Why did Jesus come to earth?

Isaiah 9:6-7 has been on my heart for a couple of weeks during this Christmas season.
"For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. "

This prophesy was spoken by Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus was born of a virgin in an ordinary manger in Bethlehem. Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies spoken about him in the Old Testament.

Why did Jesus come? He came to save people from their sin and to sacrifice himself, taking our punishment for our wrongdoing. Sin separates us from God, but Jesus came in the likeness of man and was obedient to death on a cross to save us from God's wrath. We can only be right with God through Jesus Christ. No other god died for us on a cross to pay our debt for our sin, and make a way for us to go to heaven.

Before he died on the cross Jesus told his disciples "I will ask the Father and he will send you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of Truth." This Counselor is also called the Holy Spirit, who is responsible for illuminating the Word of God so that we can see him clearly, and see ourselves for who we truly are. His job is to lift up the Son. I pray that tonight, at South Bay Church's first Christmas eve service, that Jesus would be exalted above all else. I pray that men and women and children, some who have never understood the meaning of Christmas . . . would see Jesus clearly for the first time and lay down their lives at his feet. That the veil would be removed from their eyes so they can see their sin and respond to the grace and forgiveness of Jesus. We can not be saved by being good and loving people. We can only be saved through faith in Jesus. That's why he came to earth, and thats what I celebrate at Christmas time.

He Knows

I always think of Lazarus when I think of John chapter 11. And whenever I think of Lazarus I think of the famous verse 35, "Jesus wept." It points to the humanity of Jesus, and his emotions. But something different stood out to me this time. . .

The sisters sent word to Jesus, and said to Him "the one you love is sick." Mary and Martha had to be experiencing such intense grief and sadness over losing their brother, and they had sent for Jesus to come because they had faith in Him. But He was too late. Imagine . . . your brother is dying and you send word to Jesus, and he doesn't make it in time. Martha meets Him on the road, then she goes back to tell Mary, and Mary rushes to where Jesus is. When she sees him she falls at his feet. "Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Can you imagine? Anyone who has ever felt the tension between faith and grief can relate to what she is feeling.

But here is the thing that is most profound to me. . . I always thought Jesus wept because of Lazarus. But Jesus knew all along that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, he said so before he even left (11:11). What moved him to tears was the intense sadness of Mary and the others. Jesus cried when he saw Mary and her friends weeping. He wept because he felt what they felt. He was moved so deeply with empathy that he wept as they were taking him to where the body was.

What a clear example of how Jesus connects with the frailty of humanity. We experience such intense sorrow and pain in this life; but Jesus, creator and sustainer of the universe, is moved when we hurt. Grief is different for every person, and the Christmas season is often the hardest time of year. Grief does not have to be over the loss of a loved one. Grief is what results when we lose anything of great value to us, or when something is taken from us that we can't ever get back. Sometimes we experience an aspect of grief because we believe we have lost something and that fear takes root in our heart and begins to have control.

Our hearts may be wounded deeply, but we can look to Jesus, and we can know that He knows and deeply feels our pain.

You Want Me to Do What?!

Six days until Christmas and I am at Best Buy . . . which was a mistake because the place was a looney bin. I go to the restroom and the first stall had no paper, so I went in a different one. I hear someone come in and I'm thinking to myself, "that person is going to go in the first stall and get stuck with no paper." I am already anticipating the awkwardness that I know is about to come. So I come out and sure enough, she was in the first stall. So I hang around a minute because I am the only other person in there and I wasn't gonna leave her hanging. But she never said anything, and the toilet had already flushed so I was fixing to leave when she (adult woman) comes out of the stall, makes direct eye contact with me and starts walking toward me with her scarf in one hand and her purse in the other, and at the same time holding her pants up. I have that freak out moment that you have when a strange person is walking directly to you in a public place and you have no idea what they are going to do or say. Just then I see two drawstrings hanging down. She says to me "excuse me, will you tie my pants?" Inside I was like "WHAT?!" I have no idea what my face looked like. But she just stood there looking at me and I only had a second to say something, so I said "sure." I mean what do you say to that?! "No, I'm going to leave you here holding your pants up in a public bathroom! Merry Christmas!" So I am tying the drawstring to her sweatpants (in the front) trying not to get too close, which means I did kind of a sorry job. I said "hows that?" knowing that it was going to be too loose but hoping she would let me out of there. Of course she says "actually if you could do it tighter that would be great, like as tight as you can" so I went in for attempt number two, all the while trying to keep my distance and keep my own purse from falling off my shoulder. Thank goodness she accepted that one. Talk about awkward. As she was washing her hands and I was leaving she says "I guess there are still good people out there." I decided I was done shopping for the day and walked straight to my car.

Graduation!

Back in Wilmington, NC til the end of the year. We will spend Christmas with David's parents and grand-parents. Our trip to Fort Worth was busy. . . but very fun. We graduated on Friday (I have an empty diploma because I technically graduated in May but delayed walking until now) and then David was ordained on Sunday morning at our sending church, The Cross Baptist Church. It was wonderful for our families to be there. My dad couldn't come because he stayed home to take care of my grandparents who require full time care. As of today we are almost 73% to our support goal. Our goal is still to be in California sometime in January!

We left Summerville, SC this morning after spending about 5 days there meeting with friends. Old Fort is the church I attended during my time in college at Charleston Southern and I am so encouraged by the new direction they are taking. We went to lunch with pastor Eric and he shared with us more about his desire for his church to focus on real ministry, not programs. Sounds like what so many are saying, but this is for real. This large Southern Baptist church is turning outward. . . away from programs and buildings and consumer worship. Its a change that seems like fresh water in a dry, stale church culture in America. It seems to me there is a subtle but growing tension these days in church . . . maybe God's people growing discontent with bigger buildings. Feeling not so effective and wanting to do and be more for the kingdom. Not that buildings are bad. They aren't good or bad. They are concrete. I am young and inexperienced but I think there are lots of believers out there who are ready to pour themselves out for the the fame of Jesus Christ but they need organization and leadership from their pastors to make something happen on a congregational level. Thank you pastor for being bold enough to change things that need changing, and for demonstrating faith in a big God to walk you through it.

Surprises!

We have been in Alabama with my folks for Thanksgiving. On the way we stopped in to surprise our good friend Lauren Laren dirty LB Lolo Brown Armstrong. We had been scheming with her mom to make it happen. We only wish her husband Alex was there, we missed him by one day. The Browns feel like family and I think thats fabulous. I also think surprises are so fun! Right now my husband and I are at the Whistlestop Cafe in Clanton, AL to find internet, and while we were here we used miles to buy a plane ticket for my mom to fly in for our graduation in Fort Worth in a couple weeks. She has no idea! My parents are both full time caregivers for my mom's parents right now and so their travel is very limited. I cant wait to go home and tell her because she didn't think we could make it happen. Now she gets to be there too along with Biscuits family. My dad wont get to go, but he was the hero of the day because he suggested we do it. I like surprising everyone, but there is something special about surprising my mom!

Had lunch after church today with my best friend and her boyfriend, and her mom. Its so good to see friends who live far away, we are getting to reconnect with so many people at this time in our lives. Raising funds is hard and it has its unique challenges, but what a blessing to see people we love along the way!

Keeping the slate clean

Tonight I was talking with a good friend on the phone about a passage in the Bible. Ephesians 4:26. "In your anger do not sin, and do not let the sun go down while you are still angry." I learned so much about this from my family. My parents weren't perfect and I certainly wasn't either, but one thing they got right was this principle of clearing your slate with one another before bed at night. Whenever we had arguments (usually because I wanted my way) or conflict over something, my parents took the initiative to make things right, even if I was mostly in the wrong.

Whenever a conflict arose my parents would always come into my room that night before bed and they would tell me they loved me, they would lovingly explain their reasoning behind what happened, and make things right. They would actually apologize if they had been in the wrong, although of course it was usually my teenage self that was in the wrong, and this taught me how to apologize. I learned how to be vulnerable with my family, because I had learned it was safe. So each night when I drifted off to sleep I would know that no matter what happened that day, we were ok. So now that I am an adult, I dont always have the right solution but I do know how to clear the slate between myself and another person. Its important. Other people may not receive me well all the time, or it may not go as I had expected, but at least if my heart attitude is right I can come to God and others with my slate clean.

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." Matt 5:23-24

We were at starbucks this afternoon with a good friend of davids who is a minister at a large church. We were talking about ministry models in different types of churches. After discussing books and small groups and getting people plugged into serving, he said "love God and love people. If you don't love God you can't love people; if you don't love people you don't love God."
We all know these other things are important and worthy of discussion, but at the end of the day what fuels our ministry?

Some people have been asking if I have pictures of my nephew Jax. I received this yesterday from Brittany on email, she said he is smiling a lot now. Yesterday he turned 2 months old. There are also pictures on my facebook. Its amazing how much babies grow and change each day! Every baby is a miracle!

David and I are leaving for Raleigh today in less than an hour and we'll be visiting friends up there for the weekend. Then we'll be back in Wilmington until Wednesday when we leave for Thanksgiving in Alabama. This trip to Raleigh is going to be great though, because we don't have to completely load our lives back into the car and then unload it again when we arrive. We are actually taking one bag each and thats all we'll have to bring in to the house! This fundraising stuff has brought a whole new meaning to the phrase "living out of a suitcase." Are you kidding me? Living out of "a" suitcase is my dream!

If you had told me in the spring of this year I would be in the process of moving to the west coast to join a church planting team in the silicon valley . . . and raising support to make it all happen . . . I would have asked you what comic strip you had read because it wasn't about my life. But at the same time I never really had a clear picture in my head of what our ministry would look like. Where we would be, what we would be doing, where we would be living . . . all those things were like blank pages in my head. But now we know what God is leading us to do and those blank pages have turned into blurry images that are clearer and clearer every day. What a blessing to be heading toward a ministry at a vibrant evangelical church, with people we know and love and trust like our own family. His plans are always better than my own!