Hello Reader,
As I am writing this, my kids are home for Christmas break and we have several services over the next few days as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. I hope and pray you have a blessed Christmas season.
As we close out 2024, I wanted to reflect with you on the birth of Christ ("Savior & Lord") and then share an update on all the work we have done this past year and what you can hope for in the year ahead ("State of Stephen 2024"). Thank you for all your support.
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Savior & Lord
“to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” - Luke 2:11
Jesus is both Savior and Lord. He is the one who redeems and the one who reigns.
Savior
First, Jesus is the Savior. Jesus was born to save. Imagine for a moment someone is drowning in the middle of a lake. Their arms flail, their legs kick, but they are steadily going under. There is no land in sight and nothing they can do. All their effort cannot pull them out of the water. Then, suddenly, a boat pulls up and someone dives into the water. He grabs the drowning man in his powerful arms and pulls him back to the boat and into it. He then wraps him in a towel and drives him all the way to shore.
That is a Savior. He rescues the helpless, pulls them into the boat, and brings them to shore. The Bible says that our situation is like the man drowning in the lake. We are helpless to save ourselves from our sins and are in need of a savior, a rescuer. Perhaps you feel like that this season. You work and work, you try and try, hoping to keep you head above water, but it feels like everything is pulling you under. Your past you cannot change. That brokenness that never seems to heal. Work is never enough and there are not enough presents under the tree to really bring you joy. Perhaps you know what it feels like to flail and kick with no land in sight.
The good news of the angel is this: “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Jesus is the Savior. When we were unable to do anything ourselves, Jesus came as our rescuer. At his birth, the Son dives into the water of our world, seeking us where we are going under. At the cross and in the resurrection, Jesus will lift us up from the sea of sin into his saving embrace.
There is nothing in your life right now, in your past, in your heart, that makes you too far gone for him to save. There is no sin too serious he cannot redeem, no wound too deep he cannot heal, no guilt or shame too heavy he cannot bear.
Lord
Second, Jesus is Lord. We gather to celebrate the birth of this child, Jesus, because he is the King of all Kings. He is powerful, but uses his loving authority to lead us in the way we should go.
Do you know the feeling of being completely overwhelmed and lost in a crowd? Maybe it is at the airport, sports arena, first day at a new school, or even at Costco. You either get rooted in one spot with paralyzing fear as you try to take in and process all that his happening around you or you move with something bordering on nervous panic as you hurriedly try to figure out just what is going on. Too many choices. Too many new things. Too much happening and you don’t know where you are supposed to go.
Then, with a quiet gesture, someone puts a gentle but strong hand on your shoulder. They tell you, let me show you where you need to go. They lead you through the chaos right where you were supposed to go. This is good, loving authority, leading you out of the chaos into where you need to go.
Jesus is Lord. In the midst of the chaos and confusion of life, Jesus takes us by the hand and leads us along the way we should go. He is King, so we should obey him and follow him for this alone, but he is a gracious and loving King. In this life, and now seated at the right hand of God, Jesus goes ahead of us and leads us, showing us what it means to walk with God, to live the life we were meant to live.
As Savior, Jesus rescues us from sin and death. As Lord, Jesus shows us how to live and leads us in the ways of God. Jesus is the King and Rescuer all in one person, all in a baby born in a Bethlehem manger.
Who is this child? Why do we gather tonight, of all nights, to celebrate the birth of a child long ago? As the angel said, “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” The salvation we need, Jesus came to provide. The direction and guidance we need, Jesus came to provide. Everything we need for life, death, and the life to come, Jesus came to give. This is why we celebrate. This is why the glad tidings of Christmas are called ‘good news of great joy.’
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All Things Hold Together: Recovering Christian Worldview
In Christ, all things hold together. Apart from him, things fall apart. The multitude of fractures in our world result... Read more |
December is a full month, so I was only able to record one video for my YouTube channel. I should have another book review and a few more videos coming early in 2025. Check my exploration of free will below.
State of Stephen 2024
Since I started setting annual goals for myself, I have taken the time at the end of the year to share them with you and review the progress I have made. I have never had a year where I completed everything that I set out to do, but I am always amazed at what God has done in and through me throughout the year.
So will share the three Peniel Press-related goals I set for 2024, how far I got, and then what goals I have set for 2025.
2024 Goals:
1. Plan and Schedule "Brantford Theological Conference" for Fall 2025.
Status: Incomplete, put on hiatus.
This was such a fun idea. I have enjoyed theology conferences for much of my adult life and wanted to see if we could create something to deepen people in theological discipleship within the church. I also wanted to include pastors and teachers who were not well-known and from major churches, but who still had something valuable to share with the church.
However, it turns out this sort of endeavor is way bigger than my wife and I could handle at this stage of our life and ministry. It is still a dream of mine, but perhaps something we will have to revisit again later down the road.
2. Publish 2 Books in 2024.
Status: Complete.
Back in February, we were able to work with Grade 8 student, Eden DeVries, to help publish her first book, How to Dress a T-Rex. Eden was great to work with, the artwork was fantastic, and I am really proud of this fun, little book. Definitely check it out if you like children's books.
In August, we published my fourth book, The Sinews of Scripture: A Handbook on Biblical Genealogies. It is the first in a series of books I am planning to write to help people grow comfortable reading and understanding the more difficult things they will encounter in reading the Bible. I have personally gone from being intimidated by the genealogies in the Bible to loving them. I wanted to help others have a similar experience.
While Peniel Press remains small, publishing these two books helped us have our best financial year as a company. Thank you for all your support!
3. Write or Translate 100,000 words in 2024.
Status: 140,198 words -- Complete
I set this goal because my major project for this year was something I knew I would not be able to complete in one year. A couple years ago, I was wrestling with how my knowledge of Latin could be used to help the broader church. I wondered if I should work to help translate some Reformation era texts into English so that more people would have access to them. A friend and mentor of mine suggested that I work on something related to the Heidelberg Catechism, which is one of my areas of expertise. I settled on making a fresh translation of Zacharius Ursinus' commentary of the Heidelberg Catechism, The Body of Doctrine. Ursinus provides a unique opportunity for me. He was one of the authors of the catechism, but he also worked in a time when the lines between various Protestant factions had not completely solidified. While I don't agree with everything Ursinus says, he is clear and fascinating and holds together views that would be harder to imagine even a century later.
Outside of editing The Sinews of Scripture (which I originally wrote in late 2022), I wanted the bulk of my time to be spent on The Body of Doctrine. The 140,000 words come largely through translating just over a quarter of the book. The rest of the words came from editing Sinews and outlining a book on pastoral ministry (which is still in the works, but will now come out after I finish my series of Handbooks).
Goals for 2025:
1. Write and Publish a Book on Biblical Numbers
This will be book two of my Handbook series and will explore the significance of various numbers in the Bible. Look for it sometime in Fall 2025.
2. Publish Two E-books in 2025.
The Body of Doctrine will not be completed for another couple years, but I am hoping to have two sections of it completed and available as e-books through our website in 2025.
3. Finish Draft 1 of The Body of Doctrine
This is my most ambitious goal for the year. The book will likely run 400,000+ words, so it will be difficult to accomplish if I had nothing else to do, but with everything on my plate, it is a tall order.
4. Record and Publish 24 YouTube videos in 2025.
Getting back into recording videos has been fun for me. I already have plans for the next few videos, so I hope that two per month will not be overwhelming.
Thank You
We genuinely appreciate your prayers for the work we are doing in providing theological resources for the church. One of the best ways to support us to buy our books and tell your friends to do the same. However, if you'd like to contribute in other ways, you can always put a few dollars in the tip jar to get me a coffee.
From the desk of
Stephen C. Shaffer
Author, Pastor-Theologian
www.penielpress.com
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