Room at the inn

Have you ever wondered about the foundation of your beliefs? Have you ever thought about the craziness faith?

Take a moment and think about Christmas...Think about its foundation and what we are asked to believe...

Truth is, this thing called Christianity does not make sense to this world. And why would it? A baby born in a dirty cave because there was no room at the inn, is said to be the Savior of the world. This same baby grows into a man that we are called to follow and emulate even though He does crazy things like walk on water, fraternize with the outcasts, heals the lame and cares for the prostitutes.

This dude that we hail as king was beaten to death - I mean he represents everything that is sooo not American hero - right? No bone crushing did He do - He let them crush Him. No whooping a little a$$ - He allowed them to beat Him to His last breath.

And so at Christmas what is it we celebrate? 

Love... Christmas (like Easter) is the celebration of love... Love incarnate. Yes Christmas is the celebration of the greatest gift given... God Himself...

Immanuel - God with us. At Christmas, God with us is said to us by God Himself, we come under a lordship . . . We come under His Lordship which is bathed in radical love.

In Jesus Christ we understand the Word of God as the epitome of God’s grace. It is a word of radicalness...

Why do Christians do what they do? Why do Christians act in ways deemed crazy and insane by the world?

Because they have been visited by the truth of Christmas... Their hearts have been overwhelmed by the eruption of God's radical love...

And what did they do with this love? They said yes. Radical Christian love happens when there is room at the inn of our hearts... Amen Jesus!

Merry Christmas...

Is there light?

In light of devastation - emotional, physical, spiritual, what is life? In light of pain, turmoil, trouble, what is life? In this life is there light?

Devastation all around seems to dampen the delight of divine beauty.

How it is that we can move into the holidays with hearts filled with good tidings and cheer? Where is our hope?

The complexity of the answer as to where is our hope, is found in the simplicity of what was done some 2000 years ago for the whole of humanity. Birth...death…hope.

Yes, a baby was born so that as a man He might hang on a tree.

One birth. One death. One tree. Three nails. Eternal hope.

Hope is wrapped in the truth of Immanuel - God with us. The only way to engage the happenings of today while seeking to celebrate the truth of life is found in the One who is life.

Jesus came to reign down hope. He came to shower us in joy. And with His entrance on the world stage He gave us the way to respond to the darkness that suffocates life.

Yes, Jesus came to suffocate us in His all-consuming love...

It is in His breath-taking performance that we are given the oxygen needed to ignite this world with His crazy insane love. A love that gives us the power to step directly into the devastation by giving ourselves over to the truth of Christmas... I mean really giving ourselves over.

When we give into the Christmas truth we find the truth of Mas Christ is what suffocates my darkness with the light of His eternal flame. And in the burning truth of His eternal love we come to witness the glory of heaven as it erupted through the birth of a baby. A birth that fills our hearts and lungs with the air of truth behind (and within) Christmas.

Let us this day prayerfully embrace the Holy Spirit so that we might exhale the grime of life. Let us this day ask the Spirit to fill us with His strength so that we might inhale the unrelenting Christmas hope that erupts in the birth of divine love. Amen Jesus.