Monday, December 25, 2017

Life from Impossibility



by Robert Jacobs

God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible. — Oswald Chambers

Our God is truly the God of the impossible. As I mentioned in my last devotional, we often try to limit Him by dictating how He should meet our needs.  However, often what we think is “best” is sadly determined by the limits of what we think is possible. We think that an emotionally dependent relationship is the “best” kind of relationship because we have never experienced a healthy friendship. We will hook up with countless strangers because, as so many people at LHM have articulated to me, “it’s the best I can do and more than I deserve.” We will accept our feelings as unshakable truth because we cannot imagine ever feeling any other way.

Yet the whole Christmas narrative is about God doing the impossible. Luke begins his account of Christ’s advent by telling the story of John’s birth and the birth of John was nothing short of a miracle. John’s father, Zachariah, was an “old man and [his] wife [Elizabeth was] well along in years” (Luke 1:18). According to the laws of nature, these two should never have been able to produce life. Likewise, Mary should never have been able to conceive a child as she was a virgin, yet she gave birth to Christ. Something from nothing. Life out of impossibility.

And just so you don’t think this is only a Christmas thing, know that God has been in the business of bringing forth life out of the impossible for a long time.  Abraham’s wife, Sarah, gave birth though she was well advanced in age (Genesis 17:15–21). Hanna, Samuel’s mother, was reckoned barren when she gave birth to her son (1 Samuel 1:1–20). And the list goes on and on. Even The first verses of Genesis speak to God’s penchant for making something from nothing.

Rest assured, God is still bringing life from seemingly impossible situations. In fact, that is what LHM is all about. The world tells those who struggle with same-sex attraction that you must embrace those feelings, that if you don’t you will be unfulfilled and incomplete. Thus, our culture places us into a false dilemma: follow God and be miserably lacking or fully embrace a gay identity to find peace and satisfaction.

Yet LHM is full of participants that can attest that such a dichotomy is simply not true.  We can find satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy through following Jesus. We can find a community of acceptance in the body of Christ. And we can bring forth life in situations where the world thinks we shouldn’t. In fact, I know of three babies who have been born to LHM participants this year alone (with several more on the way), lives that never would have existed if these individuals had chosen to follow their feelings over following Jesus.

We must all ask ourselves, do I believe that Jesus can do what looks impossible? Do I think that He can bring me a healthy friendship? Do I think that I can find fulfillment in Him? The answer to all of these questions is yes. However, you cannot force Him to act as you desire.  He will, instead, provide for you in the best way as only He can see from his divine perspective, for Jesus “[does] everything well” (Mark 7:37). May we believe that truth this holiday season and for the rest of our lives.


Monday, December 18, 2017

All That Glitters May be Ash


by Roberts Jacobs

But al thyng which that shyneth as the gold is nat gold. – Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canon's Yeoman's Tale

While Geoffrey Chaucer was certainly not the originator of the saying “all that glitters is not gold”—many actually attribute the adage to Æsop—the truth of these words transcend time and place. In fact, just the other day one of my friends told me a story from his childhood that beautifully captured the truth of this proverb.

As a kid, my friend had one aunt who was really into Christmas. Now, let me clarify. Not only did she decorate her home so that it looked like the inside of a New York department store, but she also wrapped her gifts like the ones you see in the F.A.O. Schwarz catalog: high-quality paper, seamless folding, wire embedded ribbon, the works. When he reached the age when he became aware of the gifts, my friend remembers being mesmerized by them. What could be hidden beneath such beautiful wrapping? Surely it was something amazing. On one Christmas Eve, he finally got the opportunity to find out what lay beneath the bows.

With awestruck wonder, my friend was handed a big, beautifully wrapped box. What sort of toy could justify such elaborate wrapping? How much money could this gift have cost? The questions pooled in his mind as he carefully began to remove the ribbon and the paper. As he opened the box, my friend’s emotions shifted from excitement to confusion. Beneath all the ribbon and wrapping, under all the glitter and gold, he found a single Spiderman sticker.

Clearly this must have been some kind of mistake. A magnificent exterior should always indicate an equally magnificent interior…right? Unfortunately, that which is alluring on the surface is often not as pleasing on the inside.

Not limited to just Christmas gifts, this principle also applies to idolatry and sin. As part of his prophecy, Isaiah indicates that our idols are often beautiful works of art on the outside, forged, shaped, and crafted by an artisan’s touch. However, those who choose to worship idols “[feed] on ashes” (Isaiah 44:20). Though the idol may be pleasing, even tantalizing to the eye, it ends up being insubstantial, unable to fulfill or satisfy like ash. Yet, we often keep running to idols and sin to satiate the deep longings of our soul, knowing from past experience that they are insufficient for the task.

Though idolatry and sin cannot quiet the longings of our heart, there is something (rather someone) who can. After performing His second miraculous mass feeding, Jesus poignantly points out His sufficiency to His disciples who had begun to worry about having their needs met:

“When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:19-21).

Through the feeding of the five and four thousand, Jesus over and over demonstrates His sufficiency to meet our needs. Yet, like the disciples, we often forget His abundance. When we choose to engage in sin and the worship of idols, we demonstrate that we “still [do] not understand” that He is the source of all that will satisfy.

Now I know that some of you are thinking, “Robert, I have been waiting for Jesus to fulfill me, but I am still alone.” Or, “I still don’t have that special friend.” Or, “I still do not have a relationship with my child as I imagined it.” I understand how you feel, but let me ask you to consider something. Is the problem that Jesus has not met your need, or is it that he has not met your need exactly as you have envisioned it?

Oftentimes we attempt to script God, telling Him how to meet our needs. The truth is that when we try and force God’s hand like this, we have made ourselves into an idol, asserting that we know how to better manage our lives and the world around us than Him. But as Isaiah says, worshiping this kind of false God—though it may be tantalizing—will leave us only with a mouth full of ash. 

As we enter into a hectic holiday season, I would encourage all of us—myself included—to truly reflect upon who we are worshiping. On the outside, we may be singing songs and talking about the advent of Christ, but do our other actions reflect a heart truly enthralled by His lordship?[1] Often, our actions instead reveal that we have made ourselves into an idol, demanding that God bend to our will. My prayer for each of us is that we yield to Jesus, a choice beautifully described by Helen H. Lemmel in her 1922 hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus:”

         Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace. 




[1] For more on the connection of our heart and our actions, see http://livehopedevos.blogspot.com/2017/11/root-causes-and-symptoms.html


Monday, December 11, 2017

The Sacrifice of the Magi




by Robert Jacobs

My recent search for a new home has caused me to be in and out of a lot of neighborhoods. Though searching for a home is normally a fairly grueling task, some of the unpleasantness has been taken away by all of the Christmas decorations. As a kid, I can remember getting down the box of big bulb Christmas lights—popular back in the 70s and 80s—and checking them all in preparation for hanging. In recent years, though, the style of Christmas decor has changed. One of the more interesting shifts has been the advent of the inflatable yard decoration.

While touring various neighborhoods in the past week or so, I have seen some very elaborate inflatables. From snow globes to Santa helicopters and flying reindeer, these yuletide yard decorations are quite a sight to see. Earlier this week, I turned the corner into yet another neighborhood and I saw the largest inflatable I have ever seen: a giant nativity. Taking up about half of the house’s front yard, inflatable Mary, Joseph, and Jesus greeted everyone to the subdivision with a distinct halogen glow.  

At first I was impressed, but I soon realized that we were missing all of the other key players traditionally present in the nativity scene. “Where are the inflatable wise men,” I asked myself as I drove past. I shrugged it off, chalking up my dismay to the fact that my mother collected manger scenes—there were at least thirty on display at any given moment during the year—and I probably set unrealistic expectations of nativity displays due to this heavy exposure. But as I drove on, I could not stop thinking about the wise men.

The wise men. What a strange part of the advent narrative. Technically, the wise men were magi, magicians or wizards that lived and worked in the Persian Empire.[1] They spent the majority of their time studying ancient texts, prophecy, and divination. According to Matthew 2, the three magi who visited Jesus had studied the book of Micah, quoting a messianic passage to King Herod as the impetus for their journey: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel” (Micah 5:2,4).

As I thought more about these magi, I realized that they must have studied thousands of texts and read countless prophesies. Yet, this prophesy must have been different in their eyes, justifying a costly trans-imperial journey. In order to seek out the ruler mentioned by Micah, in other words, these men would have put their life on hold and invested a large sum in the outlay of the journey. And these sacrifices were not without justification, for when “they saw the child with his mother Mary…they bowed down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11).

In many ways, these magi who set aside everything to find Christ lived out a teaching that Jesus would deliver decades later. Discussing worldly worry, Jesus teaches in Matthew 6 to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Thus, as we seek God first, we find that which will truly sustain us. These magi sought Christ, a costly yet worthwhile endeavor, meeting with the creator of the universe face-to-face.

Scripture does not tell us what happened to the magi after their interaction with Christ other than that “they returned to their country” (Matthew 2:12). However, if the other encounters with Jesus recorded in the gospels are any indication, I am confident that their time with Christ was transformative. These men, the intellectual leaders of their community, returned home knowing Christ, a truth that cost them much yet informed and transformed the remainder of their study.

Are we willing to sacrifice like the magi to know Jesus? Are we willing to put our life on hold to commune with and worship Him, or do our overly full schedules take precedent? This is a stinging question for us, particularly at this time of year. December seems to be the month when social commitments pile up. Parties, shopping, pageants, and the like seem to sap all our mental and emotional energy, causing us to look at our Bible in the morning and turn away, metaphorically saying to Jesus, “I’ll talk to you later…if I have time.” 

What do you need to do to “seek first the kingdom of God” this holiday season? Do you need to let someone else host the get-together? Do you need to let another parent make the pageant costumes? Do you need to say no to some of the party invitations? Do you need to bake cookies for just one neighbor in need rather than the whole block? Only you know what’s keeping you from seeking Him first. But whatever it is, I pray that you have the determination to overcome and relentlessly seek Christ before anything else. Like the magi, it may come at a cost, but it will be well worth the sacrifice.




[1] Liddell and Scott, A Greek English Lexicon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996,) s.v. Μάγος.