Holiday Harmony

 

                                                        Holiday Harmony 

"Live in harmony with one another...as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." (Romans 12:16, 18)

Sometimes the stress and busyness of the holidays bring out conflict, instead of the peace the season promises. We can feel discouraged and disappointed, feeling hurt and maybe even exaggerating the ways people hurt us or let us down.

Even family conflicts sometimes seem to accelerate. I know a family who has to have an exact seating chart to separate those who have difficulty getting along!

But on Christmas Day we can remember that we have peace with God.

Family peace, as well as international peace, always begins with God. When we are confident that we have eternal peace with the all-powerful Creator and Ruler of the Universe, it's easier to bear the heartache, insults, and criticism that others might display toward us.

Our natural state is frightened self-preservation, fueled by self-centered concerns. But when we know we are in the right relationship with God Himself, it's easier to handle our disappointments and discouragement.

Jesus paid the ultimate cost to give us the most valuable Christmas gift ever! If we have peace with God through faith in Christ, even when at odds with people around us, we can demonstrate to them the peace of God. Let's live in harmony with those around us today! This probably is a really good day to start spreading peace!

How We Come to the Manger

 

                                              How We Come to the Manger

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And the angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the  Lord shone around them and they were terrified...'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'" (Luke 2)

Sometimes we forget that those words of good news of great joy that came for all mankind were delivered to individuals. The word "you" appears four times  in these few verses.

God loves all mankind because He loves each! Don't ever think you are unimportant individually in God's great rescue plan.

Don't let yourself get lost in the crowd.

Remember Jesus tells us that He call us individually by name.

We come to the manger as we come to the cross......one by one!

When God Speaks

 

When God Speaks

"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of His being." (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Back in Genesis, before we even thought to speak to Him, He turned His Face toward us and spoke to us.

(Remember Adam and Eve, after they sinned, did it even occur to them to approach God and ask forgiveness? No, they hid and He sought them out!)

And then He continued to speak to us, through His prophets, and then through His Son, and now through His Word.

Yes, He spoke to us before we ever even thought to speak to Him.

If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father," Jesus told His disciples.

And from 1 John 4:19, "We love Him because He first loved us."

God's rescue plan to bring us back to Him always starts with God Himself.

And aren't you glad He didn't wait for us to begin the conversation?

The Christmas Present - Past and Future

                    The Christmas Present - Past and Future

       

       1 Peter 1:10-12 

This salvation was something the prophets wanted to know more about. They prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you, even though they had many questions as to what it could all mean.

They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when He told them in advance about Christ's suffering and His great glory afterward. They wondered when and to whom all this would happen.

They were told that these things would not happen during their lifetime, but many years later, during yours. And now this good news has been announced by those who preached to you in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

      Revelation 5

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders....the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,

because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth.

Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!

How God Speaks To Us!

 

How God Speaks To Us!

"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us  by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.

The Son is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of His being." (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Back in Genesis, before we even thought to speak to Him, He turned His Face toward us and spoke to us.

And then He continued to speak to us through His prophets and then through His Son, and now through His Word.

Yes, He spoke to us before we even thought to speak to Him!

"If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father," Jesus said. He is "the exact representation" of God.

And in 1 John 4:19, "We love Him because He first loved us."

And that's what Christmas is all about!

Wise Men Still Seek Him!

After the shepherds and the wise men received their summons to meet the Christ Child, they obeyed.

They journeyed to Bethlehem. They found the Savior.


They discovered that the words of the angel and the message of the star were not misleading. It was not a hoax!

God's Son had been born. Immanuel had arrived!

He was there for all who would leave what they were doing and come to Him.

That is also true today.

In our day people talk as if it were hard to find Christ, or act as if it were hard to find their way through the superstitions of religion to the truth about God.

What a terrible misunderstanding!

To talk like that is to suggest that God is lost and that it is up to us to find Him.

He is not lost nor is the truth lost.

We are the ones who are lost, and the difficulties are in us and not in either God or His gospel.

Do not say the truth cannot be found.

Jesus said, "I am the....truth" (John 14:6).

Jesus is presented in Scripture.

If you want to find Him, you must search the Scriptures.

As you do, pray:"God, I am not certain what the truth is concerning religious things. But I believe that if You exist and if Jesus Christ is truly Your Son and the Savior You have sent into the world, then You should be able to show this to me as I study the Bible.

If Jesus is the Savior, I want to find Him. If I do find Him, I promise to be His disciple and serve Him all my days."

Christmas - What about that curse?

Joy to the world!

A favorite carol of almost everybody - written by Isaac Watts, in 1719, the same year Robinson Crusoe was published and 13 years before George Washington was born. The melody we use was arranged from a composition  by George Frederick Handel.


Words we usually miss are:

No more let sin and sorrow grow

Nor thorns infest the ground

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found!

    What curse? And His blessing are to flow...as far as that curse is found...how far is the curse found?

Back to Genesis. Chapter 3

Cursed is the ground for your sake...through suffering shall you eat of it all the days of your life...  thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you...in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread...

     So the ground was cursed and would bring forth weeds among the food (and remember, those were days of vegetarian diets) and so producing crops would be harder and apparently there would be some physical change in man--he would perspire when he worked because it would be much more laborious to harvest food now. Maybe he wouldn't be as strong, either.


    We don't know all the details. God has just left us the outline of what happened when sin entered our glorious garden world.

     Looks like wherever man goes on this earth,  the curse is there. As civilizations spread out to seek new land they encountered (and brought with them) the curse.

     Does the curse go with man into space? Man, who is fed with food from a cursed earth and machinery that is built with items from the cursed earth -- even man himself..."For dust you are and to dust you will return...."

      I can remember when the two Voyagers left on their missions in 1977.

     For over 30 years they have plummeted into space, still going, still sending out messages and reports back to us....still searching for other life.


The Golden Records

     Remember the "Golden Record" that was placed on each Voyager?

     These records contained information from our planet, in case the rockets were intercepted by another civilization or perhaps landed on an alien place where life forms might find them.

      On the Records were things like sounds from earth (a wave crashing on a beach, a sound of wind, a waterfall, birds, whales, etc.) and sounds of human beings (baby's cry, a kiss) and music from around the world.

      The one thing it did not include, and certainly should have, was a "Warning" sign, with the words from Genesis 3. After all, shouldn't life forms through out the  universe know who they were dealing with? We are containers and generators of a curse - we are violent, selfish people who seek control and set out to hurt each other. The whole universe should be warned! Stay away from planet earth.

   "Open these doors at your own risk" it should say.

   But in the future Kingdom to come, what happens to that curse?


      And there shall be no more curse  (Revelation 22:3)

His blessing will flow...as far as the curse is found! Throughout the earth - throughout the universe!

Voyager 1 is now the farthest from the earth made-made object!

Christ's rule will dwarf that distance!

When the curse is removed,

all things will be made new for Christ's new kingdom.

P.S. I have seen copies of the material on these Golden Records. Carl Sagan selected the earth's sights and sounds that he felt should be included -- it is a total distortion of what life is really like here! (We were strange people in the 70's....we had great difficulty seeing reality...)There were pictures of interracial and trans cultural  families eating bountiful meals around the world... plates heaped with food...everyone happy and joyous....lots of crops and content, satisfied people. No scenes of war...none of hunger...none of prisons...no crime, no abortions...just happy people eating and playing with each other without a care in the world! What idiotic propaganda!

     You can go online and see what was on the record. Chuck Berry, but no Silent Night... no Amazing Grace....nothing spiritual.

     Perhaps one day in the far future, some unsuspecting life form will arrive here in their space ships, with one of those "Golden Records" in their "hands" and find out what we are really like - then sue us for false advertising!

    (It would be like booking a vacation trip to a leper colony!)

    

P.P.S. Isaac Watts based this wonderful song on Psalm 98, which is primarily about the 2nd coming of Christ, and which is also the main topic of his famous carol. So it will be more appropriately sung at Christ's return as King, not to celebrate His first coming as a suffering servant. Read Psalm 98 and check it out.


Joy to the World is not about the Nativity -- it's about the 2nd coming of Christ as King!

Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Herod the Horrid - (Part 2)

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi (Matthew 2:16).


If Joseph is the model of goodness and mercy in the Christmas story, Herod is certainly the model of evil and cruelty.

It was a brutal world into which the little baby Jesus was born.


Some challenging thoughts from Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey:


"Those who lived in the Middle East across the second half of the twentieth century (including this author) experienced frequent warfare.

"In Lebanon, particularly, there were seven wars in a thirty-five year period. One lasted for seventeen years. Others were quick yet brutal. People saw friends and family killed by bullets and explosives and all the other horrors of modern war.

"How do people retain their faith under such conditions? One answer is that they remember both the Christmas story and the cross.

"A mindless, bloody atrocity took place at the birth of Jesus. After reading that story, the reader is not caught unawares by the human potential for terror that shows its ugly face again, on the cross.

"At the beginning of the Gospel and at its conclusion, Matthew presents pictures of the depth of evil that Jesus came to redeem.

"This story heightened the reader's awareness of the willingness on the part of God to expose Himself to the total vulnerability which is at the heart of the Incarnation.

"If the Gospel can flourish in a world that produces the slaughter of the innocents and the cross, the Gospel can flourish anywhere.

"From this awareness the readers of the Gospel in any age can take heart."

Herod the Horrid - (Part 1)

One of the stories recorded in the Christmas narrative involves Herod's rage when he realizes he has been tricked by the wise men and so orders the murder of all boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity, two years and under.


When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and gave orders to kill all boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi  (Matthew 2:16).


The story is only recorded in Matthew, and it is sometimes purposely overlooked in all the peace and good will messages of the season. It is not a story that fits into pageants and nativity scenes very well.
Its brutal tones disturb us when we ponder "Joy to the World."

In church history the event is known as the "Slaughter of the Innocents."

Why was the story even included in Matthew's account?

Maybe to tie the remarkable historical connection between the birth of Moses and the birth of Jesus.  Two leaders were arriving on the world stage to lead their people from slavery into freedom.

Not a welcome thought for Pharaoh or Herod.

Or maybe to remind us that Jesus was born and lived in a cold, cruel, harsh world, and yet, in spite of that, a world that could and did receive and spread the gospel message of peace and joy.

A world not unlike the world of the 20th century and our own world today.

So what kind of a man who make such an order to murder infants and small children?

More About Herod....

Our information on Herod is brief, but the picture that emerges through the centuries is of a cruel, self-serving, arrogant leader.

His background was complex. He was an Arab, whose father was from a tribe in the southern part of the Holy Land called Idumea (Edom - where descendants of Esau settled and whose people refused to allow the Israelites to pass through their land after the Exodus many centuries before).

His mother was from Petra, which was the capital of an Arab kingdom in northern Arabia.

But Herod's religion was Jewish. A century earlier a Jewish ruler had conquered the Edomites and on threat of death forced them to become Jews. His grandfather, Antipater the Elder, was a provincial governor.

Culturally Herod was a Greek and Greek was his first language. His name was Greek and he was known for various attempts to turn Jerusalem into a Greek city.

Politically, Herod was a Roman. He always sided with Rome in any conflict.



He was a well-known military figure. He personally led his armies in ten major wars. One of the most famous was the war between Cleopatra and Antony against Octavian.

Herod chose to side with Antony against Octavian for control of the Roman Empire.

When Octavian won decisively, Herod showed his clever ingenuity by traveling to meet Octavian and gaining his attention.

It was a brilliant move. Octavian (who called himself Caesar Augustus) granted Herod an audience.

Herod boldly appeared without a crown and freely admitted he had helped Caesar's enemies. He even admitted his high regard for Antony and his loyalty to him.

Then he climaxed his audience  by saying, "What I ask you to consider is not whose friend, but what a good friend, I was."

Caesar did consider the words and told Herod to put his crown back on and to return to Palestine to rule!

It was down hill for Herod from there. He had ten marriages. He considered his sons to be political rivals and had two of his 'favorites' strangled in Samaria. He began to suspect his favorite wife, Mariamne, of disloyalty, and had her killed. Later he wandered helplessly through the palace halls calling her name and sending servants to find her. When they failed, he had them beaten.

He attempted suicide and the crown prince, who Herod had imprisoned, was released to assume leadership. Herod survived and killed that son also, and then died a few days later.

His last order was to command his troops to arrest thousands of notables from across the country and place them in a stadium in Jericho. Upon Herod's death, the notables were to be executed so that there  would be mourning in the land when the king died.

Herod knew only too well that no one would weep for him.

That order was not carried out.

But it does show us that as an old man Herod certainly had the capability of ordering the killing of the babies in Bethlehem, the act we have called "The Slaughter of the Innocents" in the Christmas story.


It was truly a brutal world into which Jesus was born, and Herod was a man of his times.

A fact we should not ignore. Because it looks more and more like our world today.