We are only a few days from Christmas now. I hope you are expecting great things this year. I
hope those expectations are not rooted in the gifts under the tree but in a spiritually birthed newness of life marked by the elements of Advent… Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
Today, I want to write you this message from my heart to yours. I hope, or it is my expectation, that those who will read this as a personal message will feel what John Wesley called a warmed heart.
John was a man of great faith and conviction who brought that power of humility to the shores of the British colonies in the 1700s. I have stood on the grounds and under the trees where he would preach and share on Georgia's barrier islands. But before that, he had to reorder his understanding of God and God’s love. He was human and had this unfounded feeling that he must attain a level of self-directed purity and righteousness to know God’s love and acceptance.
He eventually found that he was wrong. At a meeting on Aldersgate Street in London on May 24th, 1738, he discovered that God already loved him more than he could ever earn or achieve.
He says it like this: “In the evening, I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s ‘Preface to the Epistle to the Romans.’ About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change that God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
In that moment, he realized the love of God to do all he could not do himself.
The Hebrew language has a word, Checed, that does not translate into English. It conveys too much for one word, so we translate it as two words made into one—lovingkindness. But we can read that word and not know or feel its depth and breadth. "Checed" is a rich and multifaceted term encompassing love, kindness, mercy, and loyalty.
In context, "checed " was the ultimate concept in a covenant relationship. Covenants were binding agreements that required loyalty and faithfulness, allowing for human insecurity, failure, and disappointment. "Checed" was the expected behavior within these relationships, emphasizing steadfast love and mercy. It conveyed a value upon the person loved that exceeded conditions.
This love would die for another, take the penalty for another, pay the debt of another, stand in the gap, or altogether take the place of another. Now, blanket that idea over the story you know of Jesus' life, death, and victory over death for us all.
So, when we read a story from that Jewish culture and one person says to another something that conveys this love so totally, it is significant. We pay attention. We do not just hear a word; we see a picture that conveys a loving reality, and we are covered with a blanket that strangely warms.
Take these two Jewish men, meeting late at night and having the cultural understanding of checed/lovingkindness, one seeking what he does not know but has an idea of and he hears these words,
“God so loves you that he gave his only naturally born son so that whoever trusts him enough to enter into this covenant relationship of lovingkindness will not lose out but experience abundance in this life, and beyond into the next life.
Why? Because God did not send his son into the world to shame and condemn them, but to rescue, deliver, and heal them completely and forever.”
The conversation is recorded in chapter three of John’s biography of Jesus, which is the essence of everything about Christmas.
God checeds you. Checed him. He will also give you the ability to checed the world of people around you so much you will give away checed with abandon.
Joy to the World, Checed has come! Live in Advent(ure) this season!! Live in Christmas Love!
**Want more information on this abundant life, or just want to talk about spiritual or soul issues? Contact me today. Find Phil on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, & TikTok - @philunderwoodcoaching.
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