Our first Christmas at home found us in the Emergency Room with our first child. At 8 months old, she loves to pick up anything off of our floor and see if tastes good. Today, Christmas day, she decided to swallow an unknown (as of yet) object. After living in Grand Rapids for 4 months we still hadn't figured out where the closest emergency room was, though we thought of it many times. Bad parents right - well while we were figuring out what to do, I googled the nearest emergency room and became frustrated that I wasn't able to immediately find the nearest one. Finally, I found where to go, we got ready quickly and jumped into the car. She had been choking and we were worried that the unknown object could be stuck in her throat. We took her immediately to the ER entrance, and got in to see the doctor. We were relieved to discover that she was alright. Our first Christmas at home turned out to be quite the scare, but in the end she was ok and we headed home.
Back at home, I began to think about the evening. While searching online for the closest ER, I actually found out a lot of other really interesting information regarding the hospitals and urgent care centers in the area. There are all kinds of locations for what ails you. Some are primarily for sports care while others are just billing and paperwork locations. Some are for rehabilitation and others are designed to take care of not-so-serious emergencies. While getting directions to the actual hospital where we ended up going, I found out about the new Children's wing, the Cancer Research Center, I even found where the gift shop was, but couldn't locate the ER, but I knew it had to be in plain view once we got to the hospital. I was frustrated that I couldn't just find out about the Emergency Room and had to wade through all of the different aspects of health care before I go to the one that mattered most to me at that moment. Then it hit me, in an emergency, the ER is the most important location in a hospital - duh right? Yet, that doesn't mean that all of the other purposes for a hospital or health care facility aren't important, they just weren't tonight. Later on in life, they will probably grow in importance to me and my family, depending upon how our health needs develop. For those who are struggling through cancer, their hope is set upon the cancer research center and all that it has to offer - they probably don't think of the ER all that often.
A family friend of ours was driving down the road in her native city of Vancouver with a friend one day. She glanced through her passenger window and marveled at this beautiful building coming up on their left. She let her friend know how impressive it looked and asked her what the building was. Her friend laughed in amazement and asked - "How could you not know what that building is? You've been there so many times." Apparently, she was a regular visitor to this building, but just to its rear entrance, because that's where the ER happened to be. Having rushed her sons there so often, she never got the chance to see what the rest of the building was for or what it looked like.
Does Christianity feel like that to you - do you sense you're missing out on so much more of what Christ has to offer. It might be that we frequent the emergency room all to often, not realizing the vastness of what else He has come to help us with. Christ didn't only come to earth to open up an Emergency Room - He came to open an entire hospital, with wings, and wards, different departments, and an entire array of services needed for the whole person, - physical, emotional and spiritual needs. He has also invited us to join the staff of the hospital, to help others when they come through the doors, for whatever ails them or for just moderate concerns. Eventually, they will need the emergency ward but their time at the hospital doesn't have to begin there.
I wonder this Christmas if there isn't more to him, to his plan and to his birth. I wonder if the Gospel means so much more than just a rescue in case of an emergency. Tonight the doctor told my wife and I that as emergency room staff, they always assume the worst possible circumstances - first. They work down the list, eliminating the worst possibilities as they go, moving to less serious probabilities - otherwise known as differential diagnosis. They assured us that we had nothing to worry about with our daughter because they had already eliminated the most dangerous options and had established in our time that there were no indicators for even mild concerns. We were free to go home.
Christmas is the time of year to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Many of us have given our lives to him, because of what he was born for. We usually say something like, "We are born to live, but Jesus was born to die." This immediately brings images of his cross, the crown of thorns, and his trial into our imaginations. We are thankful for his death and his resurrection because of what that means to us - because it means we are saved. In our greatest hour of need, Christ came to ransom us, he championed our cause and as the Great Physician, he rushed to our emergency and gave everything to rescue us. In our moment of distress, he became our ER, the one place that we knew we had to go to be redeemed.
In an emergency room, it's important to work from the worst to the not so bad. This is appropriate as well when we consider what Christ has rescued us from with his death and resurrection. But what about his life, his birth, the birth of the church, or the millenia of Yahweh worshipers that preceded him? There are many more rooms to uncover beautiful truths, to encounter God in his richness beyond the cross and empty tomb. By no means should we denigrate what those symbolize but by no means do they denigrate the vast and robust faith that we inhabit. The Gospel is meant for such much more and Christmas is a reminder that his birth wasn't just for his death, but for new life in this life and in the one to come. His first miracle wasn't turning water to wine, it was being born, born from a virgin, a woman who labored in pain for his arrival. If we set out eyes only on our rescue, we miss the life we were meant to live now. Billy Graham once said that "Life at its best is filled with sorrow" and though life is more difficult for some, our days on earth are not to be numbered, they are to be lived, to the fullest.
Christmas isn't found just in the Emergency Room, it's in the entire hospital, in all of its rooms - its purpose is tied to all that our health involves and so much more. Likewise, Christ's birth carries so much more than our rescue, a rescue needed nonetheless, but a rescue that is only part of the breadth, depth and expansiveness of God and his robust Gospel. We thank you Christ for this Gospel, for what it has meant and what it will mean for millenia to come. Merry Christmas and Blessings on a New Year filled with life lived to its fullest...
Rob Bell's Advent Service - Jesus came to tell a story about the hagioi (people of God). He came so that we could learn how to become what we really are...rather than only what we aren't - to let us know that the emergency room isn't the only ward of the hospital that he invites us to explore...
Ephesians 1
Paul goes on to pray for the Ephesians in chapter 3,
Back at home, I began to think about the evening. While searching online for the closest ER, I actually found out a lot of other really interesting information regarding the hospitals and urgent care centers in the area. There are all kinds of locations for what ails you. Some are primarily for sports care while others are just billing and paperwork locations. Some are for rehabilitation and others are designed to take care of not-so-serious emergencies. While getting directions to the actual hospital where we ended up going, I found out about the new Children's wing, the Cancer Research Center, I even found where the gift shop was, but couldn't locate the ER, but I knew it had to be in plain view once we got to the hospital. I was frustrated that I couldn't just find out about the Emergency Room and had to wade through all of the different aspects of health care before I go to the one that mattered most to me at that moment. Then it hit me, in an emergency, the ER is the most important location in a hospital - duh right? Yet, that doesn't mean that all of the other purposes for a hospital or health care facility aren't important, they just weren't tonight. Later on in life, they will probably grow in importance to me and my family, depending upon how our health needs develop. For those who are struggling through cancer, their hope is set upon the cancer research center and all that it has to offer - they probably don't think of the ER all that often.
A family friend of ours was driving down the road in her native city of Vancouver with a friend one day. She glanced through her passenger window and marveled at this beautiful building coming up on their left. She let her friend know how impressive it looked and asked her what the building was. Her friend laughed in amazement and asked - "How could you not know what that building is? You've been there so many times." Apparently, she was a regular visitor to this building, but just to its rear entrance, because that's where the ER happened to be. Having rushed her sons there so often, she never got the chance to see what the rest of the building was for or what it looked like.
Does Christianity feel like that to you - do you sense you're missing out on so much more of what Christ has to offer. It might be that we frequent the emergency room all to often, not realizing the vastness of what else He has come to help us with. Christ didn't only come to earth to open up an Emergency Room - He came to open an entire hospital, with wings, and wards, different departments, and an entire array of services needed for the whole person, - physical, emotional and spiritual needs. He has also invited us to join the staff of the hospital, to help others when they come through the doors, for whatever ails them or for just moderate concerns. Eventually, they will need the emergency ward but their time at the hospital doesn't have to begin there.
I wonder this Christmas if there isn't more to him, to his plan and to his birth. I wonder if the Gospel means so much more than just a rescue in case of an emergency. Tonight the doctor told my wife and I that as emergency room staff, they always assume the worst possible circumstances - first. They work down the list, eliminating the worst possibilities as they go, moving to less serious probabilities - otherwise known as differential diagnosis. They assured us that we had nothing to worry about with our daughter because they had already eliminated the most dangerous options and had established in our time that there were no indicators for even mild concerns. We were free to go home.
Christmas is the time of year to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Many of us have given our lives to him, because of what he was born for. We usually say something like, "We are born to live, but Jesus was born to die." This immediately brings images of his cross, the crown of thorns, and his trial into our imaginations. We are thankful for his death and his resurrection because of what that means to us - because it means we are saved. In our greatest hour of need, Christ came to ransom us, he championed our cause and as the Great Physician, he rushed to our emergency and gave everything to rescue us. In our moment of distress, he became our ER, the one place that we knew we had to go to be redeemed.
In an emergency room, it's important to work from the worst to the not so bad. This is appropriate as well when we consider what Christ has rescued us from with his death and resurrection. But what about his life, his birth, the birth of the church, or the millenia of Yahweh worshipers that preceded him? There are many more rooms to uncover beautiful truths, to encounter God in his richness beyond the cross and empty tomb. By no means should we denigrate what those symbolize but by no means do they denigrate the vast and robust faith that we inhabit. The Gospel is meant for such much more and Christmas is a reminder that his birth wasn't just for his death, but for new life in this life and in the one to come. His first miracle wasn't turning water to wine, it was being born, born from a virgin, a woman who labored in pain for his arrival. If we set out eyes only on our rescue, we miss the life we were meant to live now. Billy Graham once said that "Life at its best is filled with sorrow" and though life is more difficult for some, our days on earth are not to be numbered, they are to be lived, to the fullest.
Christmas isn't found just in the Emergency Room, it's in the entire hospital, in all of its rooms - its purpose is tied to all that our health involves and so much more. Likewise, Christ's birth carries so much more than our rescue, a rescue needed nonetheless, but a rescue that is only part of the breadth, depth and expansiveness of God and his robust Gospel. We thank you Christ for this Gospel, for what it has meant and what it will mean for millenia to come. Merry Christmas and Blessings on a New Year filled with life lived to its fullest...
Rob Bell's Advent Service - Jesus came to tell a story about the hagioi (people of God). He came so that we could learn how to become what we really are...rather than only what we aren't - to let us know that the emergency room isn't the only ward of the hospital that he invites us to explore...
Ephesians 1
It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
Paul goes on to pray for the Ephesians in chapter 3,
I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
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