Jaime Hilton, Author at Do Not Depart

The Presence of the Word Among Us

December 13, 2017 by Jaime Hilton Leave a Comment

And Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. – Luke 2:19

A simple, wooden nativity spreads out on the mantle. Under the tree a plastic stable that sings “Away in a Manger” every time a child pushes the button shows evidence of how often it has been used to act out the story of “baby Jesus”. Driving past the downtown square, we see a silhouette of Mary and Joseph kneeling over the baby in the manger. All tangible reminders of the Story we celebrate at this time of year.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14

We live in a fast-paced world of sound bites and tweets. Who has time to linger over a line of Scripture, allowing it to transform them? I am as guilty as anyone. My spiritual diet can easily be reduced to whatever inspirational posts happen to show up on my Facebook feed while I jump from one task to the next. There is certainly nothing wrong with creating or enjoying such posts. But they are the icing on a rich and nutritious cake that we have been given access to, carte blanche!

The Word that spoke the universe into existence, that holds everything together (Col. 1:15-16) took the form of an infant and lived on earth as a human for the express purpose of dying in our place so we could experience the presence of God.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Matthew 1:22-23

As if that were not enough, He has given us the Bible, an open invitation to know Him, and to fellowship with Him. Spending time in these pages changes us from the inside out. We are renewed, blessed, cleansed, and fruitful, not someday by our own power, but today by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Festive decorations call us to remember Him! #ChristmasPresence

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All of creation tells the glory of God, but this time of year especially, we are surrounded by festive decorations calling us to remember His presence. May each silly Santa, Nativity decoration, Advent candle, Christmas wreath or tree, remind us of the Word living among us. May we, like Mary, treasure the gift of Scripture, and ponder it in our hearts.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16

Here is a collection of classic Christmas decorations matched with Scripture to ponder and treasure!

The Presence of the Word

Merry Christmas!

The Witness of Our Choice

November 25, 2017 by Jaime Hilton Leave a Comment

“Look, buddy, I’ll say this one more time: You may have this or that. That’s it. That is your choice. Those two options, only!”

This is a pretty regular conversation in my house. My son, the ultimate negotiator, likes to lay everything out and look at all his options before he makes his choice. The more choices, the better. Sometimes it is agonizing to watch him mull over decisions, especially when I know what will be best for him in the long run.

The stakes are, of course, a little bit higher for the Israelites and thereby for us. Summing up what we’ve learned in the preceding verses, we show our love for Him through our obedience to his commands. He shows His love for us by pouring out an abundance of wonderful gifts. To turn away from Him is choose death. I can hear his passion in the pleas of verse 19, Therefore, choose life that you and your offspring may live! But of course, love isn’t really love unless there is free will. So, though God pleads with the Israelites, and us, to please, please…choose life, we really do have the choice. He will not force us to live a life of abundant blessings if we don’t want to. (How crazy does that sound when we put it that way?)

Reading our verse for this week reminds me that this choice of life or death, blessing or curse, is the same choice he gave us way back in the beginning when he placed man in the Garden of Eden.

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, ¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).

Have you ever imagined the week of creation and what the world may have been like when it was new? Imagine the heavens – the stars, the planets, and all the heavenly host watching the Lord mold man, breathe life into him, and place him in the garden. I imagine the earth, the animals, fish, birds, and even the trees, rocks, and mountains waiting with baited breath to see what the man, the image bearer of God, would do. How painful and heartbreaking must it have been when Adam and Eve chose death?

Now in Deuteronomy 30:19, the Lord calls on heaven and earth to witness again the choice set before us.

We need only look to the stars to remember that His Word is not to far out of reach, but as near as our hearts.

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We need only look up at the stars or across a field dotted with wildflowers to remember that His Word is not too high or too far out of reach. It is as near as our hearts and as simple as believing that Jesus is Lord.

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); ⁹because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:8-10)

Study Guide Deuteronomy 30_19

Advent & A Jesse Tree {Let the Children Come}

November 17, 2017 by Jaime Hilton 1 Comment

For two-thousand years (give or take!) people have been celebrating Christmas, developing songs, stories, and traditions to tell this most wondrous event, when the infinite God became a humble and helpless baby. Several of these early traditions remain prevalent in our culture. In our family, they have merged together in a daily, worship experience that allows us to align our hearts with the true meaning of Christmas. It is, hands down, my favorite part of the holidays.

Advent, from the Latin word for “coming”, has been celebrated by the church since the early 4^th century as a time to prepare. The early church encouraged one another to wait in expectation for the second coming of Jesus by remembering his first coming in Bethlehem. Three purple candles and a pink candle sit together in a wreath, usually of evergreen, around a white candle. During the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, we light one new candle each week, gathering together to sing and read Scripture related to the themes Joy, Peace, Love, and Hope.

From this tradition, emerged the Advent Calendar, meant to mark each day leading up to Christmas (rather than each week, as the candles do). Little windows or boxes are opened to reveal a small gift or sweet. We have a Dickensian style house with twenty-four numbered doors that my husband and I fill, sometime after Thanksgiving, with a piece of chocolate for each of our children. Once we went so far as to put M&M’s in the doors for the weeknights and Hershey Kisses in the days for Sunday, but that was a lot of extra work! In addition to making the entire season fun, we tell our kids to remember Psalm 119:103, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

Finally, the Jesse Tree, which dates back nearly as early as the Advent season, is based on Isaiah 11:1-4, and uses handmade ornaments hung on a tree to tell God’s redemptive plan for mankind from Creation to the birth of Jesus. When my oldest (now 11) was around 5, we used The Jesus Story Book Bible and some paper ornaments I found from Keeping Life Creative. Since our apartment was small and our Christmas tree already full, we hung them on our Advent wreath. Or to be more accurate, we string them together on a piece of twine which then wraps around the wreath, giving the same effect. We start the season reading about the perfection of Eden and our relationship with God, and end on Christmas Eve with the birth of Jesus, whose life and death made that relationship possible again. The wreath turned out to be a perfect picture of that circle of restoration.

We start the season reading about the perfection of our relationship with God, and end with the birth of Jesus, who made that relationship possible again.

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Story time in our house, between December 1st and the 25th, is sacred. We light the candles, enjoy a piece of candy, sing, and tell the story behind every ornament hanging on the wreath before we add a new one to the chain. As the Story is told day after day, our anticipation for Christmas grows, a shadow of the Church eagerly waiting for Christ’s return. As the kids get older, they can take on more responsibility for telling the stories, reading Scripture, or even making new ornaments. However the tradition evolves over the years, I am confident that my children will grow up knowing the reason we celebrate this season.

We tell each other the Story over and over again, eagerly anticipating Christmas Day, a shadow of the Church waiting for Christ’s return.

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If…Then…

October 27, 2017 by Jaime Hilton Leave a Comment

For five weeks we have been studying and memorizing these beautiful verses about God’s commands. We know what the command is (easy) and we know what it is not (out of reach). In verse fifteen Moses reminds the people as plainly as he can, God is giving them a choice: life and good or death and evil. Now we get to unpack the consequences.

“Consequence”, the result or effect of an action or condition, is a buzzword in my parenting circles. Typically, we have a negative association. If you don’t finish your chores, you won’t get dessert! If you push another child, you will be in time out! There will be consequences for your actions, young lady!

But of course, consequences can be good too. If you are nice to kids on the playground, you might make friends! If you make your bed every day this week, you will get a sticker for your chart.

In our verse this week, Moses sums up the condition and lays out the good consequences that will follow obedience. Bottom line, if you love the Lord your God, you will be blessed. It will be worth it!

If you studied the context of Deuteronomy 30 a few weeks ago, you may remember learning about the Mosaic and Palestinian covenants. One difference that really stood out to me is that the Mosaic covenant is conditional. The blessings promised are dependent on Israel’s obedience to the Law. But the Palestinian covenant is an extension of the original Abrahamic covenant, which unconditionally promises that possession of the land will come about because of the eternal faithfulness of God.

In other words, this is not about salvation through works.

That being said, obedience to God’s commands leads to some pretty amazing consequences: life, growth, honor – all the things that people really want when they look closely at their heart.

Moses may have summed up the choice between the good life and death into this compact little sentence, but I hope you will find the consequences of careful study to be a richer understanding of the abundance God has in store for you.

Click here to download and print your Study Guide for Deuteronomy 30-16

Obedience to God’s commands leads to amazing consequences. Study sheet for Deuteronomy 30:16

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