Demi Moore seems to have it all.

                        She is one of the most beautiful women in the world.

                        She is a style icon, consistently photographed for magazine covers and admired on the red carpets at movie premiers and award shows.

                        She is famous, recognized as one of her generation’s excellent actresses,  with a career that has stretched nearly three decades from her early twenties.

                        She is wealthy beyond description (at one time the highest paid actress in movies) with homes in resort areas in California, Idaho and Maine.

                        She has been married to two of the most famous actors in Hollywood, and has by all accounts raised children who are smart, beautiful and intensely loyal.

                        She is philanthropic, giving her time and resources to meaningful causes like rescuing girls from sex trafficking in Nepal.

            But this morning, Demi Moore is in some sort of rehab facility, after having crashed in a fearful mixture of convulsions and semi-consciousness after smoking or ingesting some sort of substance during a party at her home last weekend.

            Why?

            Why would someone with so many resources at her disposal and so much positive good in her life sense a need for any sort of substance to numb or thrill or adjust or handle anything?  Yes, Demi has been going through the trauma of a very public divorce in the aftermath of the bitter betrayal of adultery. It has not been an easy season, but still, the question lingers.

            Why?

            In our celebrity culture, it’s hard to remember that, just like with ordinary people, there may be a vast gulf between what appears on the outside and what is stirring on the inside.  In other words, the glamour shots in the modeling sessions can never capture the soul of Demi.  That has remained very carefully hidden.

            Until now. Demi is a partner in the development of a new show on lifetime called The Conversation, which promises to create “an intimate and inviting environment” to discuss the universal needs & struggles of women.  The show will feature conversations in which famous, seemingly all-together women (Moore, Zoe Saldana, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alicia Keys, etc) take down the walls and discuss their inner lives.

            In a recent interview in Bazaar to promote the show, Demi made this stunning comment;   

            And I think there is no way to reach your fullest potential if you don’t really find  the love of yourself. If I were to answer it just kind of bold-faced, I would say what scares me is that I’m going to ultimately find out at the end of my life  that I’m really not lovable, that I’m not worthy of being loved. That there’s   something fundamentally wrong with me. (emphasis added)

            Read that again, slowly.  Demi’s honesty here is stunning. She takes her soul out and puts it under the spotlight–alone, naked and vulnerable. There is at the core of Demi Moore a fear that that she will never be truly loved and accepted.  That when all is said and done, the achievements of a lifetime will not gain her the thing she longs for the most—the certainty of being fully and honestly loved by another. That she can never do enough with her life to deserve being loved like that. That she is fundamentally broken to such a degree that no one on the planet would ever choose to simply love Demi for Demi.  And everybody else can see the flaw that will remain hidden to Demi until some horrible, too-late moment of recognition.

            You get the feeling that this longing is the search that is driving everything else in Demi’s life.  All the emphasis on fashion, fitness and beauty could be a silent cry to hear somebody say “you’re lovely”, which feels like being loved (though it is not the same). All the philanthropy could be an attempt to do something right and fix something broken in the world so people will name her life in the world as one worthy of admiration.

            Can you see the little girl with the lacy dress, in her mommy’s shoes and pearls, trying so hard to be grown-up and glamorous…and yet the lipstick missed her lips and the chocolate bar she’s clutching has melted all over her hands and dripped down the front of the dress.

            Demi is looking for somebody to notice the beauty—and yet she’s painfully aware of the melting chocolate of her human flaws and limitations.

            Demi is hungry for grace. She would never put it in those words, but that’s what she is longing for.  She longs for a relationship with someone who will love her without reservation or limit, and who will not run away when they uncover the dark stain of her inner mess.  She yearns for someone to accept her in spite of her inherent unworthiness. She aches to know that there is a place where she can be authentically real and not feel the pressure to measure up to some standard of worthiness that she already knows she fails to meet. She wants to be loved more deeply than her brokenness.

            And there is only one Person who will love Demi like that. He already does. He knows all her flaws and brokenness—and loves her still.  He is not shocked by her fundamental brokenness, nor will he run away from it.  He knows she is not worthy, that she doesn’t measure up (because no human does), so he comes to exchange her failing scorecard for his perfect record.  His heart breaks over her heart’s desperate struggle to make herself strong, good, beautiful or acceptable, because he knows she is utterly incapable of making herself any of those things. But he can make her all of those things, new from the inside out.  He sees the true longings of her heart, and will gladly, freely, give them all to her….if she will simply trust him. 

            Demi needs grace.  And since, “grace and truth come through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), Demi needs Jesus.  

            Jesus is the heavenly Father with skin on.  He is the one who will come to little girls, dressed-up and chocolate stained (or little boys, bow-tied and grass-stained) and scoop them in His arms and cover them with kisses… anyway.  

            Grace is the overwhelming and utterly irrational love of God lavished on those who aren’t loveable, don’t deserve it, aren’t worthy and are fundamentally wrong.  That means grace is for all of us.  Grace means that because of a bloody cross and an empty tomb, God loves you…anyway.

            Grace means that it doesn’t (nor has it ever) depended on you to make yourself better, loveable, worthy or right.  Grace is not about your performance, but about the generous heart of the Lover of your soul.   Grace means that, in Jesus, you are accepted, now and forever…anyway.

            Demi needs the grace of Jesus much more than she needs rehab.  So do you and I and everybody we know.  Why? Demi said that she was scared of being unloved. The redeemed slave trader John Newton once wrote that “grace my fears relieved.”  Grace is nothing less than the untamed love of God, and His “perfect love casts out all fear.” (1 Jn. 4:18)  So grace means that even though life is rife with fears, in Jesus you can have peace…anyway.

            Demi is hungry for Jesus’ grace, whether she knows it or not. We all are. Only the grace of Jesus will satisfy the hunger in our souls. It’s the only thing big enough to sustain us through the complexities of this life and into the next. And if you know your life is being held tight by Jesus grace-full embrace now, there won’t be any surprises at the end of it.

            Pray that Demi will come and feast on the grace of Jesus. And make sure you don’t miss the feast, either. There’s plenty for all of us.

The horror continues to unfold in the wreck of the Casta Concordia cruise ship on the rocks of Giglio Island just off the coast of Italy.  The dream vacation of the 3-4,000 passengers cruising the Greek Islands turned into a nightmare when the ship crashed into the rocks, tearing a 120-foot hole in the side of the ship.

            Within minutes, water filled the ship and the ship flipped on its side.  In scenes reminiscent of the Titanic, tables, dishes and equipment went flying.  People leaped off the ship and attempted to swim through the icy waters to shore. There were screams in the dark amidst a mad scramble to get to the lifeboats, all of which were crowded beyond capacity.  One horrifying scene shows a human chain stretching across the upturned hull of the ship, lowering one person at a time to safety. 

            As of this morning, there are several confirmed fatalities and about 30 people still unaccounted for.

            What happened?  Almost immediately, fingers were pointed at the captain. The ship was out of the normally marked channels. Word came that the captain had sent an inquiry about his dinner order—thirty minutes after impact and with the ship already listing! Then, it became evident that the captain had abandoned ship while people were still in danger and had to be ordered back to give direction to the crew.

            But it seems that the real problem came long before the Casta Concordia ran aground.  As a favor to his head waiter, the captain changed course so the waiter could signal his family, who live on Giglio Island.  They would blow the ship’s horn and the waiter could stand on deck and wave as they passed. He moved the ship four miles off course, and came within 162 yards of the coast—when company policy mandates a ship come no closer than 547 yards.

            Because of a private and unannounced indulgence, the Casta Concordia ran aground and people lost their lives.

            But mostly the Casta Concordia wrecked because the captain forgot the point of the voyage and his primary responsibilities.  He confused the priorities of passengers and crew. He blurred the lines between charted journey and frivolous side trip. He forgot the primary goal was to get the passengers safely to the other side.

            Increasingly, we find evangelical churches and ministries in crisis and running aground.  Most churches in my tribe of Southern Baptists are plateaued or declining.  They struggle to gain any traction with a culture that has changed and with generations that are suspicious of all things “church”. People are abandoning the ship of the church like it is sinking fast, opting for other gatherings of Christ-followers built for deep community in homes or around involvement in social justice issues. Others are just plain opting out.

            Why is the church struggling? Because many have forgotten the point of the journey and its primary responsibility.  Jesus made it clear that his church was designed to glorify God (Matt. 22:37-38, Eph. 3:20-21) by spreading to all people the gospel (good news) of a life-and-family-and- community-and–injustice-and-eternity- transforming relationship with God available through repentance and faith in Jesus. (Luke 15:11-32, Luke 24:47, Rom. 1:16) This is to happen one life at a time, as the church gives its energy and resources to loving people where they are, sharing life as a radically new community, and developing a certain sort of person called a disciple of Jesus. (Matt. 22:39, Acts 2:41-47, 28:19-20)

            When a church forgets this point and loses focus on it, it can begin to drift off course.  We can confuse the privilege of serving the membership with the priority of serving those still outside the faith.  No church whose focus is primarily on the pleasure of its own crew will broadly impact others making the journey from death to life.  We can indulge our own relationships and preferences, all while drifting away from the path that will engage spiritually far-from-God people and help them move closer to a relationship with God.  It’s the spiritual equivalent of a cruise-ship wave to friends. 

            When a church loses its gospel and disciple-making North Star, it will be tempted to take trivial side trips.  The church can be heavily involved with community service, have wonderfully engaging children’s or student ministries, maintain good stewardship of its buildings and facilities, train families for financial freedom, produce powerful musical presentations, be organizationally efficient, encourage good friendships, sponsor fellowships and trips for senior adults, provide a wide range of classes and groups for Biblical training, be powerfully engaged with social justice issues or take a stand for moral values, be technologically savvy, and more.  All of those things can be proper and powerful for a church IF they are intentionally shaped in the service of spreading the gospel and making disciples who increasingly resemble Jesus. Otherwise, they are merely the trivial strivings of a religious club.

            Why does this matter? Because there’s really only one thing the church of Jesus can do: we spread the fame of Jesus by making gospel-centered disciples who trust Christ alone to save from sin, shape their life and secure their eternal destiny. If we do anything other than that, we move off-course and into the shallows where rocks lurk to tear holes in the hull of the ship of Zion.

            So, when the church runs aground because of selfish course adjustments, it violates the command of our King and gives a false reading of His great heart.   

            But even more, when the church runs aground, it places precious far-from-God people in eternal peril. It tosses people who desperately need Jesus out to make their own way in the chill of the world.

            Pray the church of Jesus—beginning with ours– stays on course, so that we can finish the journey with a ship full of people, all delighting in King Jesus who will be standing with open arms to welcome us Home.

The horror continues to unfold in the wreck of the Casta Concordia cruise ship on the rocks of Giglio Island just off the coast of Italy.  The dream vacation of the 3-4,000 passengers cruising the Greek Islands turned into a nightmare when the ship crashed into the rocks, tearing a 120-foot hole in the side of the ship.

            Within minutes, water filled the ship and the ship flipped on its side.  In scenes reminiscent of the Titanic, tables, dishes and equipment went flying.  People leaped off the ship and attempted to swim through the icy waters to shore. There were screams in the dark amidst a mad scramble to get to the lifeboats, all of which were crowded beyond capacity.  One horrifying scene shows a human chain stretching across the upturned hull of the ship, lowering one person at a time to safety. 

            As of this morning, there are several confirmed fatalities and about 30 people still unaccounted for.

            What happened?  Almost immediately, fingers were pointed at the captain. The ship was out of the normally marked channels. Word came that the captain had sent an inquiry about his dinner order—thirty minutes after impact and with the ship already listing! Then, it became evident that the captain had abandoned ship while people were still in danger and had to be ordered back to give direction to the crew.

            But it seems that the real problem came long before the Casta Concordia ran aground.  As a favor to his head waiter, the captain changed course so the waiter could signal his family, who live on Giglio Island.  They would blow the ship’s horn and the waiter could stand on deck and wave as they passed. He moved the ship four miles off course, and came within 162 yards of the coast—when company policy mandates a ship come no closer than 547 yards.

            Because of a private and unannounced indulgence, the Casta Concordia ran aground and people lost their lives.

            But mostly the Casta Concordia wrecked because the captain forgot the point of the voyage and his primary responsibilities.  He confused the priorities of passengers and crew. He blurred the lines between charted journey and frivolous side trip. He forgot the primary goal was to get the passengers safely to the other side.

            Increasingly, we find evangelical churches and ministries in crisis and running aground.  Most churches in my tribe of Southern Baptists are plateaued or declining.  They struggle to gain any traction with a culture that has changed and with generations that are suspicious of all things “church”. People are abandoning the ship of the church like it is sinking fast, opting for other gatherings of Christ-followers built for deep community in homes or around involvement in social justice issues. Others are just plain opting out.

            Why is the church struggling? Because many have forgotten the point of the journey and its primary responsibility.  Jesus made it clear that his church was designed to glorify God (Matt. 22:37-38, Eph. 3:20-21) by spreading to all people the gospel (good news) of a life-and-family-and- community-and–injustice-and-eternity- transforming relationship with God available through repentance and faith in Jesus. (Luke 15:11-32, Luke 24:47, Rom. 1:16) This is to happen one life at a time, as the church gives its energy and resources to loving people where they are, sharing life as a radically new community, and developing a certain sort of person called a disciple of Jesus. (Matt. 22:39, Acts 2:41-47, 28:19-20)

            When a church forgets this point and loses focus on it, it can begin to drift off course.  We can confuse the privilege of serving the membership with the priority of serving those still outside the faith.  No church whose focus is primarily on the pleasure of its own crew will broadly impact others making the journey from death to life.  We can indulge our own relationships and preferences, all while drifting away from the path that will engage spiritually far-from-God people and help them move closer to a relationship with God.  It’s the spiritual equivalent of a cruise-ship wave to friends. 

            When a church loses its gospel and disciple-making North Star, it will be tempted to take trivial side trips.  The church can be heavily involved with community service, have wonderfully engaging children’s or student ministries, maintain good stewardship of its buildings and facilities, train families for financial freedom, produce powerful musical presentations, be organizationally efficient, encourage good friendships, sponsor fellowships and trips for senior adults, provide a wide range of classes and groups for Biblical training, be powerfully engaged with social justice issues or take a stand for moral values, be technologically savvy, and more.  All of those things can be proper and powerful for a church IF they are intentionally shaped in the service of spreading the gospel and making disciples who increasingly resemble Jesus. Otherwise, they are merely the trivial strivings of a religious club.

            Why does this matter? Because there’s really only one thing the church of Jesus can do: we spread the fame of Jesus by making gospel-centered disciples who trust Christ alone to save from sin, shape their life and secure their eternal destiny. If we do anything other than that, we move off-course and into the shallows where rocks lurk to tear holes in the hull of the ship of Zion.

            So, when the church runs aground because of selfish course adjustments, it violates the command of our King and gives a false reading of His great heart.   

            But even more, when the church runs aground, it places precious far-from-God people in eternal peril. It tosses people who desperately need Jesus out to make their own way in the chill of the world.

            Pray the church of Jesus—beginning with ours– stays on course, so that we can finish the journey with a ship full of people, all delighting in King Jesus who will be standing with open arms to welcome us Home.

The horror continues to unfold in the wreck of the Casta Concordia cruise ship on the rocks of Giglio Island just off the coast of Italy.  The dream vacation of the 3-4,000 passengers cruising the Greek Islands turned into a nightmare when the ship crashed into the rocks, tearing a 120-foot hole in the side of the ship.

            Within minutes, water filled the ship and the ship flipped on its side.  In scenes reminiscent of the Titanic, tables, dishes and equipment went flying.  People leaped off the ship and attempted to swim through the icy waters to shore. There were screams in the dark amidst a mad scramble to get to the lifeboats, all of which were crowded beyond capacity.  One horrifying scene shows a human chain stretching across the upturned hull of the ship, lowering one person at a time to safety. 

            As of this morning, there are several confirmed fatalities and about 30 people still unaccounted for.

            What happened?  Almost immediately, fingers were pointed at the captain. The ship was out of the normally marked channels. Word came that the captain had sent an inquiry about his dinner order—thirty minutes after impact and with the ship already listing! Then, it became evident that the captain had abandoned ship while people were still in danger and had to be ordered back to give direction to the crew.

            But it seems that the real problem came long before the Casta Concordia ran aground.  As a favor to his head waiter, the captain changed course so the waiter could signal his family, who live on Giglio Island.  They would blow the ship’s horn and the waiter could stand on deck and wave as they passed. He moved the ship four miles off course, and came within 162 yards of the coast—when company policy mandates a ship come no closer than 547 yards.

            Because of a private and unannounced indulgence, the Casta Concordia ran aground and people lost their lives.

            But mostly the Casta Concordia wrecked because the captain forgot the point of the voyage and his primary responsibilities.  He confused the priorities of passengers and crew. He blurred the lines between charted journey and frivolous side trip. He forgot the primary goal was to get the passengers safely to the other side.

            Increasingly, we find evangelical churches and ministries in crisis and running aground.  Most churches in my tribe of Southern Baptists are plateaued or declining.  They struggle to gain any traction with a culture that has changed and with generations that are suspicious of all things “church”. People are abandoning the ship of the church like it is sinking fast, opting for other gatherings of Christ-followers built for deep community in homes or around involvement in social justice issues. Others are just plain opting out.

            Why is the church struggling? Because many have forgotten the point of the journey and its primary responsibility.  Jesus made it clear that his church was designed to glorify God (Matt. 22:37-38, Eph. 3:20-21) by spreading to all people the gospel (good news) of a life-and-family-and- community-and–injustice-and-eternity- transforming relationship with God available through repentance and faith in Jesus. (Luke 15:11-32, Luke 24:47, Rom. 1:16) This is to happen one life at a time, as the church gives its energy and resources to loving people where they are, sharing life as a radically new community, and developing a certain sort of person called a disciple of Jesus. (Matt. 22:39, Acts 2:41-47, 28:19-20)

            When a church forgets this point and loses focus on it, it can begin to drift off course.  We can confuse the privilege of serving the membership with the priority of serving those still outside the faith.  No church whose focus is primarily on the pleasure of its own crew will broadly impact others making the journey from death to life.  We can indulge our own relationships and preferences, all while drifting away from the path that will engage spiritually far-from-God people and help them move closer to a relationship with God.  It’s the spiritual equivalent of a cruise-ship wave to friends. 

            When a church loses its gospel and disciple-making North Star, it will be tempted to take trivial side trips.  The church can be heavily involved with community service, have wonderfully engaging children’s or student ministries, maintain good stewardship of its buildings and facilities, train families for financial freedom, produce powerful musical presentations, be organizationally efficient, encourage good friendships, sponsor fellowships and trips for senior adults, provide a wide range of classes and groups for Biblical training, be powerfully engaged with social justice issues or take a stand for moral values, be technologically savvy, and more.  All of those things can be proper and powerful for a church IF they are intentionally shaped in the service of spreading the gospel and making disciples who increasingly resemble Jesus. Otherwise, they are merely the trivial strivings of a religious club.

            Why does this matter? Because there’s really only one thing the church of Jesus can do: we spread the fame of Jesus by making gospel-centered disciples who trust Christ alone to save from sin, shape their life and secure their eternal destiny. If we do anything other than that, we move off-course and into the shallows where rocks lurk to tear holes in the hull of the ship of Zion.

            So, when the church runs aground because of selfish course adjustments, it violates the command of our King and gives a false reading of His great heart.   

            But even more, when the church runs aground, it places precious far-from-God people in eternal peril. It tosses people who desperately need Jesus out to make their own way in the chill of the world.

            Pray the church of Jesus—beginning with ours– stays on course, so that we can finish the journey with a ship full of people, all delighting in King Jesus who will be standing with open arms to welcome us Home.

My son Drew gave me a wonderful gift for Christmas—a trip with he and a friend to the Passion 2012 conference in Atlanta.  (We may have been the smallest group there, but we got in at the last minute to the sold-out event.)

            Passion, a ministry founded by Louie Giglio about 15 years ago, exists to mobilize a generation of young adults (age 18-25) around the glory of God, the gospel of Jesus and the global purposes of God.  The ministry is rooted in Isaiah 26:8: “Yes, Lord, walking in the way of Your truth, we wait eagerly for You, for Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.”  While the power of Passion emerges from the national conference and the worship music of Chris Tomlin and others, it is clearly more. This is a movement built on the Word and energized by the Spirit for a unique impact in this generation.

            Passion 2012 was held Jan. 2-5 in the Georgia Dome, the stadium where the Atlanta Falcons play football.  The schedule included times of worship and preaching, community groups for a more personal interaction, and a major emphasis on global social justice. It’s almost impossible to describe the experiences of these days in detail, so, let me just share the snapshots that come to mind:

            + 42,000+ young adults is a lot of young adults in one place!  But that also meant a lot of diversity (from all 50 states and 42 foreign countries and who knows how many college campuses) and a lot of wonderful energy.  They filled half the Georgia Dome, three tiers high.  There were also over 2000 older people, who wanted to invest in this generation, and were there to simply serve the students.  The next time I find myself without a group, I’m going as a volunteer.

            + genuine patience, consideration and even joy demonstrated while standing in line…in the cold…over and over again.  Moving from one session to another, from the stadium sessions to meal times resulted in bottlenecks of thousands trying to get up single escalators or stairs.  Not one word of complaint or even a snap of irritation was evidenced.

                   My favorite moment?  Noticing one guy in an office overlooking the crowds, students by the dozens began to wave. No response. More waving. No response. More wavers.  He walks away. Groans. Then returns to the window.  Even more waving. Finally the man lifted a hand to the crowd. Cheers!

            + spiritual intensity of the worship. The Spirit’s presence was palpable in every gathering.  Sometimes, it was in music, singing and shouts that roared louder than any game I have attended. The sound surrounded you like a blanket. All around were students going all out in declaring God’s glory, with voices and hands both raised. There were moments of “David before the ark” dancing for sheer joy and surrender.  Other times, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop—not an “I’m uncomfortable” cough was heard.  There was a clear focus on and expectation of meeting with God in that place.

            + the songs of Chris Tomlin, Hillsong, Matt Redman, Kristian Stanfill and David Crowder are anointed of God for the worship of this generation.   The global version of ‘How Great is Our God” with worship leaders from Ukraine, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, China and  a children’s choir from Uganda was an astonishing glimpse of the Kingdom and of the promise of heaven that left most of us in tears. But the new songs introduced grabbed the hearts and minds of the students quickly, so that they sang with a personal investment in songs like “I raise my white flag; I surrender all to You, all for You…I’m not ashamed of the One who saved my soul”. Tomlin and the others are writing songs that are the hymns of this generation: rich in doctrine (God-glorifying and Christ-centered), meaningful lyrical content (not trite or sappy), captivating melody and emotional connection. 

                But don’t miss this: they sang with equal gusto the old hymns that have been around for decades or centuries like Amazing Grace, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms and Because He Lives, and leaned into reworked versions of songs like I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.

            + The Word of God was given a central place to everything.  Every single student had a copy of the Bible and most had journals that they opened and took notes when God’s Word was taught with depth and excellence by Louis Giglio, Beth More, Francis Chan and John Piper.  But even more…the opening session was scheduled to start at 7pm.  Scripture readers began reading Scripture aloud at 6:40pm. The first note of music was sung at 7:30pm!  That’s fifty minutes under the Word—plus a message. In a later session, one of the message times was given over to reading the entire book of Ephesians aloud, without commentary, allowing for quiet space between chapters to listen for what the Spirit was saying. Remarkable.

            + global social justice: human trafficking – One of the key components of the Passion movement has been to leverage the lives and resources of students into the deepest human needs on our planet. In previous years, through the Do Something Now campaign, under its banner “Together, we are a force for good”, students have among other things, given money to drill wells for villages without clean water, provide micro-finance loans for people in impoverished countries, fund translations of the Scriptures for peoples without the Bible in their language, and every year, provided hundreds of thousands of towels and socks for the homeless in the Atlanta area. 

                This year, in addition to more towels and socks, the focus was on one issue:    human trafficking. There are 27 million people in slavery worldwide today, more than any time in human history. Much has to do with the sex trade, but there are still those forced to work in deplorable conditions of production for heartless  taskmasters.  People on every continent and in every country are enslaved – including the United States.  Globally, two children are sold into slavery every single minute.

                        The students were made aware of this through a gripping film that told the stories of three specific slaves, interviews with Christian groups laboring on the front lines of human trafficking, the filming of an anti-slavery music video to be released in Europe and Asia, and an action center where they could learn more. They were challenged to give $1million to combat human trafficking. They stood in lines with thousands of people for hours for the privilege of giving their money away. 

                        After each student gave they were given a pass to a reserved area in an    outdoor plaza where, when we arrived, there was little more than a bare scaffolding raised amid some flimsy flags. Turns out there were 27,000 flags, each representing 1000 people enslaved worldwide. And the scaffolding was an art project that the students themselves made by wiring prayers and Bible verses on items that are largely made by slave labor: jeans, soccer balls, Christmas decorations, etc.

                        When the art project was complete, it was an uplifted hand of…worship…or pleading for help…or identification…or volunteering to do   something.  It was lit at midnight, surrounded by 42,000 candle-holding students, standing as a silent witness to the horror and their commitment to do something about it in the name of Christ.

                                   CNN Report on Do Something Now

                        Oh, the students gave $2.6 million.

            + impact on the arena workers – There were the volunteers, and then there were also the workers at the Georgia Dome: security people, gatekeepers, back-pack searchers, the workers at the Starbucks and Papa Johns kiosks (which were very popular in the morning and in the evening, respectively).  The first day or so, they mostly looked overwhelmed at the sheer numbers with which they were dealing.  But then, something changed.  The guys with the bullhorns began being more playful.  The bag searchers relaxed and joked. 

                        On the last day, one of the arena workers, a single mom, stopped a             volunteer and asked her, “What is going on here?”. The predictable answer came back, “It’s Passion, a Christian conference for 18-25 year-olds, and….” Interrupting, the worker said, ”No, I mean, what is this that grabs and pounds inside my chest every time I come to work this week?  What is going on here?” And the volunteer smiled and said, “Oh, that.  That’s the power of God.  Do you know Him?” And within minutes, a single mother working just another event  at the Georgia Dome heard the gospel, trusted Christ and passed from death to life.

                        When relating that story, Louie said, “When the power of God shows up,   there are no limits to what can happen.”     

            + Kingdom potential–  That’s what kept coming to my mind as I would scan the crowd or look at the two students next to me.  What could happen through these lives for the advance of God’s Kingdom borders, the pushing back of the power of darkness, the reaching of unreached peoples, the inrushing of heaven-scented justice, the spread of God’s glory and the renown of Jesus? 

                        It is staggering and wonderful to consider. I hope the Lord lets me be a       part of it—and that my generation will join them.  We could then be “generations united for the renown of Jesus’ name.”

One of the best known English carols is ”Once in Royal David’s City”.  It has been used for years as the opening song of the Service of Lessons and Carols at Westmiunster Cathedral.  The carol was written Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander, the Irish-born wife of an Anglican priest. It was originally published as a children’s song.

The text:

1. Once in royal David’s city

stood a lowly cattle shed,

where a mother laid her baby

 in a manger for his bed:

Mary was that mother mild,

 Jesus Christ her little child.

2. He came down to earth from heaven,

who is God and Lord of all,

and his shelter was a stable,

and his cradle was a stall;

with the poor, the scorned, the lowly,

 lived on earth our Savior holy.

 3. And our eyes at last shall see him,

through his own redeeming love;

for that Child who seemed so helpless

 is our Lord in heaven above;

and he leads his children on

to the place where he is gone.

 4. Not in that poor lowly stable,

 with the oxen standing by,

we shall see him; but in heaven,

 set at God’s right hand on high;

when like stars his children crowned,

all in white shall wait around.

Listen to this version – with the congregation singing, too — from Westminster.

            Cycling the country roads near our home leads through the farms and fields. Most lie fallow now, holding still with memories of late summer sweet corn and the tobacco harvest, or with moldering remains of a massive pumpkin patch.

            Even though it’s December and the wind whistles chill, there’s still color in the fields.

            Some have been tilled and lie dark with brown loam, waiting spring seeds. Others wave with sallow grasses that sprout untended in the aftermath of harvest.

            But an occasional field stretches wide and… green.  

            December green is different than the newborn green of April, or midsummer’s bright green growing under steady sun, or even the gracious greens of fall that slowly step aside for yellows and browns. 

            December green is soft and receptive, gladly reflecting whatever light the paling rays of winter sun will give.  It is deep with a certain steadiness, as if full knowing it will need a stubborn, tenacious heart to remain underneath the snow and ice that are sure to come. But mostly, it is simply alive, with both a memory of what was and a promise of what will be in that place.

            The Christ-child comes to our place, to our world– fading and spinning harsh, often angry and violent, soul-less and inhumane, cynical and caustic—fields left often barren by the pursuit of other harvests. And yet…there remain hints of beauty beyond imagining, of stunning courage or sacrificial love that show humanity rare, of mercy-moments that flicker memories of another life, from another place.

            He comes to our place; the all-creating Word become flesh. The prophet says “He grew up before God as a tender shoot, like a young plant” (Is. 53:3) But it was a young plant with ancient roots, sunk deep in eternity. He was first embraced in his mother’s arms, and then across years, he engaged the messy fullness of life on our broken planet, without ever giving into soul-killing winter. 

            He came to our place, to die in our place.  He came to live again so we could finally and forever, know the longings of our hearts satisfied and the shadows of our hearts lightened.

            The Christ-child came to our place, alive with a memory of what once was for we poor humans.  He was there in Eden’s Garden, saw people like us alive with God’s life: free, joyful, contented, intimate with God and transparently real with one another. He remembers what was in the heart of our Creator for our life in the beginning.

            The Christ-child came to our place, holding fast a certain promise of what can be.  He came to absorb hell’s deep cold and burning fury for us, so sin’s winter might not kill us. He then gave us His undying life, so that we could live beyond our soul’s winter into the beauty of spring forever with our Creator and King.

            The Christ-child came, simply alive with memory and promise.

            In other words, Jesus, the Christ-child in the manger, is our December green.

Here are the lyrics:

                   The holly and the ivy, when they are both full grown,

                 Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown.

Refrain:

Oh, the rising of the sun and the running of the deer,

The playing of the merry organ, sweet singing in the choir.

 

The holly bears a blossom as white as lily flower,

And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ to be our sweet saviour

 

Refrain

 

The holly bears a berry as red as any blood,

And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ to do poor sinners good.

 

Refrain

 

The holly bears a prickle as sharp as any thorn,

And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ on Christmas Day in the morn.

 

Refrain

 

The holly bears a bark as bitter as any gall,

And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ for to redeem us all.

 

Refrain

Listen here:

Christmas carol season is brief,  just a few weeks each year. So, it’s understandable that the playlist is limited.  Most everybody knows the usual suspects: Joy to the World; The First Noel; Silent Night; Hark, the Herald Angels Sing; O Come, All Ye Faithful.

But there are other beautiful carols, less familiar to most people, that deserve to be known,  learned and sung.  Over the next few days, I want to share a few.

The Wexford Carol originated in Ireland, and dates to the 12th century, making it one of the oldest European carols.  There are many tradtions about it, including one that insisted that it should be sung only by men.

The text:

Good people all, this Christmas time,

Consider well and bear in mind

What our good God for us has done

In sending his beloved son

With Mary holy we should pray,

To God with love this Christmas Day

In Bethlehem upon that morn,

There was a blessed Messiah born.

The night before that happy tide

The noble Virgin and her guide

Were long time seeking up and down

To find a lodging in the town

But mark right well what came to pass

From every door repelled, alas

As was foretold, their refuge all

Was but a humble ox’s stall.

 

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep

Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep

To whom God’s angel did appear

Which put the shepherds in great fear

Arise and go, the angels said

To Bethlehem, be not afraid

For there you’ll find, this happy morn

A princely babe, sweet Jesus, born.

 

With thankful heart and joyful mind

The shepherds went the babe to find

And as God’s angel had foretold

They did our Saviour Christ behold

Within a manger he was laid

And by his side a virgin maid

Attending on the Lord of Life

Who came on earth to end all strife.

 

There were three wise men from afar

Directed by a glorious star

And on they wandered night and day

Until they came where Jesus lay

And when they came unto that place

Where our beloved Messiah lay

They humbly cast them at his feet

With gifts of gold and incense sweet.

Enjoy this version by Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krause:

Or this from The King’s Singers:

            Most everybody knows that Christmas marks the birth of Jesus Christ.

            More precisely, it is the Festival of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, celebrating the coming of almighty, eternal God into our world in the flesh of a human baby.  

            The Incarnation is a mystery that beggars explanation. It is a thought out of our depth, a wonder deep. Because this truth is not easy to grasp nor marked by immediately evident practicalities, we can tend to skirt around it.

            How can I keep the central truth of Christmas at the center of my Christmas?

            I think the reality of the Incarnation comes alive like the flavor of a tea bag released by long steeping in steaming water.  We linger with it, long and steady.  

            Consider…

            The Incarnation did not happen suddenly on a night in Bethlehem.  It was purposed in the heart of God from before the foundation of the earth and affirmed in the aftermath of Adam and Eve’s sad rebellion that broke everything beautiful: “The LORD God said to the serpent….I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.”  (Gen. 3:15)

            The Incarnation was promised by prophets to come in observable history through the family tree of nation of Israel, the tribe of Judah, the line of Jesse: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there shall be no end.” (Is.9:6-7)

            The Incarnation is a miracle of creation, the birth of a baby to a virgin girl not unlike the beginning of the whole world, when the Spirit had also hovered over a vast nothing until something appeared: “Mary asked the angel, ‘How shall this be?….The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born, will be called holy—the son of God.” (Luke 1:35)

            The Incarnation means that in a moment in a stable, when a squalling baby was midwifed into the world and received by a simple carpenter’s hands, the eternal God – overwhelming with Glory, eternal, uncontainable, immense with omnipotence—was in human flesh: “The Word was God…. and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth….in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”  (John 1:1, 14; Col. 1:19)

            The Incarnation is God coming into the wild searching for us poor prodigal rebels –wandering far in an effort to find soul-satisfaction on our own terms — to bring us back Home to our Father:  “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a virgin, born under law, to redeem those who were under law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Gal. 4:4-5, 7)

            The Incarnation is the sunrise of God tip-toeing into our long dark night, hinting that there is so much more good to come in His day:  “Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise from on high shall visit us, give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death…the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Luke 1:78-79, John 1:4-5)

            The Incarnation is necessary for everything else God desires to do in salvation.  The gospel needs a body. 

            Without the Incarnation, there can be no identification or sympathy of God with the full brokenness of the human condition. “He was tempted in all ways, just as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15) Jesus saw, through human eyes, “ the crowds and had compassion on them for they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mk.6:34). He felt weariness, the burden of suspicion, the sting of betrayal, the sadness of grief, frustration and disappointment and yes, even the blessing  of the simple joys of conversations with friends or a good meal. It means he understands the way things are.

              Without the Incarnation, there can be no justification, for in the nails that pierced Jesus’ hands and feet we see that “he was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace and by his stripes we are healed.” (Is.53:5) In the blood that spilled from His veins to his death, “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins…for apart from the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” (Eph.1:7, Heb.9:22)

            Without the Incarnation, there can be no resurrection, vindicating Jesus’ victory over all sin for all time, for “we know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” (Rom. 6:9) That Easter moment also assure our own participation in His resurrection life:  “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom. 6:4-5)

            Without the Incarnation, there is no reconciliation to the God who made us for himself: “In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.” (Col. 1:19-20) In other words, the incarnation of Jesus is the only possible way that the upside-down is set right-side up, that wrong is made right, that injustice yields to justice, that the unnamed longings of our hearts for a world that is different and better will ever be fulfilled.

            The Incarnation is, in the fullest sense, “Immanuel, God with us” for…

                        our good and His glory;

                        our release and freedom;

                        our forgiveness and cleansing;

                         our peace and rest;

                         our brokennness and healing;

                          our joy and hope;

                          our life, now flavored with His forever.

            There are still a few weeks still before Christmas. Put the teapot on the stove and steal away for a few quiet moments each day to steep your heart in just one of these truths of the incarnation.  You will “taste and see that the Lord is good’ in the miracle of Jesus’ incarnation.

The Bible is full of invitations that beckon us to praise God, like Psalm 149:1-5:

                        Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song,  his praise in the assembly of the godly!   Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!  Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!  For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.  Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds.

            This is worship with unreserved passion and exuberance.

            There is singing—spontaneous overflow of the heart in a new song. It’s joining the full-throated shouts in the day with other believers and continuing with full-hearted songs in the night when all alone.  It’s noisy with shaking tambourines in the sunshine and whispered like a sleepover giggle in the starlight.

            There is dancing, because the joy is too big to contain inside, an exultant spillover of the heart that is just too wonderful for standing still.  It’s an open-armed, whirling, twirling joy; unreserved, unashamed and unself-conscious waltz of wonder.

            Yes…but why?

            The theologian says it is praise for who God is: the eternal, self-existent God; the Maker who gives and sustains life; the King who reigns in sovereign majesty; the One whose Name stands above all names; the Savior who rescues.

            All true. All cause for praise.  But not the reason this time.

            Why sing and dance with crazy joy? Let this sink deep: “for the Lord takes pleasure in His people; he adorns the humble with salvation”

            The Lord of glory takes pleasure (delight, joy) in His people.  His people make Him smile. And sing. (see Zeph.3:17) And maybe dance.

            Has it ever occurred to you that God’s heart swells with pleasure when He turns His eyes to you?  My suspicion is that many of us think God’s thoughts towards us are tinged mostly with disappointment, or slight irritation, or exasperation with our sub-par performance.  We know ourselves well—and that such reaction, purely on the basis of what we do, is often warranted.

            But He takes pleasure in us not for what we do, but for who we are. Notice: His people, in whom He takes pleasure, are “the humble”, those who…

                         know themselves inadequate, yet trust His sufficiency;.

                         know themselves needy, yet trust His riches;

                         know themselves crippled, yet trust His strength;

                         know themselves sinners, yet trust His holiness;                    

                         know themselves broken, yet trust His healing;

                         know themselves blind, yet trust His sight;

                         know themselves foolish, yet trust His wisdom;

                         know themselves unlovely, yet trust His love.  

            Those who come humble like this, God adorns with salvation.  

            We tend to use the word “decorate” more than the word ‘adorn”, but it carries the same idea. In this season, we adorn or decorate trees and houses with lights and candles and greenery and ornaments and hangings. Decorating is a choice to celebrate the season by adding beauty that transforms the ordinary into something magical.  

            If you belong to Him by faith, God has set His affection on you.  For sheer pleasure, the God of the ages makes each one of His people noticeably lovely with heaven’s beauty.  He acts to transform something ordinary (me or you) into something heavenly.  The Father of lights adorns souls with the loveliness of His salvation…

                                    forgiveness for all sin

                                    grace without limit

                                    mercy absent condemnation

                                    acceptance outside performance

                                    companionship unending

                                    love beyond reason

                                    peace beyond understanding   

                                    joy beyond circumstances

                                    hope that’s a sure anchor

                                    assurance of eternity.

            All of these adornments of the Father have the same name: Jesus.  Jesus is the sparkling Jewel of heaven, the treasure-gift of God that rescues and shapes us anew. There’s much more, but even a slight glimpse of salvation’s gift is worth a song and dance—even from Baptists!

            So, this Christmas, when your eye catches the twinkle of a tree through the dark, or you see a house decorated with unusual beauty, let that be a simple reminder that your heavenly Father has adorned you, and that His sparkle in you brings Him pleasure.  

            Sing this stunning wonder to yourself and to anybody close enough to hear:  “The Lord takes pleasure in…me.  He adorns me with His salvation.”

            When awareness of your adorning becomes your adoration, a new song to your God will overflow from an awe-struck heart. You, child of the King, will exult in Him and in His great salvation:

                               “O, come, let us adore Him…Christ the Lord.”