Psalm 31:7 “I will be glad and rejoice in your love,”

[Your love alone is enough for joy, O God. You, heavenly Father, showed your love in sending the Savior into this violent, deadly world; you, Lord Jesus, showed your love in suffering immeasurably to save your enemies; you, Holy Spirit, show your love in working here in this fallen, twisted world to bring light to all, the elect to faith and the believers to maturity.

You all three show your love in patiently allowing us to grieve you daily as we zigzag through life, bouncing from belief to selfishness, from obedience to rebellion and back. Truly your love is great, powerful, wise, endless–enduring and wonderful. To know you is enough for joy, to be your child is more than enough reason to praise, for you are love itself.

“for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.”

[You, Lord God, are omnipresent and omniscient. You see and know the difficulties of my life, my disturbed soul, my anguished heart.

And you are consistently at work bringing the healing fruit of peace and righteousness as you help me respond to your gifts of guidance and grace. May I consistently cooperate with you in belief and surrender

Psalm 31:5 “Into your hands I commit my spirit;”

[These were the words of David in difficulty, and the words of Christ on the cross; they should also be the daily words of every one of us believers.

As we commit our spirit to you, Lord Jesus, we are surrendering our life, our future to you, giving you permission to lead us through whatever you deem best and at the right time to take us out of this world. We can trust you and thank you now for what you will do.]

“redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.”

[This is a great admission of our need to be purchased back out of the kingdom of darkness.

And, because you, Lord Jesus, are the God of truth, we can wholeheartedly run to you, the High and Holy One, the Mighty One who knows and sees all. You are pure and merciful, righteous and forgiving, just and redeeming.

We can trust you, for if you, the Most High, the Final Authority, the Great Judge have declared that all in Christ are forgiven, cleansed, holy and dearly loved, then we are redeemed indeed!]

So we proclaim “Into your hands I commit my spirit….”

You are sparkling in your purity, Lord Jesus, generous in your grace, marvelous in your majesty, great in your goodness, overwhelming in your wisdom and dazzling in your greatness.

To delight in you is to enter into a fuller reality, to let the shadows of our natural thoughts and values fade into the background, as the light of Truth and Love from your inner beauty shines into our hearts.

Such gazing on your beauty brings transformation and joy, a deeper grasp of your acceptance and forgiveness of us, and a solid sense of the security of being your child.

You are delightful, you are delectable, you are decidedly wonderful and as I bow before you, all else pales and falls away. Only your gracious, glorious and good presence remains.

To know you is so inexpressibly sweet and so overwhelmingly powerful at the same time.

I choose to delight in you, Lord Jesus, rejecting the tinsel of this world, along with my pride and self-centered sinfulness. For In you I am forgiven, in you I am cleansed, in you I am accepted, in you I am unconditionally and eternally loved. What more could I want? May you be delighted in every moment.

Last night in our Christmas Eve service this verse was read:

Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

I was struck how this is a clear a statement of the Trinity.

The Trinity, of course is a mystery, unfathomable for a human being: One God in three Persons. Each one God, each one different, each one playing a distinct role. Like in salvation where the Father plans, the Son carries it out and the Spirit finishes it up.

Some would say this is a New Testament construct. But, there are strong hints and foreshadowing of this mystery in the Old Testament. Look at this verse mentioned, Isa. 6:9:
“…a son” This is THE Son, Jesus
“ …who is called Wonderful Counselor” This is the Holy Spirit.
“…Mighty God,” The One God with three Persons
“…Everlasting Father,” The Son is the Father
“…Prince of Peace” the title of the Son.

Having a Triune God is very important. If God were only one, since He is love, he would need someone else to love, making him dependent on his creation. But the relationships within the Trinity are all He/they need. This makes Him truly God, independent of anything He creates.

There are other hints at the Trinity, beginning with the first verses in the Bible. “In the beginning God created the heavens and earth.” The word for “God” here is “Elohim.” In Hebrew this is a plural word, and specifically a plural for three or more—just like the Trinity!
Then in verse 26 God says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,” Not my or mine, but us and ours, again pointing towards a plural, to a relationship between two or more.

In Genesis 3:23, after Adam sinned, “…the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” God spoke of “us”, not “me” again hinting of the Trinity.

In Genesis 18:3 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. Then in Genesis 18:6 “One of these three spoke…. Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Obviously this is Yahweh, one of the great names of God. He showed Himself as three men, and speaks as the one Lord.

And in Genesis 19 in the story of the tower of Babel, God says, “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” Us, not me. Again the plural, not of majesty but of fact.

So God reveals Himself slowly to humans, beginning with the first verse in the Bible to let us know that He is one God and three Persons.

Then in the New Testament, this revelation is taken step by step to new levels. In John 5:17-47 Jesus makes over 15 statements of how He and the Father are one, both sharing the same names, authority and traits, while each also has distinct roles.

Praise God that He is three Persons in One, making Him truly God, the One we can depend on. The Trinity is like this picture: the light of the sun, the moon and its reflection in the pond: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Christmas was not only a time of new beginnings, Christmas changed everything!

Christmas meant that God no longer dwelt only in the temple, He dwelt with man as Immanuel.

Christmas meant that God no longer only spoke through men, He now spoke directly to us.

Christmas meant that God’s relationship with us was no longer based on the law, but on love.

Christmas meant that He no longer related to us through priests, but became our priest himself.

Christmas meant that the Spirit was no longer just for special people, but for all those who believed.

Christmas brought the work of the Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.

Christmas moved us from keeping the law to living in God’s love.

Christmas crystalized the truth that salvation comes by faith, no more sacrifices in the temple.

Christmas was the start of a great outpouring of grace.

Christmas meant that the Light of Life now would shine on every person.

Christmas was the beginning of the church.

Christmas brought the corner stone of the church into the world
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Christmas made it possible for the true temple to be made of living stones rather than rocks.

Christmas opened the way for unifying Jew and gentile

Yes, Christmas changed everything and we get to live every day in those differences. Christmas should fill us with gratitude for the goodness of God!