“That the Great Angel-Blinding Light” (Richard Crayshaw c.1640)

That the Great Angel-blinding Light should shrink His blaze to shine in a poor shepherd's eye
That the unmeasure'd God so low should sink as prisoner in a few poor rags to lie
That from His mother's breast He milk should drink Who feeds with nectar heaven's fair family
That a vile manger His low bed should prove Who in a throne of stars thunders above;
Let our overwhelming wonder be.

That He whom the sun serves should fainly peep through clouds of Infant Flesh!
That He, the olde Eternal Word should be a Child, and weep;
That He who made the fire, should fear the cold,
That Heaven's High Majesty His court should keepe in a clay cottage, by each blast control'd;
Let our overwhelming wonder be.
Let our overwhelming wonder be.

That Glorious Self should serve our griefs and fears,
And free eternity submit to years,
Let our overwhelming wonder be.
Let our overwhelming wonder be.
Let our overwhelming wonder be.

Worship as Evangelism
maybe this whole 1 Corinthians 14 thing really does work, after all. maybe if our worship is sincere and deep, in spirit and in truth, and if we lift up Christ, then He will draw people to Himself. here is a note from a friend who brought a foreign exchange student to Friday's concert:

"Nicole has a Jewish dad and a Catholic mom. She goes to a Hebrew school and considers herself Jewish,although does not really practice it. When we were sitting in the concert, I felt that it was a good timefor God to speak to her heart. Although we've taken them to church, it's been teaching, not worship(Sunday School). So this is the first worship service we've taken her to.

"Today at lunch, she brought up the subject of Jesus, and talking about the concert. She said she was singing the songs even though she didn't believe them. She said she was asking God what He wanted her to believe. I told her that was exactly the right thing to do. He will tell her. It also gave me opportunity to tell her that the prophesies in the Old Testament, are fulfilled by Jesus.

"Anyway, I thought you might like to know what part you played in planting and watering the seed in her life.As with our Mongolian student, we may not see the fruit right away, but I'm confident that the seed,with good water and fertilizer, will grow."

i think we can focus so much on being culturally relevant that we spend more time quoting movies and other pop culture references, trying to be on the bleeding edge of relevance, that we miss out on the pure beauty of the Gospel of Jesus.

Peace on Earth
At His birth, the angels said, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, goodwill to men.” And so from the beginning, angels proclaimed the Gospel message. The message is that God is glorified through Jesus, and that He came to bring peace on earth, and to reconcile men to God.

Many men have come before and since Jesus, all with a goal of world conquest. Nebuchadnezzar, Tammerlane, Attila, Alexander, Mohammed, Napolean, Hitler, Stalin and others have all come with warfare as their means of achieving world peace. Kind of backwards, isn’t it? Waging war to bring peace. But Jesus stands alone as One who came to bring peace on earth through personal sacrifice and love. Peace on earth has always been central to Jesus’ mission in this world.

It is no coincidence that many of our songs refer to reconciliation and peace, because when we reflect on God coming to earth as a baby, and we hear the song of the angels, we are moved to join in that song.

And so, during the days of Abolition, such lines were written as,
“Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother.” (O Holy Night, 1847)
“Then in despair I bowed my head. ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said. ‘For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.’” (I Heard the Bells, 1864)

A century later, songwriters were still writing about racial reconciliation because of Christmas.
“Some children see Him lily white . . . bronzed and brown . . . almond-eyed . . . dark as they . . . like theirs, but bright, with heavenly grace. ‘Tis love that’s born tonight.” (Some Children See Him, 1954)

And still today, we sing. After all, “Christmas is a time to love.” Let us pray that the angels’ song will at last be realized in our generation.