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Family is phenominal!

Family is frustrating!

A part of every big holiday seasons like Christmas is the gathering of family. It is one of the main things people are most axious about – positively and negatively.

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

Isaiah 44:22

With loved ones come intimacy and irritation; jockularity and judgement; love and loathing; valuation and vexation.

Often the season itself is overshadowed by the familial dynamics at play – even to the point of perhaps minimizing or avoiding the gathering altogether.

Sin affects relationships and this is felt more with those we are closest to than anyone else.

This goes all the way back to the Fall in the Garden. The loving, intimate relationship we had with God (and Adam and Eve to each other) was perfect and a blessing in every way. Nothing was difficult. Nothing was hurtful. Nothing was dysfunctional.

A sin broke our relationship with God and mars all our relationships with each other.

But God wasn’t content with that. He doesn’t want a Home or relatiojnship that is broken. So He sent Jesus to obliderate oppresion; rule in righteousness; comfort the crushed; save from sins; redeem relationships; bridge the broken; love the lost; heal the Home.

Christmas is a time to celebrate that in the Chirst Child of Jesus, our relationship with God and others are restored and we have a heavenly Home to look forward to where there will never be brokenness again.

That is something to look forward to!

Thank You, Lord!

“Eternal God, you promise a new heaven and a new earth where all your children will be gathered as one. Heal our divisions, reconcile our brokenness, and fill us with the hope of your everlasting kingdom. Keep us steadfast in faith until the day when we worship before you in perfect unity and joy. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

Scriptures

• Isaiah 66:18-23

We all know “The Wizard of Oz” phrase that Dorothy uses when she clicks her ruby-shoed-heels together, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

Isaiah 44:22

Home is where the heart is. It’s where we are comfortable; familiar; at ease. When something is comfy we think of it also as “homey.”

This is probably reflected more during the Christmas season than any other time in songs like “There’s no place like home for the holidays” and “I’ll be home for Christmas.”

But for the Christian, “Home” is often misunderstood. Our home isn’t here. Our Home is with our Lord and other believers in the New Creation.

Isaiah gives us a glimpse of this in Isaiah 55:1-5.

When we long for home, we should be longing for our heavenly Home. We should be looking forward to our Father’s House, which has many rooms which Jesus is preparing for us (John 14:2-3).

And we get to picture and long for this Home because of what Jesus – the child-King coming for us – on the cross and through the empty tomb.

Looking to Him, we see our Home.

There is no place like it!

Thank you, Lord!

“Gracious God, you invite the thirsty to drink and the hungry to be filled without cost. Teach us to turn from empty pursuits and to delight in the rich food of your grace. Keep us secure in your covenant love, that we may both rejoice in your feast and share it with those who hunger. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

Scriptures

• Isaiah 55:1-5

For most, home is a place of comfort. A place of sanctuary. A place where you can be yourself. Home is the place where you wake up in the morning, the place where you live, the place you get to retreat to after work. It’s where you group with family. It’s where life – joyous and messy – happens.

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

Isaiah 44:22

Leaving home can be tough. Leaving for school, or work, or even vacation can be difficult. This is especially true when leaving when leaving either is because you must go somewhere you don’t want, or to do something that is difficult, or perhaps isn’t even by choice.

Isaiah was letting Israel know that they would be leaving their home – their Promised Land – and be taken into exile because of their rebellion and sin. They would have to leave the safety, the security, and the comfort of their home and life because they choose (constantly) to worship other gods, live other ways, and follow other paths than God’s.

This, of course, wasn’t entirely new. We see that this pattern happened in other places in Scripture as well – all the way back to Adam and Eve, who had to leave their home in the Garden of Eden because of their rebellion and sin.

But there is another One – promised back to Adam and Eve, prophesied in Isaiah, and fulfilled in Jesus – who would leave His heavenly Home willingly to cover our rebellions and sins, so that we could be with Him in His Home forever!

Our rebellions and sin meant exile for us from God and our home. Jesus exited His throne and home to save us from our sin and open His home to us forever.

Amazing!

“Lord Jesus Christ, You left Your throne in glory to enter our exile, so that we might be welcomed home to the Father. Keep us from seeking refuge in the false shelters of this world, and anchor our hearts in You, the shoot from Jesse’s stump and the King of all kings. For You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

Scriptures

• Isaiah 11:1-10

“As long as you live under my roof, you’ll live by my rules.”

Many parents have likely said something to this effect at one time or another.

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

Isaiah 44:22

And yet we live under God’s reign yet often do not follow His rules.

The Israelites didn’t either. And the consequences would be a devastating exile and loss of the Temple, worship, and God’s presence.

Because Jesus has come and fulfilled all of God’s rules on our behalf, we who believe in Him need not worry about the loss of God’s presence or love, but we are still under the rules of His “house” and domain. We are to remove our evil ways and cease to do them; learning instead to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widows cause. We are to love one another and not live in the ways of darkness but put on the armor of light instead.

These are the good, life-giving rules of God’s house and, as long we are His children, we are to live by them. Not out of fear, but out of love. Not as an option but as our motivation.

Jesus has saved us and we, out of the joy and gratitude of our hearts, get to live under Him and His kingdom in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Our joyful duty being to love, serve, and obey Him every way we can.

Our God reigns! And through Jesus, we get to live in that reign under Him and His good and gracious rules.

Praise God!

“Thank You, Lord Jesus for perfectly fulfilling all the rules of our Father’s Home for us. Forgive us when we have strayed and broken them and bring us back Home to You and Your good and loving Home. Send us Your Spirit and let us “put of Christ” so that our walk in in Your ways of light and not ours of darkness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Scriptures

• Isaiah 1:1-4
• Isaiah 1:16-17
• Romans 13:8-14