BEHOLD YOUR GOD

by Rev. Duane Lindberg

During the Advent Season many of our homes and worship centers will be graced by an Advent wreath with four candles. These candles suggest important emphases which aid us in our spiritual preparations for Christmas. Each weekly emphasis during Advent is symbolized by a lighted candle: the first "Prophecy", the second "Bethlehem", the third "Shepherds" and the fourth the "Angels" candle.

The Angels' Candle is lighted to remind believers of the angelic announcement that the promised Messiah, the Savior, has come among us to reveal both His might and His mercy. The wonderful Good News is "BEHOLD YOUR GOD!" To know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is to behold God in our midst.

The tragedy in every age is that there are many who know much about religion but do not know God in a personal way. The difference between being religious and knowing God in a personal way is powerfully illustrated in this true story:

A professional actor recited Psalm 23 with dramatic elocution and the audience applauded. Then an old pastor in the audience was invited to recite the 23rd Psalm. He rose to his feet and spoke slowly, pausing for his memory to provide the words. Everyone was hushed. There were quiet tears. There was a difference in response to the two recitations of Psalm 23. Later someone asked the actor to explain this difference. Thoughtfully, he replied, "I know the Psalm, but the old pastor knows the Shepherd."

How can a person know the Shepherd and behold God in a personal way? How can men, women and children "see" God's presence in their lives and in their world?

According to Scripture there is only one way to a personal, saving relationship with God. The message of God's Word is clear: Jesus says, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me." (John 14:6)

Faith in Jesus is the only Way. As the Christian church, our task is bigger than buildings, utility bills and taking care of our own. Scripture reminds us that we have the responsibility of bringing "good tidings." To do this we are commanded to get up to the "high mountain" and to lift up our voices with strength; so that the whole world will know that Jesus Christ is God and that he is with us. He is EMMANUEL, God with us! The "good tidings" that the angels proclaimed and that the church also must proclaim is that in Jesus Christ we behold the very presence of the Living God. In Jesus, God is within reach.

Through the eyes of faith, we behold our God as a mighty ruler and as the victorious King of kings. In Jesus Christ we behold God as conqueror over sin, death and the devil. In Jesus Christ we also behold God as compassionate. He is the Good Shepherd. In Jesus Christ we see Him caring for His sheep. Like a shepherd, He feeds, gathers, cares, leads, helps, heals, forgives and saves. The Good News is that in Jesus Christ we behold God as forgiving.

The fourth Advent candle reminds us that our task as Christians is to point to Jesus Christ and tell the world that by faith in Him all people will behold the very personal Presence of the Living God.

A PRAYER FOR ADVENT

Almighty God, Who sent Thy Son to earth to be born in a shed, lit by a star that only the wise could see, sung by angels that only shepherds in the fields could hear, keep us, we pray, from the folly of preparing for His coming with empty busyness and cheap display. May we not be so crowded with the noise and clutter of the inn as to find no room to lodge Him Who comes to the quiet and waiting heart, as to a mother in the stillness of night. Amen.

"Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, 'Behold your God!'" --Isaiah 40:9

GETTING READY FOR THE DRAMA

What a night Christmas Eve was in the spiritual heavens! The great congregation around the throne was waiting for the moment, called "the fulness of time" to strike, when the Second Person of the Trinity should "come forth, born under the law, born of a woman" (see Galatians 4:4). Earth was oblivious to the great event which took place in Bethlehem, but the innumerable hosts of heaven were waiting to worship, praise and glorify the newborn Babe, because "the fulness of time was come."

Now let us turn our attention to earth. What was happening here? The first event was the arrival of the holy family at Bethlehem. The fullness of Mary's time had come. Remember what she had been pondering in her heart during the previous months now drawing to a close: the great announcement that her son was the Son of God, and that she was a chosen vessel of God, prepared to be the mother of Jesus. Mary remembered what Elisabeth had said in her greeting during the visit in the hill country of Judea. She remembered also the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures which she had read and incorporated in the Magnificat.

The next great event was the incarnation by the virgin birth. The event on which all history turns was unheralded, unattended and unknown except for the animals and the angels. This was the advent of the prophetic sign that "a virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and call His name Immanuel, which means, 'God with us.'" (Isaiah 7:14) The divine command was fulfilled!

The next step in the drama was the appearance of the angels to the shepherds, faithful men in the field who knew the prophecies and prepared their hearts. The veil which separates earth from heaven was drawn back and they saw the heavenly host.

In a far-off nation, the Wise Men, studying the sky, saw the appearance of a new star. They were men chosen of God because of their search for the truth. When they saw the star, they knew either from general revelation or from Jewish Scriptures that the King of the Jews was born. They began their extensive preparations to proceed and, with allegiance and with gifts, to do homage to the Child.

In the Wise Men we have the forerunners of many who were and are yet to come to worship the Christ Child. --Rev. Harold J. Ockenga (1905-1985)

"But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." --Galatians 4:4-5

The above articles and prayer are from the December 2008 Magazines published by the Lutheran Braille Evangelism Association. These magazines are put out eleven times a year in large print and standard play audio cassette called The Christian Magnifier, and in grade 2 Braille called The Tract Messenger. The magazines are available free of charge to the blind and visually impaired upon request. To become a subscriber send LBEA your name, mailing address, and choice of format (i.e. Braille, Large Print or Audio Cassette) to lbea@QWest.net.

Alternatively you may download the current issue of the braille TRACT MESSENGER.