With tomorrow being the the First day of Lent, That makes TODAY…Fat Tuesday!  To the host of people looking at religion as demanding and hard, they will look forward to a ‘last night’ of revelry before getting their life’s actions ‘in line.’  So often you hear me saying that Christ wants to set us free and provide us with ‘Abundant Life.’  But freedom is not free.  It requires desire and effort.  I like this devotional.  It is simple and to the point.. and it doesn’t come from ME.  I pray you will be encouraged by its message.  

How to Experience Perpetual, Personal Revival

On a recent visit to New York City, I paused at the 9/11 Memorial, which is at the end of Fulton Street. Then I began walking down Fulton Street itself, which runs crosswise across lower Manhattan. I was looking for a monument, memorial, or historical plaque to indicate how that street changed American history long before the events of September 11, 2001. I didn’t find a monument there, and the thousands of people going back and forth on the sidewalks don’t have a clue. But I do know the story.

In the middle of the 1800s, a tailor named Jeremiah Lanphier moved to Manhattan and established a clothing business. He was a Christian and a sidewalk evangelist in the Wall Street district. On Wednesday, September 23, 1857, he invited people to drop by for prayer at a room on Fulton Street during their lunch hour. Six people showed up. The next week, twenty came. The next week, forty.

Soon churches all across New York overflowed with daily prayer meetings. Fire departments and police stations opened their facilities for prayer, and local businesses set aside rooms for employees to pray. The movement swept over the eastern seaboard and pushed westward into the nation. Citywide awakenings struck Cincinnati, Louisville, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and innumerable smaller cities and towns.

From the United States, the revival spread to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England. For two years, approximately 50,000 people a week came to Christ. Within a year of the start of the Fulton Street Prayer Meetings, over a million converts joined America’s churches, and thousands of existing church members were born again or revived in their faith.

The world needs another such awakening, and I pray every day for revival to sweep our country. Our problems are not primarily political, but spiritual; and the answers we need are not primarily political. We need another national and global revival.

Whether God unleashes a great geographical revival or not, I’m convinced you and I can enjoy perpetual, personal revival. Psalm 23:3 says, He refreshes my soul. Jesus said,
  Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from with them. — John 7:38
When we experience personal, perpetual revival, our faith is revived, our love is stronger, our faces are more joyful, our enthusiasm is more contagious, and our individual ministries are empowered.

How, then, can we experience revival when everyone else is simply struggling for survival?

1. Pull all the ingredients of your life into the circle of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This takes a determined decision, which is renewable daily. You can do this instantly, or you may want a bit of time to ponder its implications. God isn’t likely to bless what isn’t yielded to Him. Every morning I pray something like this, “Lord, I want You to be in control of every aspect of my life. My time. My habits. My money. My relationships. May they be under Your authority today.” Christians used to call this “full surrender.” The word “surrender” isn’t currently in vogue, but the spiritual concept has never been more needed. If some area of your life has slipped out of the circle of Christ’s Lordship, confess it as sin and, with His help, rein it back in.

2. Never miss a day without a personal closed-door appointment with God, allowing Him to speak to you through His Word and responding to Him in prayer. In a marriage, it’s hard to keep the romance alive if a couple never communicates. In our relationship with God, it’s hard to keep the revival burning if there’s no regular communication. I’m not sure why Christians have so much trouble maintaining their habits of personal devotional time, but Jesus told us to go into a private room, close the door, and meet with the Father (Matthew 6:6). Though everyone’s schedule is different, for the last 48 years I’ve been doing this every morning after breakfast. I open my Bible to where I left off the day before, underline and mark verses that speak to me, and talk to the Lord as if He were actually in the room — which He is!

3. Ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit, for Ephesians 5:18-19 says,
  be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. As you leave the secret room and go into your day, consciously remember the reality of God’s presence. He goes with you. A great missionary of yesteryear, George Brown of India, was known for his constant awareness of God’s nearness. When a friend asked him about it, he said, “Yes, God is nearer to me, consciously, than anyone in this room.” Train yourself to remember God is with you, near you, around you, within you—and that you have constant access to Him through Jesus Christ.

5. Let this show up on your face. Ecclesiastes 8:1 says,
  A person’s wisdom brightens their faces and changes its hard appearance.
I realize we can’t always smile. Troubles and grief intrude, and we face moments requiring serious thought. But biblical joy isn’t an undependable electric circuit in a developing nation. The Bible says,
  Rejoice in the Lord always. — Philippians 4:4
Even when we can’t control our emotions, we can chose our attitudes, trust God with our burdens, turn problems into prayers, and, as Charles Wesley said, “laugh at life’s impossibilities.”

None of this is easy, perfect, or quick for most of us. It’s a series of life patterns. But how vital for times like these! If our world is ever going to experience a series of global revivals, it’s got to begin in you and me.

We’ve got to find our way to Fulton Street.

Written for Devotionals Daily by Robert J. Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America.

Got this from Randy yesterday and he thought you might like this one.  It does cause to pause…

Why can’t we love pleasure and God at the same time? Paul seems to assume that we can’t. And it’s a text that confuses a podcast listener named Gabriel, who writes in to ask: “Hello, Pastor John. My question is about that phrase in 2 Timothy 3:4, ‘lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.’ Does this establish a dichotomy between seeking pleasure and seeking God? If so, why is it impossible to do both? Why can’t we love pleasure and God at the same time?”

It is about time that we get this question. I mean, we are Christian Hedonists, and there’s a text just crying out for attention. So, let’s put the text in front of us. Here’s what 2 Timothy 3:1–5 says:

In the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Now, Gabriel is certainly right to flag this text as something that needs special attention, especially from a Christian Hedonist like me: “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” Is this, then, not an indictment of Christian Hedonism, which says that we should pursue our fullest and lasting pleasure in God no matter what it costs? That’s what I believe and have devoted my life to arguing for and trying to live. Gabriel wants to know, Can’t we pursue pleasure and God — can’t we love pleasure and God — at the same time? To which Paul seems to say, “No, you can’t.”

What You Really Crave

So, what we have to do with a text like this is not turn away from the text and start making up our own views about pleasure and about God, but stay with the text and let Paul tell us how he’s using his words — namely, the word pleasure and the word God in particular. Paul is clearly treating them as competitors for our affections, for our love — loving pleasure rather than loving God. He’s treating God as an object of our love, and he’s treating pleasure as an object of our love.

And when you think of them that way, pleasure is clearly being perceived as an idol, an alternative to loving God. That’s the way Paul is setting it up. Paul is not asking the question, if looked at another way, whether God might be our pleasure. He’s not asking that. He’s not talking about that. If God is our pleasure, then pleasure can’t be in competition with God, but pleasure is virtually the same as our love for God.

So, Paul is using the word pleasure as an object of delight, not an act of delight. Mark that. That’s so important to get our categories clear. He’s treating the word pleasure, he’s treating the reality of pleasure, as an object of our delighting, not the act of our delighting. If pleasure is an object of delight — something we delight in — then it competes with God, and we have to choose God above pleasure. But if pleasure is viewed not as the object of delight, but the act of delighting, then God can be the object of that delighting. He can be our delight, be our pleasure, and in that sense, pleasure and God would not be in competition at all.

But that’s not the way Paul is thinking here. Paul is thinking here of pleasure as a physical or psychological sensation that we crave more than we crave God. And in this sense, pleasure has to become an idol, and we must choose between pleasure and God.

God, or His Benefits?

Let me tell two stories that illustrate what I think Paul is getting at. Here’s the first story. I remember over twenty years ago interviewing Sam Crabtree as an executive pastor candidate for Bethlehem, and he’s been at Bethlehem ever since. In the interview, he said something that made me love and admire him and his insight. We hired him. I love Sam. He’s still wise.

He said he worries about some churches that, in their worship services, seem to be loving loving God more than loving God. Let me say it again because it struck me, and that’s why I remember it all these years later: he was concerned that, in some worship services, people seem to be loving loving God more than loving God.

So, a person might say he’s taking pleasure in God in worship, and that would be good. But he might slip over into taking more pleasure in the pleasure of taking pleasure in God than in really taking pleasure in God. And we all know this danger, right? We can slip into loving the emotional music, or slip into the emotional fellowship, or slip into the various physical and psychological sensations that attend a focus with God, while God himself slowly disappears.

The beauty of his character and the beauty of his ways just drop out of our consciousness. That would be a religious form of the kind of thing Paul is concerned about here, loving pleasure rather than loving God.

‘I Choose You’

Now here’s the second story. It’s an even more pointed illustration, I think. Soon after Noël and I were married, I read a book about sex in marriage, and it made this amazing statement that I had not thought of before, but ever since have considered it just stock, beautiful, glorious, obvious wisdom. It said, “One kiss after sexual climax is worth a thousand kisses before sexual climax.”

Now, why would that be? It’s because all the kisses of foreplay are ambiguous. They might be owing to strong affections for your spouse as a cherished person, or you might have gotten so caught up in the love of pleasure, the sensations, that the kisses have no connection with the preciousness of the person, and are only expressions of sexual abandon and sexual sensation.

But after sexual climax, when there are no overpowering physical sensations carrying you, but only the preciousness of the relationship, then a tender, eye-to-eye, heartfelt kiss says, “You are more precious to me than all those sensations. And if I had to choose, I would choose you, you, Noël. Not mainly the sexual sensations that you give me, but you, are my cherished treasure.”

Highest Pleasure in God Himself

Now, that is, I think, what Paul is getting at in relation to God. Remember, it says — this is amazing — in 2 Timothy 3:5, that these people have an “appearance of godliness,” while they are loving pleasure more than loving God. But in fact, they are being sustained not by the power of godliness, not by the power of the beauty of God’s person and the preciousness of his fellowship; they’re being sustained by the secondary pleasures of being part of the Christian community.

So, the answer to Gabriel’s question is this: You can’t love pleasure and love God when pleasure is conceived of as an alternative object of your affections, luring you away from a superior delight in God. But you can pursue pleasure and pursue God at the same time if God himself is your pleasure.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Why I Love the Apostle Paul: 30 Reasons.

This was too good to not forward.  I remember a song line from Barbara Mandrell years ago… ‘He grew the tree, He knew would be, used to make the Old Rugged Cross.   Happy Valentines Day.  May I recommend you go and make it a great day for the ones you love? 

“Oh, the things we do to give gifts to those we love.

But we don’t mind, do we? We would do it all again. Fact is, we do it all again. Every Christmas, every birthday, every so often we find ourselves in foreign territory. Grownups are in toy stores. Dads are in teen stores. Wives are in the hunting department, and husbands are in the purse department.

Not only do we enter unusual places, we do unusual things. We assemble bicycles at midnight. We hide the new tires with mag wheels under the stairs. One fellow I heard about rented a movie theater so he and his wife could see their wedding pictures on their anniversary.

And we’d do it all again. Having pressed the grapes of service, we drink life’s sweetest wine — the wine of giving. We are at our best when we are giving. In fact, we are most like God when we are giving.

Have you ever wondered why God gives so much? We could exist on far less. He could have left the world flat and gray; we wouldn’t have known the difference. But He didn’t.

He splashed orange in the sunrise and cast the sky in blue. And if you love to see geese as they gather, chances are you’ll see that too.

Did He have to make the squirrel’s tail furry? Was He obliged to make the birds sing? And the funny way that chickens scurry or the majesty of thunder when it rings?

Why give a flower fragrance? Why give food its taste? Could it be He loves to see that look upon your face?

If we give gifts to show our love, how much more would He? If we — speckled with foibles and greed — love to give gifts, how much more does God, pure and perfect God, enjoy giving gifts to us? Jesus asked,

If you hardhearted, sinful men know how to give good gifts to your children, won’t your Father in heaven even more certainly give good gifts to those who ask him for them? — Matthew 7:11 TLB

God’s gifts shed light on God’s heart, God’s good and generous heart. Jesus’ brother James tells us:

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of Heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. — James 1:17 MSG

Every gift reveals God’s love… but no gift reveals His love more than the gifts of the Cross.

They came, not wrapped in paper, but in passion. Not placed around a tree, but a Cross. And not covered with ribbons, but sprinkled with blood.

The gifts of the Cross.

Much has been said about the gift of the Cross itself, but what of the other gifts? What of the nails, the crown of thorns? The garments taken by the soldiers? The garments given for the burial? Have you taken time to open these gifts?

He didn’t have to give them, you know. The only act, the only required act for our salvation was the shedding of blood, yet He did much more. So much more. Search the scene of the cross, and what do you find?

A wine-soaked sponge. A sign. Two crosses beside Christ. Divine gifts intended to stir that moment, that split second when your face will brighten, your eyes will widen, and God will hear you whisper, “You did this for me?”

The diadem of pain
which sliced your gentle face,
three spikes piercing flesh and wood
to hold you in your place.
The need for blood I understand.
Your sacrifice I embrace.
But the bitter sponge, the cutting spear,
the spit upon your face?
Did it have to be a Cross?
Did not a kinder death exist
than six hours hanging between life and death,
all spurred by a betrayer’s kiss?
“Oh, Father,” you pose,
heart-stilled at what could be,
“I’m sorry to ask, but I long to know,
did You do this for me?”

Dare we pray such a prayer? Dare we think such thoughts? Could it be that the hill of the Cross is rich with God’s gifts? Let’s examine them, shall we? Let’s unwrap these gifts of grace as if — or perhaps, indeed — for the first time. And as you touch them — as you feel the timber of the Cross and trace the braid of the crown and finger the point of the spike — pause and listen. Perchance you will hear Him whisper:

“I did it just for you.”

“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” Ezekiel 36:26 NLT

My wife came home from work yesterday and had to tell me what happened. She teaches pre-schoolers, and one little girls has a parent who is a dermatologist. The little girl came up to Katie and, looking intently at her asked, “You usin’ that face cream we gave you?” Katie replied, “Yup… I used it all up.” to which the little girl replied… “we’ll we need to get you some more!”

This week I was walking out of a store while a twenty something gal was walking in. Taking one look at me she blurted out,” Nice haircut… you don’t see THAT much these days!”

Yesterday at church I was standing beside my friend Howie. Howie is in his 80’s! I can’t tell you exact age, because it changes so quickly I can’t remember. He told me he had just gotten back from eating ‘Valentines Dinner’ at a particular restaurant. I told him, tongue in cheek, “That’s where old people go!” He responded with a smile, “what’s yer point” (Valentine’s Day isn’t for 2 days…but he told me they raise prices then!).

Life gets more interesting the more I experience it. The kind of person I am INSIDE can easily be seen from the outside. What someone says without thinking, even tongue in cheek, could easily be taken as an offense… IF that is my particular frame of mind. If I am looking to be offended, it’s easy to BECOME so because, honestly, I don’t have to look far to get offended. God’s Word is offensive (Galatians 5:11).

If the brevity of life scares me, then God saying ‘man’s life is like grass… here today gone tomorrow’ will cause me to turn from reading it. Even though He makes reference to it 8 times in the Bible! The truth is…I am NOT DYING!

The purpose of the Word of God is to draw us to Him. He doesn’t have to scare us in. Sin and life as it is, along with all its enemies, does that naturally. Years ago I heard the message that, though I am flesh, I CAN have abundant and eternal life…if I CHOOSE it. And I did and can tell you… it’s true!

In light of eternity I am just a spring pup! Those ‘old’ comments rolled off all of our backs and we can laugh about them. Because we KNOW who we are in Christ, we can rest assured that He always has us. My new heart gets newer every day…! Does yours?

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:26

I met my wife while playing drums in a Holiday Inn lounge almost 43 years ago. She was on vacation, I was working in a band and taking college classes. The event of our meeting was epic. 2 1/2 days later I proposed! That night started one thing and ended another. I never again played drums in bar. But…I was never again alone!

I got that drum set in 9^th grade and had SO much fun over the years. I never got rid of it, but it has been packed away for a very long time. Yesterday I got an itch to set them up again. Just for fun. And yes… it was!

Even though I hadn’t touched those drums for at least 5 years, it went together as if it was just yesterday. I remembered that broken tom-tom leg, the tricky way the snare had to sit on its stand and the time I bought that bass peddle. Those things had never left me, but lay stored in the back of my mind. Not needing that information, there was no need to bring it up again. But there ARE more important things I must NEVER forget.

Jesus spoke those words to His Disciples before the New Testament and The Church were even formed. The Old Law was never able to SAVE ANYONE, but pointed to His sacrifice, which would. That ‘Good News’ was never meant to be kept hidden… but proclaimed. His Words and promises would be taught as life saving principles to be learned, applied and remembered. He even promised that the Holy Spirit would come and take what I learned and DRAG it to the forefront of my mind. BUT…

I cannot remember something that I have never learned. The Holy Spirit cannot reach me if I haven’t the tools, will and time to for Him to do His work. Over the years I have made the study and application of His Words to my life. I know and remember the MANY times I was in a pickle and ‘poof’ a Bible verse came to remembrance. I am proof that Jesus keeps His promises.

I think there’s a difference between reminiscing and remembering. The first is only sentimental. The second, as Jesus intends…is a LIFELINE! The more I know His Word, the more I know HIM. And the more I know Him, the more I love and count on Him.

I had fun banging on those drums. Once learned, it really never goes away. I can say the same thing for reading and learning the Word of God. Like my drums and my wife, one thing led to another. And so it is with His Words and abundant life. And I am STILL… no longer alone! Do ya dig me man?

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1

Setting at an intersection readying to merge onto the 3 lane highway, traffic was heavy. Seeing my break in the traffic, I prepared to go. It helped that the car in the lane I wanted to merge was turning right giving me even MORE time, but no matter, all 3 lanes were clear. Merging onto the highway I heard a long HONK! Looking in my rear-view mirror I was… befuddled.

The guy had 3 lanes to himself and was no way in any danger. I guess he just didn’t like me being in front of him in his lane. The honk was simply a message conveying that point. Further down the road, I had to turn left and cross 3 lanes of traffic coming the other way. I waited, and when it was clear, I went. HONK!!!! Again… no danger. But I guess the guy half a football field away thought he’d let me know he was there. I waved!

I know what it is to honk! I do it myself. In fact, last week, setting at an intersection, the person in front of us had a WHOLE football field of room to turn. When she didn’t, my WIFE reached over from the passenger seat and hit the horn! All I could say was, “way to go honey!” Her response was, “well… she irritated me!” If you know my wife, you know that kind of reaction is RARE!

The car horn was designed to WARN. It was never meant to be used as a greeting, a call sign, a ‘hurry it up’ or the sound of irritation. But humans are creative! We make up stuff for other stuff in an attempt to display how we feel or to get what we want. And it can get confusing!

This verse today confuses me. I had to write it out to dissect it before I could really even BEGIN to grasp its concept. “therefore, since YOU didn’t get what YOU deserve (death for your sin), YOU offer your WHOLE LIVING SELF as a SACRIFICE, THAT is how you can worship and thank Him FOR life!

I didn’t get what I deserved, so I now am called to work at giving HIM WHAT HE DOES?

HONK HONK!!!!! Now I think I need to go and think about that one!

“He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” Mark 4:39

Florida in the winter time is interesting. It is not uncommon to turn the ‘heat’ on in the evening, only to flip the switch to ‘air conditioning’ in the early afternoon. Looking out the window, it can LOOK beautiful, warm and sunny, but FEEL chilly. But yesterday, from our front patio, it felt beautiful AND warm. Since we had some time on our hands, I asked my wife if she would like to go kayaking. So we did.

Paddling out to the end of the canal, we could go left or right. It was easy to see that the tide was going out, but HAD been for a while, since the water was low. We took a right and allowed the water to move us along. I figured it wouldn’t be long before the current would stop or change for our return. It was perfect. Until we reversed course and it wasn’t.

We really hadn’t noticed that there was a gusting wind that followed with the current… that is until we turned around. When the wind hit us, small whitecaps splashed against our bows. Not only were we going to have to REALLY WORK to get back, we were going to get wet as well. We hadn’t expected THOSE conditions! It reminded me of the story when the disciples hadn’t either!

It’s all there in Mark 4. Jesus had a desire to go to the other side of the lake, left the navigational issues to his team…then took a nap! Soon, rough turned to dangerous, and Jesus wasn’t even awake to notice. So His disciples woke Him to give the fearful news. FIRST he rebuked the wind… THEN He rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. It is hard to determine whether it was the wind or His ire that caused them to fear the most.

Like Florida in the winter, the Christian Life can be really interesting at times. Sometimes life can become difficult. On the water we had choices. We could blame God for causing the problem in the first place. I could shout at the wind in the Name of Jesus, “Peace, be still!” Or I could look to and thank God for the strength to row, row, row my boat!

I have learned that blaming and screaming don’t really get me very far. But trusting and relying on Christ to be there with me in the storm seems to get me where I need to go. When it was all said and done, we actually got a workout and had fun doing it. I could actually sense that because of our faith, Jesus was smiling right along with us!

“When He (Jesus) had finished speaking, He said to Simon, ‘Now (Let’s) go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.'” Luke 5:4 NLT

Yesterday I did something that is extremely RARE. At 64, I drove my 39 year old son to have shoulder surgery. It wasn’t MAJOR surgery, but…ANY surgery is major. His last time was when his tonsils were removed at age 5. He’s a tough guy, but knowing that, I asked AND listened to his answers to my questions. I recognized he hadn’t really given this surgery much thought. With the scalpel only about 25 feet away, I thought it might be a good time that he did.

It is a ‘Jesus Principal’ that we count the cost BEFORE we act. It is a fact that a repaired shoulder’s effectiveness is determined by the obedience and follow through of rehabilitation. ‘Blowing it off’ could actually make matters worse. So just before he ‘went under’ I switched to pastor mode and told him, “this I more serious than you may be thinking.” I could tell he was listening.

Peter had been listening. He heard of Jesus from his brother and was intrigued. Jesus went to Pete’s town, then to his house and even healed his mother in law! But now, Jesus wanted Peter. Knowing Peter was a boat guy, he got into Peter’s boat and made it a pulpit! As Peter looked over the crowd from behind Him, he HAD to feel some kind of awe that it was just him and Jesus in the boat. But then… Jesus turned!

It strikes me that Jesus was never a crowd pleaser. Knowing how Jesus works with ME, I believe Jesus was using the huge crowd as bait to catch only ONE BIG fish! And His cast and presentation were PERFECT for His audience of 1. Like a fish to a lure, Peter didn’t even see it coming…”Let’s go out deeper and do some fishing,” ‘The Hook’ was all but set!

Jesus calls people 1 at a time. That’s how He got to me! Over the years, I have often come to places that I hadn’t taken seriously… or had taken for granted. When I DID catch His eye and the seriousness of His call, I was privileged to have caught more than just fish. I have come to treasure those times when He turned to ‘me’ and gently whispered… “Let’s go deeper,” They are the crossroads of my life.

Jesus calls us all to ‘Go Deeper!’ Maybe we haven’t taken Him seriously enough or given His call much thought. But His call is ALWAYS private and ALWAYS to The Deep. He wants ME to be His one-on-one ship mate where HE is the Captain. I have learned that NOTHING happens until I respond to His call with…”Yes master!”

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

What a remarkable picture! It hardly needs any exposition. Suddenly, after a great time of trouble, the nation will realize that this glorious King, their Messiah, once came as a little child: to us a child is born. He who was for eternity the Son of God was given to them as a little Baby in Bethlehem. They recognize at last, after centuries of rejection, that this One rightly deserves divine titles. This is Immanuel, God with us.

The four titles Isaiah lists represent that: Wonderful Counselor. Did anyone ever fulfill that more fully than Jesus? He unveils to us secrets about ourselves, counsels us how to avoid the heartaches and problems that otherwise would beset us, showing the way of deliverance from the taint and pollution of sin.

Mighty God. That unquestionably divine title can only describe God. He is the Mighty One, and in 10:21 the same term is used of God unmistakably.

The next title is more than simply Everlasting Father. It is actually Father of Eternity. This is surely a reference to the fact that Jesus alone can give eternal life; he is its father for it originates with him. As many as believe in him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. (John 1:12)

No one contests the last title, Prince of Peace. He stated himself, My peace I give unto you, (John 14:27). Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. This phrase captures the universal character of the Messiah’s reign and its extension at last to the whole created cosmos.

The key, of course, is in these words, to us a child is born, to us a son is given. Even though these events, both in Isaiah and in the gospels, took place thousands of years ago, when a nation (or an individual) first comes into personal contact with the Lord of Glory it seems as though he is the recipient for the first time of this wonderful gift. That is why we describe that we found the Lord, and how he came to us, because it is so real in our own experience. It is to us that he came, to us he is born. He is God with us, to strengthen and guide us, to meet our needs, to solve our problems.

A woman told me of her struggle with a sense of being abandoned, left without guidance, needing his presence. And thankfully I could point her back to these marvelous promises. The Lord IS with us. Father, thank you for not just sending but giving your son to us. He is the most wonderful gift of all!