I Would be Lost

I would be lost without God's presence and His Word. I do not just mean that I would literally be lost and going to hell, which I would be, but I would have such a meager life without Him.

Not having a Bible in my own language to read whenever I want would leave a huge hole in my life. I read the Word and write a post for my blog throughout each of my days. I commit verses to memory each day too.

There are many countries and people groups without the Bible in their own language. They are starving from a famine of hearing the Word of God. I cannot imagine the deprivation they feel.

Thankfully, there are groups dedicated to translating the Bible in the language of every culture around our globe. We can help by donating to these ministries, such as Wycliffe. You can even Christmas shop here ( https://www.wycliffe.org ).

The best Christmas gift we have ever received is the eternal life given to us by God through Jesus Christ. We simply make a searching moral inventory, ask God to forgive our sins and believe that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the whole world (John 3:16-17; Acts 4:12; Mark 1:14-15).

This allows us to be filled with God's Spirit and to walk in God's presence each moment of our life. I depend solely on His presence for guidance, comfort, answered prayer and the peace and joy which only He can give.

Without God's love filling my life, I would feel alone, fearful, insecure, anxious and be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow. Yet, with His presence I find the true meaning of life, even in the negative aspects and the losses.

I would be lost without the presence and Word of God in my life. I dedicate my life to His service, because it is the least I can do in exchange for His generous love, provision and grace.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for loving the world so much that You gave Your only begotten Son to pay for the error of our ways. Teach us Your ways and help us to walk in Your paths (Psalm 25:4, 27:11, 86:11). Help us to share Your truth and love with the lost and dying world all around us, so that they too can revel in Your presence and Your Word.

Help us to hide Your Word in our heart, so that we do not sin against You (Psalm 119:11); and so that we can flourish in this world because of Your presence in our spirit, Your Word in our heart and Your love providing a miracle in every trial that we will ever experience.

Thought for the Day:

God's Spirit enables authentic Believers to be totally capable of fully experiencing the magnitude of God's astounding and boundless love for us through a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, until we are completely filled throughout our entire body, soul and spirit with all the fullness of God and have the richest portion of His presence in our life until we are entirely flooded with God Himself. 

- Ephesians 3:18-19, Amplified Bible

Happy Jesus' Birthday 2012

Read: Matthew 1:18:25

“I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth.” – Psalm 89:27

The fledgling church of the New Testament did not consider the birth of Jesus as significant as His resurrection. In fact, only Matthew and Luke wrote about it briefly. We have no exact date for Christ’s birth. Therefore, the first recorded celebration did not transpire until a few centuries after His birth. Then, in the year 336 AD, the Catholic Church enmeshed the celebration with a Pagan holiday occurring on the date of December 25^th.

No matter what date we choose to celebrate His birth, the fact remains that Jesus, who is the Word of God, and who was with God and was God, came to live on the earth (John1:1). He took on the nature of a servant, and lived a humble life (Philippians 2:7). He dwelt among us, and eventually willingly gave His life to pay the penalty of our sins and to allow us to live with Him now and for eternity (John 1:1,14). One day, possibly very soon, He will return as the King of kings and the Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).

Christmas is the day to remember the Nativity of Christ. The commercialism, which puts families in debt and makes them desperate to provide the latest toys for their children, detracts from the joy of the day. Stringing popcorn and cranberries, making gifts for one another – no matter how impractical or unattractive, spending time as a family to read the Christmas account (Matthew 1:18:25; Luke 2:1-19), sharing a special meal with family and friends, taking a walk in nature, playing a board game as a family…these are treasures that will remain in our memories forever. The gift of our time is the most valuable commodity our children need from us.

Jesus never told us to celebrate His birth, but to remember His death. We commemorate His sacrifice for our sins by regularly observing communion (1 Corinthians 11:24). Since His death, our focus is now on His imminent return. Due to the fact that Christians heralded the return of Christ for centuries of time, people now dismiss it as irrelevant and impossible to ever happen. Atheists adopt slogans such as “Keep the Merry. Dump the Myth" and "You know it's a MYTH. This season, celebrate reason."

However, all of their unbelief does not negate the fact that Jesus did come and is coming again. The false prophets who claim to know the date of His return anesthetized the world into unbelief, so that people actually scoff at the thought that He will ever return. Jesus said, “No man knows the hour or the day” (Matthew 24;36), but the fact remains that He is certainly coming again, on a day and at an hour when we least expect Him. When He does, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11).

If you are interested, here are a multitude of verses proclaiming His eminent return (Matthew 16:27, 23:39, 24:27-42, 26:64; Mark 8: 36-38, 13:26-37, 14:61-62; Luke 9:26-27, 17:28-30, 18:8, 21:25-28; John 14:1-4; Acts 1:11, 3:19-21; 1 Corinthians 1:7, 4:5, 11:26, 15:23-24; Philippians 1:10, 3:20; Colossians 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:9, 2:19, 3:13, 4:15-5:4, 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 2;1, 2:8; 1 Timothy 6:13-16; 2 Timothy 4:1-2, 8; Titus 2:12; Hebrews 3:7, 9:28, 10:25; James 5:7-9; 1 Peter 3-5,13, 2:12, 4:13, 5:4; 2 Peter 1:16, 3:3,8-10; 1 John 2:28, 3:2; Jude 1:14, 21; revelation 1:4,7, 3:11, 16:15, 22:12, 20-21.)

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, Your mother Mary cherished the events of your life and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19). May we do the same thing, especially at this season of the year. We will rejoice with the angels and shepherds (Luke 2:20) over your first advent to the earth and look forward to your soon return for Your Bride. May everyone we love and cherish come to this saving knowledge in their lives as well, so they too will join us in Your presence for eternity.

Thought for the Day:

Celebrate Christ in Christmas with a heart full of gratitude for all He does for us every day.

 

The Reason for the Season

There is an unusual point to this message; but first, bear with me as I build a foundation.

Did you ever notice that Jesus did not tell us to celebrate His birth? In fact, for most of the church’s history, Christmas was a minor holiday, if celebrated at all. Maybe this is because Jesus told us to commemorate His death, burial and resurrection. This is why we have communion services in our churches. I believe He did this because He wants the focus of our Christian message to center around salvation through faith in Christ’s blood atonement, rather than on his nativity.

I am not proposing that we stop celebrating Christmas or that we should do away with the nativity set. I collect unusual nativity sets. Some I even keep out all year around in order to praise God for sending Jesus to save us from the penalty of our own choices and for giving us His resurrected life. In fact, I love the festivity and anticipation in the air at this time of the year. People smile more often, have a song on their lips, and act more generously toward one another. St. Nicholas was a kind and giving man and I love that people always focus on sharing with one another, especially with those less fortunate.

For most people, however, Jesus is no longer the reason for the season - if He ever was. Christmas is more about getting than receiving. It emphasizes a secular Santa, rather than Jesus, our Christ and Savior. Even some Christians put more emphasis on Santa and presents than on Christ.

Let’s face it, in reality most of the aspects of the season are pre-Christian. In order to make Christ more relavant to their world system, the Catholic church used the December 25th Roman holiday of Natalis Invicti, which is the festival of the birth of the invincible sun, as well as Saturnalia. The German mid-winter festival celebrations actually used evergreen trees and holly as symbols of eternal life. This is where we get that famous song, “O Tannenbaum.” 

The most central and recognizable symbol of Christmas today is the Christmas tree —and it has nothing to do with Christianity or Jesus. It is purely a symbol taken from the ancient German mid-winter festivals. Some people even claim that the practice of cutting down trees and taking them home to decorate them is actually condemned by God in Jeremiah 10:1-10.

When we insist on putting Jesus back as the reason for the season, today’s society thinks that we are seeking to assert our cultural superiority over everyone else. They resent us for hijacking their ancient celebrations and for pushing our views on an America that has moved toward religious pluralism. They even mock us, because we insist that Christmas is Christ’s birthday, when everyone knows that December 25^th was probably not the exact date.

Every year Jesus recedes further into the background of human consciousness. At best, in their thinking He was a good man, a prophet or historical teacher. So, this is what I want to suggest. Let us make Jesus the reason for EVERY season. Make Him the focus of every day in which we live. Share, without apology or fear, what He did for us with His life, death, burial and resurrection.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, we often make causes out of issues that You do not even care about. Teach us to live our lives in such a way that everyone will see our faith in and love for You. Move in their hearts so that they will join us in glorifying You with their lives.

Thought for the Day:

Make Jesus the center of your focus every day of the year.