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Cathedrals and crosses come near

"So I will come near to you for judgment. ...but do not fear me," says the Lord Almighty" (Malachi 3:5 NIV).

"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded" (James 4:8 NIV).

"That'll make a great picture!" said passerby after passerby as they stopped to see where my camera pointed.

"Yeah, thanks." I replied, as I positioned my camera on its tripod for the right angle, set the timer, and prepared to jump into the picture before the shutter fired. With the wind trying to blow over the tripod and the pedestrian traffic, it took a lot of determination to get the best shot.

Each year after Christmas I try to get away on a study break. I do my best to focus on God through a time of resting, reading, writing, and reflecting. This year, one of our friends let us use their beach condo for a week. What a blessing!

On my daily walks along the beach I discovered a place underneath an ocean pier that became a cathedral of worship for me. As the surf crashed and the sun glittered off the waves, it seemed as if creation itself were worshiping. I looked at the criss-crossing beams overhead and imagined the archways formed by the flying buttresses of Notre Dame.

"Lord, this is your cathedral and I am here to worship." I whispered.

So, every day I headed down the beach to this oceanside cathedral. As I prayed and pondered, I began to see signs of God everywhere I looked. One day, I gazed down the length of the pier and I saw the outline of the cross gleaming in the sunlight as if from down a long, dark tunnel.

"I've got to have a photo of that." I thought to myself.

On the last day of our stay, before I loaded up the camera gear for my final trek down to the pier, I read the daily entry from the One Year Bible for December 31st. It offered the last chapters from Malachi, Revelation, Psalms, and Proverbs. All of these passages spoke volumes to me, but as is often the case the Holy Spirit seemed to underline one particular phrase. It was the phrase above from Malachi: "I will come near to you for judgment."

It occurred to me that God didn't judge us from afar. No, He came near, touching us, examining us, cleansing us, like a mother washing behind the ears of her child. He came nearer still and took our sins upon Himself, becoming dirty like us, so that we might become clean like Him. All of God's judgment was spent on the cross.

After my quiet time, I headed down the beach with tripod and camera in hand. I set up for the photo seen above, aiming down the length of the pier capturing the cross-like image shining in the distance. It wasn't until I got back to the room and downloaded the pier photos to my laptop that I noticed that there was not only a cross in the distance, but one near my feet as well!

"Lord, you've brought the cross much closer than I realized." I prayed, after noticing the shadow of a cross-like image falling across the sand at my feet in the foreground of the photo. God had surprised me with that second cross. He reminded me that the cross is both behind me and before me. It's nearer than we think.

I'm glad that God is always faithful to come near to us when we draw near to Him. He waits in unexpected places that become like cathedrals when we pause to worship Him.

Hitching up for a holiday baptism

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" (Acts 8:36 NIV).

I helped hitch up our baptism trailer this morning.

We have a portable baptistry stored in a trailer. We are one of three churches that went in together to share the cost of owning a portable baptistry and a trailer. We decided from the start that we would share this with any new church that needed it. After all, we're in this together.

So, when Pastor Don Brown from the Village Church at Holly Springs called asking to borrow our baptistry, we were thrilled to do so. Pastor Don planted a church near Raleigh that meets at Holly Springs Elementary School. They have some new believers that want to get baptized during the holidays. I think that's a wonderful idea.

This morning I met Pastor Don and his friend Anthony at the CCS parking lot. We got the baptism trailer hitched up and I handed over the keys.

"Go get some people wet for Jesus!" I shouted, as we parted ways.

They'll have no excuse now that the water has traveled to them "along the road." 

Wisemen on the deck

"On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh" (Matthew 2:11 NIV).

Last Sunday when I returned from church I found the three wisemen from our mantle's nativity scene on my deck. My kids conspired to have them meet me upon my return. I began laughing before I even got my keys out of the ignition.

You see, that morning I had preached from Matthew chapter two. I had explained that we need to get back to what the Bible says about Christmas.

"For instance," I explained. "We don't even get our nativity scenes right. The Magi didn't visit baby Jesus in a stable. That was the shepherds. They visited the "child" Jesus in a "house." If we want to get our story straight, we should put the wisemen out on the deck traveling towards the mantle."

And so, I returned home to find our three porcelain figurines waiting for me outside. I'm not complaining though. At least my family was listening.

I hope my church family is listening too. We've challenged one another to get back to the true meaning of Christmas. We're challenging one another to join the "Advent Conpiracy" by going against the flow of our consumer culture by "Worshipping More, Spending Less, Giving More and Loving All.

The Magi brought three gifts, but the three gifts that God gave through the gift of His son are the real key to understanding Christmas.

Jesus offers a sacrificial gift. He left heaven to become human. He left a heavenly throne for a cattle trough. He left angelic praise for human spite. He died as a sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus offers a relational gift. He didn't send money. He came Himself. He didn't send an emissary. He became a woman's son. He become a brother, a friend. He came to us.

Jesus offers an incarnational gift. He is Immanuel... God with us. He is God made flesh for us. And He offers to live in us so that we too are united with our God.

Getting back to  the Bible at Christmas is more than just getting your nativity scene right, it's about giving the way Jesus did. Will you join my family as we determine to give sacrificially, relationally, and incarnationally (being the body of Christ) this Christmas?

Which king to worship?

"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him'" (Matthew 2:1-2 NIV).

"Worship is pulling our affections off our idols and putting them on God" (Tim Keller).

This Christmas I've asked my family and our church to pull the emphasis off of the glitzy, chaotic, spending frenzy that Christmas has become and to get back to what it should really be about -- worshiping King Jesus.

When the Magi traveled from the East looking for the one "born King of the Jews," they first encountered His counterfeit, the usurper Herod the Great. This half-Jew, half-Imudean took the throne that never belonged to him and demanded the worship of a people that belonged to God. He even "super-sized" the Jewish Temple to move the focus from God to his own "greatness."

I'm sure the Magi were tempted by the contrast between the gold and glamour of Herod's palace and the humble house that they found in Bethlehem. But their pursuit for the true king won out. They followed the star. They were overjoyed as they fell on their faces, worshiped, and presented their treasures to Jesus.

We still have a choice between worshiping King Herod or King Jesus. We have to pull our affections off of one and put them on the Other.

This Christmas, why don't you join the Advent Conspiracy? Instead of giving presents, lets ask for more of His Presence. I'd rather give my kids Jesus, wouldn't you?

Who gets the credit?

"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen" (Matthew 6:13 KJV).

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit" (President Harry Truman).

I'm a first born and as such, I've always struggled with wanting the lime light. I enjoy being the center of attention. I want the applause. I want the trophy.

We still have 8mm movies that my dad took when I was five years old. I'm the one doing the furious "Chubby Checker" twist while my toddler, younger brother, pats one foot while drinking his bottle. Even then, you can see my crazy drive to be out front in my dancing antics.

But there's nothing like having three younger siblings to take some of the rhythm out of your spotlight loving ways. I was an only child for the first four years of life and then my parents conspired to destroy my solo act by adding two brothers and a sister. I had to learn to work with an ensemble. Not an easy feat for an aspiring superstar.

So, it became harder to be noticed. Babies are so much more adorable than hyper-active five year olds. On top of this an even more insidious realization took place -- as the older brother I would still occasionally get the credit, but in the form of blame. I would get blamed for what I as the "older brother" should have been watching out for with my younger siblings.

Later, I've come to realize that if you want the credit, you have to be ready to take the blame too. That's why one of my preaching professors in seminary taught us to give God the glory when people compliment our preaching.

"That way you can say 'Glory to God' whether they are bragging on you or cursing you." He said.

Something else I've learned is that giving the credit to God frees me from looking for the applause of man. It frees me of looking for the fruit of my effort. Instead, I begin to look for God to work. I look for Him to speak. It sure takes away a lot of the pressure to perform.

That's how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. He taught them to give God the credit. Give God the trophy. Give God the glory.

I can still dance a pretty good "Chubby Checker" twist (unless I get a cramp). But now, I'm learning to let God have the spotlight. Besides, I'd prefer that God's firstborn receive the credit. I just want a crown so that I'll have something to throw at His feet someday.