Emmanuel

Ever get that irresistible urge to argue with the person on the television or the author of a book? If only they could hear the good points we make!

That’s how I felt while reading the Bible yesterday. Don’t worry. I’m not arguing with God. I was reading the very un-Christmassy story of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2.

Nebuchadnezzar ordered his magicians and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed the night before. I bet they wanted to argue with him, and argue they did.

They declared, “There is not a man on earth who can tell the king’s matter; therefore no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh” (Daniel 2:10-11 NKJV).

Oh, really? That’s where I want to shout, “There is a God who dwells with men!” His name is Emmanuel, God with us.

Are you hurting this Christmas season? Are you lonely? Is life not turning out the way you dreamed? Take comfort in the true meaning of Christmas – God is with us. We are never alone.

All for Good

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

Can good come from the bad in my life? Will I ever see it? Will I ever know?

The 1960s saw much bad in our nation. Discrimination, riots, injustice. One African-American boy was not allowed on the school bus with whites. His parents complained, and school officials relented. But the white children did not relent. They beat up the poor boy who only wanted to ride the bus. After that, a policeman had to escort him to school.

Report of this incident spread all the way to a newspaper in the Soviet Union. Soviet citizens ridiculed our nation for its cruelty.

But the boy’s story helped one person. A little Soviet girl named Natasha was beat up on the way home from school. Not because of her skin color, but because of her faith. Her parents were Christians.

Natasha’s grandmother decided something had to be done. She cut the article about the American boy out of the newspaper and took it to school the next day.

“I will not permit such humiliations against Natasha to continue.” she said. “...Just look at this article! Do you realize that the discrimination experienced by a child from a Christian family in a Soviet school is quite similar to the discrimination against blacks in the United States? Unless I hear from you today that you guarantee Natasha’s safety at school, I will be forced to demand that a policeman accompany her to school, just like that black boy in America.”

The black boy in America probably never learned the results of his suffering, but a little girl had peace from persecution for a time all because of his story in a newspaper half-way around the world. I wonder what God is doing with my story today.

To learn more about Natasha, read Children of the Storm: The Autobiography of Natasha Vins.

Flags Flying

Washington D.C. smoldered. Dr. William Beanes was captured. The British moved on to Baltimore. But Francis Scott Key did not give up.

Together with Col. John S. Skinner, he sailed after the British fleet. If they could get there on time – if they could negotiate the prisoner’s release – Don’t let the good doctor hang!

The men accomplished their mission, but the British would not let them go until after the Battle of Baltimore. They peered through the darkness. Bombs blasted. Rockets whizzed through the air. Fort McHenry had not surrendered.

But then silence. Was this defeat? The sun’s rays peeked over the horizon. A flag flapped in the wind. Its stars and stripes spoke triumph to the weary men.

We, too, are in a battle. Satan and his minions attack everyday. Many are watching. Will we stand? Will we fall? How will they know?

An old Sunday School song says it all: “Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart when the King is in residence there.” God promises us a joy that the world cannot understand. In the midst of trials and tribulations, the joy in our eyes says, “Satan has not won. God is on the throne.”

May I ever fly that flag!

Hunting for Ordinary Jellybeans

I went to Wal-Mart yesterday on a jellybean hunt. Do you know how hard it is to find ordinary jellybeans, basic fruit flavors with a few black ones mixed in? I hunted through the Easter candy. I found gourmet jellybeans, Lifesaver jellybeans, Starburst jellybeans, Jolly Rancher jellybeans, various assortments of Jelly Bellies, but no ordinary bags. And no blacks.

I know I sound fussy, but I needed certain colors for an object lesson at church this morning. I needed black for sin, red for the blood of Jesus Christ who died for us, white for a clean heart when we believe in Christ, and yellow for our home in heaven. Is it too much to ask for black, red, white and yellow jellybeans?

I hunted through the Easter candy. I hunted through the grocery section. I went back to the Easter candy aisles. Finally, I found one-dollar bags of Brach's spice jellybeans on the bottom shelf. Yes, they had black! I grabbed two bags. But, woe! These bags didn't have yellow. Hm...Lifesaver jellybeans have yellow. I grabbed a bag of them.

In the same trip, my mom and I also purchased groceries, medication, socks and stickers. All in half-an-hour. The experience reminded me of a paragraph by Michael Dobbs in Down with Big Brother:

A turning point in Yeltsin’s intellectual development occurred during his first visit to the United States in September 1989, more specifically his first visit to an American supermarket, in Houston, Texas. The sight of aisle after aisle of shelves neatly stacked with every conceivable type of foodstuff and household item, each in a dozen varieties, both amazed and depressed him. For Yeltsin, like many other first-time Russian visitors to America, this was infinitely more impressive than tourist attractions like the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial. It was impressive precisely because of its ordinariness. A cornucopia of consumer goods beyond the imagination of most Soviets was within the reach of ordinary citizens without standing in line for hours. And it was all so attractively displayed. For someone brought up in the drab conditions of communism, even a member of the relatively privileged elite, a visit to a Western supermarket involved a full-scale assault on the senses.

We tend to forget how amazing our blessings are. Okay, I didn't find an ordinary bag of jellybeans; but I had a grand selection from which to choose. I was able to buy three bags for a total of four dollars. I had the exact colors I wanted. I could take them to church the next morning, the church of my choosing. I could use them to teach the children about God, and I had no fear of government intrusion.

So the next time you eat jellybeans, remember all these blessings. Be thankful. And if you don't like the black ones, save them for me.

“You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by the way he eats jelly beans" ~ Ronald Reagan

Super Bowl Success

"The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced what you thought would deliver the ultimate—and it has let you down." says Ravi Zacharias.

I'm cheering for the Green Bay Packers today, but I'm praying for both teams. Imagine being one of those players. Football is their career. It is their life. Today they will battle for the ultimate prize. One team will win. The other will lose. But who will struggle most at the end of the day? The Losers or the winners? The ones who achieve their greatest dream and realize that it didn't bring fulfillment?

May we remember that there is a prize to be won that is much greater than a Super Bowl ring, a prize that will fill our hearts (Philippians 3:14).

And may the Packers win! ;-)