Merry Christmas from Bryan at Brokenbelievers.com!
(Sit and enjoy the fire. Have some ‘egg nog.’)
“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.”
Isaiah 9:2
“Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son. The only requirement is to believe in Him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life”. –Corrie Ten Boom
“The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation.” — J.I. Packer
“As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”
1 Samuel 18:1
“But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”
Ruth 1:16
The quality of our lives can be measured by our friends. It takes some of us a very long time to understand this. Often we have this mistaken belief that other things are immensely important, and we strive to make these qualities relevant and significant. But the Spirit of God is on a whole different board, and He is wondering why we aren’t there with Him. It’s time to catch-up!
To be a friend– a companion, is a significant undertaking. It involves channeling ones love and commitment to someone other than family. If we have become someone’s friend, our dedication to that person can be measured. (Not everything is intangible). So what will friendship require? My answer is simply this: All that is needful for the present moment.
Something ‘clicked’ inside of Jonathan when he talked with David. There was something of understanding and an affinity that was created between them. As I read this account I realize that this friendship was what was exactly needed for David to survive the conflicts he was coming into. Now it certainly wasn’t the full answer, but friendship would certainly help lift him above the fray.
Ruth had this exceptional relationship with Naomi. Ruth was locked on and quite intensely has made a strong verbal and volitional commitment to Naomi. She is so sincere here as she makes a vow to follow and to serve. She ‘shuts down’ her agenda and goals in order to live life through Naomi’s experience. What a generous humility and gentleness!
“Don’t forget your friend or your parent’s friend.”
Proverbs 27:10
Both Jonathan and Ruth embraced their new calling. Friendship is a cavern chiseled out to be an amphitheater. It is a whole bigger and more expansive than we ever thought possible. Its borders and boundaries go far beyond than a Wednesday night poker game with your buddies.
Recovering this new understanding of biblical friendship can be revitalizing. When we see the fruits we wonder how we will ever transverse the path of discipleship without companionship. It is noteworthy to point out that Jesus sent out His disciples ‘two by two’. Sometimes, it will involve a radical (extreme) shift in thinking. However, there can be an incredible boost coming from this relationship.
“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”
Illustration by Vilhelm Pedersen, Andersen‘s first illustrator
An old fairy tale came crashing through my study this morning. Perhaps you can remember it, “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen.
Now I don’t think about children’s stories very often. I regard my thinking about them to be a bit of an anomaly, and certainly not everyday fare. Maybe it should be a more regular occurance. CS Lewis once wrote, “Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” I think he might be right.
“The Ugly Duckling” is a story about an homely little bird raised by a flock of ducks in a barnyard. He doesn’t really fit in and can’t ever seem to master being a duck. He is clumsy and ungainly and rather strange looking. He is abused or ignored by his companions. He doesn’t fit.
You see, he is a swan. He can’t seem to fit in with the other ducklings. He really doesn’t belong. He tries hard to make it work, but his best efforts at being a duck are doomed to failure. It isn’t who he is. He isn’t a duckling, he is cynget.
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
Romans 8:29, ESV
You see, you are different. And you can’t fit in. We have a different destiny than those who surround us. We are “swans” and we can’t change who we really are. (Some try, but to no avail).
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2
We are the ugly duckling who will never fit in. The transformation takes time, but to the amazement of his “friends, he becomes what he was meant to be all along.
Brokenbeliever, try to understand– once you accepted Christ as your Savior, you began to be transformed. You are now a “new creation.” You will never fit in.
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT
This is a miracle that the world can’t grasp. It is the spiritual makeover that defies any explanation or reasoning. You have become a swan, the most “graceful” of all creatures.
The story of Samson (Judges 13-16) is painful. It ranks as one of the saddest tales in Biblical history, and reading it through again only frustrates me. Have you ever seen a piece of fraying cloth. Threads have worked loose and the edges no longer hold together. The mid section maybe fine, but hem is coming apart. The issue is one of integrity.
That is what I think the judge Samson was like. Incredibly gifted, but irrevocably flawed, he was ordained to be a deliverer. Think of him as a “freedom fighter,” called and equipped to set his people free. He was a man of intense contrasts:
uncommonly gifted, yet strangely unconsecrated,
incredibly strong, yet spiritually weak,
called to deliver, but yet died as a captive
You might say he could never conquer himself. Forbidden things became permissible. He never could really say the most important word– No! Lust drove him as often as the Spirit of God did. Samson became a tragic figure in the history of Israel, known more for his failures than his victories.
“Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him” (Judges 16:20, NIV).
This is perhaps the most tragic verse in Scripture. Samson had compromised to the point of being released from his gift. His attitude was that it would always be there for him, but that wasn’t the case anymore. They would gouge out his eyes, and chain him to a millstone to grind out grain.
Interestingly, in Hebrews 11:32 Samson is mentioned as an example of faith. But how much pain was afflicted on him, and how more brightly would’ve been if he would’ve learned to resist his appetites.
I have a tendency to fray at the edges myself, leaving me with an unsettled feeling. The hems don’t always hold. They come apart. The story of Samson reminds me of my need to watch myself closely. The lesson is loud and clear. Perhaps there is a Samson in everyone of us.
Broken Believers 