Jonathan Edwards:

His infinite condescension marvelously appeared in the manner of his birth. He was brought forth in a stable because there was no room for them in the inn. The inn was taken up by others, that were looked upon as persons of greater account.

The Blessed Virgin, being poor and despised, was turned or shut out. Though she was in such necessitous circumstances, yet those that counted themselves her betters would not give place to her; and therefore, in the time of her travail, she was forced to betake herself to a stable; and when the child was born, it was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. There Christ lay a little infant, and there he eminently appeared a…

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Last week we released our end-of-year mission update. Here's a version with Spanish subtitles that you might want to share with Spanish speaking friends.

As well, you can read Pastor John's letter (available only in English) where he takes a look forward into the future and what we're hoping to accomplish at Desiring God.

K. Scott Oliphint writes,

What then does Paul mean when he says that this preincarnate Son, who was in the form of God but who took on the form of a servant “made himself nothing”?. . .

We are, says Paul, to incubate within ourselves the same mind-set that Christ himself had when he chose to come down to us. More specifically, we are told, “do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). We are not, then, to hold on to whatever status or position we think we might own, but rather to consider that the position or status of others is more significant.

In this light and because of this context, it becomes clearer to us …

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Every pastor knows the tension between caring for his family and caring for his flock. Pastor John talks about what faithfulness looks like:

Join us on January 30 to February 1 for our 2012 Conference for Pastors, "God, Manhood & Ministry: Building Men for the Body of Christ."

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Recent posts for the 2012 Conference for Pastors —

• Don't Lose Your Manliness by Pursuing Riches
• "Never" — A Word Worth Its Weight in Gold
• Your Best Things Are Yet to Come

One of the serious responsibilities of parenthood is pulling off Christmas. If you have a little posse of kids you already know what I am talking about. Weeks and weeks of mad-dashing and shopping and wrapping and brainstorming and decorating and planning and pouring eggnog and peeling baggy oranges and unsticking candy-canes from table tops and carpets and the bottom of hot chocolate mugs. Frantically realizing that you failed to mail packages in time, or that you forgot to order in time for free shipping, or that you still haven’t done the gingerbread house kit with the kids, and that you’ve even managed to fall four days behind on the Advent calendar.

Then there are all the things t…

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From Pastor John…

Desiring God exists to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ, especially by focusing on the truth, and its implications, that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

We want to spread that truth and all of its amazingly God-exalting, practical implications everywhere in the world. So when the world passes beyond the seven billion population mark, we look at the 15 million or so people that checked us out last year and say, hmmm, that's about 0.21%. And we say: There is some work to be done here. And we aim to do it as hard and as wide as we can.

We want to multiply lan…

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Pastor John:

At the end of this age when Christ returns, the final act of purification will take place; all impurities in the hearts of God's people will be done away with.

But that promise of purity has begun to be fulfilled in the first coming of Christ. Hebrews 1:3 says, "When [Christ] had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." And Titus 2:14 says that Christ "gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds." In a word, Christ came to make us clean. Christmas is for purity. . . .

Christmas purity is not essentially the removal of sin, but the restoration of righteo…

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C. S. Lewis:

In the Incarnation God the Son takes the body and human soul of Jesus, and, through that, the whole environment of Nature, all the creaturely predicament, into his own being.

So that ‘he came down from Heaven’ can almost be transposed into ‘Heaven drew earth up into it,’ and locality, limitation, sleep, sweat, footsore weariness, frustration, pain, doubt, and death, are, from before all worlds, known by God from within.

The pure light walks the earth; the darkness, received into the heart of Deity, is there swallowed up. Where, except in uncreated light, can the darkness be drowned?”

Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, (San Diego: Harvest, 1964), 70ff.

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Recent…

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"Advent Beauty" (1982) —

Tilting on her yearly track
Advent beauty circles back,
Flying faster with the years,
Hardly giving time for tears
First to dry upon the cheek—
Has it been more than a week
Since we laid both young and old

In the ground now winter cold?
Has there really been a spring
When the birds began to sing?
Has there been both summer, fall
Since the Baby in the stall
Called us with a Christmas bell
to sing, O Come, Immanuel?
Tilting on her yearly track
Advent beauty circles back,
Flying faster with the years—
Ah, but overtaking fears.
Let the Lord of advent lift
Every care (an early gift!);
See the Savior and the Son
Shine in advent candle one.

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Recent post…

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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. – Hebrews 13:8

Every year at this time as we celebrate the birth of baby Jesus to the virgin Mary, I don’t suppose it occurs to too many merrymakers that what they’re really celebrating is the Incarnation. All of the other miracles are in service of that central miracle: God became man. And in becoming, through Spiritual conception, the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Word of God did not cease to be God. Baby Jesus, from the moment of conception to the straw habitation of the manger, was fully God and fully man. That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

When we put our minds long to the idea of Jesus being one hundred percent …

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