Make the World a Better Place

There is a longing for the world to be a better place, one that has existed throughout the ages. There is a crying for things to be better, for someone to make it all right. The human heart cries out to God - we hear it in the words of the prophet Isaiah: 

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
   those who remember you in your ways. ISAIAH 64:1-5a

Today, we can wait with hope. Knowing the troubles and heartache we would continue to experience in this world, Jesus encourages us with these words: 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” JOHN 16:33

So we wait... with anticipation of something better. In this season of Advent, we wait... not with despair, but with hope.  The hope in knowing that Jesus has overcome the world and all of its brokenness.

And while we wait, we seek to be healers, through the love that comes from the Lord. 

We love because He first loved us. 1 JOHN 4:19

Michael Jackson wrote a song titled "Make the World a Better Place." 

Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me
And the entire human race
There are people dying
If you care enough for the living
Make it a better placeFor you and for me

Be encouraged by these incredible children who invite us to care enough for the living to put our love out into world and each do our part to make the world a better place.

Faith and Joy

Happiness and Joy can be so closely related...

Circumstances will be what they are.  

Life happens. 

Sometimes it's good, sometimes not.

What if, instead of seeking the way to happiness, 

we discover that joy is the way?

Jesus said: I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  JOHN 10:10

Joy is different.  When life is challenging, it doesn't seem like the kind of full which Jesus speaks about having.  Happiness may be more connected to circumstances.  I've experienced times of great sadness, where there was definitely no happiness, yet joy was very present.  

Joy runs deep - transcending circumstances.

Could you agree that even when there are hard times, and in them you know you are loved, regardless, and in spite of the circumstances, that joy is present?  Not happiness, but joy.

Joy is rooted in relationship - one that loves unconditionally.  That's godly love.  The kind of love that always contends for the good of another.  When a person knows they are loved, there is comfort, and peace, and yes, even joy in the hard stuff.  

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines joy as:

• the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires - described as delight
• a state of happiness or felicity - described as bliss
• a source or cause of delight

Take delight in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.  PSALM 37:4

This verse captured my attention some years ago, and now here, contemplating joy, I find that DELIGHT and JOY are connected!  God says, I love you.  Delight in me - have joy in my love for you, and receive my love abundantly!  

Burdens shared are cut in half

Joy shared is doubled

When we are receiving the full measure of God's love, we have more than enough to share.  We can be generous.  And, when we are generous and bless others with this love, it produces more joy!  

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  LUKE 2:8-12

In these days of Christmas, where we celebrate the birth of the Christ child and Savior of the world, we wait on the promises of God, to send His love into the world through Jesus - Emmanuel (God WITH us).  He humbled himself and came down, love came down, and love poured out.

In receiving this love, everlasting joy is possible.  

Faith and Love

Love is something that flows from one being to another.  It is expressed from the one communicating love and received by the one for whom it is intended.  Others who witness love can't help being positively impacted by its allure.   

Love draws us in.

Love is always for our good.

Love always builds up and never tears down.

Love can't be manufactured - it either exists or it doesn't. 

In this second week of Advent, focusing on Faith and Love, I was traveling behind a vehicle that was decorated with two bumper stickers: 

My first thought was that we can coexist without loving or understanding one another, with a posture of tolerance, rather than love.    

We can believe in love, and not be loving.  

We can believe in peace, without being peacemakers.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.  1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-8a

Jesus embodies love and peace, bringing them into the world. 

God is love.  1 John 4:16

In the same way, God calls his people to be loving.  

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  1 JOHN :7-12

  

The journey of Advent points us to Jesus, who entered this broken world to bring love and peace.  More than merely coexisting, or believing in love and peace, Jesus invites us to love others as ourselves because of the love we've received from God.  And, having experienced the reconciling nature of God, God calls us to be peacemakers. 

Love always enters in for the good of another!

People throughout the world are hurting in a variety of ways -  lonely, hungry, displaced, brokenhearted, desperate, angry... the list is long.  Imagine what love does in each of these situations...  Love says "you are not alone and I won't abandon you.  I'll share what I have and we'll figure this out together."  Love never says "it's someone else's problem."  

Through faith, the kind of redeeming love and peace

necessary to heal the strife in this world is possible.

Faith and Hope

HOPE

It's a powerful driver!

The HOPE of something better leads people to hurdle incredible challenges... 

and the lack of HOPE can drive another to despair.  

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  HEBREWS 11:1

Hope that comes from faith is far beyond wishful thinking. This kind of hope is grounded in the assurance of the redeeming work of God through the finished work of Jesus, the Messiah.

In this season of Advent, we wait for the birth of this Christ child, the one promised and hoped for.  Hope grounded in faith looks to the ONE that always keeps his promises.  Looking back, we can see promises fulfilled.  Looking forward, knowing the faithfulness of God in the past, we can trust that He will be faithful in the years to come.  

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  JOHN 1:1-2, 14

There is great mystery in the work of God.

Faith stands in the gap between fact and doubt.  We wonder, we question, and we doubt.  Some reject.  The goodness and faithfulness of God calls people to hope.  

Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life... and He calls us to follow Him.  Human beings don't do this perfectly, we make mistakes and are frequent in our failings.  However, we can look to the ONE who walked this same journey of life and did it perfectly.  

All of human history points to the resurrection.  It is through this sole moment in time that faith pivots.  So in this week of Advent, the week of Hope, we have the opportunity to focus on what truly brings hope.

Hillsong wrote and produced a beautiful song.  Take a moment and look to the Hope of the World, Jesus.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly trust in Jesus name

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly trust in Jesus name

Christ alone; cornerstone
Weak made strong; in the Saviour's love
Through the storm, He is Lord
Lord of all

When Darkness seems to hide His face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil
My anchor holds within the veil

Christ alone; cornerstone
Weak made strong; in the Saviour's love
Through the storm, He is Lord
Lord of all
He is Lord
Lord of all

Christ alone
Christ alone; cornerstone
Weak made strong; in the Saviour's love
Through the storm, He is Lord
Lord of all

Christ alone; cornerstone
Weak made strong; in the Saviour's love
Through the storm, He is Lord
Lord of all

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,

Faultless stand before the throne.

A Season of Waiting, Advent Begins

Waiting...  

Americans live in such an instant culture that waiting can be challenging.  We have choices as we wait - impatience, or enjoyment of the moments in between where we approach the waiting with a sense of expectant anticipation. 

I LOVE the ocean!  There is something about the rhythm of the waves that provides a soothing sense in my being.  With each wave there is an ebb and flow.  I know each will be present in the cycle of each wave.  I'm not anxious wondering when, but knowing there will be one that follows another.   The calm anticipation allows me to enjoy the moments. 

Today begins the season of Advent,
a time of waiting for the birth of the Christ child.  

Once Thanksgiving is done, we're in the thick of the commercialized Christmas season.  Advent provides an opportunity for intentional waiting.  Each day provides opportunity to focus on what God has done, is doing, and will do.  It's a season to see the faithfulness of God through the fulfillment of HIS promises.  

About 700 years prior to Jesus' birth, the prophet Isaiah wrote:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of might,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
    and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
    or decide by what he hears with his ears;
    but with righteousness he will judge the needy,

    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.  ISAIAH 11:1-4

The Lord fulfilled this promise through the birth of Jesus.  I'm sure some in the generations of those 700 years must have wondered if the promise would truly be fulfilled.  Many in this generation have the same question.  As we look back and see the ways that God has been faithful in the past, we can know that He will be faithful in the future.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  For by it the people of old received their commendation.  HEBREWS 11:1

Faith says - Trust me as you wait!  

Peter wrote to the people of his day:
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  2 PETER 3:9 

This Advent, my focus will be on faith.  My prayer is to grow in my ability to wait with a heart and mind of expectancy, to trust in the Lord's promises and rejoice in His grace.

Will you wait with me?  

I'd love to hear about your waiting practices. Please share them in the comments.

Advent, Waiting with Hope

Advent begins - the season of awaiting the coming of the Christ Child.  

This week focuses on HOPE. 

...not a wishful kind of hope, rather the certain kind of hope, anticipatory waiting for something known to take place.

I've heard it illustrated this way...
From the time many young girls go to their first wedding, they dream of that day for themselves.  It is a wishful kind of hope.  Then they meet the person they want to spend their lives with and love develops. One day there is a proposal of marriage with an engagement ring to symbolize the promise, and now the wishful hope turns into a certain hope of the day to come and the lifetime of life's journey together to begin.  

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  HEBREWS 11:1

As the days of our life unfold, we experience joy and sorrow, abundance and want, laughter and tears, there is good and bad.  

Jesus said to his disciples:
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble. But take heart!  I have overcome the world.  JOHN 16:33 

In this week of Advent we focus on the certain hope of the Messiah, the Holy One, who became man, to live a sinless life in perfect obedience to the Father, and who gave himself as the sacrifice to redeem humanity.  By receiving God’s gift of grace, through faith in Jesus, there is life. Jesus said: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."  JOHN 10:10

...the Christ Child, Jesus, 

was born in a manger 

to make a way to the cross 

It is through the resurrection that we can have confidence and certainty in this kind of hope. 

My prayer for you is to experience this kind of hope knowing how deeply God loves you!

The song "He Made a Way in a Manger" says this beautifully!  Enjoy..