that we have personally chosen, but that have been chosen for us. Journeys which we have not signed up for, but through which God can show Himself mighty and faithful. Hebrews 10 says:
35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
37 "For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."
God is calling us to a walk of obedience, no matter what. And, sometimes we will encounter circumstances, in which we wonder how we got into a particular place, or even how we got into this mess we are facing. But, through the difficulty and even the pain, we can know that God is with us, and He is calling us to trust Him more wholeheartedly. We can be confident that He is doing a work that will bring honor to His name and character in our hearts.
+++++
Today, we enter into the week before Christmas, and it's day number 16 of our 20-day Christmas Advent-ure, with the theme, "Destination: Bethlehem." It has been hopefully an enlightening journey over the past 3 weeks, as we have made 15 stops, encompassing a number of key locations found in Scripture leading up to the birth of our Savior.
Last week, I shared about the angelic notifications issued to Mary and Joseph. They had been given specific information about the child who was to be born. And, we know from the Scriptures that the
Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. They were in Nazareth. The timing of a census called by the governor of Syria coincided with Mary's pregnancy - they had to get to Bethlehem, which was somewhere between 70 and 100 miles away. We pick up the story in Luke chapter 2:
3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
God was orchestrating events for His glory. This was a long journey for a woman who was pregnancy, generally thought to be on the back of a donkey. This was not the journey they had signed up for, but the journey to which they were called...
You know, we are all on a journey, and sometimes there are singular journeys that we are called to take through which God brings honor to His name. I came across stories recently of two individuals who are continuing along a difficult journey. They have faced employment challenges because of their desire to express their faith in Christ.
Former Atlanta Fire Chief didn't sign up for a difficult journey - he was a highly regarded public servant, but he wrote a book for men in his church that included a Biblical view of sexuality. According to Baptist Press, Kelvin Cochran was terminated on January 6 due to his personal statements on the gay lifestyle. The Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit filed on behalf of the former chief, and last week, the Atlanta Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia dismissed some claims but allowed the suit to go forward on Cochran's primary claims of "retaliation, discrimination based on his viewpoint, and the violation of his constitutionally protected freedom of religion, association, and due process (firing without following proper procedure)," according to the ADF.
Joe Kennedy, an assistant football coach in Bremerton, Washington, had been making a journey to midfield to pray and thank God following his games - for 7 years, reportedly inspired by the movie, Facing the Giants. But, the practice suddenly attracted attention, and the school district put Kennedy, on paid administrative leave in October, according to The Daily Signal, which reported on a recent appearance on Megyn Kelly's Fox News show. He told her: “These kids are dynamite. I work with some of the most incredible kids around. They’re like, ‘Coach, we support you,’” adding, “They’ve all been supporting me no matter what their beliefs are.”
The report says that Kennedy and his lawyer from Liberty Institute, Mike Berry, described to Kelly how they filed a federal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—the last mandatory step taken before a lawsuit can be filed—after school district administrators refused to meet in person with Kennedy’s legal representatives. Berry said, "This is his First Amendment right to engage in private prayer,” adding, “We even asked if he could just do a moment of silence and the school said, ‘No, we think a moment of silence is also unconstitutional.’”
Journeys - two men who have faced difficulty - punishment for their faith - but are continuing to persevere. Their journey is not your or my journey, but you may be facing a difficult road in your life. And, if not now, perhaps you have in the past or will in the future. The good news is that God walks with us in our tough challenges; he was certainly with Mary and Joseph - He sustained them as they made the slow journey to Bethlehem to give birth to a Savior; to experience the excitement of the moment. We're told in Hebrews 12 that Jesus made the journey to the cross, enduring the pain, because of...the joy set before Him!
The promise of God's outcome can help to encourage and sustain us in our difficult moments. If we have devoted our lives to following God's will, then we can have the perspective that He is at work and He is walking with us through challenging times. Sometimes, we will encounter circumstances that are not of our own making, that we did not choose - but in those times, we can choose to obey God and recognize that we have the opportunities to experience the joy of following His call.
No comments:
Post a Comment