King Herod.. the Original Scrooge

Herod was king when Jesus was born... there were Herods before him and Herods after him. And for the most part. they were all alike. Corrupted by their own power and there thirst for more influence, they only looked out for themselves. When Jesus was born and the wise men told Herod that a new king had been born.. well... that was more than old Herod could take. He had all the male children under the age of two slaughtered. Jesus was taken to Egypt. That's what saved Christmas. Herod, the original Scrooge died and another Herod took his place. Before long the Herodian dynasty had all died out. But the boy Jesus grew to be a man. He perfectly obeyed God all of His life. He willingly gave His life for us, His enemies. He rose from the dead to proclaim the victory of God over sin. His dynasty will never die out! His is an eternal kingdom!  God's grace triumphs over man's failure. He is a living Savior... He offers us life - His life as a free gift. Jesus is the best Christmas gift I've ever received...  You can have Him too if you come with the empty hands of faith. - Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 6:13)
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

"And suddenly..."

"And suddenly there with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased."
                                                                                                                 Luke 2: 13 -14 (ESV)
The word "host" in the Greek is "stratia". One of the meanings of the word is an assembled, strategic, army.... when God's army invaded earth on the first Christmas they declared peace. But only peace with whom He was pleased. Peace on earth is fine and dandy and we should pursue peace as much as it is possible. But the peace God is talking about isn't the absence of conflict among humans. It is a peace between God and man and with the ones with whom He is pleased. Ephesians 2:3 reminds us that we are by nature children of God's wrath. Romans 3 quotes the Psalms and reminds us that no one is good and no one seeks after God. It must be God who draws us near (John 6:44). It is God who brings us back to life and makes us at peace with Himself and makes us fit for His use in His kingdom. (Ephesians 2:1-10) ... This Christmas season, let's all remember that without the baby born in Bethlehem we would have no one to make peace between a holy, righteous God and ourselves. -- O Come Let us Adore Him..... Christ the Lord!

Being Happy in God

Often times Christians feel guilty if they are happy. The JOY part we know about. Christian Joy is something that is not controlled by circumstances. I read in an old "Daily Bread" devotional years ago that, "Happiness depends on happenings but joy depends on Jesus. This is quite true. We can and should be joyful even in unhappy circumstances. But again, if our happiness and joy are both found in the same place, or rather the same Person; we can always have both. True Christian happiness is the joy of knowing Jesus and being found in Him.
I've been reading "More Precious Than Gold" , 50  Daily Meditations on the Psalms; by Sam Storms. I love his definition; "Happiness is the whole soul resting in God and rejoicing that such a beautiful and glorious Being is ours."  ... Amen!

Spurgeon - Prince of Preachers

“If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”
                                                                                        2 Timothy 2:13
“I tell you, if he were to shut you out, dear soul, whoever you may be, if you go to him, he would deny himself. He never did deny himself yet. Whenever a sinner comes to him he becomes his Savior. Whenever he meets a sick soul he acts as his Physician. . . . If you go to him you will find him at home and on the look-out for you. He will be more glad to receive you than you will be to be received. . . . As Matthew sat at the receipt of custom, waiting for the people to pay their dues, so does Christ sit at the receipt of sinners, waiting for them to mention their wants. He is watching for you. I tell you again that he cannot reject you. That would be to alter his whole character and un-Christ himself. To spurn a coming sinner would un-Jesus him and make him to be somebody else and not himself any longer. ‘He cannot deny himself.’ Go and try him; go and try him.”
C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), III:862.

Another Gem from Ortlund

Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. Luke 6:26
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account . . . for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-12
The Bible warns us against “an unhealthy craving for controversy” (1 Timothy 6:4) and guides us toward “the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 6:3). That is clear, and wonderful. But a glad hyper-focus on Christ might not keep you out of controversy. It might take you there.
When Jesus said, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you,” he didn’t mean it’s wrong to be popular. He did mean it’s wrong not to be prophetic. His “Woe” falls on those who turn their backs on the true demands of the gospel rather than turn their backs on the false demands of people.
I wish I could say that if you lift up Christ in a positive, biblical way, everyone will love you. But sadly, some will oppose you, because their hearts are captured by other passions. They may even be captured by good but secondary biblical themes. But if you maintain the primacy of Christ himself and submit all else to Christ, some people will not understand you, they will have “concerns” about you, they may even forsake you. They will point to your weaknesses, which are real, and you will learn from your critics. But your weaknesses are beside the point. The point is the lordship of Christ alone. He is the controversy. You are representing him.
When the Lord leads you into this difficulty, you will suffer. But remember, he is saving you from the “Woe” of Luke 6:26 and giving you the “Blessed” of Matthew 5:11-12. Whatever others may say, Jesus speaks well of you.

November 22, 1963
It was a day you just don't forget. It was the day after my 5th birthday. I was playing with a toy car that I'd gotten as a birthday gift the previous day. I was racing it down the hallway of the house my family had just moved into not long before; just having a 5 year old day.... Then my mom told me to come and sit on the couch and she'd watch cartoons with me until my brother Jim got home from school.  But there were no cartoons.... only news reports. The late Frank Reynolds from ABC News was on. He was talking about the President being shot and probably dead... I remember my mother crying as she sat there watching. Overwhelming sadness.... then the sad announcement that President Kennedy was dead. If you were old enough to remember it, you remember where you were and what you were doing. Chances are real good that you will remember exactly what you were doing September 11, 2001. ... Memories of events like this just don't fade.
Something much more monumental and tragic and yet beautiful happened on a Roman cross 2,000 years ago, yet so often times we don't remember.. why is that? Because when we remember that it forces us to remember why the event took place to begin with... Our sin- Christ died on the cross for us. He took the sin that should have caused us to die on that cross and bore it himself . 1 Peter 2:24 tells us that Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree (cross)...
The death of a President is a monumental thing for sure - but how much more monumental that the King of the universe would die for His subjects? The tragedy of the asassination of a President or planes killing thousands of people are unspeakable. But the death of Christ is MORE unspeakable. As much as it is unpleasant to think about, the president killed and the people killed in those planes and towers, were sinful people. They were not innocent. However, they certainly didn't deserve dying at the hands of fellow sinful people. But they and we deserve to die at the hands of a Righteous God who instead of killing us, killed His son. He died in our place! Let's remember and yet rejoice!

Good Preaching Gives Good Songs Context

The following comes from a young pastor, Jared Wilson on the value of hymns. I used to scoff at hymns for the weak arguments he lists for abandoning hymns... I have rethought my position over the last several years and I completely agree. Most hymns contain rich theological truth (some do not). There are new hymn writers popping up who understand that songs should preach... not just make us respond emotionally. Read this important article by Jared: 

Good Preaching Gives Good Songs Context

"The argument goes like this: The hymns are outdated. Nobody talks like that any more, nobody knows what these archaic words refer to, nobody sings melodies like that any more; therefore, the solution is to ditch the hymns and sing only contemporary songs.
But I don't think the reason hymns fell out of favor is because they became old. I think it's because our preaching got new.
The great hymn writers could tell the gospel story with gospel words in very solid ways. But preaching over time became moralistic stories with pop psychology words in wispy ways. We stopped giving the hymns context. We would sing "Oh how marvelous, Oh how wonderful is my Savior's love for me!" but our preacher had long stopped marveling and wondering about the cross, so the song didn't make emotional sense. And then it stopped resonating with us on a Spiritual level.
All good hymns declare the gospel and assume gospel context. I suspect the main reason hymns don't resonate with people much any more is because we don't preach the gospel. "