December 25, 2024

Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful!

Merry Christmas to each of you in The Equipped family! This week's edition is intentionally brief and even lighter on news than normal, as we hope you are spending today reflecting on the beautiful gift of a Savior who arrived in the form of a newborn baby!

The True

The Newborn

Ask any parent who has experienced it and they will tell you: Newborns change everything! Schedules, sleep, rhythms and routines, sleep, hobbies, sleep, noise levels, sleep . . . everything! Did I mention sleep? When a newborn arrives, the norms of yesterday are gone and an entirely new reality takes its place.

Even so, our family loves newborns. We have now had the “newborn experience” 15 times—three times with our biological children and 12 times with newborns in our care for a few weeks on their way to a forever family! Each and every time, the experience is beautiful and a time of bonding, and each and every time, it dramatically impacts our everyday reality.

But as true as all of the above is, none of that dramatic change holds a candle to the impact of the newborn we celebrate this week! This newborn—the Messiah, the one wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger—certainly made his entrance into the human world with plenty of disruption. The timing was inconvenient (His parents were on a long and arduous trip). The place was inconvenient (it was far from home, and the town was teeming with people). The cultural dynamics were certainly inconvenient, to say the least (the ruling power wanted so badly to kill Him that all other newborn baby boys around His age were slaughtered).

Yes, the newborn Messiah certainly changed things for His parents, Joseph and Mary, in many disruptive ways. It would not have been a fully human experience if He hadn’t.

But this newborn was different. This newborn didn’t just change everything for His parents. In fact, this newborn didn’t even just change everything for the world into which He was born. This newborn? He changed everything for you!

You live in a world bound by space and time (for now, anyway). But when Jesus took on not only human flesh, but the flesh of a newborn baby, He broke the barrier of space and time, and also the barrier between a holy God and a sinful mankind. Yes, the story would take Him to a cross, and then a grave, and then ultimately back to the right hand of His father—each step of the journey authoring a way for you to be reconciled to your God.

But it started by the God of the universe taking on the form of a newborn. How fitting it is, because newborns simply change everything.

U.S.

Just in Time . . . Again

It took three tries, but Congress once again managed to approve a bill to fund the Federal Government just before a shutdown. After the first two measures released by Speaker Mike Johnson failed to secure a majority in the U.S. House, the third version was approved 366-34 in the U.S. House and 85-11 in the U.S. Senate. President Joe Biden signed the measure into law on Saturday just a few hours after the deadline but before any discernable consequences. The government is now funded through March 14, so prepare for the new Congress to immediately return to the negotiating table to again race against the clock to avert a shutdown.

Analysis and eternal perspective: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The budget and spending process of the Federal Government is broken, and this never-ending cycle of shutdown politics is predictable and unproductive.

That might sound like doom and gloom, but it is actually an important understanding for you as a Jesus follower to possess, because until there is a fundamental change to the process, we will continue to see a similar story play out time and time again (set your calendars for early March for the next iteration). With this in mind, we can focus on the underlying challenge of fixing the process (it is truly an important objective) rather than fixating on the next round of palace intrigue.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philip. 4:8).

World

Christmas Market Attack

Five people are dead and more than 230 injured after an attacker drove a car through a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany last weekend. Authorities have identified a doctor from Saudi Arabia (who has been living in Germany for nearly 20 years) as the assailant. While the motive of the attack is still under investigation, there are reports that authorities have been aware of previous threats issued by the suspect.

Analysis and eternal perspective: The brokenness of our world is on full display in this story. The acts of violence seem so random and senseless, but in reality they reflect the depravity and desperation of lost souls. As we grieve with and pray for the families of the victims, this story should also remind us of the magnitude of grace embodied in a God who chose to entangle His holiness and His very being with our fallen humanity. The very son of God “made himself nothing” in order for you and I to have relationship with Him (Philip. 2:5-11).

The Equipped

Your Mission

With this final issue of 2024, The Equipped is now two years old and has published each and every week for the past two years. Along the way, our community has expanded, but our purpose for coming together each week (through both this newsletter and The Equipped radio show and podcast) remains the same:

You can be thoroughly EQUIPPED for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17)!

Our tagline at The Equipped is, “Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful,” but that is really just a mechanism by which our community aims to achieve its ultimate goal: We want to be a people who are thoroughly equipped for whatever work God assigns us. We want to grow in the grace that is searching God’s Word for Truth and rightly dividing it in a way that accentuates the beauty in the created world around us.

You are not naïve or unaware. You know our world is groaning (Rom. 8:22). But you also stand on the Truth that you are more than a conqueror, and that nothing in this world can separate you from the love of God (Rom. 8:31-39).

Armed with this Truth, you join with The Equipped family in choosing a life that rejects fear and is instead marked with power, love, and sound thinking (2 Tim. 1:7).

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your family, and for being such a valued part of ours. Merry Christmas.

The Beautiful

Waiting for Christmas

The arrival of Christmas is wonderful! But to be honest, the waiting for it may be even better! This is true for many other anticipated moments or events, as well. There is a certain irreplaceable value in looking toward what is to come, and in having faith that the end of the story will be good. The wait for Christmas is now over, but you and I still wait in eager anticipation for the return of our Messiah!