,

A Mysterious Bustling About

A child’s Christmas is often witness to a parent’s wonderful and mysterious bustling about. As the big day draws nearer and nearer, Mom and Dad become special agents involved in any number of top-secret, undercover, covert operations. All the whispering, the dashing, the late-night stashing and stowing – it’s all so deliciously exciting. What treasures that bedroom closet must keep! What joys will come from their glorious conspiracy! What wonderful new world will be discovered downstairs on Christmas Day!

A Christian’s Christmas is often enjoyed in much the same way. For who’s a better gift-giver than God? And who can best the Holy Spirit in the art of mysterious bustling about? No one, of course! The Lord who fixed a peculiar star in the Middle Eastern sky, who sent angels to surprise the lowly with blessings unbelievable, whose most royal of philharmonics filled the Bethlehem sky and performed a chorus of glad tidings; is the same Lord who today ensures that this Christmas season is just as pregnant for you and me as the first. Your Christmas should be filled with expectation as God continues to grant all the riches of reconciliation and revolution. What treasures your prayer closet must keep! What joys will come from this divine conspiracy! What wonderful new world will be discovered in the depths of our hearts on Christmas Day!

-Pastor John

/by
,

Is There Any Analog in Your Ambiance?

December 17, 2017

John 1:14

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

/by
,

Booking Passage To The End Of The Line

December 10, 2017

Isaiah 7:10-16

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

/by
,

It Is Worth It

December 3, 2017

Psalm 73

Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek. 5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. 7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. 9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. 10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. 11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” 12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches. 13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. 15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. 18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. 19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. 21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, 22 I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. 23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

/by