INCARNATED LOVE

Jeweled gates, transparent gold streets, ivory palace--dazzling light

Riveting river streams, a throne where glory gleams--never night.

Exalted angel symphony, perfect sync and harmony,

Praise, worshiped, adored, Center or it all--Jesus Christ, the Lord.

For in the beginning, when the spheres took shape, galaxies flung,

planets, suns, hung suspended on nothing but air--He was there!

Co-Creator, He liked taking our insignificant earth

to make something of worth--home for the man He'd designed and planned.

No automation, crowning creation--God's own image rose,

able to receive and return His awesome love--if he chose.

Man gambled intimacy with Deity, temporary

gratification of curiosity over trusting

Truth, lasting Love, authority of his Creator.  We lost.

Downward, diseased sin spiral began.  The cost?  Cut off from God

Who loved us still but wouldn't violate the will He'd given.

Yet God longed for us, sent His Son, our ransom, from heaven.

So in the fullness of time, the Mighty, Majestic One stepped  

down from His throne to become tiny seed in His very own

creation, a young virgin called Mary, starting formation

as human son of man so that we could become sons of God.

In nine months, He burst forth to trod the world His word gave substance,

Infinite/infant, dependent for His very sustenance!

Broken gates, disorderly streets, smelly stable--noisy night

Blood and water streams, dirty manger, tiny screams--Holy Light!

No room for Him then, no room for Him now, rejected, ignored.

Slapped and betrayed, dying as He prayed forgiveness for you and

me, rising the third day to show He's the Only Way to be

saved from God separation, actually come to know Him Who

can fill the void in your hungry heart and offer a fresh start--

    Creator/Saviour

      God's Gift from Above

      Incarnated Love!

Please read this through once more and receive God's Christmas gift to you personally.  Is there room in your heart for Jesus?  Has bitterness or cynicism crowded him out of your mind and emotions?  Your spirit still longs for communion with Him just as He wanted communion with us, and you will never know completeness without it.  You don't have to analyze and understand everything; just decide to believe what He has put into the spirit of every human being.  Say, "Lord Jesus, I open my heart to receive You as my only Savior for my sin of unbelief and going my own way.  Reveal Yourself to me as Lord, help me to know You, to be delivered and protected from all deception.  I renounce all that would keep me from that.  Thank You for loving me, for coming as a babe, experiencing life here, dying and rising from the dead to save me.  I want You to guide my life until You come for me."
 
Read your Bible (you could start with the gospel of John) and talk to Him every day.  Find other true believers, and fellowship with them.  (Don't judge Jesus by those who call themselves Christians but act nothing like Him, but don't judge them either:)  Just seek to know and follow Him yourself; but do try to find a group that sincerely wants to know Him, make Him known to others, and follow the truth of the Bible, His Word to us.  I would like to explain to you more--about the importance of water baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit--but the most vital thing eternally is receiving Jesus:) Let me know if you need further help understanding, and thank you for visiting and reading my post!  You may be hurting in ways I can only imagine, but you are never alone now.  "Emmanuel", one of the names given to Jesus, the Messiah, means "God with us".  The One Who knows you best, loves you most, and is most willing and able to help you, lives with you and is now in you!:)  And I believe this same Jesus will soon return for those who are His.  May that hope excite and sustain you until then.  Merry Christmas!

He Came To Us Helpless

Image credit Jon Ovington on Flickr

He came to us helpless, crying--

couldn't walk, talk, feed himself or

control basic body functions.

But his mind?  Clearly superior--

nothing about him inferior--

unless compared to former state.

He willingly stripped himself of

dignity and power so that he

could relate to our dependence.

Dressed in human limitations,

he endured humiliations

of being knowingly helpless.

He nursed his mother, and I think

he knew when she changed his diaper,

too--part of the price he paid for you

and me to see God's face and know

the rest of the Christmas story:

We Can Know HIM In His Glory!

Because He Who twirled the worlds

came into ours--not as a king

but as Son of God, son of man.

Felt helpless lately?  What a debilitating feeling!  I can only imagine the mortifying blow to personal pride & human dignity of being dependent on others for physical care.  Forced to request & accept help when one has known ability and independence must require grace to keep from screaming.  My own brother, like many others, does this daily--with gratefulness and humor.  Yet I'm certain he chafes at his limitations, feels concerns for his wife and loved ones, longs for a miracle of former independence even while he knows present peace.  

Our Savior, The "Word" Who was with God in the beginning, when He said, "Let there be" and "Let Us make man in Our own image..." without Whom "nothing was made that was made" ..."became flesh & dwelt among us".   He knew perfect oneness and communion with the Father and Holy Spirit, the adoration of angels crying, "holy, holy, holy", perfect order and unimaginable beauty, total power and authority.  He knew that to fulfill God's plan for redemption He would have to suffer pain, rejection, our sin, and curse of the cross before being resurrected to glory.  But He also knew that He would dwell among the lowly (a peasant home, not even earthly royalty) and begin the journey into humanity as a helpless babe.

Men scrap scruples in their greedy grasp for position and power.  Anger flames against those in authority when injustice is perceived.  Some fight for change for their own benefit or personal agenda; others, for those they see as helpless victims.  Before Jesus' birth, the cry of the very people to whom He would identify as His own was for a
mighty deliverer who would free them from oppression.  He did amazingly fulfill all the prophecies for Messiah, but somehow their mind set was on His final return as Conquering King rather than His first coming as the Lamb born in Bethlehem to a young virgin--and the kingdom He wanted to first establish in hearts.

When do you think He became cognizant of His Divinity/humanity?  Many seem to accept that He suddenly knew He was the Son of God at 12 years of age in the temple; others think it may have been a growing awareness.  Who can actually be sure?  Now, I may be totally off, and I'm not trying to "add to" the Bible my personal interpretation.  But, it is my opinion that Jesus was aware of the entire process of the human experience.  How humbling to think that He willingly subjected Himself to the limitations of being knowingly helpless, pre-limiting Himself to communication without words and to having His bottom wiped! That should comfort and confirm to any in like state, or to the elderly who may fear that possibility, that "He was in all points temped such as we..." and that "We have not a High Priest Who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmity". 

Perhaps you are physically whole but feel the frustration of overwhelming helplessness at a situation not of your choosing that you feel powerless to change.  I 

just want to remind you that The Supreme Being became helpless--messy diapers and all!--so that you would know He knows how you feel--but also so that we could have access to His ability to accomplish any change He wills through us.  He wants to shine His glory, His hope in the darkness of hopeless despair & destruction, His difference in us and through us to our world--yes, even in you, in your present messy setting!  Know that He relinquished His power so we could humbly partake of His Divine Nature and authority!  Let's use what He has given and give Him the glory.  And next time you hear a baby cry, thank Jesus for coming to us--not as an intimidating ruler but as an innocent, helpless newborn--so we could be reborn--beloved children of The King!   Emmanuel, "God With Us", a "present help in time of need".  That's God's grace!