Promises, promises – 6 thoughts about Christmas.

There are all sorts of promises involving Christmas. This’ll be my obligatory Christmas blog, because I think I’ll take next week off. Or maybe recycle something.

Anyway. As Christians, we are so indeed fortunate to be able to celebrate the coolest holiday ever. I was eating lunch at a local restaurant yesterday, and the building sound system was playing Christmas music. I was struck at the blend of the secular and the sacred – it’s probably the only time of the year when overtly Christian music is played in public.

The promises of God all began in that manger. This is crazy, when you think about it. God wrapping Himself in flesh and coming to earth.

There is some amazing grace in play here, because this was the beginning of Jesus’ walk on earth, which of course culminated in His crucifixion and resurrection. In a season when we think about gifts, this is a big one. THE big one, actually.

Involved in this gift are some real promises. Here ya go:

God never made a promise He would ever break.

You can go all the way back to Genesis. Adam and Eve sinned, big time. On the backside of their sin – which impacts us to this day – He also promised that a Savior was coming. That theme and that reality tracked through the generations up until Jesus’ birth. All those Old Testament patriarchs knew of it. That promise held true. Jesus showed up. Hello, Savior!

God had a plan to go with His promise.

I often think about God creating Adam and Eve with the foreknowledge that they were going to sin. It didn’t have to be that way, I suppose, but God knew it (and did He will it? There’s some fun theological debate for you. I won’t go there.)

It wasn’t as if Adam and Eve sinned and God said, “Well, how am I gonna handle this?” No, even before creation, God knew that mankind would need a Savior. That plan was in place before creation. How about that.

God stayed faithful to His promise even when things were awful.

Stay with me here, because there’s a contemporary promise involved here for sure.

There was this worldwide flood, right? And except for a handful of folks on a really big boat, mankind didn’t go extinct. Read that again – humans facing extinction. But Noah and his crew were preserved. Know why? It’s in part because the promise of a Savior was in Noah’s genes, so to speak. This was just one family that knew this and believed.

Those promises held true. It wasn’t long after the Flood that Noah’s descendents thought they’d bail on God, what with idol worship and such. God had to start over with His chosen folks with Abraham. Jesus was going to be one of Abraham’s descendents, and that family line was preserved through some really dark periods of human history – 400 years of slavery in Egypt, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, all sorts of wars and exile in Babylon.

Are things awful today? Are God’s promises still sound?

You bet they are. He didn’t bring us this far to abandon us.

No matter how much time passed, God hasn’t reneged on His promises.

If God went back on any of His promises, He would be unfaithful to His very nature. That won’t happen. It can’t happen.

Even when His people are unfaithful, God remains faithful to His word.

The whole history of Israel is one of coming close and falling away. They were forever turning their backs on Him. Invariably they paid the price of their unfaithfulness. Because of God’s promises, though, He would always call them back and welcome them. It’s a real shame – lather, rinse, repeat. It didn’t have to be that way. In our own lives, too, we can fall away, only to have circumstances turn us back to Jesus. I’m not sure where I got this quote, but someone said “You can take a thousand steps away from Jesus but it only takes one step to come back.” I like that.

God put together the march of history to assure every one of His promises have been kept.

There’s a great study to be had here. Scripture speaks of Jesus coming in the fullness of time – in other words, He showed up just when He was supposed to.  As an example, He was supposed to be born in the City of David. In order for that to happen, Caesar Augustus had to take a census, sending Mary and Joseph to their ancestral home. Cool, huh? And when it came time for our spiritual forefathers to spread the gospel, the Romans had the most far-reaching and sophisticated road system the world had ever seen.

So what does this mean? Does He fulfill His promises to us?

Yeah, because God is faithful. Every single promise made to us in scripture regarding us, our families, and our futures will come to pass because He is God. Even when we screw up, even when we face awful days, even when it seems that no one understands us, He will accomplish what He said He would in our lives.

It’s appropriate to pray, in light of what I’ve shared, for rest, security, and peace from Him. There are some amazing promises in scripture. We need to acknowledge them as the promises they are and relish the security they give.

O be joyful.

Talk later.