Healing Rays of Righteousness

JOY to the World

I love listening to and joining in singing the many joyful, glorious hymns of Christmas. And

“Joy to the world” is one of my favorite carols. It is also one of the most sung hymns during the Christmas season. Why? Possibly because its message and melody echoes the ecstatic joy that Jesus’ birth brought into the world.

For many centuries God’s people yearned for the realization of the prophets’ promise that God would come and reveal Himself as their messiah. And then it happened during one dark night in a Bethlehem stable. The angels announced the “good news of great joy” that “a Savior has been born to you” and the shepherds rushed to town to confirm it.

Isaac Watts joyfully echoed the angel’s message in poetry and George Frederick Handel set those words to music:  Joy to the world!  the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room, And heav’n and nature sing. He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove, The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love.

We annually celebrate that wondrous event with joy-filled music and storytelling. But why is that joy so short-lived? Why does the darkness of hopelessness and pain so quickly overshadow and diminish our joy? Could it be that our joy is not rightly birthed?

Or could it be because the beautiful melody has distracted our attention away from its instructions regarding how to experience this promised JOY, that is, “Let every heart prepare Him room.”

Many times, in past years, I have enjoyed singing with my children, “I have the joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, down in my heart, down in my heart; I have the joy, joy, joy, down in my heart to stay.”

To enjoy the joyful music and glorious pageantry of Christmas worship and giftings, celebrating the birth of Jesus into our world, is a wonderful brief interlude in a world of darkness. But much more wonderful and life-changing is to experience the birth of Jesus into our heart, mind, and body. This personal experience of Jesus’ birth is transformational and enduring, whereas simply enjoying the various celebrations of Jesus’ birth is only palliative sedative for a few days.

For that reason, CHRISTMAS is about more than just lights, trees, and presents. CHRISTMAS is about God coming down to earth to do something about our sinfulness, our failures, and our fears. CHRISTMAS is about God’s answer to our brokenness. He comes to forgive, heal, and restore us to wholeness. He comes to be birthed into our hearts; to be King in and through us.

Whenever darkness and fears begin to seep into your thoughts and spirit during the days following the Christmas gifting celebrations, listen again to the gifting 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).

Throughout the coming year, let the joyous singing of Christmas hymns and carols continue to echo in your heart and mind. Embrace and hold tightly God’s gift of love to you in Jesus, be bathed with his peace, feel his heartbeat of joy for you and sing; “Joy to the world! The Lord is come!”  AMEN!

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – December 27, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

TRUSTING the GOD of CHRISTMAS

Many of the events in the Christmas story include a journey. Some are physical journeys, and some are journeys of wonder, confusion, and of trust. It is Joseph’s journey of trusting God that has been most helpful in giving me confidence and guidance for my own life-journey.

In our annual Christmas story telling, it would appear that Joseph is only a peripheral figure in this glorious story. But in Matthew’s account of the story, Joseph plays an important and essential role in the series of miraculous events. (Matthew 1:18-25).

In verse nineteen we discover that the miracle of Christmas rested on Joseph’s shoulders as we await his hesitant decision to either accept or reject the stunning news of the coming Messiah, and the shocking way in which he would come into the world.

If the Godly righteous and compassionate Joseph had carried through with his plans, not only would the child, Jesus, have been illegitimate in the eyes of his culture, he would have been without the validity of a Davidic heritage as declared in the prophetic promise of the Messiah.

Verse 24 reveals Joseph’s most praiseworthy characteristic, which we see in his acceptance of and obedience to God’s word to him. Enabled by his faith to believe the promptings of God’s Spirit, he trusted the angelic visions and messages regarding God’s gracious plan of coming into the world in human flesh and form.

From the moment Joseph first learned of Mary’s pregnancy, he traveled a difficult emotional journey of extreme feelings; a questioning, wondering journey of how, why, when, who, and what child is this.

To fully appreciate Joseph’s journey of trusting God, we should remember that for him to accept what God told him, meant going through days of anguish and heartbreak. It meant his dreams would be dashed. It meant setting aside his own desires and rights to claim his wife as his own, living with her in celibacy until the birth of the child. It meant accepting, caring for, and loving a child whose origins and future he was not sure he understood. And it meant giving the child a name unrelated to his own.

Yes, it was a perilous journey, weaving between trust and doubt, threading around pits of anger and frustration, fighting disappointment and heartbreak. Nothing happened the way Joseph had dreamed and planned it would. Not the wedding, nor the public approval and celebration. All his dreams were dashed to dust, but there emerged, with his continuing trust in God’s involvement, something much bigger and more wondrous than Joseph could ever had imagined.

Joseph was told to name the child “…Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (v.21). Jesus means “God saves.” The scriptures also say, “They will call him Emmanuel, …which means God with us.”

Whatever else we may say about Joseph, we should never overlook the truth that he was a man of confidence in God’s trustworthiness. His strength, compassion, wisdom, and courage all flowed from his constant, steady faith in God’s presence with him, and in God’s power to work all things for his good.

This is why I think Joseph’s journey of trusting the God of Christmas is at the very heart of the Christmas story. His experience with things going awry and turning out so differently from what he expected, is so much like our own life experiences. And his journey helps us hear and believe the possibility of our own difficult journey connecting with the good news of the Christmas story.

This Christmas, as we marvel at Mary’s quiet calm, admire the faith of the Magi, share in the excitement of the shepherds, let us also take a long, soul-searching look at the quiet strength of Joseph trusting faith. And let us remember that as Joseph was obedient to the angel’s message and named the child, Jesus, so may each of us do the same.

“Today…a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.”  Name him “Jesus” and trust him to be “Emmanuel” in your life-journey.

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – December 20, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

“DO NOT BE AFRAID”

Henri Nouwen, a Dutch priest, wrote that “Fear is the single most important and tragic emotion in our lives.”  He is right. Fear is the emotion that controls us most often in our decision-making and actions. There is a healthy fear that causes us to be cautious and careful, to give respect toward, and make good life-giving decisions. Then there is the opposite kind of fear that handicaps, paralyzes and separates us from experiencing life as God would have us enjoy.

Fear is Satan’s greatest and most deadly weapon that he uses in destroying you and your relationship with God. And so, it is only reasonable to conclude that the best remedy for quieting our fears begins with deliberate action toward restoring and strengthening our relationship with God.

In fact, this is what Jesus promised, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.” And then added, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:1, 27).

The prophet, Isaiah, spoke to our fears in a prophecy concerning God coming to us as the Messiah (Isaiah 35:4) – “Say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, …he will come to save you.”

In his Gospel account of Jesus’ birth, Luke will have an angel suddenly appear on three separate occasions bringing a special message from God. To Zechariah, a priest “gripped with fear,” the angel says, “Do not be afraid; Zechariah, your prayer has been heard.” (1:13).

To Mary, a young virgin “greatly troubled,” the angel says, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. … “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.” (1:28-30).

And to “terrified” shepherds keeping watch over their flocks at night in fields near Bethlehem, an angel appears in glorious light and says, “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.” (2:10-11).

In all three occasions, the angel’s sudden and unexpected appearance caused great anxiety and fear. And in all three occasions, the angel reassured the recipients of God’s special message with the words, “Do not be afraid.”

CHRISTMAS is the good news that God comes down to us to rescue us from our many fears. God wants to forgive, heal, and restore us to the confidence and security that his omni-presence assures us.

And so, when darkness and fears arise in your thoughts and spirit this Christmas season, 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). When you hear the joyous singing of Christmas hymns and carols, listen intently to the heartbeat of God’s love for you. “Joy to the world, the Lord (of love, light, and hope) is come!”

This is the “good news” message of Christmas. God, in Jesus, left the glories of heaven and came down and into our world of darknesses. By taking on human flesh, he entered fully into our world, bringing the peace and joy that flows from his presence of love and light engulfing us. THANK YOU, JESUS!

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