2021 Is About Jesus

What are you anticipating in this New Year?

  • The end of lockdowns, mask-wearing, and social distancing?
  • A less rancorous political climate?
  • The birth of a child or grandchild?
  • Marriage?
  • A new job?
  • Professional advancement?
  • Beginning college?
  • Achieving personal goals – for reading, for exercise, for healthy eating?
  • Becoming a better person?
  • Healing relationships?

At the turn of the year, we do well to look forward with eagerness to what is ahead, and to discipline ourselves to work towards and pray for goals and events such as these.

But of even greater importance, we must remind ourselves as the calendar turns of the story in which we play a part.

Philosopher Alasdair Macintyre writes, “I can only answer the question, ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question, ‘Of what story . . . do I find myself a part?’”

In the Bible, God reveals to us the Great Story – the story of His creation of a good world in which He placed the first man and the first woman; the story of their arrogant rebellion against Him, and the consequent corruption of themselves and creation; the story of His great plan, implemented over millennia, to redeem a people for His own possession from among fallen humanity, as He worked through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and the prophets, promising to bless all nations, to establish an eternal, righteous kingdom, and to send a suffering servant to take on Himself the punishment His people deserve; the story of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of that Promised One, the Lord Jesus; the story of the partial fulfillment of  those promises at the cross and in the expansion of the church across ethnicities; the story of what is still to come: the fulfillment of every promise through the return of the Lord Jesus, God the Father summing up all things in Him, His people living for all eternity in the joy of their Master as they see Him face to face.

This is the story in which we play a part. Our goals, our marriages, our careers, our health – as real, important, and valuable as they are – all should aim at fulfilling our role in that one Great Story. Jesus is the center. Jesus is the goal. Jesus is the One carrying all creation towards its designated end. This year of 2021 is all about Jesus.

We must remind ourselves of this story daily – for the world around us proposes dozens of alternate stories: Stories with wealth at the center, or a political leader at the center, or societal reform at the center, or fame and accomplishment at the center, or despair and hopelessness at the center. Apart from constant reminders, we will drift into stories completely contrary to the One True Story.

How do we build such reminders into our lives?

God chose to reveal Himself to us through a Story. We must learn it.

Summaries of the Great Story are helpful. But nothing is more important in this regard than reading the Story itself.

For twenty consecutive years, I have read through all of Scripture annually, following a reading plan that takes me through this Great Story chronologically, while including daily readings from both Testaments. From “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” on January 1 to “Amen! Come Lord Jesus!” on December 31, the Story rings out repeatedly, year after year, decade after decade, shaping my thoughts, reminding me that Jesus is at the center, and that my role – as one worthy of condemnation but by His love and grace part of His Bride – is to display Him, to thank Him, to honor Him, to magnify Him.

Take this journey with me in 2021. Download the reading plan through this link, or pick up a printed copy on Sunday. For this year – as every year – is all about Jesus. Fight the false stories by reminding yourself daily of the True Story. He reigns in 2021 – and He will reign forever and ever. Make sure you are reminded of that truth every day.

 

Call to Me and I Will Answer

Jeremiah 33:2-3: “Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it – the LORD is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

We should be amazed at this statement. The One who made all things, the One who fulfills all His plans,  tells part of His creation – us! – to call out to Him. And He promises to answer! Indeed, He promises not only to answer, but to reveal to us what we could never know on our own, “great and hidden things.”

God declared these words to Jeremiah while he was under arrest for speaking truth. The Babylonians had besieged Jerusalem, cutting off all sources of food. Jeremiah had prophesied again and again that they would conquer the city as a judgment from God. The Lord God had rejected His people, and had ordained that even His temple – the physical picture of His presence in the midst of His people – would be destroyed. Since many officials found these prophesies treasonous, they had him arrested. Unable to scrounge for food in a city where starvation was rampant, Jeremiah was in danger of death. And the Babylonians were coming soon.

In this time of despair, God speaks to His people through His suffering prophet, saying: “Remember who I am. Remember my power and might. Remember my authority. Yes, my people have been disobedient. Yes, judgment is coming – it must come. But you, my faithful remnant: Call to me. Seek my face. Cry out to me. Run after me. For I will answer you. I will reveal to you more of who I am than you’ve ever known: more of my covenant promises, more of my plans, more of my glory. Call to me! For this is who I am – the revealing God, the God who speaks.” And in the following verses, He speaks of His plans to restore the people and to bring forth a “righteous branch” – Jesus Himself! – from the line of David.

Today, we too live in a society which rebels against God’s authority. We too can look around and be tempted to despair. We too can think that there is no hope.

But the Lord God tells us also: “I made all this. I am in control. I am working out my good and right purposes in the entirety of this creation and in this specific country. So know me! Cry out to me – and I will answer! I will tell you great and hidden things!”

So cry out to Him! Open His Word, in which all things were written for our instruction that we might have hope (Romans 15:4). Go to the Word in prayer, as a supplicant, asking for insight, acknowledging your dependence. Go to church services, asking to hear of God’s marvels in that Word. Expect to see great and hidden things about our Lord, which only He can reveal. Expect to have that Word mold your thoughts and attitudes, conforming you to the image of Christ, the Righteous Branch. Ask that it might be so, for you and for all of God’s people, God’s remnant.

And the Lord God – He who made the earth, he who formed it to establish it, Yahweh is His Name – He Himself will answer Your call through His Word, and will show you wonderful things from His Law (Psalm 119:18).

Beth on the Race of Faith

My sweetheart Beth has been elaborating on the present sermon series on her blog. Here is an excerpt from one of her posts. Read the whole thing:

Will my children remember their mother reading the Bible consistently? Will they picture in their minds a straw basket with Bible, Valley of Vision prayer book, journal, and prayer notebook? Will they picture their mother swinging gently on the porch swing, Bible in hand or curled up in the wing chair in the music room, head bowed. Will it be a consistent memory?

It is certainly not just for the memory in my children’s minds that this consistency is important. Oh no. It is vitally important for now, for every day, for wisdom and discernment, for knowledge and understanding, for contentment and spurring on. It is as vital to my life as an Olympic athlete’s consistent training is. No, it is more vital. Because, unlike the Olympic athlete who may only take his gold medal as far as the grave, the benefits of consistency in walking with God are eternal.

Coty said in the sermon, “consistency makes a statement to yourself, ‘I am a child of God‘.” That’s who I am. Spending time in the word is simply what a child of God does, like running is what a runner does. I can’t live without it.