Marketplace Monastics

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

My granddaughter, when she was a little girl, used to go walking with me through neighborhoods in our little town, looking for houses that are alive.

Perhaps you know what I mean. Typically, up and down street after street, homes look so dead these days. Some are run-down and some are immaculate and showy, but so many are lifeless. We walk up one street and down the next, sometimes for an hour or more, looking for homes that say, “Come in! Welcome! People live here – real living breathing people – and there’s life inside!”

What makes a home look alive? Virtually every time, almost without exception, it is the presence of light. A lamp on a table in front of the living room window. A ceiling light, a small chandelier, visible through the front rooms, sparkling over the dining table behind. A porch light left on, solar lamps lining the front walk … something … anything glowing.

I once took a bus trip across country, and out of a dense, dark fog, just as the sun had dipped below the horizon, we rolled into a little town in Ohio. It was a hamlet, really, but every home we passed had a candle in every window. I sat up. I rubbed my eyes. Had I died and gone to Greyhound heaven? I could scarcely believe what I was seeing. The night would have been dreary and almost eerie, but for the candle glow in those hundreds of windows. The bus made a quick stop and took off again, and I wondered where I was and what was the secret of the lighted windows.

Far from dreary, it was a magical sight. I later learned that many small towns back east do the same, that it speaks of a day and time when houses were far apart and farmers made sure that lost or lonely travelers could find a safe place to shelter in the night.

Today’s Advent consideration sparkles before us. A light in each window would be a lovely tradition during this season, but light in our eyes, the windows to our souls, will make people sit up and look again. If we are full of peace and goodwill and truth, if our hearts are warmed and glowing with the love of God, those we meet will rub their eyes and wonder where they are and wish they were in on the secret.

There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle” – Robert Alden

Father, in Your light we see light, and we ask that the love invested in us might light a path to peace, to mercy, to truth, and happiness for others this Advent season. We know we will have to exchange agitation and heaviness for joy and loving kindness, and what a trade-off that will be!  Shine, Lord, in us!

But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence– if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the Gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:22, 23)

The crowning achievement of evil is to destroy hope, and perhaps most dangerous of all is that our hope should fail concerning all that we have become in the Lord.

It would be nearly impossible for us to sin greatly, to give up, to fail if we were to maintain hopeful hearts. I say nearly, for hope can be adulterated. Because the devil, who is a liar and the father of lies, lies to us, some have protracted a hope so false that it has taken them on an express train into darkness. Eve, and then Adam, hoped a false hope, which was no hope at all, but our Living Hope is our life, dispelling darkness, fear, grief and pride and lusts of all kinds.

Satan must not be given to speak uncontested into our souls, and in this Advent season, we have opportunity to proclaim truth and see it catch and burn and glow. We may do that in any season, of course, but Advent is such a good time for making a good beginning, or for renewing our dedication to the spoken word of truth.

When we light our Advent candles tonight, we may say …

“Father, we will continue in faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the Gospel which we have heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and we present ourselves to be made servants of that great and glorious truth at home and abroad.” (Colossians 1:23)

Let us be assured, someone or something is speaking to us nearly every hour of the day, and we are reciting, at least in our minds. Let it be the word of the Gospel, the engrafted word, which is able to save our souls, and let us take advantage of every opportunity to speak as God has spoken, a lamp in a dark corner, even in our own hearts and homes. (James 1:21)

Ribs Dey, by permission, Wikipedia

You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.  (JOHN 15:16, nasb)

I’m grateful to God for the progressions He gives us in Scripture; there are many of them.  One of the foremost is the pathway to JOY, and it is well-marked for us and laid out in John’s Gospel. Jesus, speaking to His disciples, hours before His arrest and crucifixion, taught them to do these things, and assured them of resultant joy. He said:

• Abide in Me and My words in You
• In order to abide, to rest and remain in Me, keep my commandments.
• Remember that you aren’t obeying as slaves but as friends; you will be doing what I do in relation to the Father; I always obey Him.
• Now … here is the commandment! Love one another! See, my commandments aren’t grievous!
• The way to be sure you are loving as I have loved you is to make certain you are laying your lives down for one another. Keep this in mind … I, your Lord, washed your feet, and I want you to do the same for each other. It is enough for the servant to be like his Master.
• It is to your great benefit that I leave you in order to send the Holy Spirit to you … that’s how I can live in you, more than just with you, and you can live in me, always in my love, my own meekness, and even my own faith.
• When you get hold of these things and do them, living as I have lived before our Father … yes, yours and Mine … you will have joy that cannot be taken from you.
• The Father will have joy, too, because His desire is to see you bear fruit, and fruit that remains. That is important to Him.
• One more thing … call to mind that you didn’t choose to come to me, and you couldn’t have appointed yourself. I chose you! I chose you and appointed you to bear good fruit, and now you know how to do it. Now we will be one in the Father, and now you can see what the Father has planned from the beginning!

It does make perfect sense.  There is a progression to nearly everything in this life, from the way real fruit forms to the way marzipan fruits are fashioned at Christmas, from the way we learn to ride a bike to the way we fall in love … there is always a progression.  As we light our Advent Candle tonight, we might pray and ask to be faithful in this trek toward the joys that cannot be diminished in Christ Jesus, our Soon Coming King.

Marzipan fruits

Dani Lurie, Wikipedia, by permission

But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Galatians 3:22

So much can be known of the Lord when we start from the correct vantage point: God is good, and He does good. (Psalm 119:68)

We call to mind that David, shepherd king of Israel, knew this to be true long before His descendent, Jesus of Nazareth, was born. Israel, and David, personally, had been privileged to travel with God, with His Presence, to see His miracles, to experience His victories in war and even His discipline when necessary. Other nations might deny Him; Israel could not, not for long. When they grew idolatrous, He came and got them and turned them again.

Jehovah had determined to have a people for Himself. Israel would benefit, sometimes despite herself, and one of the greatest blessings of all was that the Hebrew people did not have to waste generations and strength trying to be good enough to please God. They didn’t have to pretend they were without sin. It was for them to stay very close to the truth of their iniquity and the reality of atonement as provided in the system of sacrifice and the faithfulness of God’s covenant. They knew, thousands of years before Christ, that the “life is in the blood.”

God dealt severely with His people Israel at times, and purity of body and soul were never left to chance or interpretation. Their national faith knew Him to be the good God, the only wise God, the God of their salvation.  This alone was enough to set them apart … far and away apart from their neighbors.

The man and his wife who traveled to Bethlehem to register for the census decreed by Caesar Augustus were products of this nation, this chosen people, of stubborn and stiff-necked ancestors and equally stubborn men and women of no compromise when it came to righteousness.

During this Advent season, let us determine that we will celebrate as those alive from the dead, as those who know themselves to have been enemies of God, now redeemed from our own destructions and especially our own unbelief. Would you, would I, have said, “Be it unto me according to Your word” as Mary did?  I don’t want to think otherwise … ! While we were not raised among a people chosen as the Jews were chosen, we are the Lord’s, called to grace and chosen to believe. We haven’t seen, but we believe (John20:29,) and now we rejoice!  

To each one who believes what he hears, comes the greatest blessing of all, the power to become a son of God (John 1:12.) We will not come up short in the fullness of the restoration of all things. As shut up as ever we were in sin, how much more are we fortified, walled in, protected, covered and shielded by the faith in which we stand.

View of Bethlehem

Wikipedia, public domain

            We are ornamenting our lives with and by the promises of God this Advent season…

“ . . . seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 2 Peter 1:3,4

I hate to admit it, but sometimes I catch myself reading the Word of God like the t.v. listings, just looking for something interesting. When that happens, I slow down and force myself to look as if I were panning for gold … let’s do that with these verses.

• His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.
• This through the true knowledge of Him.
• He called us.
• It was by His own glory and excellence that we were called.
• By these …
• By what? By His glory and excellence, it seems.
• He granted to us His precious and magnificent promises.
• (Promises? Really? Not grace, not favor, not strength? Well, all the grace, favor, strength, faith, hope, and love that we will ever need has been PROMISED to us … we have what we believe, and we believe what was promised … that works!)
• We are meant to partake of the Divine Nature.
• It is by His promises that we do so.
• We have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
• (Why is that in there? A reminder?)
• (Divine nature is juxtaposed against corruption and lust.)
• It is by His precious and magnificent promises that we get where we want to go and have what we desire, the image of Christ in this world.

            We said of the dry bones on the day of the unattractive ornament … Of course only the Lord knows . . . except for the things He has made known! Of things lifeless and without sinew or wholeness, things crumbling to dust, dead, disjointed, piles of deadness, “Can they live?” Only the Lord knows, unless He has already made mention of His promises and made known to us what He will do, has done, wants us to do or believe.

Even when we were dead in sins, (He) hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) Ephesians 2:5, KJV

For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. Luke 15:24 NIV

For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Isaiah 41:13, NIV

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:5, NIV

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8, NIV

         We’re getting there! Of course! . . . we travel by faith, believing, as pleases the Lord. Better than over the river and through the woods, better than home for the holidays … one foot in front of the other, into the heart of God.

Christkindlesmarkt, Strasbourg

by francois, by permission, Wikipedia 

                  In the account of Ezekial’s trek with the Lord into the Valley of Dry Bones, notice … there are bones everywhere, so many bones, and Ezekial points out that they are very dry.   They have been there for awhile, all the flesh has long since been devoured or crumbled and blown away. (Ezekial 37)

Then the Lord says, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

Ezekial gave the best answer ever, the one we have all used at one time or another. “O Lord God, you know!”

Then what? Then the Lord says, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.’”

Look! Ezekial says to the Lord what we say all the time.

Will things get better? Lord, You know.

Will their marriage last? Lord, You know.

Will they ever change? Lord, You know.

Will I ever be free? Lord, You know.

I say today, to my own soul and to yours if your ears hear what mine are hearing, When the Lord says to speak, be not silent!

            Of course only the Lord knows . . . except for the things He has made known! Good answer, that one Ezekial gave, but not the final answer, not if the Lord has revealed that things are meant to come alive! Not when the Lord has shown, has revealed, that the very fact of our love for someone lost is proof of His having chosen us to speak truth to dry bones. Not when someone loved is burdened, tormented, struggling, wounded – He knows that He knows! He is looking to see what we know, and more particularly, if we will act upon what we know.

We love, because He first loved us. To us is given to speak out of the love and mercy and power of God. Laziness and intimidation … make tracks!!

“The Lord is gracious and full of mercy, slow to anger and rich in love!” (Psalm 145:8) How many conditions around us would have to respond to those words if we would speak them!

We say, “She is still struggling.” The Lord says, “Though (she) fall (she) will rise; Though (she) dwells in darkness, the LORD is a light for (her).” (Micah 7:8)

We say, “I can’t take this any more!” The Lord says, “Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act.” (Ezra 10:4)

            We say, “He is a lost cause.” The Lord says, “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'” Ezekial 37:14

He will gather … Zephaniah 3:20, Micah 4:6 … and many other places!

He will save … Isaiah 49:25 … look!

“Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.”

            Have we spoken lately on behalf of those held captive, wounded, lost, frightened?

Can these be saved? Can they rise again? Can the Lord be glorified in them?

The Lord, He knows … and so do we, if we will listen and believe.

“O Lord my God, as I light this Advent candle tonight, I repent of every shade of darkness in me that hears and reads and sees the truth of Your love and Your mighty power … and makes little or no response.

            “This little flame is light to me tonight. What You have said, I believe, and so will I speak. May the bones which You have broken, rejoice! Amen.”

Gustave Dore’, by permission, Wikipedia

artist’s life plus 100 year, public domain

They shall be My people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them. (Jeremiah 32:38 and 39)

That God Himself should make us His own, extending such good to us and our children after us, giving us that which money cannot buy, the incomparable fear of Him, the reverential, soul-saving fear of God in all our hearts … Oh Lord! We bow before You!  What a promise!  Lord God, ornament our lives in this faith!

Many times we have to confess, “I don’t remember the last time I said anything like this, anything so true as the words of this promise, anything so able to silence all other suggestions.” Many times we must admit that lots of other words, never ever so true as these, speak in our minds and hearts throughout the week.  We are all tempted at times to discouragement, despair, to distance ourselves, but there is more!  Jeremiah 32 goes on to say,

I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.  I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

(verses 40, 41)

In Luke’s account of that Bethlehem night, it was the shepherds, the “lowly” shepherds as they have come to be known, who saw and believed, and more than that, they got up and went to seek out the One who had been proclaimed. Herod lifted not a finger (but to annihilate.) The rest of Bethlehem slept. Yes, the Magi were on their way, but how many out of thousands of those who watched the stars were so determined in search of the Truth?  The shepherds heard and rose up; they saw and went in pursuit.

A band of shepherds, watching their flocks by night. They had not been forgotten by God. Had they been hopeless in their lowliness, they would not have stirred, but hope is fortified in stillness, in the star-studded Presence of God.   Israelites indeed were these, or if not, the angels made them so, looking for the promise of God, having at least enough hope to rise up at what they saw and what they heard in Bethlehem that night, and coming away with more joy than words can tell.

Think of it … what they heard, we can hear, too!  In all the promises of God, in those most incomparable and impossible in our own strength, we can hear, we can see the goodness of the Lord, and we can rise up.  Look!  Here it is, for all men for all time:

“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;  for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, good will toward men.”  (Luke 2:10-14)

How can we not rise up and proclaim the truths that are spoken to us and for us in the Word of God? How can we not leave the flocks of tasks, diversions, strategies, agencies, comforts, entertainments, anxieties, businesses, and all earthly delights to see as they saw? If we will speak as the Lord has spoken, we will see as never before, and we will have joy, the promise of His own joy fulfilled in us.

The Adoration of the Shepherds, Bartolome Esteban Murillo

public domain, artist’s death plus 100 year or more, Wikipedia

Trim up the tree with Christmas stuff

Like bingle balls, and whofoo fluff

Trim up the town with goowho gums and bizilbix and wums

Trim every blessed window and trim every blessed door

Hang up whoboohoo bricks

Then run out and get some more!

                                                                       From Dr. Seuss’ “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”

Did you know that there are between 3500 and 5500 promises to us in the Scripture? That’s a lot of bizilbix and wums, a lot of ornamentation, were we to decorate our souls with their divine craftsmanship and sparkle!

Some old, some new, none borrowed, all true! There are promises overlooked and under-appreciated everywhere in God’s Word. As for instance yesterday’s consideration, that we have a sure reward, and that reward is the Lord Himself. Look again at this verse from yesterday’s entry:

Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth, Say to the daughter of Zion, “Lo, your salvation comes; Behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.”  

Isaiah 62:11

Now, being honest, that is not a promise I’ve ever pinned to my pillow or taped to my mirror or plastered on my refrigerator with a fancy magnet, but my goodness, why not?  It isn’t that we fail to believe it, but we haven’t always affixed the stars on the tree and turned on the lights!

            How many times might we read those words and give them not as much attention as the dust motes floating in the air, instead of hanging them on a prominent bough by a glittering thread. While we often take things too seriously or too literally in life, we seldom do so toward the things most true, the words spoken by the Lord, words He has included in Holy Writ.

I don’t want to shake this one off. I don’t want to say half-heartedly or unmindfully or even merely emotionally, “Well, that’s nice. That’s a beautiful metaphor … reward and recompense … lovely.” Reward! Recompense! I want them!

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.   Matthew 13:45, 46

Now we’re getting somewhere! There are riches we can own, and how can there be a purchase of the field where the Kingdom of God is the treasure, without faith in the promises of God? We want to say “Yes!” and “Amen!” to His promises, to each and all of them as they are given to us.

Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”   Matthew 13:52

God has been promising, promising, promising, from the very beginning! That is how we know Him, of course, as it was meant from the beginning. We take Him at His word! Shall we not ornament our lives with all the promises that attend our faith?

Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.     2 Peter 1:3, 4 (The Message)

We need Him to be Who He is, and as He is, we need to know Him. What’s more, many too-good-to-be-true hopes have been realized by those who held on, who never let go. Other prayers were not answered as we supposed, but to hope in God after a terrible disappointment is thrilling and rewarding beyond measure, for He never fails. Our perspectives can sometimes be askew, but not His faithfulness.

Jesus told us that He would be looking for faith when He comes (Luke 18:8,) and if we keep our gaze fixed on Him, believing and living out the Father’s promises, our sights will be realigned so that we can continue to gaze steadfastly at His Beloved Son, Faithful and True. That alone is worth truckloads of gold and silver!

He is our portion; He must be, He is, and He shall be.  Just one promise!  Look at the power inherent in it!

My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26

Tonight, lighting our first Advent candle on this second evening, let us say, “Father, You are my exceeding great reward, my gold, my silver, my wisdom, my strength, my hope, my redemption … my life! You are my portion, and the riches of this life are in You, truly, with every provision, nothing lacking, with abundance of joy and peace.  Give me Your strong help as I make sure to decorate my life with faith in God, just as Jesus said to do. Amen.”

Theodore Geisel, Dr. Seuss,

with illustrations from his classic book,

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” … public domain, no restrictions noted, Wikipedia

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