Day of Praise

Thur, 12/29/16, 5th Day of Christmas, "Day of Praise"

"A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days." - Revelation 12:1-6

Jesus was born into a violent world.

One of my brothers-in-law once told me how he was threatened by two guys with knives just outside of his young daughter's dance studio in their nice town in broad daylight. Fortunately, police got there and made the arrest.

I also once saw a nicely dressed mom who was about to throw a punch at her young adult daughter in a parking lot while the "mom's guy" just stood there watching. My momentary stop-and-stare seemed to ease the tension.

Furthermore, on the way to visit my parents and siblings one time, in the time it took me to drive from one end of a city to the other, the interstate message board said there were two more driving fatalities.

Jesus was born into a violent world.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my truest love gave to me (and you and all who will receive him), his five identifiable wounds in his hands and side and feet, not counting countless wounds on his head from a crown of thorns and on his back from unspeakably brutish, Roman torture tools.

Jesus was born into a violent world then. He wants to be born in the hearts of all of us today because we still live in a violent world today.

He is the Prince of Peace. True and lasting peace.

Have courage, dear friends, in a world filled with violence. Have courage and tell others about Jesus.

In him alone will the world find peace.

Praise God!

Pastor Chris 
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson