[Here’s some Advent meat and vegetables to go with the sugar cookies.]
We may sing, “All is calm, all is bright,” to celebrate Christmas, but Christmas is really D-day… the day the rescue mission of God launched into the created world. Christmas marks the day God got Himself born into our created world. Bethlehem was His beachhead. By getting Himself born as a baby, He got Himself into the reality of the created world… and with a purpose.
On one level a baby being born and placed in a manger is calming and beautiful. But to the forces of hell, it was a strategic strike marking the beginning of their end. They knew it was coming. It had been foretold from of old. They just couldn’t stop it. God was rescuing the world.
And He invites us to join Him.
You see, while it all began on Christmas, and was established as an irrevocable conclusion at the cross and empty tomb, the rescue mission of God is still very much in play right now. The yeast is still spreading throughout the loaf. The Good News of God is still making its way deeper into the neighborhoods of the world. It has started. But it is not done.
Have you noticed the unrest in Syria, Ferguson, your own community, your own family? They are all signals that the rescue mission of God is still pressing forward and that the forces of hell are still pressing back… hard. But it won’t work.
Why? [At this point you will expect the answer to be, “Because of Jesus.” And that is the first and biggest part of the answer. But the full answer for why the forces of hell won’t win in places as widespread as Syria or St. Louis or your own home is because of people of God like you. Read on.]
God is rescuing the world… through people. God began rescuing the world through a person… Jesus. He continues rescuing the world through people… people like us who now have Jesus living in us.
Wherever the forces of hell still press back, the people of God are invited to be counter-forces of love, joy, peace and Good News. We are not only beneficiaries of God’s rescue mission, we are agents of it. We don’t get rescued and then sent to the sideline to wait for Heaven. We are not only saved from sin, death and the devil; but we are savedfor joining the rescue mission of God.
Wherever peace will prevail, wherever love and joy will reemerge, wherever forgiveness begins to trump vengeance, know this, men or women of God are somewhere in the middle of it joining Jesus.
It began at Christmas… but it continues today.
What will you be in the middle of today with Jesus?