When Corrie Ten Boom walked into a men’s prison in Bermuda and started talking (shouting) about Jesus and God’s power to transform lives, she couldn’t be heard because of the noise coming from the cells. When she finally shouted, “When I was in a German concentration camp during the war. . .” , suddenly it became quiet and she was able to speak for over an hour to men who hung on every word.

Maybe it was the morbid interest in gruesome tales of suffering, but certainly it was the men’s identifying with one who had been a prisoner as they were. Sharing intense experiences produces powerful bonding, and Carrie used it many times in her travels to open the door to the Gospel.

The history of Salvation is supported entirely by the deep and abiding desire of God to bond with His people and for them to bond with Him: “They will be my people and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that . . . all will go well for them and for their children after them. I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.” (Jeremiah32:38-41) This yearning of the Lord for the love of His people was fulfilled when He sent His son, the One who will make “singleness of heart and action” a reality on the cross.

God bonds with Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Ruth, Deborah, Samuel, David and Esther and many more of His prophets and kings. He shares His life with them so that His people can know Him and listen to Him. At least twenty eight times in the Bible God declares, “They will be my people , and I will be their God”.

In the New Testament Peter wrote to the early churches, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His Marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.”(1 Peter2:9&10)

Corrie Ten Boom, a middle aged Dutch woman, bonded with men in a Bermuda prison because of her time in a concentration prison. We can bond with a first century Jewish teacher and miracle worker because he agreed to die for the wrongs of the world, and now lives to bond with us.

Love in Him,

Prue

When Mary called Jesus to come in for supper, the name she used was “Yeshua”, the Aramaic for of the name “Joshua”, which was later translated to Greek, then Latin , into the English “Jesus”. As Christians we mostly forget that the baby Jesus was named for the prophet and leader Joshua, by instruction from the angel Gabriel to Mary: “Don’t be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him “Jesus” (Yeshua). (Luke 1:31)

Jesus’ name was so important that Joseph was also told: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name “Jesus” because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

Both Mary and Joseph agreed and so it was that the Savior was named for Joshua, who brought the people of Israel into the Promised Land. It was Moses who successfully brought them out of Egypt, but Joshua who brought them in to their inheritance. Joshua ushered in the Hebrew people and settled them in the land. He supervised the distribution of the land and gave shares to each tribe and family.

In John 14 Jesus says to his disciples as he is about to face the cross: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My father’s house has many rooms, if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” In our modern lives it is God whom we first meet in Scripture and in church, but the one who draws us into God’s Kingdom is His son Jesus.

As Joshua went into the Promised Land to clear a place for the Hebrew people to live in peace and harmony, so Jesus’ Holy Spirit comes into believers to enable them to inherit eternal life and live with his Father on earth and in heaven.

Mary and Joseph’s boy is our “Joshua”. By accepting the cross, Jesus gave us access to the Kingdom of God, an inheritance that we didn’t earn but that God chose to give, and Jesus agreed to deliver. Long before Jesus was born God made clear His intentions through His prophets: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

The angels on Christmas night attested to that wonderful love that would bring great joy for everyone: “A Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) When Mary called Jesus to come in for supper, she was calling the one who would bring Salvation to you and to me.

Love in Him,

Prue

When I was born my father’s sister, my Aunt Mildred, selected a sterling silver pattern and purchased for me a spoon in that pattern. Afterward I received a spoon or fork or knife every birthday and Christmas from her. On Christmas Eve I was allowed to open Aunt Mildred’s gift only. My brother also opened his gift from her, a different toy every year. Some years I protested and was told, “some day you’ll appreciate these silver gifts, and Burr will outgrow his gifts.” I didn’t really believe this, but among the adults in my family it was much a repeated truth.

Aunt Mildred must have been surprised when our family grew to four girls and one boy, but she kept this tradition with all the girls. She was a school teacher who married in her 40’s and had no children of her own. I vividly remember writing compulsory “thank you” notes for “the lovely spoon (or fork or knife), and never even imagining the hidden gift behind the silver. It would take many years before I learned to appreciate the sacrifices our aunt made in order to supply all her nieces with sets of sterling silverware as we grew up, and the care she took to finish each set.

Who knew when Jesus was born, the real gift that God was giving to all humankind? “All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) While there were some who had experienced a holy stirring , the hidden gift of Jesus birth and childhood was almost unknown except to his parents and cousins: “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?” Jesus said to them,

‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own town.’”(Mark 6:3) Though his presence has been here on earth for two millennia, Jesus is still without honor in much of the world. The value of the gift of the Christ Child remains hidden in many souls in the world.

The first time and almost every time I set the table with my silverware I remember Aunt Mildred. The first carol we hear on Christmas day we can remember the Christ Child. Christmas is a wonderful time to catch an inkling of the hidden reality of Christ’s birth. The carols , the thoughtful gifts, the reunions, all show us a love behind the holiday, a love that reminds us of Him.

Merry Christmas!

Love in Him,

Prue

This Christmas season I felt the urge to binge on feel-good Hallmark Christmas style T.V. Shows. I experienced a diminishing sense of pleasure at one romance after another, accompanied by starry-eyed children and some amazing “coincidences”

“Go back to your heart, and from there to God. You’re going back, you see, from the nearest possible place, if you have gone back to your heart.” (St. Augustine sermon #331)

Christmas is a time of reconciliation and return, of re-connecting with far-flung family members and friends. St Augustine is urging us to reconnect with our own hearts as well as with our other friends. Augustine lived before the appearance of Christmas trees, or even the display of a “creche”. Perhaps it was easier for him to say “Return to your heart”, as there were fewer distractions like binge-worthy T.V. Shows.

Nevertheless, when I read Augustine’s words they resound in my mind with the words of Jesus: “The coming of the Kingdom of Hod is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is”, or “There it is,’ because the Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20).

At Christmas the Kingdom of God becomes the focus of Christians as we witness again the arrival of God as man in the baby Jesus. For Mary he was literally inside her, next to her heart for nine months before Bethlehem. Jesus’ birth shows us how very close God is to all those who believe. It’s a low bar for the Holy Spirit of God to take us from imagining holding the infant Jesus , to fnding the risen Christ in our hearts. He Holy Spirit works to make that connection for us so that we may really “/Go back to our hearts” and find God there.

It would be thirty years before others would discover the Kingdom living within them when they found and followed Jesus, but we have the benefit of telescoping time, and at Christmas we can enter into the extraordinary gift with gentleness and even silence as we “Go back to our hearts”

I love the lights and the trees and the bows and the wassail and the carols and the reuniting, but the Saint says there is something more, just as Jesus directed us to where to find Him. We all need the “more”, for it brings us into the very family of our God, to share His life with us, a life without end, available to every believer who goes back to his or her own heart.

Love in Him,

Prue

The four year old daughter of Diane, a friend of mine, was so unruly that her mother could hardly control her. Lori was the youngest of three children and “willful” would be an understatement of her character. Diane talked to her pediatrician who told her, “You can be very strict, or very lenient, but it is constancy that’s required. You’ve tried many different approaches, but when they didn’t work right away you changed again and again. Have patience and stick to one method, and it will work.” It did. In a short time Diane told me that things had improved and she was actually enjoying her daughter. What a relief!

It’s not incidental that Jesus calls God his Father, and the disciples brothers. (John 20:17)

It’s in the human family that the earliest seeds are planted for our relationship with the living God.

When God gave Noah the rainbow God said: “ As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Genesis 8:22) That very ancient promise is still in effect. Constancy is a characteristic of our God. It’s the power of love in infinite ways, but constantly loving. When Diane’s doctor led her to constancy he put a rock beneath Lori’s little feet on which she could depend and rely. It was life-correcting for her, and opened up a new relationship with her mother in which both rejoiced.

God’s constancy was dramatically displayed in Exodus as He drew His people out of Egypt, then spent forty years accompanying them to the Promised Land, and ultimately settled them there. His constancy was tested when the people rebelled, but He never failed to assure them that whatever punishment they must endure, “I will plant my people on the land I gave them, and they will not be pulled up again.” (Amos 9:15)

Diane’s problem with Lori was solved fairly easily because Diane saw progress every day. Like hers, our walk with God includes attentiveness and even sacrifices, but we don’t always see daily progress. Discovering the Fatherhood of God is finding the nourishing and sustaining constancy of His love. It is having a rock beneath our feet that makes life secure and even strong.

All the best parenting that happened to us in our childhood is a picture of God’s divine parenting now. Jesus said “Our Father. . .” He means us to make that discovery.

Love in Him,

Prue

God always knew that words cannot express the “Word”, the one known by his disciple John as the “Word.” (John 1:1) Instead, God wrapped the Word in human flesh and swaddling cloths, so that, with the help of angel visitations to Mary and in dreams to Joseph, in a host of sweet singers to some shepherds, and the visits of royalty from the East, the Word could find recognition on earth when he was born. The Word, of course, could not speak, or know that he was being recognized, but God provided those who could both know and speak, and one who was content to ponder. For more than 2000 years, human flesh has celebrated his entry into our world, singing the angels’ song and reliving his birth.

In a sermon once preached by the famous British pastor Charles Spurgeon, he wondered that the angels didn’t appear jealous that God had chosen a human life as apposed to an angelic life for His son to receive. The preacher was moved by the joyful chorus that announced the birth of Jesus, and the careful and graceful work of the angel Gabriel in addressing both Zechariah and Mary.

The angels never disappeared from the life of the growing Jesus, and as a man close to death he was mindful of their presence.: “Do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and He will put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”(Matthew 26:23) The glory of the angels who sang at Jesus’ birth and their close association with his human family helps us understand the mysterious incarnation of God’s Spirit in the Word, His son.

Jesus combines for us the natural and the supernatural life on earth, becoming a loving link for us to his Father God: “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared 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’” (Luke 2:13-14)

Even though words can’t contain all there is to know about the incarnation, Advent is a time to read and reread the scriptures to discover in their words the Word that became flesh and inspired angelic music on earth. The angels are not jealous of humanity. They know that we are created by their creator, and they love to bring messages of grace and favor from our Father to us. They, too, celebrated the incarnation of the Word, and rejoiced to sing his nativity.

Love in Him,

Prue

C.S. Lewis wrote a famous book titled “The Four Loves” in which he explores the four Greek words for the English word “love”: Philia, Eros, Storge, Agape. Roughly translated these four are, friendship, erotic love, affection, and holy charity. The translators of the Greek New Testament into English had no choice but to include all of these in a single word, “love”.

In the Hebrew language the word for “love” that Isaac spoke to Esau, his son: Prepare the tasty food I love and bring it to me.” (Genesis 27:4) is the same word used by Moses much later: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

I guess that all that this means to me is that from the earliest recorded times human beings have recognized and given a name or names to something that was gratifying, desirable, and sometimes holy and transcendent. When Moses told the Israelites to “Love the Lord your God”, no one wondered what that meant, and when Jesus affirmed it as the greatest commandment, no one asked “What does that mean, and how can we do it?” (Mark 12:30-33) Rather , love for God and neighbor was recognized by a teacher of the law who responded, “Well said, teacher. . . to love God with all your heart, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus knew that he would be dying very soon he told the disciples, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s one life for his friends.” (John 15:13) The cross would be love on display, a truth that only very few would recognize at the time and only dimly until after the Resurrection. Then the numbers would grow to reach around the world. The precious words of Jesus to his friends have widened the circle of those who love him.

The apostle Peter wrote, “Though you have not seen him, you love him.” (1Peter 1:3) The love that Moses had mandated has appeared in the spirits of believers who had never seen Jesus in their lives, but knew and loved him as if they had. The transcendent Spirit that is traceable from before Moses is spread through Christ’s death and Resurrection, and we are drawn to love our invisible God.

Advent is a time to trace love’s progress and to bask in the love of God and neighbor, to lift our eyes away from despair and grief, and to renew the bond with the one who came as a new-born, and offers us new birth.

Love in Him,

Prue

Joy

Most of my life I believed that Joy is a by-product of happy circumstances or relationships., but Nehemiah, the steadfast returner to Jerusalem after being exiled, wrote this when his people had become conscious of how far away they had fallen from God’s words to them: “This day (of return) is holy to the Lord your God. Do not grieve, for the Joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The “day” was the day of self-revelation as the people heard their scriptures read,manyfor the first time. The discrepancy between their lives and the word of God was dismaying., but Nehemiah says they may draw strength from the supernatural Joy of hearing the word of God.

“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come, but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her Joy that a child has been born into the world.” (John 16:21-22) Jesus said this to his disciples in anticipation of his own resurrection.

The advent of new life carries Joy to the spirits of human beings, especially the mothers of new-born babies, and brings with it strength. That Joy blots out the pain and anguish of the birth process.

There is indeed strength in Joy, as the Psalmist knew, as well: “Restore unto me the Joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:12)

While God’s Spirit is a peaceful Spirit, He is also a Joyful Spirit. Jesus himself says this at a time when he could be expected to be anything but Joyful, the night before his crucifixion: “I have told you this so that my Joy may be in you and that your Joy maybe complete.” (John 15:11)

The power of Joy rests in the character of God. Jesus speaks of his followers sharing his Joy and the Father’s Joy. The very reason for His incarnation, for coming to earth to live among joyless as well as joyful human beings is to share the Spirit of God, living in Him, with those who are willing to receive Him.

At Jesus’ nativity, it’s with great Joy that angels announce to the shepherds, “Don’t be afraid, for I bring you good news that will cause great Joy for all people.” (Luke 2:10) The Joy of the Lord is contagious, and comes to us from God Himself. It is for us a strength that can always be renewed.

Love in Him,

Prue

“The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything , but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the Peace which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Of all the turbulent lives that have been lived on earth, St. Paul’s must be one of the most turbulent. Multiple shipwrecks, multiple arrests and beatings and imprisonments, virtually endless traveling, experiencing cold and heat, hunger, thirst, betrayal, and loneliness were the lot of the Pharisee apostle who preached the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles.

In each of his letters to individuals or congregations, Paul opens his letter with this: “Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul, who persecuted and imprisoned believers, had become an apostle of Peace when he himself experienced “the Peace that passes understanding” and wrote of it to the churches.

In the hectic hustle of the Christmas season everyone looks for moments of Peace andcalm, but Paul carried the mysterious Peace with him wherever he was. It was a gift he had received from Jesus himself.

At the Last Supper Jesus told of the Peace that his Spirit would convey to the disciples: “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 14:27)

Jesus’s Peace is a supernatural Peace , and it is a gift, a part of the new lives that the disciples will be living. It conveys the mysterious Peace that Elijah experienced in the midst of the earthquake and fire, the “still small voice” of God, (I Kings 19:12), the voice of Peace.

Peace in the Advent season can still be found. It is a gift God eagerly bestows. We have only to pick up His gift in the Bible and read the words of God’s own Son. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have Peace. In this world you will havetrouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Finally, in Advent it’s good to reread the story of the announcement of this wonderful Peace. “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth Peace to those on whom His favor rests.” (Luke 2:14)

Love in Him,

Prue

Advent is a season of waiting, and waiting requires patience. Compared to Love, Hope, Joy, and Peace, patience is a poor cousin. It doesn’t come with trumpet blasts or satin ribbons; it doesn’t sit on top of the Christmas tree or sparkle.

When my grandson was visiting with his family on Christmas Eve he could hardly sit still. He whispered to his father until I asked, “ Is there something I can help you with?” In agony the five year old said, “I can’t remember if the cookies come first or the stockings?”

Patience isn’t easy, especially for children, but also for everyone. Both the Old and New Testaments express the need to be patient: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.” (Psalm 40:1) David also shares his patience with us: “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:13-14) Though he had been anointed king of Israel, David waited patiently for years for the fulfillment of his anointing. He repeatedly rejected opportunities to take the throne from Saul. When all obstacles were removed, David’s conscience was clear of taking the throne for himself. His patience bore fruit when God promised him an eternal patrimony: “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” (II Samuel 7:16)

In the New Testament an Angel of God visited Mary to tell her, “The Lord God will give him (Mary’s son) the throne of his father David, ad he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”( Luke 1:32-33) In patience Mary waited for nine months, and then for thirty years before he started his ministry. Mary’s patience was sorely tried at the cross.

Enduring patience is an engine in the spiritual world that moves human beings and God closer together. Patience is not being discouraged, but persevering in faith. It is staying in touch with Christ so that without seeing Him, we may with assurance wait for Him.

Advent is a time of waiting, and of deep assurance of the arrival of God’s own son into our world and into our lives. It’s a time to probe the mystery of a loving and creative God who asks patience of us in waiting upon His Holy Spirit. As we wait we are renewed by the promises in His book and in the witnesses of countless ones who have gone before us. May He give us patience with children, adults and with Him, for “Love is Patient. . .”(1 Corinthians 13:13)

Love in Him,

Prue