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For
Those Seeking The Truth & Dynamic Living Christ is Victor |
November/December
2002
Volume 15, Number 6
“He Gave His Only-begotten
Son”
Christmas draws near again, with all its tender associations and mighty meaning. Over against the saddening spectacle of our war- scarred, sin-strangled world, let us reflect again, with simple-hearted gratitude, on the wonder of wonders, in the text of texts, John 3:16.
“He gave His only-begotten
Son.” The measure of love is always its willingness to give; its capacity
for sacrifice. If we would measure the love of God, we must measure it by
Love
ever gives, forgives, outlives;
And
ever stands with open hands;
And
while it lives it gives;
For
while it gives it lives;
And
this is Love's prerogative
To give-- and
give-- and give.
This is certainly true of the love
of God. It is revealed in its giving, and is thus seen to be beyond all
measure. We can never know the costliness of
This we know: such is the oneness
of the Father and the Son, that, in giving the Son, the Father gave Himself;
for “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Cor.
What adverbs we may unite with that particle “so”! “God so loved”-- so fully, so freely, so sublimely. But when we proceed to the counterpart of that particle “so”, in the words, “that He gave His only begotten Son”, and when we reflect on the mysterious fact that the Father gave up the eternal Son, not only to the fathomless woe of Calvary, but to the incorporating of our human nature itself into his divine being, by a real human birth, so that He is now the Son of Man for evermore, as well as God the Son, we can only exclaim, “God loved so unutterably…” Language indeed breaks down. We are lost in wonder, love and praise.
Yes, Christmas draws near again. In
our thinking of it, we must never isolate
-Sidlow Baxter
“The Saviour of the World”
“And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his
mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in
Joseph and his wife Mary marvelled at the things that were spoken of Him. Event after event was bringing to them a new revelation of the babe and a new sense of responsibility. A great son is a great responsibility. The parents must be spiritually alert and qualified. Do not think that these parents became extraordinary men and women all of a sudden. Much went into their training. A home of this quality cannot be created all of a sudden. Their ambitions and desires were heavenward. The make-up of their youth was very different. Do not take the home life of Jesus as that which was created all of a sudden. The parents were simple people. The growth and achievement in life will depend on the foundation that is laid in the days of youth. After a careless youth, you cannot build a spiritual home. I marvel at the simplicity and greatness of Mary and Joseph! How sublime, dignified and holy is the story of this home. There is a great wealth for a Christian in this story.
There was a man in
Studying the Word of God will give
you the right kind of spiritual development. There is a spiritual development
that brings self-glory. Beware of it! Such a thing does not happen to those
that study the Word of God. Simeon was waiting for the consolation of
Simeon came by the Spirit exactly when Jesus came into the temple. That is how the Spirit guides. Spiritual life is a privileged life. The world is hungry for people who can prophesy. When you prophesy people will worship God. They will know that God is speaking through you. When you grow in spiritual life and in your prayer life God will give you such power that people will be convicted even as they approach the place where you stay. You will be so charged with divine power. Simeon was charged with the Spirit of God. His prophecy was used to strengthen the faith of a family that could not understand the events that came so fast and so wonderfully into their life. The quality of your spiritual life should be of a very high level.
-N. Daniel
“Reality Check”
“For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.” John 3:16
“All
Your Need”
A lady in
It was a hot morning. She was miles
away from home. What was she to do? Turning into
Opening her pocket Testament she carried in her handbag, she read Philippians 4:19: “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Her ‘need’ at that moment was six pence. She closed her eyes, and in the Name of Jesus claimed the promise; immediately she had the assurance that her need would be supplied. How, she did not know, and that did not matter-- God knew!
She began to trace letters on the gravel with her umbrella. She traced the text, “God is love.” As she was writing the last letter ‘e’, her umbrella point turned up a six pence! Her heart gave a big thump! Her need was supplied! And she bowed her head and thanked God.
She rose and hastened to catch a bus. When the conductor asked for her fare, she gave him the six pence. He examined it closely.
“It's all right,” she
explained, “It has been buried in the ground. I lost my purse and needed
six pence to take me home. I asked my Heavenly Father to send it to me, and He
did. I was writing in the gravel in
The conductor looked astounded. “I wish,” he remarked, “God would answer me like this! But there! I am not what I used to be I don't go to any church on Sundays now. I used to sing in our chapel choir at home. I'm married now and we spend my off-Sundays in the park.”
“Oh,” said the lady, “do come back to God. Get right with Him. God is love.”
There was no time to say more. When the bus neared the spot at which the lady was to alight, she whispered to the conductor as she passed on her way out “Get right with God. I will pray for you.” She kept her promise and prayed daily for the man and his wife.
One morning, some three weeks later, the lady was going to Kilburn by bus. She handed the conductor her fare, without looking at him.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said, “are you the lady who has been praying for me?”
In a moment, she recognized the man. “Yes,” she replied, “I am.”
“Oh,” he said, “I am glad to see you. I have not forgotten your story of the six pence. Best of all, I have got right with God and my wife is now converted. We have taken our little boy to the chapel and dedicated him to God.”
He told the good news with such real joy that the lady’s heart overflowed with
gratitude to God.
-Selected
“A Gift of Life”
In 1910, a terrible plague swept
through the former
There was an “X” painted on the doorpost of the home of Jano and Suzanna Boratkova. In little less than a week, the young couple, parents of three, found themselves childless. Their oldest child, a five- year-old daughter, had been the first to go. And even as Jano was working in the wood shed, pounding together a coffin for her, his two sons were dying.
As the two young boys breathed their last, Suzanna broke into agonizing sobs. She cleaned and wrapped the two boys for a final time and carefully laid them in hand- made pine caskets. She and Jano lifted the coffins onto the wagon and started the slow journey through the biting December cold and the foot-high snow toward the graveyard. They passed by house after house marked with an “X,” but they didn't have the strength to offer sympathy or encouragement. They were too wrapped up in their own grief.
The young couple laid their children in freshly-dug graves and struggled through the Lord's Prayer. Then they trudged back to the wagon and returned home. No one was there to meet them. It was too dangerous, for the house was quarantined. It was a frightening, dark little tomb. Little high-heeled brown leather shoes were still lined up against the wood stove, as they usually were when the children were tenderly in bed. But now the beds were empty, the house was cold, the shadows deep and cold.
Jano himself was sick. “I won't see another Christmas,” he said, wheezing and coughing. “I don't think I'll see the New Year in, either.” He pushed away the soup and bread, for it was too hard for him to swallow. The diphtheria had tied a noose around his neck, allowing neither food nor sufficient air to sustain him. Suzanna gathered some kindling and lit a fire for the night, sure that her husband was about to die. The snow was starting to fall again, and she paused to gaze through the window. Her mind went to a verse of Scripture-- Psalm 121:1, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth."
Suddenly she saw someone approaching, a peasant woman tramping through the snow, a red and purple plaid shawl draped over her hunched shoulders. A kerchief was wrapped around her head, and her long skirt was a bright display of cotton and linen patchwork. In one hand, she held a jar of clear liquid. She approached the house and knocked on the door.
Suzanna cautiously opened the door. “We have the plague in our home.” she said, “And my husband is in a fever right now.” The old woman nodded and asked if she could step inside. She held out her little jar. “Take a clean, white linen and wrap it around your finger,” she said. “Dip your finger into this pure kerosene oil and swab out your husband's throat, and then have him swallow a tablespoon of the oil. This should cause him to vomit the deadly mucous. Otherwise, he will surely suffocate. I will pray for you and your family.”
Then, having left her folk remedy
against diphtheria, she turned and left. Suzanna
followed the woman's instructions, and early Christmas morning, Jano retched up the deadly phlegm. His fever broke, and Suzanna entertained a flicker of hope. There were no
presents under the tree that year, but an old woman with her jar of oil was a
gift of life. Jano recovered, in time. The Lord gave
the couple more children. In the 1920s Jano and Suzanna emigrated to
It’s a story that has been handed down through the generations of that family, the little peasant woman who came on Christmas Eve bearing the gift of life. Jesus, too, came on Christmas bearing the gift of life for hopeless, grieving dying people. He came for Jew and Gentile. He came for you and me.
-Selected
“The Old Monk”
Corrie
Ten Boom used to tell a story about an old monk who sang a Christmas song every
Christmas Eve for his brothers in the monastery, and for visitors
who would come from the village for the special services. His voice was very
ugly, but he loved the Lord and sang from his heart. One year the director of
the cloister said, “I'm sorry, Brother Don, we will not need you this
Christmas. We have a new monk who has a beautiful voice.”
The man did sing beautifully, and
everyone was happy. But that night an angel came to the superior and said,
“Why didn't you have a Christmas Eve song?”
The superior was very surprised.
“We had a beautiful song,” he replied. “Didn't you hear
it?”
The angel shook his head sadly.
“It may have been inspiring to you, but we didn't hear it in
heaven.”
“You see,” Corrie would say, “the old monk with the rasp voice had a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, but the young monk sang for his own benefit, not for that of the Lord.”
-Selected
“The Oriental Manger”
Britisher
Geoffrey T. Bull, missionary to
After a meagre
supper, he was sent downstairs to feed the horses. It was very dark and very
cold. He clambered down the notched tree trunk to find himself in pitch-
blackness. His boots squished in the manure and straw on the floor. The fetid
smell of animals was nauseating. The horses sighed wearily, tails drooping, yet
the missionary expected to be kicked any moment. Geoffrey, cold, weary, lonely,
and ill, began to feel sorry for himself.
“Then as I continued to grope
my way in the darkness,” he later wrote, “it suddenly flashed into
my mind. What's today? I thought for a moment. In traveling, the days had become
a little muddled in my mind. Suddenly it came to me. ‘It's Christmas
Eve.’ I stood suddenly still in that Oriental manger. To think that my Saviour was born in a place like this. To think that He
came all the way from heaven to some wretched eastern stable,
and what is more to think that He came for me! How men beautify the cross and
the crib, as if to hide the fact that at birth we resigned Him to the stench of
beasts and at death exposed Him to the shame of rogues.
“I returned to the warm,
clean room which I enjoyed even as a prisoner, bowed
to thankfulness and worship."
-Selected
This newsletter is produced six times per year by the
Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship International. It is printed and
distributed in the
This Fellowship
is an inter-denominational missionary and prayer group working for revival in
churches and amongst students in several countries. We invite every layperson
to become God’s ally in changing his or her corner of the world. We train
people in evangelistic work and to be self-supporting missionaries.
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