“Minuit chrétiens” (“Midnight, Christians”)

Midnight, Christians, it is the solemn hour,
When God-man descended to us
To erase the stain of original sin
And to end the wrath of His Father.
The entire world thrills with hope
On this night that gives it a Savior.

People kneel down, wait for your deliverance.
Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer,
Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer!

May the ardent light of our Faith
Guide us all to the cradle of the infant,
As in ancient times a brilliant star
Guided the Oriental kings there.
The King of Kings was born in a humble manger;
O mighty ones of today, proud of your greatness,

It is to your pride that God preaches.
Bow your heads before the Redeemer!
Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

The Redeemer has overcome every obstacle:
The Earth is free, and Heaven is open.
He sees a brother where there was only a slave,
Love unites those that iron had chained.
Who will tell Him of our gratitude,
For all of us He is born, He suffers and dies.

People stand up! Sing of your deliverance,
Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer,
Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer!

• Joachim Becker, Messianic Expectation in the Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980).
   
• R. E. Clements, “The Messianic Hope in the Old Testament,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 13 (Feb 1989): 3-19. Related: Paul D. Wegner, An Examination of Kingship and Messianic Expectation in Isaiah 1-35 (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992).
   
• Adela Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins, King and Messiah as Son of God: Divine, Human, and Angelic Messianic Figures in Biblical and Related Literature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008).
   
• Anthony Collins, A Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (London: n.p., 1737).
   
• Anthony Collins, The Scheme of Literal Prophecy Considered (London: n.p., 1727).
   
• Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The One Who Is to Come (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007).
   
• Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000).
   
• Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2010).
   
• Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Historical Method (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999).
   
• Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981).
   
• Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., The Messiah in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).
   
• Sigmund Mowinckel, He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1956).
   
• Edward Riehm, Messianic Prophecy: Its Origin, Historical Growth, and Relation to New Testament Fulfillment (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1876).
   
• John Sailhamer, Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995). Related: Michael Rydelnik, The  Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic?, NAC Studies in Bible and Theology (Nashville: B & H Academic, 2010).

• “Read through the entire Bible two times.”
   
• “Say ‘no’ to my grandkids at least once during the year.”
   
• “Reflect more deeply on the gospel message and share it more often with others.”
   
• “Pray that God raptures all my email.”
   
• “Lead like I believe Ephesians 3:20-21.”
   
• “Distinguish distractions from God’s will.”
   
• “Learn and exercise the discipline of saying no in order to say yes to the best.”
   
• “In stray and sundry moments when I find myself waiting in line or sitting in traffic, to meditate on the Scripture I know and seek to apply it to life rather than fretting about the way I could be using that time to study more Scripture.”

2. Breaks provide focused times of extended rest and unforced labor (Prov 6:6-8). Breaks give us a chance to unwind, relax, and refresh. It’s essential that we take time to do this, especially if we’ve run ourselves ragged during the last three weeks of school. Rejoice with people as they hit the temporary finish line — enjoy the celebration. At the same time, they’re heading into a unique season. There’s much less accountability during a typical school break in terms of how hard you work and how much you get done. While this is a breath of fresh air, it’s also important to think through and plan out how you want to spend your time, and it’s important to love others in the same way. If you hear someone talking about their grand goals, follow up with them and ask how it’s going. Give them gentle encouragements to stay the course and fulfill those good intentions.

3. Breaks give us space for less-hurried reflection. The constant din of college life tends to drown out substantial reflection. Like so many scattered papers on a cluttered desk, our thoughts tend to get scattered and fragmented as the semester goes on. It’s helpful and important to seize the opportunity of the break and to carve out time to reflect, meditate, evaluate, plan, and organize your thoughts.

4. Breaks challenge us to care via distance and to follow up faithfully. It’s easy to be out-of-sight/out-of-mind in college ministry. People are here and then they leave, and the revolving door can be pretty intense. Breaks challenge us to care for people when we don’t see them every day; to remember the ways we said we’d hold someone accountable; to write down the date of that family death and to call them on it; to remember that someone has no family to celebrate Thanksgiving with and to invite them over.

5. Breaks provide opportunities to see new shades of God’s multi-colored grace. As seasons of the year change, we see God’s creative power in new ways. And as seasons of our lives change, we see God’s sustaining power in new ways. We are tempted to believe that our stability is due primarily to our circumstances; that our growth has been fostered mainly by elements of our structure and schedule; that our sense of contentment must be based on our circumstantial consistency. But as we walk through seasons that have their own unique challenges (like school breaks), we see and experience unique expressions of God’s faithful mercy toward us. Fresh difficulties are met by fresh grace, and we get to see and worship.

- Seasonal Love: Caring for College Students through the Breaks (Part 1)
- Seasonal Love: The Affections of a Full-Hearted Minister (Part 2)
- Seasonal Love: Caring for College Students through the Breaks (Part 3)

2. Breaks present unique opportunities and challenges with little time to prepare for them. Like a child longing to grow up, we tend to long for breaks to finally arrive… and then they arrive quicker than we expected. One of the ways you can love others is by asking them about the upcoming break. It’s probably on their mind already, but in the midst of academic crunch time, physical weariness, personal decisions, and making travel plans, they may not have had a lot of time and energy to really think through things.

• Church: What church will you be involved with during the break?
• Relationships: What will community, encouragement, and accountability look like through the break?
• Opportunities: Any opportunities or responsibilities you want to take advantage of?
• Temptations: Any challenges or temptations you’re concerned about?
• Old Habits: Any previous patterns or common temptations that come up during break?
• Diligence: How can you make the most of your time?
• Scripture & Prayer: What do you hope Bible reading and prayer will look like over the break?
• Planning & Work: Any projects you want to work on during the break? What are your plans?
• Reflection & Decisions: Any focused thinking you’re hoping to do? (church decisions, ministry opportunities, summer plans, personal changes, financial planning, romantic relationship?)

3. Breaks don’t necessarily create challenges and opportunities but they turn up the volume. Sharing the gospel with that old friend is always possible, but being around them over Christmas Break heightens the opportunity and highlights the responsibility. You can chip away at rebuilding that relationship with a sibling via distance, but being home with them for two weeks will weigh much heavier on your heart and mind. The bitterness against or the pull toward that old boyfriend or girlfriend can arise at any time, but being in the same geographical area can turn up the heat. Often school breaks and holidays simply put backburner issues on the frontburner. They turn background music into the soundtrack. The harmony becomes the melody, and what was secondary becomes primary. Therefore, as you learn about people’s breaks (whether you’re ministering to them before, during, or after the break), you are also learning how you can serve, care for, and encourage them when the break is over.

4. Breaks give us the opportunity to learn things about each other that we might not know otherwise. Have you ever met someone’s parents or siblings and thought, “Oh, I get it now!” or “That explains a lot” or “I would’ve never known that about you!”? Those moments do happen in everyday conversation, but our understanding of someone is often heightened and deepened and broadened the more we know about their formative influences. No, their identity is not determined and bound and dictated by their families and pasts, but it is influenced and shaped and directed by those influences — whether familial, relational, economic, geographic, educational, or circumstantial. Take advantage of your conversations about the break to get to know people on a deeper level. (NOTE: This requires caring enough to ask good questions.)

5. Breaks drive us to pray for others and to see God work through diverse means. None of us is the be-all end-all minister in another’s life. Their spiritual growth is not under our control. Even when God uses us to powerfully influence another person, he is their spring of grace and their source of power. Being reminded of this reality encourages us to pray, which makes prayer a vital element of loving in season. We always can and always should pray for people, of course, but when we can’t be with them physically and when their lives involve dynamics that we’re not as familiar with, it forces us to turn to the Lord in a more direct way. Paul was away from many of the churches whom he loved, yet he was always remembering them in his prayers. “I do not cease to give thanks for you” (Eph 1:16). “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy” (Phil 1:3-4). “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you” (Col 1:9). “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers” (1 Thess 1:2). “I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day” (2 Tim 1:3). “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you” (Rom 1:9-10).

- Seasonal Love: Caring for College Students through the Breaks (Part 1)
- Seasonal Love: The Affections of a Full-Hearted Minister (Part 2)

However, seasonal love does not begin with strategies but with affections. We must love people enough to love them always. With school breaks in mind, consider Paul’s full-hearted affection and driving concern for the believers he loved and ministered to:

1. Paul had a strong desire to see them face to face (1 Thess 2:17; 3:10).
    
2. Paul remembered them with gratitude for God’s work in their lives (Eph 1:16; Phil 1:3-4).
    
3. Paul longed to know what was happening in their lives (1 Thess 3:6).
    
4. Paul was deeply impacted by their growth and failures (2 Cor 7:6-7; 11:28-29; 1 Thess 3:6-10).
    
5. Paul had a humble eagerness for mutual encouragement (Rom 1:11).
    
6. Paul did everything in his power to encourage and purify their faith (Col 1:28-29).
    
7. Paul’s love and service was driven by gospel obligation (Rom 1:13-15).
    
8. Paul ultimately trusted God for their well-being and growth (Acts 20:32).

See Seasonal Love: Caring for College Students through the Breaks (Part 1)

One unique element of college ministry is the breaks. For faculty and staff, breaks can mean many things: power-packed winter courses, time for projects, quiet sidewalks and hallways, next-semester planning. For students and student leaders, breaks hold similar opportunities and challenges: revisiting families (healthy and broken), seasonal jobs, financial wonderings, old temptations, new opportunities, unstructured schedules, brief mission trips, rest and relaxation.

A few weeks back, our staff talked about how to love and care for our students through the break. I’ll share some of those principles and dynamics for the remainder of this week. I trust they’ll bear some degree of relevance for anyone who longs to love well and wisely.

Consider the phrase “seasonal love.” It could have two very different meanings. “Seasonal love” could mean “love expressed at one time but not others.” Or it could mean “love expressed according to the season.” The first meaning implies inconsistency — “I love you at some times but not others.” But the second meaning implies awareness, sensitivity, love with contours and nuances — “I love you all the time but with different expressions based on different times, needs, and circumstances.”

This second meaning of “seasonal love” is essential for full-orbed interpersonal ministry. Consider a long-term friendship. How have you loved each other? You’ve supported each other through physical injuries or medical uncertainty or chronic pain. You’ve corrected each other, and asked and received forgiveness. You’ve given and received counsel. You’ve offered tangible help and you’ve been given tangible help. You’ve laughed and rejoiced together, and you’ve wept and endured burdens together. You’ve seen different seasons come and go, and you’ve expressed love and support in unique ways through each of them.

One of the challenges of college life is the inconsistency and diversity of the seasons. Your year starts in August or September. You have 3½ months of intense academic work, a part-time job, a local church, a quilted-together schedule, lots of scriptural input, all in a community where you’re surrounded by believers of the same age (and same gender in the dorms). There are different mini-seasons within these 3½ months, but they come and go quickly, and the semester closes with a grueling march toward Finals Week. Then you have these lengthy intermissions — winter break and summer break. Your life can change drastically. Your academic responsibilities are jammed into voluntary week-long sessions. You have to find a new job or go back to an old job. You visit home and deal with the blessings and challenges of long-standing family relationships — happy memories, refreshing traditions, trusted relationships; along with old patterns, scarred relationships, brewing conflicts, and needed conversations.

What does all of this mean for the professor, staff member, college pastor, old youth worker, or local church family wanting to minister to college students? We want to match the diverse seasons of college life with equally diverse expressions of love that suit each season, and we want to meet the inconsistency of college life with a contrastingly consistent love that holds true through each season.

In the days to come, as winter break arrives for myriads of college students around the country, I’ll share ten reflections on how to care for college students through the breaks.

I have always admired Rodgers for his silence and restraint throughout the numerous Brett Favre sagas over the past half-decade. With locker-room interviewers asking leading questions and pushing buttons to get combustible quotes, and with Favre constantly garnering national water-cooler attention before self-immolating in his later years, Rodgers must have faced every temptation to vent, question, and criticize. Speaking up and speaking out is expected in an age of celebrity gossip and fire-starting news feeds, but you never heard any such thing from Rodgers.

I’m not a Packer fan and I’m sure Rodgers is far from perfect. But I appreciate public figures who carry themselves honorably and who seek to perfect their craft. So I thoroughly enjoyed ESPN’s recent interview with Rodgers who’s running at peak performance while leading Green Bay to a 12-0 record. Here are a few select quotes along with my reactions and reflections.

“When you really start figuring things out as a quarterback, you realize you don’t have to be perfect every time, but you do have to be quick and decisive.”

Part of Rodgers’ development as a quarterback has been the recognition that there are qualities more important than perfection. This appears counterintuitive, but in a lightning-quick game where half-steps and half-inches can make or break your season, taking too long to make a decision is a decision in itself.

“I’m at a point where there isn’t any wasted movement in the throwing motion. Everything is consistent and smooth.”

The idea of “no wasted movement” — maximizing efficiency and minimizing friction — is always a good reminder. In a day of endless distractions and unparalleled diversions, “wasted movement”  is everywhere. So whatever your profession, how do you get to where Aaron Rodgers is at? Relentless practice and repetition that seeks to eliminate wasted movement while driving deep the healthy rut of fresh habits.

“When I first got into the league, I held the ball really high. That was the standard in college, and it messed up my timing a little bit — the draw, bringing it back, then the release. Even in my seventh year, I’m still trying to break old habits I learned as a kid.”

I appreciate this quote for several reasons. First, it reflects how the standard technique at one level can be ineffective at the next. Pros (with the help of their coaches, of course) notice, adjust, and continually labor to raise their game to the next level. Second, it demonstrates the power of practice, habit, and muscle memory. This 28-year-old pro who won the Super Bowl last year and who may finish this year with the best quarterback performance in NFL history is still fighting childhood football-throwing habits. Third, it shows that you’ll never perfect your craft if you think you’ve perfected your craft.

“First, the fundamentals, then you have to become an expert in your own offense. Then you can get to a point where you’re attacking instead of reacting.”

Rodgers goes on to share some quarterbacking wisdom he received from veteran Rich Gannon. Gannon said that you can know what level you’re at as a QB by what you’re thinking about when you break the huddle. If you’re thinking about your own guys — the play call, receivers’ routes, your checkdowns, your footwork — you’re already a step behind. You have to nail those things down — absolutely master them — so you can move to the next level. What’s the next level? Knowing the stress points in your pass protection or anticipating defensive coverage schemes or predicting your potential options in case of a certain type of blitz. And what’s the goal of getting to this next level? Attacking instead of reacting. Mastering a vocation is about learning the fundamentals so well you can forget about them and step into the nuances and possibilities — getting from reactivity to proactivity, from responsive to aggressive.

ESPN: “You do all this stuff, and some of it takes years to develop, just to get a defender to take one wrong step?” RODGERS: “Not even a step. Just to shift his weight the wrong way, to lean one way or the other. It’s all about windows. Creating windows. Moving guys to create windows to throw into. The windows are so much smaller in the pros than in college. So you have to use everything — including your eyes — to move a linebacker or a safety or a defender curling out into the flat just to get him to step to his left in order to throw to a guy open behind him.”

Here’s what Rodgers is saying: The years of practice, the grueling two-a-days, the early mornings, the long weekends, the first-one-to-arrive-and-last-one-to-leave approach, the endless film sessions, the late-night playbook memorization, the insomnia-inducing pre-visualization, the incessant technique-tweaking, the off-season conditioning regimen, and the ruthless self-criticism (along with a bunch of stuff I could never imagine) are all designed to get him to the point where, in the midst of a swirling pack of 300-pound alpha males with 70,000 fans screaming in the middle of November, Aaron Rodgers can use his eyes to shift a defender’s balance so he can squeeze a 15-yard ball into a swiftly-closing 2-foot window for a 1st down on 3rd-and-10. That just puts the idea of “armchair quarterback” to shame. And it should challenge everyone who reads it to really get after it in their own profession and calling.

“… those intricate things you do intentionally can really add up to make a big difference.”

The cumulative effect of intentional intricacies is easy to understand but so difficult to practice. It’s the big events, the stage moments, the weighty habits that get all the press. But Rodgers understands that the little things add up — to Super Bowl victory and an off-the-charts season in his particular case. This man is the best quarterback on the planet right now, and he’s saying that his success (inasmuch as it depends on him) comes from very small choices and habits. Every day the sluggard says, “Just a little more sleep,” and within a few years he’s bankrupt (Proverbs 6:6-11). But the wise man goes after what’s good and prudent in every area of life, no matter how small, and the cumulative effect is astonishing.

More directly than any other NT book, Hebrews argues for the superiority of the new epoch. In this new Exodus (3:7-19), Jesus, attested by signs and wonders and gifts of the Spirit (cf. Is. 63:11; Num. 11:25), is greater than both the angels who gave the first covenant (Heb. 2:1-4) and Moses who mediated it (3:2-6; cf. 8:5-6). We should therefore heed the warning example of the generation who through unbelief failed to enter the promised rest (3:12-19; cf. Jude 5).

Further, since Joshua did not provide new creational rest (Heb. 4:8), it still remains for us (4:1-11; Ps. 95:7-11). Bearing the sins of many (Heb. 9:28; Is. 53:11-12), Jesus, our new Moses and new Joshua, has gone ahead to provide perfect access to the Father (Heb. 12:2; 8:1; 10:19-20; 4:16) through his blood of the new covenant (13:20; 12:24; Exod. 24:8).

We, however, are exiles, still on the journey (Heb. 11:13-14; 13:14); it requires faithful endurance (11:39–12:3), and wilful disobedience will be punished (6:4-12; 10:26-31; Num. 15:30; 16:35; Deut. 17:12, 20). Our coming not to Sinai but Zion the heavenly Jerusalem means joy and not terror for us (Heb. 12:18-24; Deut. 9:19; Exod. 19:16-19). But if those who disobeyed the voice that shook the earth were punished, how much more those who disregard the heavenly voice that will shake both the heavens and the earth (12:25-29; Deut. 4:24)?

Nevertheless, we are comforted by the great shepherd of the sheep who came through death as Moses came through the Reed Sea (Heb. 13:20-21; Is. 63:11).

– Rikki E. Watts, “Exodus,” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, eds. T. D. Alexander, B. S. Rosner, D. A. Carson, and Graeme Goldsworthy (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 486.

16. You’re not asked, expected, or called to be heroes or “the best missionaries PNG ever saw” — just faithful men doing the best you can. The people may not respond! Do not minimize your part yet don’t look on the whole work there as a reflection of who you are. Ultimately it’s God’s work. Hold the times of glory lightly, and don’t let the setbacks, hard hearts, or financially lean times make you doubt that God’s put you there.

17. Do you have an eye to paving your way? Are you looking for “deals” at other people’s expense? Do others always have to pick up the $$ slack for you?

18. Are you committed to your partners, or to the tribe He has sent you to? Obviously, we are committed to the Lord Jesus first and foremost. But how tied are you to your partnership criteria? Partners, unfortunately, change too frequently. Our vision needs to be broader than the age, kids, and home-country similarities we may or may not have. Are you in your tribal situation long-term even if your partner leaves?

19. Are you aware of emotional baggage you may be bringing to the field? Past sexual experiences? Abuse? Rape? Depression? Horrific experiences? Car crashes? Sudden deaths? Are you past those things? Have you left them or are they “reasons” for others to have to carry your weight in a team situation?

20. Do you have a clock running in your head already? Are you here to spend ___ amount of years… or to see a church established and functioning? What about your kids graduating? What about your kids heading back to the USA? How about grandkids? Do you have a timeline in place that might run out before the work is really done?