Precious in His Eyes

Our house is getting more Christmas-y. The outside decorations and lights adorn the front yard. Garland drapes from the banisters. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

Now it's time to hang the ornaments on the tree.

In reflecting on those ornaments, I realized why I enjoy decorating the tree. It's because each ornament has a memory attached to it.

In most cases, I can recall where and when my wife and I bought a particular ornament, or when we received it as a gift. The ornaments that we bought for our children to enjoy bring a smile to my face, as do the ornaments that were made for us by our children.

I also am particular about where each ornament is hung, much to the irritation of my wife and kids. Yes, I have been known to adjust ornaments that others have placed on the tree. My disclaimer is that I just want the ornaments to be seen at their best, where they best fit in.

Each ornament has its own precious nature, which is completely unattached to its monetary value, its outward appearance, or whether or not it does anything special.

In that regard, you and I are like precious ornaments in the eyes of God.

He remembers how you were brought into being, knit together in the warmth and safety of your mother's womb.

He places you with care in just the right spot, the place where you fill what would otherwise be an empty space, the place where you can be at your best.

The value He places on you is not based on your income, your abilities, or your looks.

You are precious to God because He chooses to deem you precious, not because you have impressed Him.

We call that grace. We call that perfect love. He delights in you simply because that is His nature.

Keep that in mind in this holy season of Christmas, that God so loved you that He gave His one and only Son. As the angel told the shepherds, "Unto you is born in the city of David a Savior, Christ the Lord."

A blessed Christmas to y'all in the name of Jesus.

The Prayer of ... Hezekiah

Hezekiah Prays in the Temple

"David and Goliath." That phrase calls to mind all manner of thoughts: facing down one's giants, trusting in the Lord for victory, or even Jesus' battle with Satan fought on Good Friday. It might even remind some of us of the Claymation television show, "Davey and Goliath," which featured a young boy and his dog and taught biblical truths to youngsters in the 1960's and 70's.

How about the phrase "Hezekiah and Sennacherib"? Any thoughts? (If not, you can read about them in 2 Kings 18 & 19.)

An Historic Showdown
Hezekiah and Sennacherib had one of the greatest showdowns in biblical history, even though the two of them never met on the battlefield.

But they did battle.

Sennacherib was the king of the Assyrian Empire, which made a habit of swallowing up other nations. They had done that to the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. Now, twenty years later, Sennacherib wants to do the same to the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

He sends emissaries to Jerusalem to dispirit its inhabitants by causing them to doubt their God's power to protect them. They call out, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’

"Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

In response to this challenge, what does Hezekiah do? He doesn't rally the troops. He doesn't plan an attack. He doesn't seek an alliance against Assyria.

Instead, he goes to the temple and prays.

And this is his prayer: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

“It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.”

A Lesson in Prayer
Hezekiah's prayer is based on the Lord's name being kept holy, in accordance with the Second Commandment, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God." Sennacherib has insulted the Lord's name and honor by equating Him with the false gods of other nations, gods made of wood and stone. By delivering Jerusalem from Sennacherib, the Lord will prove to those other nations and kingdoms that He alone is the true God.

Hezekiah doesn't make the prayer about him or his kingdom. He makes it about the Lord and His glory.

I think we can take a lesson from that when we pray for the Lord to help us in times of trouble, distress, or need. Rather than asking for what we think will be best, what if we were to simply pray that the Lord be glorified in how He answers our prayer? That His name would be made great. That people would know that He alone is God.

Certainly pray for healing, pray for safety, pray for a job, pray for your ministry efforts. But pray that those blessings would bring glory to the Lord. And when the Lord gives those blessings, unabashedly and boldly give Him the credit. Make His name great!

Oh, by the way, the Lord did answer Hezekiah's prayer. He sent an angel to kill 185,000 Assyrian soldiers who were camped outside the gates of Jerusalem. As a result, Sennacherib broke camp, withdrew to his capital city, Nineveh, and was later killed by his own sons.

To God Alone the Glory!

Scattering Seeds of Grace

In 722 BC, the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel after a three year siege of its capital city, Samaria.

The Assyrian practice was to deport the people of a conquered territory to other corners of their empire and repopulate that evacuated territory with foreigners.

So the Old Testament tribes that had inhabited the Northern Kingdom were relocated, lost their identity and are now lost to history.

The foreigners who were relocated to the Holy Land brought their pagan worship practices with them. They built their altars and offered their sacrifices to their foreign gods.

This displeased the God of Israel as His Holy Land was being violated by idolatry. So he punished these relocated foreigners.

They cried out to the Assyrian king for help. In response, a priest of the God of Israel was drafted to return to Israel and teach these foreigners how to worship God properly.

I don't suspect that this priest relished his assignment. True, he was able to return to his homeland. But now it was occupied by foreigners who were not at all like him.

Nevertheless, he did his job. No doubt he not only taught them the way to worship the God of Israel, but also why they ought to worship Him.

He would teach the story of creation and God's love for His first children, even after they rebelled against Him.

He would teach about God's judgment of a wicked world but His mercy for a man named Noah.

He would teach them about the covenant that God established with Abraham, the promise of land that God swore to give to Abraham's descendants.

He would teach that God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt through the leadership of Moses and how He brought them into the Holy Land under the leadership of Joshua.

This priest's teaching yielded mixed results. Although the foreigners began to worship the true God, they continued their pagan worship practices as well. Nice try, nameless priest. (2 Kings 17)

Fast forward 750 years to the ministry of Jesus. The descendants of those ancient foreigners became known as Samaritans. By Jesus' time they had long forsaken their idolatrous ways. They worshiped God according to the teachings of Moses and were eager for the coming of the Messiah.

Jesus spent time in conversation with one of these Samaritans, a woman, who came to realize that Jesus was more than a prophet. He was, in fact, the Messiah she was waiting for. She became her town's first evangelist and invited her neighbors to see this Jesus. (John 4)

When Jesus healed a group of lepers, only one came back to Him, praising God and offering his thanks to Jesus. That one was a Samaritan. (Luke 17)

Is it too far a stretch to think that the seeds of grace sown by a nameless priest, added to and watered by others over the generations, took root and bore fruit 750 years later? I don't think that's a stretch at all.

As Greg Finke writes in his book Joining Jesus on His Mission, "Jesus speaks of little seeds through which God grows mighty works. Our job is not the mighty works; our job is the little seeds."

A nameless priest planted little seeds 700 years before Jesus was born. God grew the mighty works.

What seeds can you plant today?

Why Jesus Wants Us To Love Our Enemies

I have always loved the story of Naaman (2 Kings 5).

It's the story of the commander of the Syrian army who is afflicted with leprosy. He has a servant girl in his household who had been taken captive during a Syrian raid on the nation of Israel. She advises that Naaman consult the prophet Elisha in Israel to be cured of his leprosy.

Naaman pursues that course and travels to Israel. When Elisha, through a messenger, prescribes a series of seven baths in the Jordan River, Naaman is enraged and ready to head home. He had expected a personal audience with the esteemed prophet and some serious hocus-pocus. Bathing in the waters of the Jordan was beneath him.

However, the servants with him urge Naaman to follow the prophet's instructions. He does so and is cured of his leprosy.

I love this story because it's a pointer to the power of the waters of Holy Baptism -- water wedded to the Word of God works a miracle.

I love this story because it celebrates the nameless heroes of the faith -- the servant girl and the other servant who urged Naaman to consult and listen to Elisha.

I also love this story because it puts flesh and blood on the teaching of Jesus that we are to love our enemies.

This servant girl had no reason whatsoever to want to help Naaman. He and his soldiers had kidnaped her from her home and family. She was a slave in his household, living in a foreign land. Naaman was her enemy and the enemy of her people.

Nevertheless, she wants good for Naaman. She helps him to be cured of a terrible affliction. She shows love for her enemy.

As a result of his cure, Naaman becomes a believer in the God of Israel. He even takes soil from Israel back to Syria so he can erect an altar to the true God on holy ground.

One could ask, if Naaman became a believer in the Lord, would he also become sympathetic toward His people? Would his newfound faith influence how he advised the Syrian king when it came to Israel?

If so, the big picture of this story is that loving one's enemies, which is such an unnatural thing to do, can lead to those enemies becoming believers in the Lord and allies of His people.

Truly a story to be loved.

Marching as to War -- Against Whom?

My sister asked me why we don't sing some of the old standard hymns in church anymore. We sang them years ago. Why not now? One title she mentioned as an example was "Onward, Christian Soldiers."

I replied that hymns are generally chosen to fit the theme of the worship service, not just because we haven't sung them for awhile.

But then I commented specifically on her example of "Onward, Christian Soldiers." I told her that I personally don't like the militaristic tone of the hymn as it urges us to go "marching as to war."

Don't mistake what I am saying. I believe that the Church on earth is the Church Militant, the Church in battle. I likewise believe in the reality of spiritual warfare and that the Church has an enemy whose every effort is bent on the Church's destruction.

Nevertheless, I also guard strongly against any notion, thought, or inkling that people are to be treated like the enemy. I am concerned that an overly militaristic fervor might have us targeting the wrong foe.

The enemy is not the LGBTQ community. The enemy is not pornographers and sex peddlers. The enemy is not radical atheists. The enemy is not street gangs. In short, the enemy is not people.

St. Paul reminds us that the Church's struggle is against spiritual forces of evil, not against flesh and blood.

Those who have not known the love of God, or worse, have rejected it, are not the ones we are to war against. They are Prisoners of War, victims of the Church's true enemy, Satan.

Those who stand opposed to Jesus are still people for whom Jesus died. They are still people that Jesus tells us to love, just as He loves them.

In a wayward culture that is drifting further away from the truth of God's Word and the practice of God's love, the Church needs more than ever to hold fast to the teachings of Jesus. We need to be ready at all times to speak a massive amount of God's truth, delivered with a mega-dose of God's love.

But we need to regard that same wayward culture as our mission field, not our battlefield. The Church's warfare is always spiritual, and the battles are best fought not on Twitter nor on Facebook, but on our knees.

A Lesson from King Solomon

King Solomon, the son of David, was a golden boy. Ruling a kingdom of unrivaled peace, wealth, and prosperity. World leaders coming to Jerusalem to hear Solomon's wisdom and to enter into lucrative trade agreements. In short, he had it ALL!

We are told in 1 Kings 11, "King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women."

That became his downfall, and the downfall of his nation.

These foreign women brought with them their foreign gods.

Solomon catered to his wives, established places of worship for their gods, and himself became an idolater.

As a result the Golden Era of Israel would end with Solomon and his kingdom would be torn in two following his death.

Let's take a lesson from King Solomon. That lesson is: the Lord asks one thing of us -- faithfulness.

Revelation 2:10 plainly states, "Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life."

We are not told that we have to earn the favor of our Lord. That favor is offered freely as a gift of divine grace, with no strings attached. All that is asked of us is that we receive the gift and remain faithful.

Just as a husband desires his wife's faithful love, so the Lord Jesus asks the same of His bride, the Church.

So can we be surprised at the decline of the Church at large in our culture when 1) our culture is drifting away from God in general and 2) the Church is drifting away from her Bridegroom, Jesus.

One can suspect that there is a "cause and effect" relationship between 1 and 2. And I would argue that the Church is the cause.

I offer for consideration a simple truth: As goes the Church, so goes the nation.

When the Church's faithful presence and proclamation decline, when the salt loses its saltiness and the lamp gets hidden, the culture cannot help but become darker and tasteless.

We in the Church bemoan the decline of the culture or the country. The sad truth is that it's not solely the culture's fault.

More often than not, it's because the Church has quit being the Church. We have lost our first love. We, like Solomon, have loved what is foreign.

In the Arena

On April 23, 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered an address at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, entitled "Citizenship in a Republic."

Early in his address was a passage that is referred to as "The Man in the Arena."

It begins: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly.

"It is not the critic who counts."

The job of the critic is to critique, even to criticize. We often call it being the "Monday morning quarterback."

Whether the arena is sports, art, food, or movies, the critic's job is always the same: make careful observations and render his or her opinion of the performance.

Roosevelt would remind us, however, that it is not the critic who counts, but the person in the arena itself.

Jesus was always the person in the arena.

He enters the home of a prominent Pharisee on a Sabbath Day and all eyes are on Him to see if He will dare to heal a man in violation of Sabbath laws (Luke 14:1-6).

The crowd brings before Him a woman caught in adultery to see if he will uphold the law and consent to her being stoned to death for her sin (John 8:1-11).

The religious leaders complain that Jesus doesn't teach His followers to follow the Jewish purification rituals (Mark 7:1-8).

When the crowd in the Nazareth synagogue takes issue with Jesus' assertion that He is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, they attempt to toss Him over a cliff at the edge of the city (Luke 4:16-30).

Jesus was always the person in the arena. He always had critical eyes focused on Him.

So do His followers.

If you as a follower of Jesus have friends, neighbors, relatives, or co-workers who are not followers of Jesus, be assured that you have critical eyes focused on you.

People who don't follow Jesus watch His followers to see how we will respond and react to the events in our lives.

Do we complain about the boss? Do we curse at the computer or copy machine? Do we speak disrespectfully of our spouse? Do we grouse about our children? Do we gossip about the next door neighbor? Do we lie or cheat or steal?

We become the gauge by which people evaluate Jesus and those who claim to follow Him.

As it was with Jesus, so it is with us. We are always in the arena.

Jesus didn't win friends when in the arena. His compassion for the hurting and disregard for religious rules and traditions earned Him the hatred of His critics.

Likewise, Jesus' followers, those who choose compassion over complaint, mercy over malice, and right over wrong, might earn the contempt of their critics.

But they should know what Jesus and Teddy Roosevelt also knew. It is not the critic who counts. Rather, it is the person in the arena.

What are your arenas? And how will you conduct yourself in those arenas? The critics are watching.