We can draw all kinds of wrong conclusions about the “delay” of our friends… They don’t care about me anymore! They forgot our appointment! Something must have happened to them! Something more important came up! They’re like that – they procrastinate all the time! And there are others…
The Lord isn’t like that… Don’t second-guess why the Lord hasn’t returned yet as He promised! His “delay” has a redemptive purpose!
“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ … But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, NOT WANTING ANYONE TO PERISH, BUT EVERYONE TO COME TO REPENTANCE!” (2 Peter 3:3–9 NIV)
Don’t worry… don’t lose heart… don’t lose your expectation… HE’S COMING AGAIN! His delay is redemptive! His promise is sure!!
If you’re reading today’s post in “coffee with the Lord” you’re going to need to use your imagination…
Go get your Bible and read Revelation 4 (it’s only 11 verses). My suggestion? Read a phrase or two, close your eyes and visually picture happening what you’ve just read… You’ll be in the heavenly throne room… experiencing the sights and sounds… participating in the incredible worship taking place there! I’ve done this with this passage over the years and it’s always been an uplifting, incredible, worship-inspiring experience for me… in fact, it leaves me feeling like I’ve just left the most incredible dramatic presentation and concert I’ve ever experienced in my life, just blown away, with nothing to say but “WOW”!! Try it!
The passage ends like this… “Day after day and night after night (the living creatures) keep on saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, Almighty – the One who always was, who is, and who is still to come!’ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the One sitting on the throne (the One who lives forever and ever), the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the One sitting on the throne. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, ‘You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power! For You created all things and they exist because You created what You pleased.’” (Revelation 4.8-11 NLT)
The story goes, that this was the very passage that Handel was working with when he wrote his great oratorio, the Messiah with the “Hallelujah Chorus.” The story is, he locked himself in his studio to finish it, but came out after working with this passage in the Bible with his eyes ablaze and exclaimed… “ME THINKS I DID SEE THE HOLY GOD AND ALL OF HIS ANGELS WITH HIM!” My sentiments exactly!!
The Christmas season is here… and I don’t want to miss what it’s really all about in the glitzy wrappings of the season!!
One of the most disappointing things that can happen at Christmas is to receive a beautifully wrapped box that promises something really valuable… something significant… something needed and desired and discover that what is inside is just a cheap, insignificant, or worthless gag gift! I think we’d all rather receive something a bit more commonly wrapped that was really something needed and desired!
All that to say, I really don’t think what the broader culture does with Christmas (or what they call “the holiday season”) captures what this season of the year is all about! In fact, one of the sad commentaries on the secular season, is that when it’s all over they often testify that depression sets in with all of its negative consequences.
Give me the ordinary wrappings of Bethlehem and shepherds on a hillside “keeping watch over their flocks by night” … filled with the splendor of an “angel of the Lord who appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shining around them” and “a great company of the heavenly host appearing with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests!’” Now that’s Christmas!! And I don’t want to miss it!!
All of that was prompted by reading this passage this morning from 2 Peter 1:16-21…
“For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
I, like the shepherds, want to make my personal journey to “Bethlehem” this Christmas season and rediscover the One of whom the prophets spoke… “Today, in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, Christ the Lord!”… “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger… When they had seen Him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child… and they returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” (from Luke 2.16-20)
