Too many times we feel we have to defend God, Christ Jesus or the Word and yet they need no defense. Rather, we have been called to witness to their truth and authenticity in our lives. Just something to ponder at the dawn of this New Year!
May God bless you abundantly in this New Year
with unsurpassed Peace and fullness of His Joy!
LOOK FORWARD IN HOPE!
KEEP LOOKING UP IN EXPECTATION!
With all going on in the world, let’s keep hope alive in Christ Jesus and our eyes focused heavenward. The day of the Bridegroom’s return is one day closer and one year closer than last. Let His Bride be waiting and ready for His great day! God Bless to all our Brothers and Sisters in this New Year of hope and expectation! May you be filled with God’s peace and joy throughout this coming year!
LOOK FORWARD IN HOPE!
KEEP LOOKING UP IN EXPECTATION!
With all going on in the world, let’s keep hope alive in Christ Jesus and our eyes focused heavenward. The day of the Bridegroom’s return is one day closer and one year closer than last. Let His Bride be waiting and ready for His great day! God Bless to all our Brothers and Sisters in this New Year of hope and expectation!
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away; A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak; A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace. – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.
It’s an old custom: on New Year’s Eve, while the clock strikes midnight, we think of our aspirations for the new year and try to enter the unknown future with a dream, looking forward to the fulfillment of some cherished desire. Today we once again are approaching a new year. What do we desire for ourselves, for others, for everyone? What is the goal of all our hopes? The answer is always the same eternal word: happiness. Happy New Year! New happiness for a New Year! The particular happiness we desire is of course different and personal for each of us, but we all share in common the faith that this year, happiness might be around the corner, that we can look forward and hope for it.
But when is a person genuinely happy? After centuries of experience and everything we have learned about human beings, we can no longer equate happiness with externals circumstances of any kind; money, health, or success, for example. We know that none of these corresponds completely to that mysterious and ever elusive notion of what many call happiness. Clearly, physical comfort brings happiness, but not completely. Money brings happiness, but also anxiety. Success brings happiness, but also fear. It is striking that the more external happiness we have, the more fragile it becomes and the more intractable the fear that we will lose it and be left empty-handed. Perhaps this is why we wish each other new happiness in the New Year. The “old” happiness may never have really materialized, something was always missing. But now once again we look ahead with a prayer, a dream, a hope to what tomorrow might hold . . .
My goodness! The gospel long ago recorded the story of a man who became rich, built new barns to store his grain, and decided he now had everything necessary to guarantee his happiness! He was comfortable and at ease. But that night “God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’” – Luke 12:20. The gradual realization that nothing can be held onto, that ahead of us lies inevitable death and decay, is the venom which poisons the little and limited happiness that we do have. This is surely why we have the custom of making such a din of noise-makers, shouting, and loud laughter as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. We are afraid of being alone and in silence when the clock strikes as the merciless voice of fate: one strike, a second, a third, and so on, so inexorably, so evenly, so terribly, to the end. Nothing can change it, nothing can stop it.
Thus we have two truly deep and indestructible poles of human consciousness: fear and happiness, nightmare and dream. The new happiness we dream about on New Year’s Eve would finally be able to calm, disperse and conquer fear; we dream of a happiness which has no fear lurking deep within, a fear from which we are always trying to protect ourselves, by drinking, by keeping busy, by surrounding ourselves with noise. Yet the silence of that fear is still louder than any noise. Yet we hear the echo of God’s voice, “Fool!” Yes, the immortal dream of happiness is by nature foolish in a world infected by fear and death. At the highest points of human culture, people are well-aware of this. One can feel the grief and sad truth behind the words of the great and life-loving poet Aleksandr Pushkin when he wrote: “In the world there is no happiness.” Indeed, a profound grief permeates all genuine artistic creativity. Only down below, at the bottom of human culture, do crowds go wild with noise and shouting, as if noise and feverish partying could bring happiness.
Yet in Christ Jesus we do have hope for something greater than happiness, a fruit of the Spirit, joy. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” – John 1:4-5. What this means is that the light cannot be swallowed-up by fear and anxiety, it cannot be dispersed by sadness and hopelessness. In this unending thirst for momentary happiness, if only people would find within themselves the strength to stop, to think, to look at the depth of life! If only they would listen to the words, to the voice calling to them eternally within those depths. If only they knew what genuine happiness truly is. “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” – John 16:22. Isn’t this what we dream about when the clock strikes midnight: joy that cannot be taken away? But how rarely we reach such depth! How we fear it for some reason, and put it aside: “Not today, but tomorrow, or the day after, I’ll turn my attention to what’s essential and eternal; only, not today. There’s still time.”
But there is really so little time. Only moments go by before the arrow of time whizzes to its fateful target. Why delay? For right here, in our very midst, Someone stands beside us and says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” – Revelation 3:20. If we would only set aside our fear and doubt, and look at Him, we would see such light, such joy, and such abundance of life that we would surely understand the meaning of that elusive and mysterious thing we call “happiness.”
*Pastor’s Note: A.B. Simpson was a very well respected Canadian preacher, theologian and author who lived from December 15, 1843 to October 29, 1919. My prayer is that you will be blessed and inspired by his poetry as much as I am.
Shall I tell you what it is that keeps me singing,
Never minding whether it be shade or shine?
’Tis because His own glad song is singing in me,
’Tis because the Saviour’s joy is always mine.
Shall I tell you what it is that keeps me springing,
With a strength that smiles at sickness and decay?
’Tis because the Life of Jesus fills my being,
And the Living Bread sustains me day by day.
Shall I tell you why my foes no longer vex me,
And my cares and fears and doubtings all are o’er?
’Tis because I’ve given my burdens all to Jesus,
And He leads me forth in triumph evermore.
Shall I tell you why my life is now so easy?
’Tis because this wretched self has ceased to be;
Once it caused me all my troubles, but it’s buried,
And it is no longer I, but Christ in me.
Shall I tell you why I love to work for Jesus?
’Tis because His blessed Spirit works in me;
I have but to let Him use me, His the power,
Mine the recompense to share, the fruit to see.
Shall I tell you why I love to tell of Jesus?
’Tis because there’s nothing else so good and true;
There’s no other name or story worth the telling;
Without Jesus what could helpless sinners do?
Shall I tell you why I’m watching for His coming?
’Tis because of all my future He’s the sum;
This will be my joy forever—Jesus only—
And I long, and look, and pray for Him to come.
UNTIL God ordains otherwise, a man ought to bear patiently whatever he cannot correct in himself and in others. Consider it better thus—perhaps to try your patience and to test you, for without such patience and trial your merits are of little account. Nevertheless, under such difficulties you should pray that God will consent to help you bear them calmly.
If, after being admonished once or twice, a person does not amend, do not argue with him but commit the whole matter to God that His will and honor may be furthered in all His servants, for God knows well how to turn evil to good. Try to bear patiently with the defects and infirmities of others, whatever they may be, because you also have many a fault which others must endure.
If you cannot make yourself what you would wish to be, how can you bend others to your will? We want them to be perfect, yet we do not correct our own faults. We wish them to be severely corrected, yet we will not correct ourselves. Their great liberty displeases us, yet we would not be denied what we ask. We would have them bound by laws, yet we will allow ourselves to be restrained in nothing. Hence, it is clear how seldom we think of others as we do of ourselves.
If all were perfect, what should we have to suffer from others for God’s sake? But God has so ordained, that we may learn to bear with one another’s burdens, for there is no man without fault, no man without burden, no man sufficient to himself nor wise enough. Hence we must support one another, console one another, mutually help, counsel, and advise, for the measure of every man’s virtue is best revealed in time of adversity—adversity that does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is.
The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis, is a Christian devotional book first composed in Medieval Latin as De Imitatione Christi (c. 1418–1427). The devotional text is divided into four books of detailed spiritual instructions. The devotional approach of The Imitation of Christ emphasizes the interior life and withdrawal from the mundanities of the world, as opposed to the active imitation of Christ practiced by other friars. The Imitation is perhaps the most widely read Christian devotional work after the Bible, and is regarded as a devotional and religious classic. The book was written anonymously in Latin in the Netherlands c. 1418–1427. Its popularity was immediate, and after the first printed edition in 1471-72, it was printed in 745 editions before 1650. Apart from the Bible, no book had been translated into more languages than the Imitation of Christ at the time.
Charles Henry Mackintosh (October 1820 – November 2, 1896) was a nineteenth-century Christian preacher, dispensationalist, writer of Bible commentaries, magazine editor and member of the Plymouth Brethren. In 1843, Mackintosh wrote his first tract entitled Peace with God. When he was 24, he opened a private school where he developed a special method of teaching classical languages. Mackintosh went around preaching the gospel to the poor during school holidays. He wrote to John Nelson Darby on August 31, 1853 that the Lord had “called me into larger service than ever,” and he soon concluded that he must give himself entirely to preaching, writing, and public speaking.
From last lesson: He (Gideon) is called to enter practically and experimentally into the great and universal law for the servants of God, namely, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”
When one has learned that great family motto quoted above—when one has learned, in the divine presence to say, “When I am weak, then I am strong,” and when nature has been weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, there you will always find a measure of brokenness, softness, and tenderness of spirit; and not only so, but also largeness of heart, and readiness for every good work, and that lovely elasticity of mind which enables one to rise above all those petty, selfish considerations, which so sadly hinder the work of God. In short, the heart must first be broken, then made whole; and, being made whole, be undividedly given to Christ and to His blessed service. Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, in Old Testament times; and Peter, Paul, and John, in those of the New, all stand before us as vivid illustrations of the value of broken material. All those beloved and honored servants had to be broken in order to be made whole, to learn that, of themselves, they could do nothing, in order to be ready, in Christ’s strength, for anything and everything.
Such is the law of the kingdom. So Gideon found it in his day. His “alas!” was followed by Jehovah’s “Peace; fear not,” and then he was ready to begin. He had been brought face to face with the angel of God, and there he learnt not only that his family was poor in Manasseh, and he the least in his father’s house, but that in himself he was perfectly powerless, and that all his springs must be found in the living God. Priceless lesson this, for the son of Joash, and for us all! It’s a lesson not to be learned in the schools and colleges of this world, but only in the deep and holy retirement of the sanctuary of God.
And now let us see what was Gideon’s first act after his fears were hushed, and his soul filled with divine peace. His very first act was to build an altar. “Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.” He takes the happy place of a worshiper, and his worship is characterized by the revelation of the divine character. He calls his altar by that precious title, “The Lord sends peace.” He had gone through many and deep exercises of soul—exercises which none can know save those who are called out into a prominent place amongst God’s people. He felt the ruin and the weakness of those all around him. He felt the fallen and humiliating condition of his beloved people. He felt his own littleness, yes, his own emptiness, and nothingness. How could he come forward? How could he smite the Midianites? How could he save Israel? Who was sufficient for these things? It is all very well for those persons who live an easy, irresponsible kind of life; who don’t know the toils, the cares, and anxieties connected with the public service of Christ and the testimony for His name in an evil day. These know nothing of Gideon’s painful exercises of soul; nothing of the pressure upon his spirit as he looked forth from beneath the shade of his father’s oak-tree, and contemplated the dangers and responsibilities of the battle-field. They can enter but feebly into the meaning of those words of one high up in the school of Christ, “We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.” – 2 Corinthians 1:9.
These are weighty words for all Christ’s servants; but we must be His servants in reality. If we are content to live a life of indolence and ease, a life of self-seeking and self-pleasing, it is impossible for us to understand such words, or indeed to enter into any of those intense exercises of soul through which Christ’s true-hearted servants and faithful witnesses, in all ages, have been called to pass. We invariably find that all those who have been most used of God in public have gone through deep waters in secret. It is as the sentence of death is written practically upon self, that the power of resurrection-life in Christ shines out. Thus Paul could say to the Corinthians, “Death worketh in us; but life in you.” – 2 Corinthians 4:12. Marvelous words! Words which let us into the profound depths of the apostle’s ministry. What a ministry must that have been which was carried on upon such a principle as this! What power! What energy! Death working in the poor earthen vessel, but streams of life, heavenly grace, and spiritual power flowing into those to whom he ministered.
May the eternal Spirit stir us all up, and work in us a more powerful sense of what it is to be the true-hearted, single-eyed, devoted servants of Jesus Christ!
For Saturday December 31, 2022
Joshua 1:9
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid,
nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Today is the day when most people make up a list of New Year’s resolutions—and splurge in anticipation of the rigors of the coming year. If the goal is to lose weight, they enjoy a final dessert. If the goal is to stop buying on credit, they make one final purchase using their plastic. And if the goal is to begin having a morning quiet time, they sleep in one last day.
Research shows that most New Year’s resolutions are broken, in spite of our best intentions. Perhaps a better way to approach the New Year would be to have one goal: to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). That means keeping short accounts when it comes to sin and listening for the Spirit’s guidance and appropriating His strength every day. It is likely that after a year of walking with the Spirit, much more change will have occurred than by trying to keep the most noble of human resolutions. Begin the New Year with the objective to live a Spirit-filled life—and see what will be accomplished in and through your life in the coming year.
One goal achieved by the power of the Spirit would be better than a multitude of unfulfilled good intentions.
He who has the Holy Spirit in his heart and the Scriptures in his hands has all he needs.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN
IMAGINE hearing God’s voice! Moses did (Numbers 1:1). Scripture gives little indication of what that experience was like, but it does say that the Lord spoke to Moses “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” – Exodus 33:11. For those who wish that God would speak to them directly, He has: through the Bible.
The Bible claims to be from God. Though its words were written down by people, they are words that God has spoken. Throughout the first five books of the Bible, Moses states again and again that he is presenting what God said to him (Exodus 24:4). Likewise, Moses declares that the Law was revealed to him by God (Exodus 25:1, Leviticus 1:1; Numbers 1:1; Deuteronomy 1:6). In fact, the phrase “the Lord spoke to Moses” is repeated thirty-three times in Leviticus alone. And the NT affirms Moses’ insistence that his commandments came from God:
God spoke clearly to Moses. He has likewise spoken clearly to us, through His written Word, the Bible. Countless Jews and Christians down through history have preserved His message since it was given. Many have spent their careers and even their lives to make it available to us today. The Bible has been banned, burned, and, to some, supposedly “debunked,” yet still its truth stands. It remains the test of orthodoxy for all who claim to be of God or speak of God’s ways.
Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the LORD my God and prayed: “I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.” – Ezra 9:5-7.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9.
CIA hearings held in 1982 revealed that the Abwehr, Germany’s Intelligence service in World War II, had been seriously compromised by Allied agents. Allen Dulles, then chief of OSS, reported that 10 percent of the Abwehr was involved in passing information to the Allies. He even had direct communication with Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the Abwehr chief. Included was some of the first information about the guided missiles Germany would deploy as the V1 and V2 rockets. Irreplaceable intelligence came to America and her allies from the very heart of the enemy. News of German decisions at the highest level were passed to Moscow, Washington, and London.
Sadly, Satan has such operatives at every level in a kingdom where the privilege of belonging should make treason unthinkable, But Christians find themselves, against their wishes, betraying the Master they love and benefiting the enemy they loath. One difference exists. Germans helped the Allies from their outrage against Hitler. Christians help Satan purely out of their frailty as fallen creatures. And one blessing distinguishes the two groups: if caught, members of the Abwehr would have been hanged or shot by an incensed government. Christians, by repenting and praying, have their sins forgiven by an offended but merciful God.
Coptic Jacobite Liturgy, Prayer for Saturday 12-31-2022
Lord our God, who by your holy apostles made known unto us the mystery of the glorious gospel of your Christ, and gave them according to the great immeasurable gift of your grace to preach among all nations the good tidings of the inscrutable riches of your mercy—we pray, our master, account us worthy of a part and a lot with them. Grant us evermore to follow their footsteps and to imitate their conflict and to have fellowship with them in the labors which they accepted for godliness’ sake. Watch over your holy Church which you have founded by their means, and bless the sheep of your flock, and make to grow this vine which your right hand has planted.
Amen.
CHRIST IS CHRISTMAS! HE IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!
He was sent and He came to fulfill a mission; ALL-Man, ALL-God, carrying the treasure of His precious blood from the humble manger to the Cross of Calvary just so it could be spilled for all mankind. God’s sacrificial lamb, payment for OUR penalty of sin in the world. His gift is free to ALL who are willing to receive it.
May the Spirit of Christmas and the Spirit of Redemption be in your hearts continually from this day forward and may all the precious Joy and gracious Peace from our Heavenly Father be yours in this Season of Christ Jesus!
Taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation for ease of reading:
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. – 1 Timothy 2:1-7.
There were a lot of Jewish converts to Christianity that didn’t see the necessity of praying for the “pagan” Gentiles and so, starting out in the beginning of this chapter, the Apostle Paul addresses this problem to his young disciple, Timothy.
Paul was pointing out possible areas that were being excluded in prayer. Paul’s instruction to pray for kings was especially significant in light of the fact that Nero (54–68 A.D.) was in office at this time. Love that comes out of a pure heart, good conscience, and a sincere faith reaches out beyond the common community. Paul used four terms to describe what he considered the ministry of prayer:
Paul’s desire for universal prayer was based on what he knew to be the desire within the heart of God, the salvation of all of mankind and His desire that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9). God’s desire defines and shapes the nature of not just Paul’s era, but also our age and it should shape the behavior of believers. Paul desired that the Ephesian believers would pray sincerely for the salvation of all people. This would provide the link between praying and having a quiet life. Prayer for the world’s salvation would also bring peace and righteousness. Salvation is characterized as “good and acceptable” to God. Sadly, in their disputes the believers were excluding some from their prayers who needed salvation. God is not partial in relation to men. This fact is the reason why it is good to pray for the salvation of all people.
With verse 5, Paul demonstrates to the reader why it is good to pray for the salvation of others and why God desires all to be saved. There is only one God and only one mediator. A “mediator” is one who stands between two parties to remove a disagreement or one who leads the parties to reach a common goal. The mediator must perfectly represent both parties. Christ Jesus, all God and all Man at the same time, is the perfect mediator. Because He is God-man, He is representing both God’s interests and man’s without prejudice or compromise. This verse supports the doctrine of hypostatic union, which simply means that the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ were united in one person forever without the mingling of attributes.
Paul indicated that the prayer life of those he was writing about, did not reflect the character of God who desires all to be saved. Paul was exhorting all believers to adopt God’s attitude toward the world resulting in the revelation of truth, redemption, and prayer. The willful blocking of God’s desire by refusing to pray for unbelievers would issue in God’s wrath and also bring about dissension within the church.
In encouraging the believers to pray for all mankind, Paul had already given three reasons to do just that: all people have one God, one mediator, and one ransom. But he shared with the readers his own experience to provide the fourth reason of why prayers should be made for all: God had assigned Paul to work with the Gentiles, the very group disregarded by most Jewish Christians.
Prayers of believers should reflect what has been said about God, Christ, through the teaching of every Apostle’s ministry. That way, truth, the truth that sets people free (John 8:31-32), is now applied to the community of believers as a whole. God wants all people to know the truth, not just some, not just an elitest group. Prayer is related to the pure heart and should reflect God’s desire for universal salvation. That is why it is so very important that the true Christian, all believers, should be praying always for all mankind and especially the lost.
Shortly before the Civil War a young lawyer came down from Vermont and settled in Adams County, Pennsylvania. There he saw fugitive slaves escaping from bondage, and as a conductor on the Underground Railroad he helped them to liberty. The irony of the thing entered into his soul and he gave himself with all his powers to combat that evil and to deliver the oppressed. When the great crisis, to which all those events were pointing, had broken over the nation, Thaddeus Stephens was perhaps the most powerful influence in the government of the United States. When he came to die, his only attendants were two Negro preachers.
Today in the very midst of Lancaster, in a shabby cemetery, you can see his tomb, and on the tomb these words: “Finding that other cemeteries were restricted as to race by charter rights, I have chosen to lie in this humble spot, in order that I might testify, even in my death, to those principles which I have advocated through a long life.”
Friday December 30, 2022
Luke 19:9
“Today salvation has come to this house.”
No Christian work is more difficult than that of building a Christian home. However, many do not realize this. Their Christian work is directed toward things outside, toward meetings and organizations. They do not put any work into the building of the Christian home. At least no planned work, no work with a conscious objective.
A home is not brought into being simply by the marriage of two people. Not by luxurious furnishings and a great deal of money for extravagant living and social functions. Not even by the fact that the two are personal Christians.
The home is wrought by the way these two succeed in living together. By the candid, intimate, patient, and forgiving love which exists between them. This is the vitally important thing in all home relationships, the relationship to the children, to friends, and to guests.
The secret of a Christian home is to be Christians together. And therefore we must look upon the achievement of this as a part of our Christian work from day to day.
We should have a meeting with God together each day in family devotions: prayer, reading of the Bible, and singing. Yes, let us sing together. Singing unites us in a mysterious way. And let us help each other to make family devotions a festive occasion in our homes each day.
This will make it necessary for us to pray for the devotional periods. We pray for meetings that we attend. But no meeting needs preparation in prayer more than our daily family devotions. Otherwise they will degenerate into the driest sort of routine.
O Thou good God, we thank Thee for the home Thou hast given us. First, for our parental home, with all its childhood joys. And then we thank Thee for the home that we have been permitted to establish. Lord, preserve us from those sins which would destroy our home! Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
Friday Reflecting
He will be our guide even to death. – Psalm 48:14.
He is the guide of those who feel their need of an all-wise, all-powerful, all-condescending guide, and who are willing to yield their own preferences and ideas to His in travelling over the glaciers of life. His Word is a lamp unto their feet, a light unto their path. He will hold their hand till they reach the gate of death, and passing through it they will see that it is the gate of paradise. Death confesses itself vanquished when it sees them walking on the battlements clothed in white.
~ BOWEN
Prayer for Friday
O Lord God, in exultation our hearts go out to you and your revelation of heaven, your revelation of the Spirit, who can fill our hearts with power and anointing so that we remain steadfast throughout our earthly life. It is still dark on earth. Sin and death hold sway, but we stand unafraid as we continue to seek repentance. In spite of all our failures we look to you and know you are our Savior. We know your promises are sure and steadfast. You send us Jesus Christ in your own glory. The world will be filled with his light. Everywhere on earth, even among those who do not know you, the sincere-hearted will come to acknowledge that you, the Father of Jesus Christ and our Father, are God over all the world. You will show your glory to all people so that they may come to you, worship you, and walk in the light, to the everlasting glory of your name and the name of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
CHRIST IS CHRISTMAS! HE IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!
He was sent and He came to fulfill a mission; ALL-Man, ALL-God, carrying the treasure of His precious blood from the humble manger to the Cross of Calvary just so it could be spilled for all mankind. God’s sacrificial lamb, payment for OUR penalty of sin in the world. His gift is free to ALL who are willing to receive it.
May the Spirit of Christmas and the Spirit of Redemption be in your hearts continually from this day forward and may all the precious Joy and gracious Peace from our Heavenly Father be yours in this Season of Christ Jesus!
Taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation for ease of reading:
Responsibility is one of the major themes of these four chapters. By dealing with the subject of personal and national responsibility, Ezekiel was able to answer the frequent complaints of the people that the Lord was treating them unfairly. Responsibility and accountability are needed themes in our own day. Irresponsibility is rampant and very few people are willing to take the blame for wrongs committed or mistakes made.
Please read Ezekiel 20:45-21:32 for the background to this section.
God directs the enemy (Ezekiel 21:18–27). The pagan nations of that day used many forms of divination to discern the will of the gods, and Ezekiel pictured the Babylonian army at a fork in the road, trying to discover which way to go. Should they go to Rabbath, the capital of Ammon, and attack the Ammonites; or should they go to Jerusalem to attack the Jews? When the Lord told Ezekiel to “appoint for yourself two ways,” he probably sketched on the ground a map of the roads looking like an inverted Y, and at the juncture stuck a “signpost” into the ground. It was God’s will that the army attack Jerusalem, so He overruled the soothsayers and diviners and made sure their decision was for Jerusalem. This doesn’t mean that their system of divining was accurate or even proper, but that the Lord used it to accomplish His purposes.
Nebuchadnezzar decided to attack Jerusalem, so he appointed his captains and made his plans. The people in Jerusalem were hoping he would attack the Ammonites, and when the word came that Jerusalem was his target, they hoped the diviners would say they had made a mistake. But God was in control and there had been no mistake. King Zedekiah had sworn an oath of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar and had broken it (see 2 Kings 24:20), and Nebuchadnezzar would not stand for this kind of rebellion from a weak vassal state. Zedekiah’s sins had finally caught up with him.
Ezekiel paused to give a special message to Zedekiah, whom he refuses to call a king but refers to as a prince. He calls him profane and wicked, a man who has committed iniquity and will suffer because of it. He would lose his crown and his throne. The day had arrived when God would turn everything upside down. The Lord said, “Nothing shall remain the same. Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted.” The word translated “overturn” in verse 27 is awwa, in the original, and we can just imagine Ezekiel lamenting: “Awwa—awwa—awwa!”
But once again, the Lord added a brief word of hope: the Messiah would one day come, the true Son of David and Israel’s King, and would claim the Davidic crown and reign over His people. The phrase “whose right it is” takes us back to the messianic promise that we explored in Ezekiel 19 when we studied the images of the lion and the vine.
God completes the task (Ezekiel 21:28–32). But what about the Ammonites? When the Lord directed the Babylonian army to Jerusalem, did this mean He would not judge the Ammonites for their sins against Him and the Jewish people? They would rejoice to see Babylon ravage the land of Judah and set fire to Jerusalem and the temple. (See Ezekiel 25). Along with Judah and the other nations, Ammon had joined the alliance against Babylon (Jeremiah 27), so Ammon had to be punished. Their own false prophets and diviners would give them a false hope that they had been spared, but God hadn’t told Nebuchadnezzar to put his sword in its sheath. The message closed with another fire, but this time a furnace in which ore was smelted. God would “blow” against the furnace and make it hotter, and then He would pour out the molten metal on His enemies. The Ammonites would become fuel for the fire and the nation would disappear from the earth.
We come away from the study of chapters 18 to 21 with a fresh realization of the tragedy of rebellion against the Lord. Israel has had a long history of rebellion, but the other nations weren’t any better, except that Israel was sinning against the light of God’s Word and His providential care over His people. If any people had the obligation to obey and serve the Lord, it was Israel, for the Lord had blessed them abundantly. Instead of becoming a holy nation to the glory of God, she became like all the other nations and failed to be God’s light to the Gentiles.
Yet, woven throughout this series of messages is the theme of Israel’s hope. The prophet reminded them that God had promised to regather them from the Gentile nations and give them their King and their kingdom. Historically speaking, weak King Zedekiah was the last ruler in the Davidic dynasty, but not prophetically speaking; for Jesus Christ, the Son of David (Matthew 1:1) will one day come and reign from David’s throne. Ezekiel will go on to discuss that theme in detail before he completes his book.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia, “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” Ezekiel has defended the justice of God and yet at the same time, magnified the mercy and grace of God. How much we today can learn from his messages!
On June 22, 1772, Lord Mansfield, chief justice of the King’s Bench, handed down his famous decision that effectively eliminated slavery on the soil of the British Isles. Although slavery had gradually died out in Europe after the introduction of Christianity, it was not officially prohibited, and occasionally a slave owner from overseas would bring slaves with him to Britain. In his celebrated decision, Mansfield held that a slave automatically became a free man by setting foot in Britain. But this decision did not have the slightest effect on slavery in the overseas colonies.
Not until 1811 did William Wilberforce—who had been deeply influenced by John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace”—succeed in getting Parliament to ban the slave trade. In 1833 the decision was reached to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire over a six-year period.
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