this truth.
As I prayerfully think about the idea of limits and the ministry you have for us, I want the ministry community you have for us to know not to idolize domineering leaders who fail to recognize the limits of their gifts, who disrespect the God-given gifts of fellow leaders, and who have been allowed to think that they are smart, gifted and strong in ways they are not
Lord, I don't want to be surrounded by ministry clones. Help me surround myself with leaders who have gifts that I do not have and strengths I don't have.
Lord, help me not fall into the trap of pride and harsh criticism. I want to develop a leadership community that recognizes God-given gifts and works to establish a ministry culture of respectful appreciation and joyful cooperation.
Lord, I must say no to the passions of my body so that I can do what you have called me to do.
Search my heart, help me recognize, understand, and confess the idols of my heart that interfere with the discipline you have called me to and your grace makes possible.
God, I know there are areas I need to grow in, especially during this time of ministry searching.
Where we are serving, I pray the leaders would see their ongoing need for confrontation, gospel comfort, and love and encouragement to deal with the old self.
Amen!
"In ministry, it is tempting to try to do more than you can realistically and healthily do." (72)
"We do not have to fear our limits because God doesn't send us out on our own; where he sends us, he goes to." (73)
"Every leader needs to rely on the contributions of other leaders who are smart in ways that he isn't." (74)
"Ministry must always be done in humble, respectful, and submissive community because the gift God has given us come to us with built-in limits." (74)
"I would be silly and proud to dominate every discussion and make every decision and assign every task." (74)
"One of the reasons the ministry leadership community is broken is that we have idolized domineering leaders who fail to recognize the limits of their gifts, who disrespect the God-given gifts of fellow leaders, and who have been allowed to think that they are smart, gifted, and strong in ways they are not." (74)
"Pride in one's own giftedness coupled with devaluing the gifts of others is a recipe for leadership disaster." (75)
"Humble leaders surround themselves not with ministry clones but with leaders who have gifts that they do not and are therefore smart in ways they are not and strong in areas they are weak." (75)
"Being given a gift tells me about me in that I am not self-sufficient but rather needy and dependent. It tells me I have no ability to do God's work without God's gifts." (75)
"My giftedness doesn't make me worthy of human deference, affirmation, or submission, because my gift doesn't point to me but to the one who has given it to me." (75)
'Because of the public nature of your gifts, you will suffer dangerous adulation and harsh criticism." (76)
"A leadership community that humbly recognizes the limits of God-given gifts will establish a ministry culture of respectful appreciation, and joyful cooperation." (77)
"As a leader, you simply cannot ignore the limits placed on you by this plan and maintain spiritual and relational health and a life of long-term ministry effectiveness." (77)
"When you unwittingly deny God-given limits of time, you assign more ministry work than a leader can do without shrinking the amount of time he can invest in other vital and unavoidable areas of calling and responsibility." (79)
"So more ministry means the leader spends less than the needed time investing in his marriage, parenting his children, fellowshipping with his church family, and serving his neighbors." (79)
"We have to resist a "try harder, do more" leadership culture that results in unrealistic expectations, achievement idolatry, and a whole basket of bad fruit." (79)
"Physical health must be part of the conversation and the shared responsibility of every member of the leadership community." (81)
"In order to finish the race and not be disqualified, we all must say no to passions of the body so that we can run the ministry or leadership race we have been called to run. Bringing our body under subjection doesn't begin with diet and exercise, but with searching for and confessing idols of the heart that interfere with the discipline to which we have been called and which grace makes possible. YOu see, the stewardship of our physical body is not an addition to our gospel ministry; it is a significant part of it." (81)
"Perhaps many of us are tired all the time not because of the rigorous demands of ministry but because of the lack of rigorous physical exercise in our normal routine. It is my love for my Savior and his gospel that causes me to eat with discipline. It is my love for the gospel that makes me get up and go to the gym or get on my road bike morning after morning." (82)
"No matter how long we've been in ministry leadership, no matter how well trained, no matter theologically mature, we are all still in need of future spiritual development." (83)
"Every leader needs to be the object of ongoing discipleship, every leader needs at moments to be confronted, every leader needs the comforts of the gospel, every leader needs help to see what he would not see on his own, and every leader needs to be granted the love and encouragement to deal with the artifacts of the old self that are still within him." (84)
A prayer I wrote using quotes from chapter 2 - Gospel - of Paul Tripp's Lead:12 Gospel Principles for Leadership In the Church
Lord, the one who saves,
Use me as a tool of grace in people's lives. And as you do that, help me see the importance others play in my life and spiritual growth.
I pray that the ministry you have for me and my family would challenge me and stretch me. Remind me that ministry is not about my comfort and predictability. In these challenges, I will be weak and needy. Help me embrace my weakness and your strength, God. I also pray that Trinity and the ministry we will go to will embrace their weakness and your strength. Lord, use me to help them grow.
Lord, I desire to help a church look at its leadership, mission, community, and methodology in light of the life-changing truth of the gospel. This will not happen perfectly but every church needs to get better at doing/living/working with the Gospel at the forefront. May the church that we are at grow in confidence in the Gospel and a commitment to one another.
God, may the church we are a part of be a place where leaders and members can confess their sin to you and one another and then continue to grow in their personal holiness.
May I and other leaders show a maturity that goes beyond worldly understanding and humility, points to Jesus and leads to gospel productivity and long-term spiritual health.
As the gospel makes us into the individuals and the community you want us to be. Grow in us patience and a willingness to wait on you.
You alone are worthy and deserving of all the glory. God, as we continue this ministry search, I pray that you would help Trinity Baptist Church, the church we are currently attending, and the church we will go to grow in the gospel.
Amen.
If you have given yourself to building people, you have accepted the call to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Leadership in the church is not comfortable and predictable. It's not a safe place to look for your identity and inner security. (53)
There should be no more powerful influence on leadership formation, community, and methodology than the Gospel of God's grace. (54)
Gatherings are not just for the purpose of financial, missional, and strategic planning but to nurture gospel confidence and commitment to one another. (56)
Fear of looking weak and needy will rob us of the help we need for spiritual health. (57)
If we are afraid to confess sin before what should be the most spiritual mature community in the church, we are sadly living in a state of functional gospel amnesia, no matter how robust our theological grasp of the gospel is. (58)
The long term health and gospel productivity of a church or ministry leadership community are directly related to the humility of the members of the community. (59)
Leader pride produces personality cults, while leader humility stimulates the worship of God. (60)
Willingness to wait with patient hearts is a clear sign that your leadership community has been and is being shaped by the gospel. (62)
Gospel encouragement is a defense against the ever-present danger of the pride in accomplishment because it puts credit where credit is due, at the feel of the Savior. (62)
A prayer I wrote using quotes from chapter 1 - Achievement - of Paul Tripp's Lead:12 Gospel Principles for Leadership In the Church
The following prayer was written using quotes from chapter 1 of Lead, Psalm 23, and James 4.
Lord, God, the great good shepherd who makes his sheep lie in green pastures, who restores his sheeps' souls, as I continue this pastoral ministry search, I thank you for the reminder that I have no ability on my own to pastor a local body of believers.
I am not sovereign. I cannot change people's hearts. I often get in the way of what you are doing. I cannot predict the future.
You are sovereign. You change hearts. Your ways do not change. You do not predict the future you are in control.
God, you know my heart, help me desire Gospel growth of your people not the building of church stuff.
If it is your will, guide me to a ministry in which I can work hard, be disciplined, plan well, and be joyful while knowing none of these things guarantee results. Help me also remember that the lack of desired results does not define failure.
Wherever I am God, as pastor of a church, a warehouse worker serving as a lay elder, or anywhere else, I pray that my ministry passions and energies would be focused on doing everything I can to help people you have put in my life grow a deeper love for and service to Jesus. I want to be a disciple who makes disciples.
It is my prayer that the church that my family and I are a part of would not be marked by prayerlessness. May what you have done, are doing, and will do excite us more than what we are doing and plan to do.
Lord, I don't know where we will be, how long we will be there, or what we will do. I don't know what tomorrow will bring. If you, Lord, will, I will pastor a church. If you, Lord, will, I will not pastor a church. I pray that wherever we are, however long we are there, and whatever we are doing, we will glorify you!
I am thankful for the opportunities you give us to glorify you at Trinity Baptist Church, Northpointe Christian School, In On Time Logistics, and in our neighborhood.
Amen.
Quotes from the book:
Because we are not sovereign over the situation in which we minister, Because we have no power to change people's heart, Because we are often in the way of instead of being part of what God is doing, Because we cannot predict the future, We have no ability on our own to achieve ministry growth or success. (39)
If hard, disciplined, faithful, well-planned, appropriately executed, and joyful ministry work does not guarantee results, then the lack of desired results should not define leadership failure. (40)
Failure is not first a matter of results; failure is always a matter of the heart. Ministry laziness and unfaithfulness are failures. (40)
Here is the danger: in local church ministry it is much, much easier to build church stuff than it is to build people. (42)
Our ministry passion and energies should be focused on doing everything we can to lead the people entrusted into our care into a deeper love for and service to Jesus so that everything we do serves this disciple-making purpose. (43)
Fruit in ministry is the result not of our wise planning and diligent execution but of the loving operation of God's rescuing and transforming grace. (48)
Prayerlessness in a leadership community is always a result of putting credit where it is not due. Your leadership community is in trouble if your leaders are more excited about a strategic planning meeting than a prayer meeting. (48)
In Created to Draw Near, Ed Welch uses the God-given role of the priest to help the reader better understand what it means to draw near to God. What many think of as an Old Testament ministry is used to show the intimate relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ.
There are many things to be commended in the book. One of the biggest things is Welch's questions and statements that challenge the reader to consider these Biblical truths would look in a person's life. Also, the points shared in the epilogue about the priesthood of all believers were insightful, especially considering this phase is often thrown around without much understanding.
One of the challenges in reading the book was staying focused while reading about the symbols, characters, and deep spiritual truth. It may be a challenge for some readers.
I was provided a complimentary copy of this book through Crossway's Blog Review Program.
I have heard it said that Christmas is about family.
I know it is about so much more than family and friends but over the last two days, but other the last two days I have been reminded of the importance of family as it relates to Christology (the doctrine of Jesus Christ) and hamartiology (the doctrine of sin).
Jesus' genealogy shows us that he was born in the flesh. "God himself embodied the same frailty and helplessness that every single one of us did at birth" (Mathis).
Today, this Sam Allbery quote came up in my Facebook memories. "Matthew's genealogy includes the outcast, scandalous, and foreigner. The family Jesus comes from anticipates the family he came for."
And finally, I heard this beautiful song entitled "Christ," which contains the entire Matthew 1 genealogy. Don't let that description cause you not to listen. The beautiful accompaniment starts very simply and as they draw nearer and nearer to Christ, the music becomes fuller and fuller. Check out the video and other genealogy resources at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/video/matthews-genealogy-never-heard-before/
The eternal Word—the golden Son of heaven—humbly and willingly took up our comparatively lowly humanity, without ceasing to be God, and entered into the created realm, coming to earth as one of us.
The meaning of Christmas is not just that he was born among us, but that he came to die for us. He came to secure for us eternal saving benefits. But there’s more.
The deepest significance of Christmas isn’t just that Jesus came to save us, but that he is who he is. The great treasure isn’t what the magi brought but the one held in Mary’s arms. The surpassing value of Christmas isn’t finally knowing ourselves to be saved but knowing the Jesus who saves us.
Father in heaven, as the psalmist wrote, there is fullness of joy and pleasures evermore at your right hand—where now sits your Son. No one satisfies our soul like you, in the person of your Son. You made us for yourself. Give our souls rest this Christmas, and forever, in Jesus. In his name, we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 24 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
The best answer to the Christmas mess... is clarity about the true miracle of Christmas: that God himself, in the person of Jesus, took a true human body and a reasonable human soul (as the ancient creed puts it) so that, fully God and fully man, he might bring us humans from our mess to himself.
Father, with Christmas now just two days away, renew our focus. May this Christmas not be a lost opportunity. As we gather with friends and family, help us to make the most of this occasion by commending and celebrating your Son. He is the great gift of Christmas. Thank you, Father, that you gave your own Son to dwell among us and die for us. And that you raised him. There would be no salvation, and no true comfort and joy, apart from your living Son. In his name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 23 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
[His swaddling cloths] are a mark of the commonness of his newborn humanity. God himself embodied the same frailty and helplessness that every single one of us did at birth.
“The arrival of the incarnated Son of God,” comments Bock, “is a study in contrast between how God did it and how we might have done it” (p 86). This indeed is the Christmas we didn’t expect. From the virgin conception, to the parents of lowly estate, to the little town, the undignified visitors, and now the manger, God does it like no human would have planned.
Father in heaven, what humility, what condescension your Son embraced to take our humanity! From the beginning, one humbling restriction after another formed and shaped his human life, as they do for ours. So, Father, here at Christmas, in remembering his infant binding, we also look to his adult binding at the cross, and we glory that he endured the chains and nails, and shed his grave cloths, for our sake. We are his, and he is ours. Draw us all the nearer to our Lord as we draw near the end of Advent and the arrival of Christmas Day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 22 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
When we enjoy God and his Son as our great possession, we are finally free to surrender our small, private enjoyments for the greater enjoyment of meeting the needs of others and pointing them to our treasure.
The call to look to the interests of others, to gladly spend and be spent, and to remember our better and abiding possession is not a call to give up true Christmas joy but the opposite—to truly taste the depths of delight that God himself came to bring.
Father, help us to forget self and embrace the greater joy that comes with self-sacrifice for the good of others. At Christmas, of all times, we need to remember that love “does not insist on its own way” (1 Corinthians 13:5). Fill us with satisfaction in your Son and your mercy, and make us instruments of your grace to others, especially those nearest to us who can be the hardest to love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 21 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
When we stay quiet about what makes us happiest, we don’t preserve our happiness. Hearts don’t stay full by us keeping the lid on them. Our joy dwindles when we stay quiet. But when our joy inspires us to expend energy to express it in understandable words—which can be hard work—our joy actually ripens, deepens, expands, and “completes the enjoyment.” Giving ourselves to the effort it takes to carefully say it (or write it) both sweetens our delight and makes it more contagious. Others can share in it when they hear about it.
Even more valuable than anything we can wrap in paper is the joy we can capture in words, whether spoken or written, to help fill others with the sweetest delight a soul can taste: Jesus’ own fullness of joy.
Father in heaven, this Christmas make our words your means of joy. Keep us from souring the great occasion of Christmas with the lingering discontent in our souls. Grant instead that the joy in us, through Christ, would rise to the level of sweet, encouraging, upbuilding, hopeful words. Make our mouths to be foundations of contagious joy in Christ this Christmas. May Jesus be honored in our words, and may the hearts of our friends and family be enriched, rather than encumbered, by the things we say. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 20 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
In the end, as cheerfully as we may give, we cannot outgive the truly cheerful Giver. Willingly, he gave his own Son (John 3:16; Romans 8:32), as he had decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion but with overflowing joy.
God loves cheerful givers because he is one—the supreme one. And every gift we give in Christ is simply an echo of what we have already received and of the immeasurable riches to come (Ephesians 2:7).
Consider three truths for Christmas spending and year-end giving:
Money is a tool that can be used for long-term Godward goals, not just short-term selfish purposes.
How we use money reveals our hearts.
Surplus and sacrifice vary from person to person.
Father in heaven, here at Christmas save us from the heart of Scrooge and make us more like you. You are truly the ultimate Giver. Christmas expresses your stunning generosity. You gave your own Son to the constraints and miseries of our humanity and world. And what love you have demonstrated in history, for all to see, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So, Father, bend our hearts to be more like yours this Christmas. May we know, as never before, the heights and depths and riches of the blessedness of giving. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 19 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
Christ did not come to put on a show or make a cameo appearance in history. He came to bring life to the dead, to rescue the perishing, to heal the sick, to destroy the works of the devil.
Christmas doesn’t ignore our many pains; neither does it bid us wallow in them. Christmas takes them seriously—more seriously than any secular celebration can—and reminds us that our God has seen our pain and heard our cries for help (as in Exodus 2:23-25; 3:7-9; 6:5), and he himself has come to deliver us.
Father in heaven, in our toughest seasons of life, it’s good to know that you’re not pressuring us to feign merriment. You see our pains. You hear our cries for help. And what greater demonstration of your care and concern could we have than that you sent your own Son into our world of sin and chaos and frustrations that first Christmas to come to our rescue? O Father, in our sufferings and stress, grant that we do not ignore the great display of your love in sending your Son to die for us. Touch our souls this Christmas. Show us that real joy is possible, even in the midst of pain. Give us a glimpse and foretaste of the glory to come. In Jesus’ healing name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 18 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
An important part of practical redemption and holiness, by the power of the gospel and God’s Spirit, is the creation, over time, of new habits—daily habits of hearing God’s voice in his word and having his ear in prayer and walking with him in glad obedience; and weekly habits of belonging to and gathering with his body in worship.
Father in heaven, how marvelous that your people waited centuries, and yet here we are, in the age of the Messiah, conscious of your grace and your grand design to visit us in the person of your Son. Rekindle our awe in this final week before Christmas. The incarnation of your Son is truly awe-inspiring. Keep us from being steamrolled by secular assumptions and patterns. Inspire in us fresh initiatives and habits to remember what’s at stake and who we celebrate in these precious days. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 17 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
God himself arrives not only to save us from sin and death but to rescue us for himself. Christ comes and will pay the ultimate price in suffering and death "that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18) and that risen he would be our exceeding joy (Psalm 43:4).
Jesus himself is the great joy that makes all the attendant joys of our salvation so great.
Father in heaven, we acknowledge that the great joy of Christmas is Christ himself, and we marvel that such joy in us is not icing on the cake or some added extra, but the live concern of God Almighty. With all your heart and soul, you see to it that the souls of your people are satisfied in your Son, to the glory of his name. Exalt him in us this Christmas. Satisfy our thirsty souls in him: not just in his salvation but in your Son himself. We receive him as the great gift of Christmas and gladly declare that we were made for him. In his precious name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 16 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
That he would send his own Son to live and mature and labor in relative obscurity for some three decades, before “going public” and gaining recognition, has something to say to us about the dignity of ordinary human life and labor—and the sanctity of slow, incremental growth and maturation.
Father, grant that we do not begrudge you the glory of our long, arduous maturation processes. As we stumble, and even flounder, in our awkward stages and hardest moments, we are tasting the growing pains that your Son knows well. And he stands ready to help us persevere until your process is complete. So we lean on Jesus our brother and the power of your Spirit, who upheld him. Show us yourself, and your Son, in our growth in favor with you and others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 15 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
Can anything good come out of Nazareth? The answer to Nathanael’s question is an emphatic yes. And not only good but the greatest. And because our God loves to produce his best in the places we least expect, perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised when he makes the forgotten places in our stories into his chosen channels of our greatest good.
Father, we believe you are sovereign over, and present in, the most modest and uninteresting aspects of our lives. Forgive our disdain for the things you have ordained for us. Banish from us any lust for the limelight that would send us running from our Nazareth, prematurely angling for Jerusalem. Father, grant us the faith and patience to live with joy in the callings you’ve given us, as we marvel at the faith and patience of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 14 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect
[Jesus] own self-humbling—which began in coming as an infant and now extends in submitting to his parents—will culminate “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).
Jesus’ highest and final submission was to heaven. Submission on earth, however proper, would not keep him from obeying his Father, dwelling in his Father’s house, or even parting from his parents for three days. His Father in heaven was the sole recipient of his absolute allegiance, even as his father and mother on earth received his real and substantial respect.
Father, we marvel at this “admirable conjunction” in your Son: fully God, yet fully man, and submissive to his human parents. Asking questions to grow in his understanding, and humbly formulating answers because you have spoken. Father, give us, like your Son, the humility of submission to the human authorities you’ve given us. May we, like him, know that the path of glad submission is the path of full and lasting joy. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 13 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
At Jesus' birth, God is making wizards into worshipers. If such sinners as these can approach the Christ and fall down in worship, so may all - so may we.
Father in heaven, as we come and we wait in this Advent season, we long to be appropriately joyful and triumphant. We do not want to be chipper or emotionally thin or triumphalistic. Nor do we want to underappreciate the glory of your own Son coming among us. Father, grant that we may be more like the magi—that we rejoice, and do so exceedingly, and with great joy. And give us, in such joy, rooted in the security of your own Son, the wherewithal to endure the waves of pain that will come or are already upon us. Great joy does not mean no sorrows. But it does mean you have prepared us for them and will keep us in them. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 12 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
The chief priests and scribes know the answer to the wise men's question "Where is the Messiah to be born?" However, they did not act on this information. Dirty shepherds leave their flocks. Pagan astrologers traverse afar. Meanwhile, the religious leaders, full of inside knowledge and Bible jargon and pat answers, don't bother to make the relatively short journey to Bethlehem. Biblical training does not guarantee that our hearts incline toward worshipping the true king.
HERE is a song by Sovereign Grace Music entitled We Will Seek You
Wise men saw a starry sign
And left their homes behind for You
We too have seen the Morning Star
And hope has filled our hearts anew
So like the wise men we will come
Father, here, almost halfway through Advent, we check our hearts. Advent is not for the mere increase of knowledge. Advent is for adoring your Son. Remove whatever barriers in us are keeping us from falling to our knees with the magi. Forbid that we would stand idly by, puffed up in our seeming knowledge, yet unwilling to come and worship. Save us from the traps of man-made religion and its pride, and give us the humble desperation of worshipers who don’t pretend to be worthy. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 11 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
God calls out for himself, and his son, worshipers from the most unexpected of places. Not only would God graciously draw Gentile sinners to himself and permit them to come near to his son, but he would provide eternal salvation for astrologer-sinners like these three men, and sinners like us too, through the willing death of that very child they came to honor.
Father in heaven, we remember that we were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from your people and strangers to your covenants, having no hope and without you in the world (Ephesians 2:12). But now, O God, in Christ Jesus, we who once were far off, like magi, have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13). Christmas is a tribute to your grace, not our deservedness. Advent marks your coming in Christ to pluck us from our sin, and only then our coming to Christ to bow the knee in worship. He came not to call the righteous but sinners. We own our rebellion and many failures and gladly bow before your Son. In his name, we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 10 in The Christmas We Didn't Expect
Christ's coming is not simply an occasion for joy but for GREAT JOY! This great joy is for all people. This great joy endures the many trials and sufferings we face in this age.
At Jesus' birth, the good news of GREAT JOY was brought to the shepherds (Luke 2:10).
And the angel said to [the shepherds], “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.
When the wise men found Jesus, they rejoiced exceedingly with GREAT JOY (Matthew 2:10).
When [the wise men] saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
At the resurrection, the women departed the grave with GREAT JOY (Matthew 28:8)
So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples
Right after the Ascension, the disciples returned to Jerusalem with GREAT JOY (Luke 24:52).
And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
Jesus is our GREAT JOY, in the manger, on the cross, and at the right hand of the Father.
Father in heaven, we thank you for the great joy of Christmas. The coming of your Son, for us and for our salvation, is indeed a cause for great joy—and he himself the greatest of all joys. Father, stir in us in this Advent season a joy in Christ that is increasingly high and wide and deep enough to endure the many trials and sufferings we face in this age. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 8 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect
Glory to God in the lowest. The angels announced this good news of great joy to shepherds, men living near the lowest rung. Jesus was not only announced to lowly shepherds, he came as a child to lowly accommodation.
"The shepherds returned, GLORIFYING & PRAISING GOD for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them." Luke 2:20
Christmas is not about the worth and goodness of humanity but the mind-blowing mercy and glory of God.
Father in heaven, make us more like these shepherds, glorifying you through our joy in you, and praising you through our words and witness in the world. We don’t want to pretend to be strong and wise and noble. We acknowledge our lowliness and marvel that you sent your Son from the heights of heavens to the lowliest of earthly accommodations to announce and accomplish this good news of great joy. In his name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 7 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect
Jesus is fully human. Advent is a ripe opportunity for reflecting on not just the easy parts of the incarnation but also the uncomfortable and challenging aspects of what it means that our Lord is fully human. Jesus took on a human body to save us.
Father, these truths are past finding out. We follow where your word leads, but we don’t pretend that our mere human experience can make full sense of it. But as we look at your unique and spectacular Son, the one God-man, we marvel. What a Savior, brother, and friend. This man is indeed worthy of our worship, and as God, he will be the focus of our happy praise forever. In his majestic name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 6 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect
God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were sinners [the Word in the Flesh] died for us (Romans 5:8). The Word became flesh and has two natures - fully human and fully divine. Because Jesus is both, we have permanent proof that Jesus "in perfect harmony with his father, is unstoppable for us."
The hypostatic union is the personal union of Jesus’ deity and humanity—or the one-person union of his two natures. It is immeasurably sweet, and awe-inspiring, to know that Jesus’ two natures are perfectly united in his one person. Jesus is not divided. He is not two people. He is one person—one Christ.
Father, we marvel at the singular person of your Son. He was fully divine, in infinite bliss with you, from all eternity, and yet he took on our humanity and subjected himself to the pains and miseries of our sin-sick world “for us and our salvation.” Your love for us in and through Christ is far beyond our finding out, but we want to know more. And what we do know is cause for great worship. We worship your Son, dear Father, and long to know and enjoy him more, and all the more in this Advent season. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 5 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect
God himself has become a man in this child and has come to rescue us. The eternal Word has become flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14).
He is God himself who became a man in this child and has come to rescue mankind. The manger is for all sinners because the cross is for all sinners. The lowliness of the manger to a life of lowly sacrifice with no place to lay his head (Luke 9:58) - and finally to the ultimate lowliness: when he was condemned unjustly as a criminal, stripped of his garments, and raised up to the most odious of public executions.
None of us are too lowly or too exalted to bow the knee this Advent.
Father in heaven, we do indeed worship your Son. We bow before him in awe and wonder that he would descend from such heights and that he would go so low, to rescue us. We thank you that he came for both peasants and kings. None of us are too lowly or too exalted to bow the knee this Advent and forever. In Jesus’ mighty and merciful name we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 4 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect
Jesus' virgin birth highlights the supernatural, shows that humanity needs saving that it cannot bring about for itself, and puts God's initiative on display.
We marvel at his peculiar glory as the God-man, fully divine and fully human, conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Father, we adore your Son. We marvel at his peculiar glory as the God-man, fully divine and fully human, conceived of the Holy Spirit, in one spectacular, pre-existent, incarnate, and now reigning person. Father, in this Advent season, open our eyes to Jesus’ glory. As we turn and admire the diamond of his majesty, work within us new heights and depths of love for your Son. In his name, we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 3 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect
The glory of Christmas is that it is not the beginning of Christ. It is a becoming. Jesus was not created. Jesus came. Jesus existed before the incarnation and before creation because of his divinity. And Jesus is before, and better than, anything in this created world.
Father in heaven, may your Son assume his rightful place in our hearts this Advent. At this most material time of the year in our materialistic society, your Son’s pre-existence reminds us of his preciousness over every party and present, over all the trees and trimmings. He is before, and better than, anything in this created world. Cause our hearts to swell in this season at the gift of the person of Christ as our greatest treasure. In his precious name, we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 2 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect
Mary's Christmas Song is about praising God because of what he has done for her. This song is a celebration of God and his ways. God humbles the strong and magnifies his strength by exalting the weak.
God is magnified in us not through human pride and confidence, nor through human wealth and strength, but through the humble heart that rejoices in.
Father, you humble the proud and exalt the humble, and we stand in awe. We recognize that the way we feel fragile, exhausted, and burdened this Advent may mean we are right where you want us. You sent your Son to help the weak and weary. Open our eyes to the weaknesses we try to ignore and cover over. In your Son, we are safe to own them and come humbly to you, to rejoice in you and your strong arms, not ours. Magnify yourself in us this season through our rejoicing in you and your Son. In his name, we pray. Amen.
Quotes from Day 1 of The Christmas We Didn't Expect
