I have great memories of Christmas Eve services watching the annual Sunday School's presentation. I have numerous video tapes of these proceedings – many of them with close ups of my own kids as they wiggled, poked and struggled to hold up their over sized ‘shepherd’ bathrooms. Suddenly, (usually preceded by the thudding of winter boots over a plywood covered of the baptism tank- and the loud whispers of teachers coaching the angels on their lines) choir-robed , coat hanger leaning haloed angels would appear and declare
"Do not be afraid. We bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people”.
These are some of the most incredible words ever spoken on the face of the earth. Joy for the follower of Christ is of a difference substance than the happiness the world seeks. What is the source of that joy? One primary source is found here in the declaration of the Angels: Our salvation.
Psalm 51:12 states, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me”. What is this ‘good news of great joy’? Do we realize what it is that we have been saved from and unto? Unless we truly embrace the eternal reality of our lossness, the foundation and sustaining quality of our joy will be in question. Think of the perspectives of the Angels who brought the glad tiding of Good News to all people that night. They have been observers of human history since the beginning. They experienced the rebellion in Heaven that saw the ‘Angel of Light’ became the ‘the father of lies’. They warred with and watched as a third of their fellow heavenly host were judged and swept into hell– they watched as the purity and holiness of creation violated and the cancer of sin and death was introduced. They witness the banishment of Adam and Eve from the paradise that God had created for them. They stood alongside God as atrocities upon atrocities occurred through history toward God, His people, and inflicted on all humanity. They have watched as the perfection of creation increasingly was/is impacted by the effects of death, shame and sin. They know, see, have stood in the presence of the horror of humanity lost and destine to an eternity apart of God.
I don’t want to be melodramatic, but there is truth in that we have mentally and emotionally down played that apart from Christ all people are headed for eternity separated from God. The Angels had been waiting for that moment for thousands of years, knowing that God had a planned, and now it had come – right at this moment, there was a child, not any child, the perfect, holy Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world. Then God gives the WORD and the Angels burst onto the skies that night, singing, praising and shouting “Glory to God in the highest”. But not fully prepare however for the event that would occur a short 33 years later when they would be restrained by God Himself from launching a full out assault on the earth as this same Lamb would be tortured, despised and crucified by the same people they had announced the good news of great joy.
We need to understand something, that night was not a historical moment; but a ceaseless Universal declaration of the coming of salvation to all creation (Rom 8:19). The wellspring of our endless joy comes as we see and accept the truth of our own hopeless state and know that we have been delivered by the action of God’s own hand.
“My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you— I, whom you have redeemed” Psalm 71:23.
What greater source of happiness can there be in our life than the knowledge that you and I have be adopted as eternal Son’s and daughter of God? One of the first steps of finding a life of great joy is the daily reflection of the gift of our salvation.
Psalm 51:12 states, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me”. What is this ‘good news of great joy’? Do we realize what it is that we have been saved from and unto? Unless we truly embrace the eternal reality of our lossness, the foundation and sustaining quality of our joy will be in question. Think of the perspectives of the Angels who brought the glad tiding of Good News to all people that night. They have been observers of human history since the beginning. They experienced the rebellion in Heaven that saw the ‘Angel of Light’ became the ‘the father of lies’. They warred with and watched as a third of their fellow heavenly host were judged and swept into hell– they watched as the purity and holiness of creation violated and the cancer of sin and death was introduced. They witness the banishment of Adam and Eve from the paradise that God had created for them. They stood alongside God as atrocities upon atrocities occurred through history toward God, His people, and inflicted on all humanity. They have watched as the perfection of creation increasingly was/is impacted by the effects of death, shame and sin. They know, see, have stood in the presence of the horror of humanity lost and destine to an eternity apart of God.
I don’t want to be melodramatic, but there is truth in that we have mentally and emotionally down played that apart from Christ all people are headed for eternity separated from God. The Angels had been waiting for that moment for thousands of years, knowing that God had a planned, and now it had come – right at this moment, there was a child, not any child, the perfect, holy Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world. Then God gives the WORD and the Angels burst onto the skies that night, singing, praising and shouting “Glory to God in the highest”. But not fully prepare however for the event that would occur a short 33 years later when they would be restrained by God Himself from launching a full out assault on the earth as this same Lamb would be tortured, despised and crucified by the same people they had announced the good news of great joy.
We need to understand something, that night was not a historical moment; but a ceaseless Universal declaration of the coming of salvation to all creation (Rom 8:19). The wellspring of our endless joy comes as we see and accept the truth of our own hopeless state and know that we have been delivered by the action of God’s own hand.
“My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you— I, whom you have redeemed” Psalm 71:23.
What greater source of happiness can there be in our life than the knowledge that you and I have be adopted as eternal Son’s and daughter of God? One of the first steps of finding a life of great joy is the daily reflection of the gift of our salvation.
Pray with me: Oh Merciful and Loving Father of Creation. The words of the Psalmist David "My sin is ever before me (Psalm 51:3)" resonate in my mind and heart. I am aware that I have been given a priceless gift, that You have placed Your eternal presence within me in the Holy Spirit. That I have been released from my unpayable debt that demanded eternal separation from God. You know me, and have called me your child. You are the Joy of my Salvation.
"Do not be afraid. We bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people”.
Anyway, I was just thinking.
Neil
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