I think it’s great when pastors connect the stable to the cross. Jesus came to save the world. The cross of Salvation is the climatic reason for the stable. However, we can’t forget the second way we are saved.
To be fully saved and to have the life God intended for you, you need to imagine Jesus and our Heavenly Father bending over a cloud and yelling, “Hey! That’s not what I meant!”
In her book of poems, God is No Fool, Lois Cheney wrote the following.
Once I saw a little boy proudly show his mother a painting he’d made at school. She looked at it and turned it this way and that, and looked some more. “It’s lovely, just lovely,” she murmured. Suddenly, she exclaimed, “Oh! I see what it is! It’s a house and a tree, and there’s a big sun, and….” The little boy grabbed the paper and bunching it all up, he hollered,
THAT’S NOT WHAT IT MEANT!
Did you ever, oh so carefully, lay out just how things were, and how they worked, and why they worked, and then sat back satisfied? Then you heard someone repeat what you’d said, oh so carefully, and you hardly recognized it, and your brain screamed,
THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT!
Did you ever pry out of your heart, your mind, a tiny nugget of how you truly felt, and then told someone, probably someone special, and then stared in disbelief as he responded wrong, all wrong, and your every pore shouted,
THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT!
Sometimes, smug times
When I’m talking about God
When I’m praying about God
When I’m working for God,
Sometimes, smug times
When I’m very busy
in the church
about the church
I wonder
if God isn’t
sighing,
or whispering,
or saying,
or hollering,
THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT!
God saves us first through the cross followed by daily salvation (change) of our mind and heart. Our misunderstanding of God goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Apparently Eve didn’t take God’s instructions seriously and her disobedience caused all the pain we now suffer. God waited patiently and when his people just couldn’t get it right – He called Jesus to his side.
“I’m sorry son, but you’ve got to go down there and show them what we want. They just don’t get it. Go show them that a good life is possible and what that can look like. No matter what you suffer, show them that I gave them the power to be different.”
And with that mission in mind, Jesus came to earth. He showed us how to mind our parents, to learn, to listen and to judge wisely. He showed us how to deal with difficult people, stupid people and just plain mean people. He gave a clear example of how to handle Satan, fear, disappointment, discouragement and grief. The Bible clearly states over and over that Jesus did it right and that He was perfect. Even when he displayed anger – He was perfect.
A lot of people accept Jesus as their savior yet reject his example of a good life. That type of salvation is insurance for eternity yet meaningless and incomplete for our earthly experience. We like to boast that it’s okay to be “human” because there’s no way we can be like Jesus. We point to King David and how God loved him. “He’s imperfect and if he can be loved then God is surely okay with me.” We use him as a standard for how low we can go and still skim by to make it to Heaven.
Let me caution you that God didn’t send David to be your standard – He sent his son Jesus. You are not called to model your life after David or any other flawed biblical person. Jesus is your standard. Jesus is your model. Jesus showed us how to live. If you want a good life and the assurance that you will definitely make Heaven, you must accept both Jesus and his way of life and commandments.
This Christmas our prayer should be for God to complete his love for us by saving our life here on earth as well as our souls.
Dear Jesus please forgive me of my sins. Help me to allow you to change my life and my heart. Help me to treat others as I should and to understand their pain. Help me to be compassionate and kind. Help me to be just like you.
I love you Jesus. Thank you for coming to earth to save me and to show me how to live.
See you tomorrow