God's Wonderful Counselor of AND

If you grew up a materialist like I did, you’d think, practically speaking, there’s no way I’d ever become a believer. And I’d have agreed with you… At the time.
 
Yesterday, we touched on a handful of the ways the devil and his minions enslave us with misinformation and tools like the tyranny of OR. Compound that with our tendency to surround ourselves in echo chambers, and materialism can go unchecked and unchallenged indefinitely.
 
That is, until God decides otherwise.

In arguably one of God’s most merciful moments, He sent a baby, one supernaturally born, so he could eventually be the Savior for anyone willing to believe.
 
My convictions about the church and Christmas were all tied to my insistence that either science was right, OR faith was right. Insisting they couldn’t both be right is classic tyranny of OR.
 
Seeing Jesus as the Wonderful Counselor of AND you can understand that it is possible He is both the God of creation (i.e., all things natural) AND the supernatural. The material AND the spiritual. Kindness AND severity. Patience AND wrath. The possibility of AND changes everything.
 
If there was one thing I could have added yesterday, probably should have added, is this: Once I let go of my materialist convictions and embraced both sides of the AND’s in Scripture, I was finally able to forgive my father. The Lord even made it possible for me to share that forgiveness with him before he passed.
 
Letting go of that anger changed me. Not instantly, incrementally. John Piper has it right when he says, God is most glorified in us when we’re most satisfied in Him. May the joy of the Lord be yours this Christmas as you embrace His Wonderful Counselor of AND.

Our Pastor also has it right. It truly is All About Jesus!
Be Bold, Blameless & Blessed