Tag: christmas

Publisher

The Massacre of The Innocents

This week we are reminded once again of the evil loosed in our land as twenty innocent children and several heroic teachers were massacred at their school.

 Many were quick to make guns the issue, either their availability to the killer or their non-availability to those who could have defended the children at school. But weaponry discussions miss the point. Children have been attacked with knives in China, bombs in Afghanistan, acid in Pakistan, and illegal guns in Norway. The real issue is protecting our children.

The search for answers may begin with another massacre of innocents long, long ago. One that would have been forgotten in history but for the fact that the target of the massacre was baby Jesus. While the immediate cause of the attack was a paranoid King Herod, the spirit motivating Herod was trying to steal the gift of Jesus from the world, kill Him before he could become a threat, and destroy His destiny. That same Satanic spirit wants to murder all children to steal their gift, kill them before they are a threat, and destroy their destiny (see John 10:10).  

Fifty years ago we began removing the hedge of protection around our children by banning school prayer and driving Godly values out of our schools. That generation of students started the sexual revolution and the drug culture, producing a crop of fatherless, neglected, and, often, abused children. Then, about forty years ago it became legal to kill unwanted babies and the massacre of innocents began in earnest. We’ve allowed generations to be stolen, killed and destroyed.

We should mourn with those who mourn, but we are not “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12 b). The innocents are in heaven with God and He keeps sending us children with their gifts, their lives, and their destinies. There is still hope for the future.

Let us thank God for the gift of children and pray that our society will once again value its children. Our schools are desperately in need of prayer, as so many are failing on a spiritual, social, and academic level. Pray that the parents will rise up in prayer and deed to bring God back to our children.

Fifty years ago we told God He wasn’t needed in our public schools. Now we know better.

Let us invite God back into our schools and ask Him to build a hedge of protection around our children.

Publisher

Christmas Promises

There are many reasons to celebrate Christmas and the advent of Christ. One of the best reasons for us is the celebration of how God kept His promises about sending Christ to Earth:

 

*    God promised Adam and Eve He would be born miraculously to a virgin, (Gen 3:15), and He was.

*    God promised Abraham that Christ would be a descendent of his (Gen 12:2), and He was.

*    God promised Jacob that Christ would come from the line of his son Judah (Gen 49:10), and He did.

*    God promised David that Christ would come from his Line (2 Sa 7:16), and He did.

*    God told Micah that Christ would be born in Bethlehem (Mi 5:2), and He was.

*    God told Daniel when Jesus would begin His ministry, 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (Da 9:25), and He did, in 26 AD.

*    God told Isaiah where Christ would begin His ministry, in Galilee (Is 9:1), and He did.

 

There are dozens of specific prophecies recorded about Jesus, His ministry, and His resurrection. All have been fulfilled, giving us confidence that God’s promises to us will also be fulfilled.

So as we gather to thank God for the greatest Christmas present of all, Jesus Christ, let us also rest secure in the knowledge that God can be trusted to keep all of his promises.

Publisher

Hanukkah and the Messiah

This week, on December 9, the Hebrew feast of Hanukkah is celebrated. The feast memorializes the dedication of the temple in 165 BC, after Antiocus IV Epiphanes attempted to stamp out the Hebrew religion. It also celebrates a miracle where a one day supply of Temple oil lasted eight days.  Thus, it is called both the “Feast of Dedication” and the “Feast of Lights”.

With the cleansing of the Temple in 165BC, the Temple and the Nation of Israel were made ready to receive the Messiah. However, it was 160 years later that He was born and 190 years later that He began His ministry. Jesus celebrated the Feast of Dedication and used the occasion to clarify that he was the Messiah while teaching in the Temple (see John 11:22-39).

 This date of December 9 also marks a significant date leading to the Second Coming of Christ. It was 95 years ago that the Turks surrendered Jerusalem to the British. The British mandate ultimately lead to the U.N. vote to form Israel thirty years later in 1947, and the birth of Israel in 1948. Christians all over the world saw the miraculous rebirth of Israel as preparation for the Second Coming of Christ.

 Few Christians expected the return of Christ to be delayed so long after the nation of Israel was made ready. However, if we look back to the formation of Israel in 165 BC, preparatory to the advent of Christ, then a waiting period of 160 or 190 years is not so surprising. At 95 years, if counting began in 1917 instead of 1948, we would only be half way through a 190 year wait.

Let us then pray over the Feast of Dedication and let us then remember how it made the way ready for the Messiah. And let us also pray that Christians do not get discouraged by the delay in His return, for no one knows the day or the hour.

Even so, come Lord Jesus

Publisher

The Gift of Saint Nicholas

Yes, there really is a Saint Nicholas. He was a fourth century Bishop in Myra, In Asia

Minor. And he really was famous for his gift giving and his concern for the poor and for children.

 In the Middle Ages some enterprising citizens of the Italian city of Bari stole his remains and built a cathedral in his honor in Bari. Because of the importance of Saint Nicholas to both Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the cathedral is one of the few places in the world where Catholic and Orthodox minister under the same roof. Pilgrims of both denominations are welcome there.

When the Charismatic renewal swept through the Catholic Church, one of the leaders in

Bari, Matteo Calisi, wondered if the tolerance expressed at the Saint Nicholas Cathedral could grow into real reconciliation. He and Italian Evangelical pastor Giovanni Traettino reached across the divide and began a movement which has brought Catholics and Evangelicals together throughout Italy. Over the years the reconciliation movement has reached out from Bari to Evangelicals in North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. In addition, the Orthodox and Messianic Jewish churches have also become involved.

The reconciliation movement born in Bari seeks to bring Christians into genuine unity in our diversity. God realizes that we have different practices and beliefs, and we’re told to tolerate our brothers (see Ro14:1-4 and Ro 15:1-7). Our real unity is through Christ, for if we are each in Christ then we are also united in Christ. (see John 17:20-23).

So let us all join Christ in his prayer that we may be brought into complete unity (John17:23).

And we need to thank Him for the gift of the reconciliation movement which was started in honor of Saint Nicholas.