Tag: December

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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.

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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.

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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