THE BEAT e116 My Christmas List: To Become What?

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.

Season 2 Episode 116

THE BEAT | My Christmas List: To Become What?

Quick Take

Hey human, in this episode we consider three words:  before, when, and become. I share thoughts from a great theologian, yes, finally, reading a classic on my list for 10 years. We study what the apostle Paul tells us about Jesus before the manger, His mindset and how He humbled Himself, and the only spiritual gift on my list this year. Thanks for listening.

How has God shown up for you today?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.  

At the time of publishing this episode, we are little more than a week from the other side of Christmas day. It is that perfect moment right before the final rush toward the Eve of, and Christmas morning, that timely moment to reset a little, and claim the countdown to Christmas for Jesus, together.

I am grateful to witness today about how Jesus is preparing me for Christmas.

Right now, I am reading J. I. Packer’s highly regarded book, Knowing God, with a forever friend from high school. It is a classic that has been on my list for 10 years. For a little context, Packer was a student at Oxford while C.S. Lewis was a teacher there. Packer was heavily influenced by Lewis.

We just finished reading Chapter 5, titled God Incarnate, embracing the divine glory of how the Christmas message is about Incarnation. Packer writes:

“We talk glibly of the “Christmas spirit,” rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But . . . it ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round…. If we desire spiritual quickening for ourselves individually, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit.”

The meditations of my heart this Christmas are focused on three words:  before, when, and become.

Before the Manger

The “before” of Jesus.

Before his resurrection.

Before his death.

Before his ministry on earth.

And before the manger.

Before Jesus was swaddled.

The Apostle Paul defines the “before” of Jesus throughout his epistles. And the rather astounding thing, when Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, he said, “Who are you, Lord?” Paul was not unlike us apart from his commission encounter with Jesus. He too worked out his witness through his outreach to Gentiles. Jesus commissioned him to do this. Paul had God’s word, his prayer life and the Holy Spirit. That’s what we have, though we have more of God’s written word, thanks to the witness of our faithful apostles.

Thanks to Paul.

In Colossian chapter 1, beginning verse 15… Paul describes the Son of God “before”

Colossians 1:15-19

The Supremacy of the Son of God

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, …

So, the manger marks what? The origin of divine empathy for humanity.

Jesus set the eternal example of empathy. He came into our earthly journey, bringing His Heavenly Father’s heart to earth. For us to see. For us to feel. For us to believe. When Lazurus died, for instance. His response when He saw Mary and Martha grieving. He embraced the humanity of that moment.

Empathy is about location. How we come into the life, no, deeper, into the heart, of someone. We have a divine path to follow for this. And it starts at the manger.

When He Came Down

And the second word. When. A moment on a time spectrum or a sequence of events.

Paul beautifully characterizes what Christ did when He came down. He starts with telling us to be like-minded in humility, then in verse 5 he defines Jesus’ mindset:

Philippians 2: 5-8

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

Packer shares in Chapter 5: “We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory (the real kenosis); a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony—spiritual even more than physical—that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through his poverty might become rich.”

The Greek word “kenosis” that Packer refers to means “the emptying out” of oneself.  In this context, what spiritually sticks with me right now… two thoughts: 

That the Son of God, our Jesus, “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

That what God gives us we do not take advantage of. That we ask this question in every conversation, circumstance, action: “Am I using this opportunity to illuminate God’s glory or to my own advantage?”

Pride is tricky. My mind is full of wanting to do good things… but to whose advantage? To elevate God, or me? This was Jesus’ question to so many… it is a question of power, and of pride: that I don’t flaunt God’s goodness, or His comforts, that I don’t rest in the comforts He provides, or save my gaze for those worthy of it, that I look people in the eye, regardless of the ground they stand on, that I don’t hoard all my God time for myself, that I share Him with others. That I don’t make God precious by my own pride, so much so, that I do not share Him.

That we don’t let our pride confiscate our time. That we don’t let pride breed complacency in our earthly comfort. Because our pride will claim each day as if it is our own. That is what using a day to our own advantage means, right?

And second, in verse 8, Jesus tells us how to humble ourselves:  

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death.”

Jesus knew what to do to live with a humble spirit. To obey His Father. Through obedience God gives us humility. We don’t “act humble” because that is just pretense of the truth.

I overthink a lot of things, but I have learned that it’s best not to overthink obedience. It is another episode entirely, but I will say, when I do not know what to do in a specific circumstance, I start doing what I know to do. God always gives me clarity in any given moment, He gives me something to show my obedience, even when I do not understand my next step on a longer-term outcome. So, humility on a human, looks like what? Humility looks like a human being obedient to God.

Become (Poor)

This brings us to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, my third word, and really two words to take in and take with us tonight. Become. Become poor.

2 Corinthians 8:9

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

 

On this note, Packer again illuminates our next steps:

“The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor–spending and being spent–to enrich their fellowmen, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others–and not just their own friends–in whatever way there seems need.”

I am hanging on to “whatever way there seems need.” Because people don’t always ask for it. We need to be looking. Alert and creating opportunities to be within giving range, close enough to someone to actually help them. I’ll come back to that in 2025.

So, simply, in this moment, at the time of publishing this episode, so close to the Christmas moment we are preparing for in all our earthly ways, we pray about, meditate on, and ask for God’s grace to “become poor” like our Savior.

I want to share the lyrics of a song written by Brenton Brown, Vineyard Songs, titled Humble King. The link is in today’s show notes at kathrynbise.com.

Humble King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Rohc92j9M

Humble King (lyrics, Brenton Brown)

Oh kneel me down again

Here at Your feet

Show me how much You love

Humility

Oh spirit be the star

That leads me to

The humble heart of love

I see in You

Cuz You are the God of the broken

The friend of the weak

You wash the feet of the weary

Embrace the ones in need

And I want to be like you Jesus

To have this heart in me

You are the God of the humble

You are the humble King

Take a few minutes today to listen to this beautiful song and reset your mind to the kind of King who made the manger possible. And see what I just did? I shared my Christmas heart with you. Share your witness of how Jesus is preparing you for Christmas with someone on your path. Today, before Christmas. Find the one. It’s much easier than you might think. Because we are preparing for 2025.

I know how I feel the day after Christmas. The physical relief of it. Yet the spiritual weight of it. The birth of a new year worshiping a Savior who layed aside His supremacy and obeyed His Father.

A humble heart swaddled in the Father’s glory. Join me for episode 117, published on Christmas Day 2024, to celebrate the gospel of John Chapter 1, when “the word became flesh.”