A mother is the most important person on earth.
She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral.
She need not.
She has built something more magnificent than any Cathedral –
a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body.
[Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty]
The book of Daniel was written during the Babylonian captivity. Nebuchadnezzar had assaulted Judah, destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and exiled the people of Judah to Babylon. Jeremiah had prophesized that Jerusalem’s desolation would last seventy years and Daniel realized that their time of exile was nearly complete. After fasting, donning sackcloth, and covering himself with ashes, Daniel passionately prayed and pled with God to return His people to their land.
Found in Daniel 9, his prayer starts with worship and praise but quickly moves into confession—admitting that the people were rebellious and disobedient and had ignored God’s prophets, abandoned his word, and disregarded his commandments. Admitting that they’d been warned time and time again, He acknowledges the justice of Jerusalem’s desolation and the righteousness of God’s severe judgment. He concludes with a plea to God to forgive them and restore Judah and Jerusalem.
Today, the first Thursday in May, is the National Day of Prayer, and many of us will meet in front of courthouses or in houses of worship and pray for our nation. If there ever was a time our nation needs prayer, it is now! This year’s theme is “Hear us…Forgive us…Heal us! For the Glory of Your Great Name” and is taken from Daniel 9:19. Today’s prayer was written by Anne Graham Lotz and, like Daniel’s prayer, clearly acknowledges the sins of our nation’s people. I have included just a few of the highlights (actually our low points) of her prayer, but I urge you to read and pray the entire prayer for yourselves.
We confess our foolishness of denying You as the one, true, living God, our Creator to whom we are accountable, living as though our lives are a cosmic accident with no eternal significance, purpose or meaning. … We confess we no longer fear You, and thus we have not even the beginning of wisdom with which to handle the vast knowledge we possess. … We confess our arrogance and pride that has led us to think we are sufficient in ourselves. … We confess to believing that the prosperity of our nation has been great because we are great while refusing to acknowledge that all blessings come from Your hand. … We confess that we have allowed the material blessings You have given us to deceive us into thinking we don’t need You. … We confess that we live as though material wealth and prosperity will bring happiness. [Anne Graham Lotz]
Unlike Judah, our nation is not yet in ruins and we haven’t been taken captive by a pagan army, but not much else is very different. Have we learned nothing in over 2,500 years? What will it take for God to get our attention? We still put ourselves before God, commit crimes against both God and people, defy and disobey our Lord, and have turned away from His word. We should be ashamed. The sole hope for us and our nation is found in God. Today’s prayer ends with these words:
Therefore, we turn to You with tears of shame and a heart of fear for the judgment we are provoking. We repent of our sin. Please, God of Our Fathers, do not back away from us. Do not remove Your hand of blessing on us. As we return to You with humility…With sincerity…Out of necessity…With a desperate sense of urgency. Please! Return to us! Hear our prayer. Forgive our sin. Heal our land. … For the Glory of Your Great Name…JESUS. [Anne Graham Lotz]
Lord have mercy upon us!
Since Jews are prohibited from possessing any food products containing leavening (chametz) during Passover, a Muslim Arab-Israeli man in Abu Ghosh now owns most of the bread, pastries and beer in Israel. As they have for many years, Israel’s two chief rabbis sold all of the leaven food from state-owned companies, the prison system, and the national emergency stores to him. He symbolically purchased the chametz for the duration of Passover by making a small down payment. Having promised to pay an enormous sum at the end of Passover, at week’s end he will tell the rabbis that he can’t pay up, the deal will be canceled, his down payment returned, and Israel again will own its yeast-laden products. Here in the U.S., some Jewish families “sell” their chametz to non-Jewish friends and then put the food in an out-of-the way cupboard. Technically, while still on their property, it’s not really theirs because they’ve “leased” the cupboard to the Gentile buyer. After Passover, the lease expires and the food is sold back to its original owner. While this may circumvent the law, I’m not sure it’s what God had in mind when He commanded, “There must be no yeast bread or any yeast at all found within the borders of your land during this time.” [Exodus 13:7]
Finding ingenious ways to sidestep rules and regulations is not limited to Judaism; we all do it. Technically, we’re not texting while driving—we’re texting while stopping at a red light! In principle, the dog is on a leash even when he’s dragging it on the ground or carrying it in his mouth. In 2007, a Minnesota bar got around the smoking ban by using a technicality in the law that allowed actors to smoke in their roles. The bar announced their staging of a continuous improvisational play. Every customer of the bar would be an actor taking a role in the “play” and, therefore, smoking was permitted! Teenagers have a special knack for getting around parental and school rules. It’s part of their make-up to think outside the box to outwit authority. Mankind will find every technicality, loophole, ambiguity, and grey area to circumvent laws and regulations.
Imagine God’s frustration while watching his children sidestep and disobey His law. A covenant of law requires complete obedience and, frankly, try as we might, we just can’t make the cut. We see rules and regulations as an infringement and prohibitions seem to increase our desire to do just that thing. Fortunately, rather than a covenant of law, Christians are under a covenant of grace and freed from the Old Testament rules and regulations. In grace, our salvation doesn’t come from following rules or doing the right thing and God accepts the less than perfect. It is our sincere belief rather than our faultless behavior that saves us. We have no need for sidestepping, semantics, and technicalities because obedience to rules is not what gives us eternal life and sin won’t cause us to lose it. Grace, however, is not license to sin; it is a license to live as God intended and follow the spirit of His law through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Carrying posters, displaying bumper stickers, wearing t-shirts, or hash tagging with the words, “He’s not my president!” changes absolutely nothing. After today, he is. How we voted, who got the popular vote, whether we’re happy or outraged, whether we have faith in him or not makes no difference. This is what we have for the next four years.
Putting politics aside, consider another head of state in whom many don’t believe—Jesus. Just as our new president’s reign is not limited to those who voted for him, Jesus’s dominion is not limited to Christians. He is the savior promised by God in the Old Testament—not just for Jews but for all of mankind. Descending from the royal line of David, Jesus was declared king at his birth. The fact that people rejected his kingship with His crucifixion and continue to deny Him today doesn’t mean He’s not in His rightful place of majesty and power. Believers and non-believers alike are all subjects in His kingdom. It is God’s world—He is the supreme power, ruler and authority!
In the political arena, we have elections and can voice our approval or disapproval of government at the polls. In four years’ time, there may be an entirely different group of people protesting a change in political regime. Moreover, in our democracy, to some extent, Congress and the Supreme Court can thwart a president’s plans and limit his reach. Things are much different in in God’s Kingdom. He has no term limits—the length of His reign has nothing to do with our belief or approval. It was His kingdom in the beginning, is now and forevermore will be. His plans can’t be thwarted nor His power lessened. No one and nothing can stop or impeach our omnipotent God Almighty. In Him is all power and authority.
These last few months, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of passion on both sides of the political fence with people trying to convince one another of the legitimacy or illegitimacy of our new president. Wouldn’t it be nice to see that sort of passion devoted to furthering the cause of the one true ruler of the universe? In the long run, whether or not we consider him our president is of little consequence—the identity of our King, however, is of eternal consequence. God rules all mankind and not just those who believe in Him. Whether or not we consider Jesus our King, one day we all will answer to Him!
For the past five weeks, I’ve been writing about the candles on an Advent wreath. If not in our churches, then in our hearts, the candles of hope, love, joy and peace were lit to remind us of the gifts brought to us by Jesus’ birth. Each week, as we drew closer to our Savior’s birth, another candle was lit. Today’s candle is the Christmas candle. Unlike the colored candles throughout Advent, today’s candle is white and represents the spotless Lamb of God. The light from this candle and the others surrounding it remind us that Jesus is the light of the world.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the gift of Christmas. May we never forget that you, the spotless lamb, came into the world to die so that we, soiled sinners all, could have life! Thank you for your gifts of hope, love, joy, peace and salvation.
Let me not wrap, stack, box, bag, tie, tag, bundle, seal, keep Christmas. Christmas kept is liable to mold. Let me give Christmas away, unwrapped, by exuberant armfuls. Let me share, dance, live Christmas unpretentiously, merrily, responsibly with overflowing hands, tireless steps and sparkling eyes. Christmas given away will stay fresh—even until it comes again. [Linda Felver]
Devotions of the Heart 