Category: Uncategorized

Categories
Uncategorized

Hark! The Fourth Verse Now We Sing!

From time to time, I mention Kairos Prison Ministry in this space, for it is hard not to speak of the awesome wonders God works in the lives of incarcerated people. If you’ve heard of Kairos, you are most likely familiar with the semi-annual, four-day Kairos Weekends in which we volunteers share with inmates the love and forgiveness that are found solely in Christ Jesus. Yet we also return to the prison through monthly reunions and weekly Prayer & Share. And for this month’s reunion, I and some others were asked to share an especially meaningful Christmas carol and why we find it so meaningful. So, do you mind if I practice on you this week?

I chose “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”1 It is the gospel put to poetry; the good news wrapped in rhyme. Were you to open your hymnal to this enduring favorite, you would probably find three verses. Then would it surprise you to learn Charles Wesley’s composition had ten? The first verse, the familiar one, proclaims a promise kept: a heavenly King who brings us the peace, the reconciliation of God the Creator and us, His created. The second stanza points us to Jesus’ human incarnation: “Offspring of a virgin’s womb” — the Godhead veiled in flesh, “pleased as man with man to dwell.” Flowing on through its third verse, this Christmas classic heralds the Messiah’s heavenly origin: the “Sun of Righteousness,”2 bringing His light and life to us, defeating death and raising us through new birth.

So let’s pick up where our hymnals leave off, for verse four — so powerfully sourced in Scripture — is the cry of the redeemed soul, a prayerful response to God’s faithfulness,. Sing it softly; let it melt into your soul.

Come, Desire of nations, come!3
Fix in us Thy humble home:4
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed,5
Bruise in us the serpent’s head;6
Adam’s likeness now efface,7
Stamp Thine image in its place:8
Final Adam from above,9
Reinstate us in Thy love.10
Hark! The herald angels sing,11
“Glory to the new-born King.”12

Satan is defeated, and in Christ we are new creations13 being transformed into His image.14 Isn’t this what we want? When we behold God’s great promises fulfilled in the most unexpected of ways, don’t our hearts respond in joy, thanksgiving and trust? And in this trust, don’t our spirits cry, “More!”?

Yes, Lord, deliver us from evil, and transform us into unimaginable glory. Grace us with fruitful lives throughout our days here. We see what you’ve done for mankind; do also what you will in each of us. Guide us daily away from our old nature, and transform us into yours. Grow your church on Earth. In Christ we live; in Him we pray. Amen.

1 Charles Wesley, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” Hymnal.net, accessed: December 15, 2025.
2 Malachi 4:2
3 Haggai 2:7
4 John 14:23
5, 6 Genesis 3:15
7, 8 1 Corinthians 15:49
9, 10 Romans 5:19
11, 12 Luke 2:13-14
13 2 Corinthians 5:17
14 2 Corinthians 3:18

Categories
Uncategorized

Where Are You Going?

We have a lot of questions in life, don’t we? And for many reasons. Through questions, we feed curiosity, clarify misunderstanding, validate skepticism, or even assert our hostility. Yet perhaps the primary driver of our inquiries is to assess how new thoughts or realities fit within our frame of reference. Does this proposition align with my experience, values, or beliefs? Do I even have a category for it? If not, do I accept this new assertion or explore it maybe, or do I reject it outright?

So as the Son of God “became flesh and dwelt among us,”1 we can sense the agita surrounding the Man, not only by the questions people asked Him, but also the diversity among the askers. Consider these. “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?”2 — the Maji. “Where are you from?”3 — Pilate. “Are you the one?”4 — John the Baptist. “Where did this man get this wisdom?”5 — the synagogue faithful. “Who gave you this authority?”6 — the chief priests and scribes. “Where is your father?”7 — the Pharisees. And perhaps the most fundamental question of all: “Who is this?”8 — twelve men in a boat on a raging lake grown calm. The paucity of precedent sent the people pressing: Who IS this?

Peter figured it out. (He’d had help.) When Jesus queried His friends, “Who do you say that I am?”9 the loquacious disciple characteristically answered first, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”10 This is bedrock truth that matures us into humble submission of self and fitting dependence on Him. So it was a saddened Peter who asked the departing Jesus, “Lord, where are you going?”11 After all, he and the other disciples had left everything to follow Him.12 “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”13 This is who He was and where He has gone. Was that the end?

Not at all; the story continues. For this eternal Son of God has finished the divine work He came to accomplish and returned home, not only to be with the Father He’s known forever, but also to prepare a place in Heaven for us. “And if I go and prepare a place for you,” He assured them, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”14 This is His promise. No questions asked.

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” — Hebrews 1:3 ESV

Father, You always keep Your promises. Fill us with Your Spirit, that You may bear eternal fruit through us, the church on Earth. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 John 1:14 ESV
2 Matthew 2:2
3 John 18:33
4 Luke 7:19
5 Matthew 13:54
6 Mark 11:28
7 John 8:19
8 Mark 4:41 NIV
9 Matthew 16:15 NLV
10 Matthew 16:16 NIV
11 John 13:36 ESV
12 Mark 10:28 13
13 John 16:28 ESV
14 John 14:3 ESV

Categories
Uncategorized

He Is Our King

Most of this blog’s earliest readers were friends and relatives I’d known well for some time. Occasionally some would respond, whether directly or by email or text, “Thank you for today’s post,” or “I really needed to hear this,” or “This was so helpful to me,” or simply “Amen.” Knowing these readers as I did, what struck me was the fact that, politically, they were quite diverse, residing all along the ideological spectrum from the radical left to the extreme right, and often at the others’ digital throats via social media. Still today, whether we shout “No kings” or cleverly counter “No jesters,” our differences run deep. Yet Biblical truth reaches deeper and raises us all to oneness in an eternal Kingdom that exceeds all earthly rule and wisdom. He who unites us is stronger than that which separates us. I’ve seen it in your replies.

A thousand years before Jesus’ incarnation, and through the prophet Nathan, God promised David an everlasting Messiah-king to come from his lineage. “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. . . I will be his father, and he will be my son. . . Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me.”1 This throne would be occupied forever after by One who existed from forever prior — a ruler “whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”2 Moreover, this Kingship would be one of Sonship. Isaiah foretold this turning point in history: “to us a child is born, to us a son is given,”3 a Son who would “reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom . . . from that time on and forever.”4

Yet when Jesus came as promised, “His own people did not accept Him”5 as foretold.

Caesar’s proxy, Pilate, presenting Jesus to the Jews: “Behold your King!”6
The chief priests, in reply: “We have no king but Caesar.”7

Ponder the irony.

But Jesus was their King, and He is our King. “My kingdom is not of this world,”8 He has said, yet He reigns in this world — He reigns in and through the hearts and souls of believers “from sea to sea and . . . to the ends of the earth.”9 He unites us in Himself, and as His word resonates in our hearts, our swords of separation drop harmlessly from unclenching hands and onto the ground beneath our feet. Yes, we are closer than we think. You’ve shown me this.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” — Revelation 11:15 ESV

Jesus, you reign “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”10 Be my King, now and forever. Amen.

1 2 Samuel 7:12-16 NIV
2 Micah 5:2 NIV
3 Isaiah 9:6 NIV (see also Psalm 2:7)
4 Isaiah 9:7 NIV
5 John 1:11 ESV
6 John 19:14 ESV
7 John 19:16 ESV
8 John 18:36 ESV (emphasis added)
9 Zechariah 9:10 NIV
10 Ephesians 1:21 NIV