Merry Christmas from the De Pree Center
On this day on which we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we want to wish you a merry Christmas! May you experience God’s love and peace today and in the year to come!
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The Love of God on Christmas Eve
The De Pree Center produces _Life for Leaders _because we want you to experience the life of God both now and in the future. We’re motivated by what Jesus once said, “The thief comes only to steal and to destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). We want to you grow in your relationship with God through Christ so that you experience abundance in every part of life, including your leadership. Whether you lead in business or education, in arts or government, in profit or non-profit contexts, in church or family, in the studio or the athletic field, we want you to experience God’s life so that your leadership might reflect the values, truths, and love of God.
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Leadership Wisdom – Humility and Relational Hospitality
As leaders, it’s easy to forget the effect our position has on others.
Read Post Leadership Wisdom – Connection and Belonging
In the end, leadership is about relationships.
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Christmas Proves that God is on Your Side
God is on your side, not only in that God has saved you through Christ, but also in that God has called you to be on God’s own side, so to speak. The God who is at work mending and restoring the entire universe has chosen to use you in this effort. Your life, therefore, has extraordinary, indeed, eternal meaning. Moreover, God has also chosen to dwell within you through the Holy Spirit so that you might be reassured that you are God’s beloved child and so that you might be empowered to participate in God’s redeeming work. This is indeed wonderful news—news that we know to be true, in part, because of the reality of Christmas.
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God Works in All Things With Us for Good
As God’s beloved children we get to share in the lavish benefits of God’s grace. But Romans 8:28 adds something more. We also get to share in God’s work in the world. This work isn’t just what we might call “religious” work. It isn’t only about church, evangelism, and mission. Rather, God is working with us in “all things” for good, including what we do in our daily jobs, in our parenting and grandparenting, in our cultural engagement, and in our citizenship.
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The Surprising Groaner
Romans 8 encourages us not to hold back in Advent as we observe and experience the “sufferings of this present time” (8:16). We are invited and emboldened to “groan” in prayer, knowing that God not only hears us, but also joins us in our groaning through the indwelling Spirit. Thus, our groaning draws us near to the heart of God.
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Good Things
At this hinge moment of history, in a backwater Roman province, a young peasant girl, overwhelmed and pregnant, yet saw and knew and prophesied the coming of the Messiah in the tradition of all the great prophets from the Hebrew Scriptures. And alone among those prophets, she bore in her very body that very Messiah, incarnate for our salvation.
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A Garland
Sometimes, in a dark world at a dark time, we need to hold onto the promise, not just of salvation, but of feasting.
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Groaning with Hope
Advent helps us to hope even when we’re groaning with pain and sadness in this broken world. When we focus on what God will do in the future, and when we remember the faithfulness of God, then we are helped to have hope even in hard times. Christian hope does not expect that everything in this life will turn out as we wish it would. But our hope is confidence in God and God’s future. The same God who once came among us as a baby born in a stable will come again in victory and glory. And we will share in his glory. This is central to our celebration of Advent.
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The Glory of the Children of God
In the seasons of Advent and Christmas, we rightly focus on God’s glory, especially the unimaginable glory of God revealed in the birth of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. But Romans 8, with its Advent emphasis on hope and waiting, stretches our imaginations even further. There will be a time, a time we often identify with the second advent of Christ, when we will be glorified with him (8:17). When this happens, we will assume our rightful place of authority over creation. Then, creation itself will be set free from its sin-induced futility and bondage. The created world and all within it will once again be free to flourish as God had intended from the beginning.
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What Do We Mean by Glory?
Glory, in Scripture, is closely associated with authority (see, for example, Psalm 8). Consider ways in which God has given you authority and how you’re stewarding that gift. To be sure, our glory/authority as human beings has been tarnished by sin. We’re not yet experiencing the fullness of glory that is to come. But God does entrust us with care for this world, including its people and institutions. Moreover, God has chosen to put the very Spirit of God within us as a foretaste of the glory that is to come. As it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, right now we are “being transformed . . . from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” Thus, God is already present in you, helping you to express faithfully the glory/authority you have already received.
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Advent: Abuela Ruth – Part II
When Ruth and Naomi return to Judah, the stars align and Ruth pursues Boaz, who is a kinsman redeemer. Ruth takes some risks and she and Boaz eventually come together as husband and wife. The seed of the Messiah is inside Ruth without her knowing even before she arrives in Judah. Her brave steps secure the steps of Obed, Jesse, David, and eventually Jesus. She did not know she was carrying a king of an everlasting kingdom inside her womb. She did not know that she was building the house of God. In fact, she probably never saw the harvest of her healing as a widow. She never saw the fulfillment of the prophecies about the long-awaited Messiah. She waited and she worked, she hoped and she loved.
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Advent: Abuela Ruth – Part I
As I read Ruth’s words, which have been used in modern times as wedding vows, what I see is the _hesed_ love of God overflowing to Naomi through Ruth. The seed of the Messiah is inside her without her knowing. Her steps secure the steps of Obed, Jesse, David and Jesus. Ruth is a carrier of the covenantal love of God because no human can say these words and keep them, apart from God’s grace. I love that these vows of love occur in the context of friendship, which means we all have access to this kind of friendship love. I love that Ruth sees past Naomi’s bitter and valid grief as if she is saying: “Listen, I’m not going anywhere.”
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Advent and the Created World
When we consider the futile and decaying state of our world, including our own lives, we could easily fall into despair. But Romans 8 encourages us to join creation in waiting for the time when God mends what is broken. We wait “in hope,” which from a biblical point of view isn’t wishful thinking but rather confidence in God’s faithfulness to restore and redeem all things. Thus, when we hear of natural disasters, suffer with decay in our own bodies, or worry about the state of the natural world, we are invited into a deeper experience of Advent.
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