Grace & Truth By Moonlight

Tonight was the epitome of a great night for Bible reading. I waited until everyone went to bed, went outside on the back porch and prayed under the light of a beautiful moon, and then came back inside and read in blissful silence.

Today's reading included John chapter 1, which describes Jesus as the one who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Many times I have meditated on that phrase, grace and truth, and I still marvel at the combination. So many times humans corrupt the truth by using as a weapon with which to bludgeon another person. Others lack the courage to tell the truth or the wisdom to discern it, and so their "grace" has no depth to it. But Jesus perfectly combines those two qualities to the extent that John uses them to describe who he is.

I pray that God would give me those qualities in just the right proportion-grace enough to use the truth to build others up, instead of tearing them down.

Christmas In October

Every year it seems the American marketing machine cranks up Christmas a little earlier than the year before. Aside from Pastor Louie, who has to start listening to Christmas music in July, most of don't start thinking too seriously about it until after Halloween. However, if you're reading through the Bible chronologically, you're now in the middle of the Christmas story.

There are some benefits to that. You can read the story without the tinsel, shopping, and dinners distracting you. You can take time to think about the power of this remarkable story. This morning I was struck once again by how odd all of this must have seemed to Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the three wise men from the east. But that's the way God works. By the circumstances of our every day lives, he prepares us for the moment when he changes everything. What qualified Mary and Joseph to play the leading roles in this drama? Their walk with God. Their conformity to image of the Son she would soon bear. What a beautiful story.