Wonderful Counselor

Posted on December 24, 2019 by Steve Foster

Isaiah 9:6 is one of the great prophecies about the coming Messiah.

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.

A Child will be born. He will enter our world, the seed of the woman. He will be fully human.

A Son will be given. He will come as a gift, the Son of God. He will be fully divine.

And the government will be upon His shoulder.  He will rule over the world. He will bear the weight of responsibility. He will do that which we cannot do…cancel the debt of sin, defeat the power of death, bring peace upon the earth.

It is interesting that we generally feel stress in the tightness of our shoulders. It is almost as if we are bearing a weight that is pressing down upon us, trying to shoulder that which is beyond our power…beyond our capacity…beyond our control.

We try to run the universe.

But there is only One with the authority and power to do so…and it is not me…and it is not you.

This One is introduced with a fourfold title: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

It says that He will called these names.

By whom?

Perhaps by God Himself who knows the fullness of His identity.

Perhaps by the angels who see the glory of His splendor.

Or perhaps by those who have recognized their weakness…seen their need…and bowed before Him in humility and worship.

I think it is this last group…the redeemed…who proclaim His name…exalt in His identity.

And I believe the four names reflect a progression in understanding…the pathway of faith.

Wonderful Counselor.

He knows my heart. He shines His light into it…revealing the dark crevices of my soul…exposing my sin…my pride…my self-centeredness…my lusts…my idols…my wounds…my walls…my guilt…my shame.

Mighty God.

The best counselor in the world may help me understand myself better but they do not have the ability to change me…to make me new…to make my world new. But this Counselor has the power to conquer my sin…to defeat my real enemies (Satan and death)…and to transform my heart.

Everlasting Father.

Deep down I have a longing for a father…one who knows me…loves me…upholds me…blesses me…never leaves me. Broken by my sin…wounded by the world…humbled of my pride…I look up to see a Father running toward me with arms open wide and grace in His eyes. The broken one is held. The wounded one is healed. The humbled one is made a child of God.

Prince of Peace

Peace with God. Peace within myself. Peace with others. Peace in the world. This kind of peace can only come from the Prince of Peace. The One who enters my world…dies for my sin…rises from the dead…and offers me the free gift of eternal life.

The One who is my Savior.

The One who is my Lord.

The One who is coming again to make this world new.

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:30-33)

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

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The Rock of Christmas

Posted on December 18, 2019 by Steve Foster

A rock
A stone
In the path
In the way
People keep stumbling over it
Falling
Hurting
Cursing
Yelling
Why is it here?!
An obstacle
A hazard
An annoyance
Christ the Interrupter
The One in our way
The One we cannot ignore
The One over whom we trip
Impeding
Imposing
Immense
Immovable
Yet we try to get rid of Him
Move Him
Remove Him
Exclude Him
Celebrate Christmas without
Christ the Child
He complicates the season
Confuses
Confronts
Conflicts
Contradicts
The sales
The gifts
The parties
Black Friday
Cyber Monday
Winter Holidays
Santa Claus
Reindeer
Snowmen
Coldness
Busyness
Darkness
No light
No star
No angels
No manger
No Babe
No hope
Christ the Savior
The only reason
For celebration
For illumination
For reconciliation
Between God and us
Between me and you
Peace with God
Peace with others
Peace within myself
Christ the Refuge
The fortress
The sanctuary
The shelter
In the storm
In this world
Plagued by
Disaster
Disease
Division
Death
Saved by
A Child
A Prophet
A Priest
A King
A Rock
Struck for us
A Stone
Rolled away from a tomb
Death defeated
Life invaded
Sins forgiven
Hope forever
Jesus Christ the Lord!

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The Most Important Two Hours of Your Day

Posted on December 16, 2019 by Steve Foster

Many of our battles are won or lost in the first two hours of our day.

How we begin the day often defines how our day will go.

What we run to first often indicates what we value the most.

In his article, Starting Your Day on the Internet Is Damaging Your Brain, Srinivas Rao states:

The first three hours of your day can dictate how your life turns out. And this often begins with the very first thing that you decide to put in your brain. You can either start your day with junk food for the brain (the internet, distracting apps, etc.) or you can start the day with healthy food for the brain (reading, meditation, journaling, exercising, etc.). When you start the day with junk food for the brain, you put yourself at a self imposed handicap that inhibits your ability to get into the flow and prevents you from doing deep work. When you start the day with health food for your brain, the exact opposite happens.

Rao puts the emphasis on the first three hours of your day. I will go with the first two. You could possibly even lower that to the first thirty minutes or hour of your day depending on your work schedule and circumstances. And busy moms may be glad to take control of the first 3 minutes of their day!

But what captures your attention the moment you begin your day often defines your day. It is like hitting a golf ball. The moment of impact determines the trajectory of the golf ball. A small variance of the club head…or a slightly irregular swing path…will be increasingly manifested as the ball takes flight.

Learning expert Jim Kwik notes:

When you wake up you’re in this theta alpha state and you’re highly suggestible. With every like, comment, or share, you get this dopamine fix and it’s literally rewiring your brain. What your smart device is doing especially if that’s the first thing you grab when you wake up…is rewiring your brain to be distracted.

And Kare Anderson, in her article, What Captures Your Attention Controls Your Life, states:

We often fail to realize how what we focus on comes to control our thoughts, our actions, and indeed, our very lives. Whatever we focus upon actually wires our neurons.

In other words, every morning we are training our brain. We are wiring ourselves either to pursue endless distractions or focused attention. We are setting our minds on what is trivial or on what is crucial.

I learned this in my own life.

A year ago, I found myself burnt out…overwhelmed…stressed…distracted. My mind seemed to be going a thousand miles an hour and couldn’t seem to find the brakes…or a break.

I took a 3-week “monk retreat.” No phone. No internet. No TV. No emails. No texts. No distractions.

I began each day reading and meditating on Scripture, going on a prayer walk, exercising, and journaling.

It decluttered my brain.

Maybe even detoxed it…from the endless barrage of daily distractions that can bombard my eyes, beckon for my attention, and bind my mind.

From that point on, I made a commitment to give the first two hours of my day to exercising, walking, reading, meditating, and praying. No running to the smartphone to check emails. No turning on the TV to watch SportsCenter. No checking Facebook to see all the latest posts. No picking up the newspaper to read about all the political controversies, world tragedies, or entertainment enticements of the day.

No early morning junk food for the brain…or the soul.

Have I always succeeded.

Nope.

Life happens…and some days you find yourself with an unexpected morning interruption…or sleeping in…or checking for an important message…or enjoying a vacation…or just reverting to old habits.

But overall my morning routine has become my new normal.

An early morning prayer walk.

Exercise.

A time of reading and meditating on God’s Word.

Drinking a fruit smoothie.

Sitting and breathing in quietness.

David knew the importance of giving his mornings to God.

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up. (Psalm 5:3)

So did Jesus.

In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. (Mark 1:35)

That doesn’t mean that there are not other important hours in the day. Obviously every hour has its own importance. And ending your day well (without long hours of screen time or late night distractions) may be the real key to starting the next day well.

But giving the “firstfruit” of your day to the Lord seems to yield the greatest harvest…and to set your focus right for the rest of the day.

O Lord…
Satisfy us in the morning with Your faithful love
So that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days! (Psalm 90:14)

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Immanuel

Posted on December 6, 2019 by Steve Foster

Immanuel
God with us
Next to us
Beside us
For us
Deity and humanity
Joined together
Eternal union
Relationship
Companionship
Fellowship
Friendship
The With-Us-God
God in flesh
On earth
Among us
Born…helpless
Tempted…sinless
Rejected…friendless
Crucified…Godless
Resurrected…endless
Life, love, hope
Believers…faultless
Forgiven, changed, free
Christ with us
Christ in us
Christ with me
Christ in me
Never forsaken
Never forgotten
Never condemned
Never alone
Completely known
Truly accepted
Perfectly loved
Eternally blessed
God in me
God with me
God in us
God with us
Immanuel

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The Power of the Universe

Posted on December 2, 2019 by Steve Foster

Something to chew on…

We have all heard of Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc2. But have you ever stopped to think of its implications?

What Einstein discovered is that energy can be turned into mass and, conversely, mass into energy. And that the amount of energy within a certain amount of mass can be determined by multiplying its weight by the constant in the universe (the speed of light) squared.

The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second (that’s much faster than your Ford Mustang by the way). If you multiply 186,282 x 186,282 you end up with a number of roughly 9 million billion…or 9 with 16 zeroes after it. It is a number that we can barely wrap our minds around.

So now take the mass of a simple paper clip…about 1 gram or .002 pounds…and multiply it by 9 million billion (the speed of light squared) and that is the amount of energy contained within it.

What happens when that energy is released?

Well, 0.7 grams of matter (less than a paper clip) converted into energy releases the amount of power that was in the atomic bomb that dropped on Hiroshima. That’s enough energy to power a typical American home for over 1000 years.

If that’s how much energy is contained in a simple paper clip, imagine how much energy is contained within the mass of a bowling ball…or your own human body…or the tree outside in your yard…or the earth itself.

Now take all the mass of the universe multiply it by the speed of light squared and just pause for a moment to consider the amount of energy inherent in the world around you.

It is absolutely mind-boggling.

And what is really mind-boggling is that all this massive energy…expressed in pure light…is all perfectly contained. Controlled. Precise. Orderly. Beautiful.

So precise that you can set your clock on it.

So beautiful that you want to take pictures of its glory.

All the energy of the universe is designed, governed, and held in check by a Power greater than itself…a Power that is beyond it, above it, and yet within it…a Power that can express itself in precision, beauty, consciousness, and life.

Wow.

That kind of Omnipotence truly is incomprehensible. Mysterious and transcendent…yet at the same time personal and knowable.

To truly ponder this Omnipotent One compels you to fall to on your knees in humility and awe….and to sing…

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”

 

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