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A Seeking Heart

Monthly Archives: December 2014

The Mysteries of Christmas

19 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Melissa G in Encouragement

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Christ child, Christmas, Christmas mysteries, contemplating Christmas, Jesus, meditating on Christmas, one of us, wonders of Christmas

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There are so many mysteries that surround the birth of Christ and often I just gloss over them. To sit and examine them seems overwhelming, so I thank Him for His birth and move along with my day. This year though, I have found myself delving into the wonder of Christ’s birth more. I have allowed myself to plunge into the questions of who, what, how and why. Scriptures from Philippians, Deuteronomy, Hebrews, and of course John have jumped out at me over the last few months and shown me a touch of what Christ gave up to become humankind’s sacrifice for sin.

When I think of His sacrifice, I usually think of the cross and Easter, but I am finding that becoming a baby must have been just as hard, if not harder. The trust that it took to be that vulnerable…I can’t even imagine. You and I have no choice about how we enter this world, but our Savior, Jesus, was not just already mature, He was eternal. He had always been. He was infinite. He was all-powerful and well, who knows what else? He’s God! Yet, He placed Himself in His Father’s hands and said, “Your will, not mine be done.” He had known God the Father for all eternity and fully trusted Him. This would have been the perfect time for the Father to kill off the Son if there was any jealousy, or strife in the Godhead, but Jesus had been with Him for all time and fully trusted Him. He knew the mind and heart of the Father. He knew there was no darkness, or dark shadow in Him (I John 1:5).Our triune Godhead loves with no envy, or strife and Jesus knew this with every fiber of His being. He trusted with every fiber, holding nothing back. He knew the Father and Spirit would cover Him, protect Him and help Him to reach His designated path. No worries, only trust.

Hebrews 10:5-7 says, “Therefore, when He [Jesus] comes into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me’; …Then I [Jesus] said, ‘Behold, I have come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God.’”

Jesus knew from the beginning of time that a body had been prepared for Him to come to this earth for us. He trusted the Godhead enough to be completely sold out to the solution and was willing to endure the extreme vulnerability that would be required of Him. I too often take for granted the miracle of birth, but Jesus intimately knew the complications that could occur. He knew everything, yet still agreed to do the will of the Father. He trusted Him completely. The choice of mother, the choice of father, the choice of living conditions, everything was placed in the Father’s hands.

I do wonder if Jesus helped pick Mary to give birth to Him, or did He leave all of the decisions up to the Father? I think He at least realized as she was growing up that this was it, the time had come.

What did He think of Joseph, the man who would be His earthly Father? Did He watch Joseph play as a boy more intensely than He watched other Hebrew boys? Did He smile when Mary first heard Joseph’s name? When the betrothal was formalized was He excited to see the first step in His “parents” life together?

I also wonder if being fully God and fully man, did Jesus know the reality of the womb? Did He want the “full experience” and give up His omniscient side during this uterine experience? Was the baby Christ fully aware even at this time of His humanity? When the birth took place did He remember that He had created this world that He had just entered? Oh, the mysteries of Christmas!

When Jesus was a child in the synagogue, did He have to work at memorizing the holy canon like other children, or was He a genius who knew everything by heart? After all, He helped write it. When He was read Deuteronomy 31:8, ‘And the LORD is the One who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear, or be dismayed,’ did He jump up with joy and yell out that He knew this to be true, or did He sit quietly knowing that His Father was proving this daily in His own little life? Oh, the mysteries of Christmas!

Then, we must look at the other side of things. What was it like in heaven with Jesus gone? It had never happened before. Was He missed? Were all of the angels with Him on earth? Were they taking shifts, or volunteering for overtime to be with Him? The Godhead itself, were the Spirit and Father lonely at times? They were ever-present with Jesus, but not in the same way. Yes, Jesus was fully God, but He was fully present on earth as well. I don’t believe we will fully understand even a fraction of the sacrifice they all made until we are in heaven. To be totally one for all of time and then, suddenly, not to be…the mysteries of Christmas are almost overwhelming at times.

I wonder… when Jesus was full of the Spirit in Luke 4, did He feel almost “normal”? Was the intensity of not being one with the Father still as strong? As Jesus later in His life would go to a “lonely place” to pray was the communication frustrating, or refreshing? Did He just want His stint on earth to be over, or was He relishing every moment? The Word shows us that He grew frustrated with humanity at times, yet still never said that we were not worth it. What a mystery!

So, this Christmas as you go about your busy days, stop and contemplate some of the mysteries of Christmas. Contemplate how our GOD came down in the form of a human. Think about how He was one of us. Remember that He had the same vulnerabilities, the same defenselessness and the same struggles and chose to go through it for us. He chose to trust all of Himself into the hands of the Father. He knew He would be taken care of. He knew He would be safe in His arms. He knew His will was worth any struggle. He trusted fully. What a mystery! May we do the same.

Seeking Hearts Ministries

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A Christmas Poem

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Melissa G in Encouragement

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Christmas poem, Helen Steiner Rice, light, light of the world

“I Am the Light of the World”

    A poem by Helen Steiner Rice

 O Father, up in heaven,

We have wandered far away

       From the holy little Christ child

Who was born on Christmas day,

And the promise of salvation

That God promised when Christ died.

We have often vaguely questioned,

Even doubted and denied…

We’ve forgotten why God sent us

Jesus Christ, His only Son,

And in arrogance and ignorance

It’s our will, not Thine, be done…

O, forgive us our transgressions

And stir our souls within

And make us ever conscious

That there is no joy in sin

And shed Thy light upon us

As Christmas comes again

So we may strive for peace on earth

And goodwill among men…

And, God, in Thy great wisdom,

Thy mercy, and Thy love,

Endow man with the virtue

That we have so little of…

For unless we have humility

In ourselves and in our nation,

We are vain and selfish puppets

In a world of automation,

And with no God to follow

But the false ones we create,

We become the heartless victims

Of a Godless nation’s fate…

O, give us ears to hear Thee

And give us eyes to see,

So we may once more seek Thee

In true humility.

Please visit us at: Seeking Hearts Ministries

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Truths About Freedom

05 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Melissa G in Encouragement

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chains, fetters, free indeed, freedom, freedom in Christ, liberty, old wounds, slavery

honeybee 3

So, there I was Sunday morning singing: “My chains are gone. I’ve been set free. My God my Savior has ransomed me…” You all know the song and chances are you are singing along by now. I must confess though, I’m a little tired of it. It’s been around for years now and at one convention when it was the new and upcoming worship song, I bet my husband and I sat through five renditions of it…no joke. Sometimes you can only take so much of a good thing. On this particular Sunday though, I was sitting by my oldest who usual attends college in another area. He was harmonizing so beautifully and it really made me hear it again in a fresh way. Tears came to my eyes as I realized that my chains really were gone. I knew without a doubt that I was free in Christ! I knew that He paid the price for my chains to be gone completely and I felt as light as a bird. I was free!

 But, did you see me Sunday night? Did you see me skulking in the corner putting my chains back on? Throughout the day I must have decided that I liked the heaviness of them. Somehow, I must have come to the conclusion that my fetters had not chafed my skin enough. Between the two Sunday services, I re-shackled myself! I snuck away and decided to put the chains of unforgiveness back on; they were as heavy and cumbersome as ever. I guess I decided I liked the weight. I also fastened back the grip of arrogance. You know, sitting and deciding what others should be doing. Oh, and did you see that I took that old habit of complaining and decided to wear it like a cloak once again? The heaviness of it almost broke me, but it was familiar. I must really like the familiar.

What in the world?! Am I free, or not? Are my chains really gone, or was it a delusion? Where is the sustaining power of freedom? Where are these shackles coming from? The apostle Paul proclaims in I Corinthians 10:1, “Am I not free?!” and I find myself asking the same.

The Word tells us in Galatians 5:1, “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” This verse tells me that I’m not the only one who has put their chains back on after finding freedom. The people of Galatia apparently had the same issue. Once again though, I must ask myself the question, “How do I stop?” Scripture tells me that Christ wants me to be free, so there must be a way. In John 8:32, I am reminded that the “truth will make you free.” So, what is the truth about freedom?

Leviticus 26:13 says, “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom.” I love where it says that God “enabled us to live in freedom.” The truth is that living in freedom is possible through the enabling of Christ. After all, “all things are possible through Him”, right? So, we discover God enables us to live in freedom. It’s so encouraging to know He understands we cannot do this without Him!

  Isaiah 61:1 says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners;” This Scripture is talking about Jesus. It says clearly that Jesus came to “proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners.” The truth is that Christ did not come to shackle us with expectations and burdens. He came to set us free from those expectations and burdens. Why do we keep forgetting what Jesus says in Matthew, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light”? Jesus came for freedom, not burdens!

Jeremiah 34:17 says, “Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed Me by proclaiming freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. I hereby proclaim freedom for you”—⌊this is⌋ the LORD’s declaration—“to the sword, to plague, and to famine…” Wow! This Scripture tells us that the Lord Himself proclaims freedom over us because we wouldn’t do it for ourselves. He has given us freedom over the sword, plague and the famine. I don’t know about you, but I need freedom from a famine right now. I have been in a desert for some time simply going from “strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7). I need the chains of my famine to be gone and I see that in the book of Jeremiah the truth is the Lord has already proclaimed it!

  I now know that God has given me freedom and declared liberty over every part of my life, but how do I enjoy that freedom? What must happen?

II Corinthians 3:17 says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” So, the truth is we must be where His Spirit is to enjoy freedom. When we have trusted Christ as Savior, His Spirit is inside of us already, so we must be ever-listening, ever-conscious and ever-submitting to His presence. That’s true freedom. No worries about others; He has it handled. No concerns over daily strife; He has that as well. No frustrations, because He is not surprised. That’s peace. That’s freedom. Life in general often causes us to forget this, but we can rest assured that when we are where we are supposed to be, (in God’s presence), there is freedom. The truth is, if we are not free, we are not in the right place.

We also need to be aware that Galatians 2:4 gives us a clear warning. It says, “This issue arose because of false brothers smuggled in, who came in secretly to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us.” The truth is I have an enemy who wants my freedom. He hates that I am free. He will use whatever means necessary (including other people) to steal my freedom. So, I must remember that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12). The truth is I need to be so focused on Christ that others around me do not steal my freedom.

II Peter 2:19 is another great reminder. It says, “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.” I must remember the truth that I am only enslaved to whatever defeats me. Nothing is worth that. Nothing is worth re-shackling myself in those chains, no matter how familiar it may feel. If I am being defeated, I am not free.

So, now it’s our choice. We now know that our freedom depends on allowing God to enable us to live in the liberty that He has given to us. We know that we are indeed free in Christ because God Himself has proclaimed it and we also know that “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” May we truly live in that freedom. May we also remember that our enemy is after our freedom and when we are defeated by anything we are chained to it, just like a prisoner. And, the next time we sing “My chains are gone, I’ve been made free…” may it be a reminder of what God has already done in our lives. May it remind us of what used to be and not what still needs to happen. May the freedom of Christ encompass our lives in such a way that the weight and scars of old chains are long forgotten.

The truth is God has proclaimed our freedom. Let’s live it!

Seeking Hearts Ministries

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