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Friday, December 20, 2019

The World's Greatest Christmas Gift


It has been my tradition to celebrate the carol Joy To The World each Friday before Christmas. Today I carry this tradition on with an added note (or two) from Kanye West.  
Photo by Jeff Weese (Flickr: Nativity) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 Joy To The World is based on Psalm 98: "Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth, break forth in song...for He is coming to judge the earth, with righteousness He shall judge the world, and the peoples with equity." 

Some say this song is not about Bethlehem, but about Christ's second coming, and the joy which will occur when He comes to set all things finally straight, in that full manifestation of His Kingship.

While I look forward to the second coming, Joy To The World makes as much sense to me as a celebration of Christ's first coming. While anticipating His Kingdom-yet-to-come, we can celebrate His Kingdom-already-here. 

Before Bethlehem, I Chronicles 29:11 asserted: "...all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all," and Psalm 103:19 declared: "The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all." 

 Before His second coming, Acts 10:36 places Jesus' universal authority in the present: "He is Lord of all." 

It's true Christ's Kingdom is not universally recognized on Planet Earth right now. There are weeds in His field, which He did not plant (see Matthew 13). They will be bundled and burned someday, but the domain over which Christ is King (that is, His "King-domain"), includes both heaven and earth, right now. 

The whole field is His. The fact that not every human heart has received Him as King doesn't alter the fact that He is.

This is the world's greatest Christmas gift: that Christ came in human form "to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found." When will this start? At the second coming?

These blessings are intended to flow through people today who are reconciled to God and reconciling all things to Him, including the things of earth, far as the curse is found. Earth's curse will not be found after the second coming.  

So by God's grace, let's occupy until He comes again, pulling up "bramble bushes" and planting "fruit trees" before the second coming arrives.

Joy to the Earth! The Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy!

Far as the curse is found. 

For some Jesus-Is-King-Today music ala 2019, watch this sublime rendition of Kanye West's Hallelujah, Salvation & Glory:

https://youtu.be/yXlu-2VcGW4