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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Brown's Daily Word 12-4-13

Praise the Lord for this wonderful and awesome season of Advent leading to Christmas.  I was in Australia last year during this time.  It is summer season in Australia.  There is no snow there during Christmas.  Australians still celebrate Christmas with great joy and fervent faith.  I heard from family and friends in India, who are getting ready for Christmas.  Praise the Lord for Jesus  who is the reason for all our celebration and rejoicing.
    Alice and I love to drive down streets in the dark and see the Christmas lights.  It does look like a Christmas wonderland.  We like to go to the mall in the evening for a walk.  The stores are bursting with merchandise; people are strolling and shopping.  Various gifted and talented musical teams perform Christmas music every evening.  Yesterday The Harpur Jazz  Ensemble(  Binghamton University) was performing.  It was a treat.  In my book the best music and the best literature deal with God and His Redeeming story in and through Jesus Christ our Lord, who came in meekness and majesty and reigns with truth and grace and will come again in Majesty and splendor.

     We will meet for our Wednesday evening fellowship and study this evening at 6 PM.  My wife and I love Christmas music.  Dr. Elsworth Kalas calls them the songs of the season.  According to Dr. Kalas, one of the songs of the season is the song of Mary recorded in Luke 1.  The song itself has traditionally been called “the Magnificat,” from the first word of the Latin version.  Dr. E. Stanley Jones, the great Methodist scholar, author and evangelist, and missionary to India said that the Magnificat was “the most revolutionary document in the history of the world.” 

    In the Magnificat, Mary reflected on what it meant to her to be chosen to bear the Messiah.  She praised God for his great mercy to her personally.  Her words are personal and her point of view turned inward.  As we read this song, Mary seems to fade from view; she is praising God for the effects the coming of Christ will have on the world. Her point of view is outward and her words are global in their scope.  In Luke 1:46-48, Mary praises God because he has chosen her to bear the Messiah, despite her lowly estate.  Verse 48 is the key: “For he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.”  It is a statement about the sovereign grace of God. Mary was not the last choice after everyone else said “no.”  Mary was God’s first choice... God’s only choice.
    As God has done great things by choosing such an unlikely person, He also does great things in unlikely ways today.  Verses 51-55 not only reveal a change in focus, but also a change in tenses.  When Mary talks about herself, she uses the present tense; but when she talks about the world, she uses a past tense—"He has performed, He has scattered, He has brought down, he has filled.”

    “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.” (51)  The coming of Christ means the end of all human boasting.  It’s the end of vanity and outrageous ambition.  His coming means an end to insatiable greed and uncontrolled lust for power.  The mighty are brought down by the strong arm of the Lord.

    Across the centuries proud and daring men have lifted their heads to challenge the Almighty, but he swats them down like flies.  What happened to Saddam Hussein?  What happened to Erich Honecker?  What about Idi Amin?  What about Vladimir Lenin?  When was the last time you thought about Juan Peron?  Or Pinochet?  Or Ho Chi Minh?  Or Mao Tse Tung?  They come, they rise to power, and sooner or later, they disappear.

    The coming of Jesus Christ means that God has set a moral revolution at work in the world.  It is a revolution in which the workers of iniquity are eventually brought to justice.  Think about the Biblical account of the  “Tower of Babel.”  That story tells us how God works.  He let the proud gather together and carry out their grandiose schemes, as they planned to rise up to heaven.  God watched for awhile.  He waited, seeming to ignore their deeds, and let them revel in their temporary success.  However, God scattered the proud, with a swiftness and intensity that they could never have imagined.

    Proud men expect to carry all with them, but God crosses them up.  He breaks their bows.  He blasts their projects.  He brings them low.  He does it all by the very counsels with which they thought to advance themselves.

    "He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” (52) : The coming of Christ brings about a great reversal of fortune in society. The proud are brought low and the humble are lifted up.

    What men call luck, Mary called the work of God.  When someone loses it all, we talk about bad luck.  When someone "hits the jackpot", we say he had good luck. Mary. on the other hand, understood that behind the faceless mystery called "luck" stands God himself.  He lifts up, and no one can bring down.  He brings down, and no one can lift up again.

    As John Calvin once siad, the princes of the world don’t understand this.  They grow insolent, fat and lazy, and greedy.  They indulge in luxury, swell with pride, and grow intoxicated with power.  They soon forget that all they have comes from God.  To quote Calvin exactly, “If the Lord cannot tolerate such ingratitude, we should not be surprised.”

In Christ,

 Brown

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