On This Day: Jesus’ Example for Our Growing Up

   And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
   And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:49-52)

   Jesus is more than an example. Anyone who treats Jesus as only a good example is still in charge and has never submitted to him as Lord.

   However, when we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, declaring our faith in him through baptism, we receive new life in him that is characterized by following his example. 

   What hit me today is that, from the age we associate with adolescence through what the Western mind thinks of as the teen years, Jesus modeled maturing as a human being. And today, two things stood out. 

   First, I was drawn to consider what it may have been like for Jesus to mature without a sin nature. Even Adam did not experience this since he invited sin into the world early in his development. It is simply mind-boggling to consider Jesus maturing, particularly as I watch society around me settle into ever-lower expressions of immaturity! 

   Second, I couldn’t help noticing the contrast between the way the teachers “were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47) as he was “listening to them and asking them questions” (vs 46) and the way the religious elite felt about him when he was well into his ministry two decades later. As Mark described, “And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching” (Mark 11:18). The jealousy and hatred they felt towards Jesus was because of the same development in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man! 

   Jesus’ example calls us who trust in him to grow up. The pattern of church folk reaching their senior years and acting like entitled children who need to be taken care of cannot be found in God’s word. Luke just showed us Simeon and Anna devotedly serving the Lord until the day they died. Before that, we saw Zechariah and Elizabeth experiencing the work of God in old age. Running the race of faith with perseverance has no age limit, and the strongest witnesses to the life of faith ought to be the ones living it the longest! 

   Okay, I’m in my senior years, so I trust that allows me a senior-sounding rant. However, my years (decades) in both church ministry and daycare assisting have made maturity issues a big deal for me. 

   Today, I hope that Jesus’ example of maturing in body, soul, and spirit gives anyone’s dead-battery experience the jump-start you need to “not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (I Corinthians 14:20). 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: Everyone is Affected by Jesus

   “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
    according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
    that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.”
   And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:29-35)

   When I read or hear professional skeptics telling me why I shouldn’t believe in Jesus, I often have a Bible passage pop into my head that tells me what God says about their blindness and hardness of heart.

   This morning, which happens to be Christmas day, I read the above passage and considered what Joseph and Mary first heard from Simeon about who and what Jesus was to both Jews and Gentiles, and then what Simeon said about how Jesus would affect people. 

   When we read that, it is easy to see how Jesus brought salvation, that the Old Testament part of the Bible describes how God prepared this salvation “in the presence of all peoples”, how Jesus’ life and ministry have become “a light for revelation” to us “Gentiles”, and how Jesus as the Christ/Messiah is the most glorious thing to come out of Israel. 

   How does that help me regarding the professional skeptics? How does that comfort me in relation to trauma I have experienced by angry Jesus-haters? How does that bring peace to my heart when the world continues to hate Jesus and his followers just as Jesus prophesied?

   Simeon’s description of how Jesus would be treated blesses me with comfort and peace because it tells me that witnessing people “fall” in relation to Jesus is just as much a fulfillment of Scripture as watching people “rise” from the deadness of their sin. Witnessing the “thoughts from many hearts” being “revealed” through people’s responses to Jesus assures me that seeing hateful, angry and deceptive hearts is just as much a fulfillment of God’s word as when I see hearts open to God’s word in “the obedience of faith”. 

   No one can escape that Jesus was “appointed” to bring God’s salvation into the world so we could clearly see who believed and who did not, who received God’s gift of eternal life and those who remained condemned in their sin. 

   I know I will never be as popular or profiteering as the professional skeptics. But “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). 

   And because I can now see, I can also see how blind and hard-hearted the professional skeptics are in their deceiving of the nations. But this is also something God’s word prophecies would be a significant work of Satan to keep people from knowing God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

   So, while I hate that it is so (that “evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” ~ II Timothy 3:13), I raise my voice to tell people the “good news of great joy” that God has given us “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). 

   If anyone hears God calling you to “rise” into the good news of salvation, please ask me or another follower of Jesus to help you come to Christ. What a Christmas Day that would be! 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When God Reveals His Heart to Children

   Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. (Luke 2:25-26)

   This Fall, my wife and I passed through the twenty-first anniversary of our family daycare. I have so many treasured memories of hearing what our Littles were thinking while they were with us, including my recent delight when a little boy asked me if I had heard of Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia! 

   As I have listened to countless stories from our little ones, some of what I heard was unique to each child, and some was universal to their age and development. 

   When I come to God’s word each morning, I often feel like a little child meeting with my Father in heaven. I have a sense that when I tell him how I am doing it is somewhat unique in the details, but also consistent with what we are all like at our various stages of maturing. 

   I also know that when I listen to Father speak to me through his word, I must differentiate between something that was unique to the person(s) involved in a scenario and the lessons that are universal for all God’s children. 

   As I pondered this in relation to Simeon, there was no doubt what was unique about his encounter with Jesus. No one else had the exact same opportunity to welcome the Christ and declare such personal praise to God. 

   However, I could also see what was applicable to me, partly in what Simeon expressed about Jesus that applies to all who believe in him, and partly in realizing that the unique way the Spirit revealed God’s will to Simeon illustrates the universal way God reveals his will to all his children. 

   I am exceptionally cautious when people tell me God spoke to them outside of Scripture. So many of these “God spoke to me” testimonies contradict what God has already told us in his word! 

   But the multitude of counterfeits do nothing to erase the fact that God still reveals the truth about Jesus to little children like me. From my first awareness of God at seven years old, to understanding the gospel at 12 and receiving Christ, to spending over 30 years living the “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” lifestyle,  I have no claim to knowing God except that it has delighted the Father to make Jesus known to me. 

   What God ministered to my heart for others is to be relentless about laying my prayers on the throne of grace that God will speak into their lives so they can hear him. What I see God has done for people like Simeon, and what I have seen him do for a child like me, makes me long for people like you to know what God is teaching you from his word each day. 

   And, when you know you are getting to know God through his word, would you join me in praying for others to experience how “faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ”, the scriptures we now have in the Bible? The next best thing to knowing Jesus Christ for ourselves is when we witness him bringing someone else to know him as well. 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: In the Peace of God's Pleasure

   And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
   “Glory to God in the highest,
       and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:8-14)

   Two things I have mostly seen in distorted forms are peace and pleasure. Peace is usually superficial peace-keeping, while pleasure is often sinful self-centered (sexual) indulgence.

   Because peace is so central to Jesus coming into the world, it is no wonder that Satan wants to give the wrong impression. God will never give his peace to a world that loves darkness because its deeds are evil.

   Instead, Jesus came to bring “good news of great joy” to the earth because “a Savior” had been born, “who is Christ the Lord”. And it is in this good news of salvation that people come to have peace with God even while we are still here on earth.

   Decades after Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, Paul wrote, 

   Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).   

   This is what distinguishes the ones in whom God delights from those who “loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). Our “peace with God’ is not only “through our Lord Jesus Christ”, but it is through being “justified by faith”. The temple curtain was torn in two at Jesus’ death to show that we now have “access by faith” into the most holy place of God’s presence, but only by the grace of God.

   Note also that the “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” is our response to the angels’ “Glory to God in the highest”. God’s glory is the reason we have so great a salvation. God’s work is to the measure of what gives him glory. It is to the glory of God in the highest that his Son would come into the world for the purpose of laying down his life as the sacrifice for sin so we would be justified by grace through faith and rejoice in hope (the confident expection of future glory) of the glory of God. We see God’s glory in giving us so great a salvation, and we look forward to the glory we will experience with him when Jesus returns and we see him as he is (see I John 3:1-3). 

   As we live in such a peace-destroying time, it is fitting that we who are God’s beloved children ought to bless one another as exemplified by the apostles, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13). 

   Joy and hope are central to what we call the Christmas Story. Jesus’ birth was announced as “good news of great joy”. Jesus came into the world as the “Prince of Peace”, not because he would bring peace to the world, but that he would bring sinners into the kingdom of God where they would experience peace with his Father.

   The thing for each of us is that, when Jesus shines light on our sinful condition, does it drive us to run for darkness because we prefer our sinful indulgences, or does it call us to run into the light to be washed clean of sin so we can live in the righteousness of faith and experience peace with God our Creator? 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: Turning the Spotlight from Us to Him

   When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
   And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. (Luke 2:15-21)

   Sometimes, it is good to slow down in our journey through Scripture and imagine the various components of what was taking place. In this journey through Luke’s gospel, it stands out to me that Luke had talked to a lot of people to collect the details of what he wrote into his account. 

   Since we do not hear of Joseph during the time of Jesus’ public ministry, it is likely that he had already passed away by that time. We do know that Mary was still alive and well when the early church was filled with the Holy Spirit and growing phenomenally through the proclamation of the gospel. 

   This means that what I am reading in the early chapters of Luke’s gospel account would likely have involved some direct interaction between Luke and Mary, or at least between Luke and people who had heard from Mary about the events. 

   But what really stood out is that Mary is one more example of how God turns the spotlight away from the role someone played in his work so that we will not fall into the trap of idolizing a person. We do not have enough info about Mary to build a monument at a specific location or claim to have some object involved in her role that would tempt people to see how much money they can make from selling it, or paying admission to see it! 

   It is rather glaring that God mostly leads his servants off into glory with no parade that would give us the wrong impression. The spotlight keeps turning from the ones who joined God in his work to the work God is doing to seek and save the lost. Even Mary, the woman through whom God gave his Son to the world, was to be known as a disciple of Jesus Christ just like anyone else who received him. 

   The encouragement to me today is to point people to Christ and carry on. Tell someone about Jesus, and then carry on. Give a cup of cold water to someone in Jesus’ name, and then carry on. Rejoice in every opportunity God gives us to join him in his work, and then carry on with whatever he gives us to do next. 

   The fact is that God’s work of seeking and saving the lost continues. No one’s place in this work is inferior or superior to others, and the more we live out our unique place in God’s work, the more people will hear about Jesus Christ as the one and only Savior of the world. So we carry on turning the spotlight on Jesus, and rejoicing that he is still saving people like ourselves. 

   Oh, and one day, I will get to ask Luke and Mary all the questions that are unanswered in this earthly journey. That is, if I will even care once I am with them in the presence of God’s fullness of joy!

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: God’s Blessings for Us in His Blessing of Others

   And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:35-38)

   First, the word “story” means an accounting of events. It used to mostly refer to non-fictional experiences. People would tell their stories, recounting things that happened to them. It seems that things have changed so that now people think a story is fictional unless otherwise clarified. With that in mind, I clarify that the Christmas “story” means the recounting of the events that brought the Christ into the world. True story.

   Second, by the very nature of our creation in the image and likeness of God, we are all involved in God’s world uniquely. There is no other us. Our birth parents are only one father and one mother. Even if our parents had other children, none of them are us, and none of us is them. 

   I emphasize this because of the way we need to receive from others. It’s designed into us. It begins before we are born. Our development to maturity is largely conditioned by what people invest in our lives. Parents who nurture loving attachment to their children affect their children with positive development. Parents who traumatize their children through either neglect or abuse affect their children negatively. In this there are kazillions of stories that are unique unto themselves, but also universal in the fact that we are all affected by others. 

   Third, the most universal experience of being affected positively by others is the salvation story of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. One scene after another shows how God has blessed us today through the way he blessed others in the past. Elizabeth and Mary are the two people front and center in Luke chapter 1. Next, we will see shepherds invited to witness the birth of the Christ as a newborn baby. Matthew will add how the Magi are included as the first Gentiles to meet the Christ as a little boy. All these people who were blessed with joining God’s work back then are blessing us today with our attachment to the same Savior they welcomed into the world.

   We could go back even further than this to the blessing given to the prophets to be told of the things that would come. We can look forward from the ones who welcomed Jesus as the Christ child to those who welcomed him as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). We can even go through the history that followed the completed scriptures to men and women whose blessed participation in the work of God has blessed so many others to run the race of faith with perseverance.

   Today, what matters the most, is how you and I personally connect to the way God has blessed others to participate in his work so that we are invited into his work in some unique way that only we can join. Even two people joining God’s work at the exact same time will be blessed by the testimony of others in unique ways and will be gifted to serve others uniquely as well. 

   The bottom line is that all of us are either blessed or cursed based on how we respond to the Christ. So, if you are reading this far, please consider how many people God has blessed with some participation in his work so that you could be invited to join God in his work today in the most unique expression of God’s blessing towards you.

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Bart Ehrman Meets Dr. Luke

   Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4)

   I share today with a heart full of joy that God has made his word so clear that Jesus’ sheep are still hearing his voice and following him where he leads. 

   One of the things I love to share about continuing to have a daily time with God in his word and prayer is that each time we read through the Scriptures we are in a different place from the last time. Even one day to the next can change our circumstances so that something stands out that applies precisely to what we are facing.

   This was the case as I began meditating my way through the gospel of Luke yesterday morning. To then find that Bart Ehrman’s take on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is making him money that Dr. Luke would never have asked for telling the truth is, well… glaring!!!

   One of the devil’s greatest ploys is that of distraction. If he can tantalize people with his words to Eve, “Did God actually say…?”, and then tell them a different story without any evidence, the darkness wraps its cold arms around those troubled souls and presents assurances that only sound true because the truth is now out of the picture. 

   On the other hand, when I read that opening sentence of Luke’s gospel account, I picture how much the “good news of great joy” about “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” was being proclaimed throughout the world, just as described in Luke’s sequel, the book of Acts.  

   So, when I picture Dr. Ehrman meeting Dr. Luke, I see Ehrman’s “no evidence” standing alongside Luke who had no problems writing “an orderly account” at the same time as eyewitnesses were proclaiming what they had seen and heard! That is an astounding contrast. 

   When I realized what Jesus meant when he said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27), I accepted that I have one overriding purpose in the world, to share the word of God with people so that Jesus’ sheep can hear his voice. 

   And, because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17), we must “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16), so we are living “by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). 

   The fact is that no multitude of people who did not see something can nullify the testimony of the few who did. I once witnessed something and gave such a clear description of what I saw that the perpetrator fessed up and took a lesser sentence because my testimony was so detailed and accurate. It didn’t matter how many people didn’t see what I saw, I knew what I saw, and it was accepted as such. 

   We know that Dr. Ehrman does not see anything of “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6). But we know the apostles could testify, “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Luke had heard these things from many such eyewitnesses, and he was simply going to compile an account that was so detailed that even today we can be certain of what we believe because our faith hears Jesus’ voice.

   And when we hear the voice of our Creator, Savior, and Lord, what else would we want to do in such a dark world than to follow him where he leads?! 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)