Christmas

The song goes- “Long time ago in Bethlehem, the Holy Bible say, Mary’s boy-child, Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day. Hark the Herald Angels sing, a new King born to-day, and man shall live for ever more because of Christmas day.”

In the pictures we see depicted, the first Christmas which was the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, in a very humble stable environment, and in the second picture the three wise men from the East who came to worship Him and present Him with presents consisting of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

He was born to be the King of kings and Lord of lords, but it appears that God chose to have Him born in a stable, and not in a palace, so that no one could say “he had a better start than I did”. In the second picture we see how God directed these important men to come and confirm His Royalty. Also as Jesus earthly father was a poor man, God arranged for these wise men to bring Gold as a gift, and this would have helped Joseph to be able to afford to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, to escape King Herod’s decree that “all the new born children in that area were to be killed”. This was a decree Herod made (after the Wise Men left), because he thought that Jesus would be a threat to his own Kingship. Therefore, to be sure he got the right child, he decided to kill all the babies in that area.

What then is so special about Christmas? Well, for starters, our calendar dates from Jesus birth, and Christianity is named after Him. Some people call it the “Christian Religion,” but Christianity is not a “religion” in the way that all other religions are. You see, religions generally require their followers to obey certain rules and regulations in order to appease their gods. Whereas true Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ: Which means the acceptance of Him as the Lord and Saviour by anyone who believes in His Divinity and the fact that He sacrificed His earthly life as a substitute for each one of us. This should be followed by our “Repentance” which means a complete change of values, when we realise that Jesus Christ (the 3^rd Person of the Trinity of God) was prepared to leave His Heavenly home, come to earth in all humbleness, live here as one of us, “be tempted on all points like as we are and yet be without sin”. And allow Himself to be humiliated and murdered so disgustingly, just so you and I can have our sins deleted and can go on into Eternal Life.

There is no Religion in this world that can go anyway near to matching that personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Jesus said; “I am the way, the truth and the life, no person cometh unto the Father but by me.” With Christianity there is nothing for us to do but “believe” and repent, as I have outlined above. We don’t have to burn any type of incense or smoke, to ward off evil spirits, or sacrifice animals or people to placate an angry god. Whatever was required to reinstate us to be fit for eternal life in Heaven has already been achieved for us by our Loving Heavenly Father Himself, He has given us forgiveness and dominion over the enemy through Jesus sacrifice on the cross when we accept this “born again” experience.

Christian behaviour should be second to none: Jesus said we should “Love God and Love our neighbour as we love ourselves” and He has even given us the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit to assist us to get this behaviour pattern right.  Jesus pointed out, that If we do “Love our neighbour as our self” then we will automatically keep the 10 Commandments that God gave Moses, and this is logical isn’t it? After all, you won’t kill someone you love, you won’t steal from them, you won’t “bear false witness against them” or anything else that might harm them, will you?  Thus, if all the people in the world were real Christians we would have a form of “Heaven on Earth”. There would be no wars or selfishness.

O.K. Then, where do you stand in all this? Are you prepared to be a Christian and go to Heaven for Eternity? Or are you satisfied to be “something else” and go to Hell for Eternity? The bible gives no third option.

Just thought I’d ask, in case you had not thought it through. Jesus (The Son of God) died for you. No one else has, or even if they did they would not be perfect enough to nullify your sin because “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. (Romans Chapter 3 Verse 23)    Best wishes, Tom.

Make the most of your time

 

This week, with thunderstorms about, my cactus was flowering. They are beautiful flowers but only last for twenty-four hours as you see in the next photo. To some people this may seem like a waste, that God would arrange for this plant to be programmed to produce such beauty and that it would only last for such a very short time.

But that is how God saw fit to design flowers; few of them last long, some a

few days and possibly even a couple of weeks, but that is about the limit of their life. Their beauty, (even if short-lived), makes our environment more pleasant and bring a little extra joy into our lives.  This is the way God planned it; for example, in the animal kingdom all babies are beautiful and warm our hearts, and of course when it comes to human babies they are very attractive.   Indeed, I have often heard people say “Isn’t it a shame that they have to grow up”. Well “yes” and “no,” it certainly is a shame that they lose that ‘cuteness’, but ideally they should then grow to be delightful, loving, helpful human beings as God intended for all His Children to become.  I know that was His intention for us because He has made it very obvious that He wants us to be happy and enjoy life. For starters, He has designed a world for us to live in that is absolutely beautiful: There are these flowers everywhere, magnificent scenery, with mountains, snow, rivers, waterfalls, beautiful sunsets and lovely fruit and vegetables and all the necessary fibres to dress us comfortably and make us feel, and look, nice.

I know, we allowed selfishness and greed to enter in and disrupt God’s plan, but He is not one to take things like that lying down either. Instead, He has now given us the option of a fresh start if we are prepared to accept His forgiveness through Jesus sacrifice for us.  To reinforce that, and to make it easier for us to live the way that He originally intended for us, He also offers the fellowship and guidance of The Holy Spirit to those who have accepted His forgiveness and that is a colossal bonus, (Luke 11:13), because the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) is “Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control,” and those attributes can soon become part of our nature.  Also, Paul pointed out in a letter to the Philippian Christians in Chapter 4 and Verse 8: that we need to forget all the destructive rubbish that is trying to pollute our minds making us unhappy, and instead concentrate on things that are “Noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy.” There are stacks of things like that about, so let us enjoy

them, make the Angels happy, and become true Children of our Heavenly Father and therefore joint heirs with Christ for eternity (Romans 8: 17). We actually live in two worlds: Satan’s world of rubbish and deception and God’s world of Eternal life and love. We need to sort out which one we want to claim Citizenship in, (do it now if you haven’t already done so). It is a free choice.     Best wishes then as you decide.      Tom.

Foreign Citizens

There is a story of a new Christian named Harry, who visited his friend Ben, who had been a Christian for many years. After they had greeted each other, Harry asked his experienced friend why it was that he seemed to be having more problems now than he had before he became a Christian. Ben didn’t reply, but just said “I am going down to the lake to shoot a wood duck for dinner, come with me.” When they approached the lake there were two ducks feeding near the water so Ben fired his Shotgun at them. One died immediately and the other one had its wing damaged and flapped its way toward the water trying to escape. Harry ran after it (straight past the dead one), endeavouring to catch the wounded one before it reached the water, however he wasn’t fast enough and it escaped into the safety of the lake. When he returned, Ben said “why did you chase that one?” “Well” Harry replied, “We already had the dead one, we could collect it anytime, so I was trying to stop the other one escaping.” “Exactly” said Ben, “and that is why Satan is troubling you, he is not worried about those people who are ignoring God. He can get them any time, Indeed, he already has them, but people like you are escaping from His control so he is trying to prevent that happening. You see, Harry, Christians are really members of the Kingdom of God, living in this world where Satan is the Prince. Originally God designed the world for us but through sin, we handed it over to Satan. So it is really no wonder that we find opposition when we endeavour to live, or promote, the way that Jesus told us to”.

In 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 Verse 9 we are told that “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” Things are so good in Heaven, and so bad in Hell, and God loves us so much, that He sent Jesus to die for our forgiveness so that we have the option of going to Heaven if we wish to repent and claim our freedom. It is mind boggling that the God Who Designed and Created the Universe, and everything in it, “was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself”, “and it was whilst we were yet sinners, that Christ died for us.” Some people would die to save a loved one, but He died for everyone’s forgiveness (including yours and mine). Now that is love! Can you get your mind around the fact that, no matter what sins you or I have committed, God sent His Son to die as a substitute to take the “rap” for us so we can go free into Eternal Life?

That is why Paul said “For I Reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the Glory that shall be revealed in us”. He was confident to say that, even though he spent a lot of time in dungeons, because he had also had the privilege of having a glimpse of Heaven and fully realised what a tremendous privilege God has graciously granted us, and what a horrific cost that was to Jesus and God himself.

Now because the New Testament informs us that “Satan roams around the whole earth, seeking whom he might devour” we are told to put on the Spiritual armour described in Ephesians 6:16 that God supplied for us, in order to defend ourselves from Satan’s “fiery darts”. Rather like how our past Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, (shown here), was supplied with armour when visiting Afghanistan. Of course Julie was also surrounded by well-trained Australian troops. Likewise, after putting our Spiritual Armour on we are surrounded by God’s Spiritual army. As promised in Psalm 91 “for He shall give His Angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways”. We need to remember at all times that we are in our enemy’s territory, so need to stay alert and not place ourselves where we are foolishly open to Satan’s attacks and temptations to do wrong.

This duck in a pond at the Western Plains Zoo has made the

right choice, no shooters can touch it there. Likewise, you can avoid danger by doing as James 4:8 instructs: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”.

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Some helpful Bible quotes: -  Matthew 5:11&12, John 15:18-25, Romans 8:17 & 18, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Ephesians 2:2 & 6:10-1, and Psalm 91.

Best wishes with all that. Tom.