Healing Rays of Righteousness

Today … A Savior Has Been Born To You

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”  (Lk. 2:8-11).

The angel’s sudden and unexpected appearance terrified the shepherds.  But the angel quickly reassured them that the special message he was bringing to them was “good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”

Have you ever been frightened by an unexpected event?  Try to imagine yourself being one of the shepherds that night.  Sitting on a hillside, under a starlit sky, with the sheep settled and sleeping, all is quiet; all is calm, as it should be and normally is.  But then suddenly the hillside is awakened by a brilliant, glorious light, and a magnificent angel appears.  Yes, I too, would have been terrified.

The sudden burst of light and the appearance of an angel to a bunch of laborers in a field was certainly an unexpected surprise.  But even more so, was the angel’s message, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

And, as if that wasn’t a big enough surprise, the angel said, “You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Imagine their troubling thoughts.  A Savior, the promised Messiah and Lord, born in a smelly stable built for animals, and using the feed trough as a crib.  How could this be happening that way?  Should not a Savior be born in a royal palace and lying in a magnificent crib?

Indeed, the angel’s “good news” message is filled with unexpected surprises.  In fact, just about everything regarding Jesus’ birth is an unexpected surprise.  Think about it.  Is not Jesus’ birth really the most surprising and amazing gift of all time, coming to us from God?  Is not his gift of “a Savior” the most marvelous and greatest gift we could ever receive?  Is not this the reason we celebrate Christmas with gift-giving, always reminding ourselves of God’s amazing gift to us.

Yes, Christmas is about God coming to us as “Savior” in the person of Jesus to rescue us from the death grip of evil and sinfulness, and give us forgiveness, peace, joy, love, and life forever.  Christmas is about Immanuel, “God with us.” 

What a wonder-filled, life-giving gift is given us in Jesus’ birth.  It is the miracle of Incarnation – God becoming human, and as “Savior” choosing to live among us.  Oh, what glorious wonder, heaven and earth coming together, as God comes down to dwell with his people to redeem and save them.

How incredible the gift, the long-awaited Messiah, the Lord himself, wrapped in the swaddling clothes of a helpless baby, fully human and fully divine, coming to rescue and reconcile broken humanity and restore the peace and joy of God’s good world.  Truly “good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”

Even though many refuse to believe it, Christmas is God’s answer to our brokenness.  Christmas is the good news that God wants to do something about our failures and fears, our pain and confusion.  He wants to forgive, heal, and restore us to wholeness as his beloved people.

As darkness and doubts cloud your thoughts and spirit this Christmas Day, hear the message of the heavenly angel, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Lk. 2:10-11).

It is Christmas morning and possibly too late to buy the perfect Christmas present for a friend or family member. But it is not too late for you to accept the amazing gift of love that God is offering you — the gift of Jesus as your Savior, Messiah and Lord.

Let us pray.                                                                                                                                                               “O holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend on us, we pray.  Cast our sin, and enter in; Be born in us today.  We hear the Christmas angels / The great glad tidings tell.  O come to us; abide with us, Our Lord, Emmanuel.”

• “Healing Rays of Righteousness” – December 25, 2019
• www.geigler13.wordpress.com
• Ray M. Geigley

The Lord Is With You

Picture a young Jewish girl, living in the lush green hills of Galilee, far from the bustle of Jerusalem.  She knows the Scriptures.  She prays for God to send the Messiah to re-establish his rule.  She longs for Israel to again be a light to the nations.  But never in her wildest dreams does she imagine how God will answer her prayers.

Even more, this young girl, Mary, has something far more immediate on her mind.  She is engaged to be married and soon to leave the protection of her father’s home and begin a new life with Joseph.

By night, she imagines how she will arrange her furniture and decorate her house.  How fortunate she is that her beloved Joseph is a carpenter and can make what they cannot afford to buy.  By day, with needle and thread, she works her dreams into linen cloth.

Then in the midst of her joyous anticipation, preparations, and prayers, she receives a frightening visitation from an angel who says, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.”  And Mary is greatly troubled.

Even though we have heard this same story many times before, and even though the plot doesn’t change from year to year and we are very familiar with the details, yet each Christmas we lean forward with anticipation, because we believe that somehow this story is about us.

What if the angel’s message to Mary, “The Lord is with you” is God’s message to us?  We desire to see God, but do we know how and where to look?  Do we know how to open space in our busy and cluttered lives for the indwelling presence of God?

“The Lord is with you.”  That simple, startling statement came to Mary as surprise and promise.  Most likely we have read and heard these words so often that the element of “surprise” has completely evaporated from them.  Yet that is precisely the glorious message of Christmas.  Not only is there a God, but that God comes very near to us in the most unexpected places and circumstances as “surprise.”

To believe that God is above us as the almighty, all-sufficient, sovereign God is one thing.  But to believe that God is the sovereign, loving God with us, that he is God near us, the intimate God who understands us, that my friend, is the best news of all.

For the eternal, all-powerful, high and holy God to come down into human life is a most marvelous and amazing thing.  God’s coming to us in human flesh tells us that he is not like the philosopher king in Thomas Carlyle’s classic writing, Sartos Resortus, who gazes out of his attic window.  Down below him stretch the dark streets of despair where half a million human beings are herded and crowded together.  The joyful and the sorrowful, people dying and people being born, some praying and others cursing, women laughing and others weeping.  And looking down from his attic window, the philosopher king concludes, “But I – I sit above it all.  I am alone with the stars.”

No, that is not our God.  The God who came to us in Jesus is deeply involved in our human situation.  God became what we are, in order that we might become what he is.  He wants his face of love, peace, and joy to dwell in us and be reflected from our lives.

And when man reached the end of his long struggle to find peace, forgiveness and salvation, it was God who “became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).

Christmas is God’s answer to our brokenness and sin.  Christmas is the good news that God wants to do something about our failures and fears.  Christmas is about God coming to us, indwelling us to forgive, heal, and restore us to a wholeness of love, peace, and joy.

There is not a more beautiful picture of God’s Father-love than that which shows him as our companion in our many experiences of sin, sickness, sorrow, and the often difficult daily routine of work.  There are no more comforting, reassuring words than to hear, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.” 

Be still, my soul and listen to the angel speak.  And also listen to the last recorded words of Jesus, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20).

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – December 18, 2019

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

Your Prayer Has Been Heard

If you are like me, you sometimes wake up at 2:00 a.m. and cannot get back to sleep.  Let’s suppose that the next time that happens you go to the kitchen, turn on the light, and find an angel standing there and calls you by name.  What would you say?  What do you think the angel would say?

Luke’s Christmas story begins with a similar situation involving a man named Zachariah.  In chapter one, verse five, we read that both Zachariah and his wife, Elizabeth, were from priestly stock, a fact that was highly valued among the Jews.  Verses six and seven tell us that “Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.  But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.”

Although both of them were “righteous” they were suffering the ultimate disappointment and humiliation.  For most Jews, eternal life and immortality was understood to come through their children.  Through them one lived on forever.  Thus no children meant no immortality, no eternal life.

It was during Zachariah’ great moment of burning incense before God that an angel appeared to him.  Verse twelve says that Zachariah “was startled and was gripped with fear.”  Very likely I would have responded in like manner.  But then comes the almost unbelievable good news.  The angel said, “Do not be afraid, Zachariah; your prayer has been heard.  Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call John.”

Zachariah is gripped by fear and stuttering with disbelief and doubt. But why?  Had he given up believing that God would answer his fervent prayers?  Had he been praying without conviction?  After the many years of praying for a child, had he given in to the feeling that he and his wife are now too old for such a prayer to be answered.  Yes, even a very righteous man or woman can pray with very little sense of expectation.

I heard the story of a man in his nineties who went to his doctor with knee trouble, and the doctor said, “At your age, what do you expect?”  The man replied, “I expect you to fix this knee.  My other knee is the same age, and it works fine.”

Whatever age we may be, we can slip into disbelief BY thinking that answers to our prayers become restricted or limited because of our age.  This story tells us that Zachariah’s age was not a factor in God’s ability to carry out his purposes.

What if an angel appeared in front of you right now and said to you, “Your prayer has been heard.”  How would you react, and what would such an experience mean to you?  What would be the “too good to be true” news in your life?  Have you given up believing that God can still make it happen, like Zachariah did?

As we grow older and maybe wearied by unanswered prayers, we are tempted to give up believing God can make it happen. Or, we may find it difficult to believe that God still has plans for us to be a participant in his great “good news” work.  Or, we may become impatient in praying and waiting for God to act and decide to take things into our own hands to help God out, like Abraham did.

Whatever the excuse or reason, we will pay a price for our unbelief, just as did Zachariah.  He received very good news in the angel’s message “your prayer is heard,” but because of his unbelief, he could not speak this “good news” blessing to his family and the assembled worshipers, until after the promised birth of his son happened.

What would be the “too good to be true” news in your life?  Have you given up believing that God can still make it happen?  May the beloved scriptures and carols of Jesus’ birth of this Christmas season reawaken your faith and trust in the One who hears and answers our prayers.

“The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel.  I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.”  (Luke 1:19).

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – December 11, 2019

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley