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For Those Seeking The Truth
& Dynamic Living Christ is Victor |
November/December 2009
Volume 22, Number 6
“God Said it, Joseph Did it”
“While he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” Matthew 1:20
The New Testament story begins as it were with the narration of young Joseph’s, deep perplexity and his victory, in a most difficult situation.
Joseph believed God in the face of every natural or scientific objection. People must have laughed at his dream. How many voices he might have heard from his friends and neighbours, advising him that the only honourable course would be to give up his intended marriage.
Joseph trusted the Word of God and the virgin purity of Mary in the face of every conceivable fear and slander. He was on the right wavelength to listen to God. The message he received was not garbled, but was a clear-cut directive from God: “Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” He accepted this marriage without question.
Nowadays, young men claim total rights over the bodies of their fiancées or even those whom they refer to as their friends. And even before marriage, they suffer from a surfeit of promiscuous sex and end up in an early marriage break up. They simply don’t trust each other after marriage. These short-lived marriages have become a universal curse to our race all over the globe.
Joseph was ready
to give Mary all the protection and love that she required at that very
sensitive time of her life and yet a holy awe at what was going to happen kept
him from consummating his marriage. The magnitude of the wonder gripped him.
And his own privileged part in God’s great plan, to send His Son through
a virgin in order that He might take man’s sin upon Himself, apparently
thrilled him. He was so clear-cut and decisive in his actions. God said it and
Joseph did it.
Everywhere we meet with men who are petrified by fear and uncertainty of the future. They feel everything is a gamble. To them life is a gamble; marriage is a gamble: their children’s future is a gamble; the whole course of their life depends, as they believe, on the turn of an invisible dice. Little wonder these men have to live upon tranquilizers and many of them need a pill to wake them and another pill to keep ticking and some more pills to put them to sleep.
Instant obedience seems to be the key to Joseph’s sane and strong life. Without obedience to God’s Word, there can never be strength and assurance. That is why we have so many jelly fishes slithering and slashing around and claiming to be Christians. No, they are not. They choose their own ways; have no standards of holiness, rush into marriage and produce nothing for God and His kingdom.
It is amazing that there are millions of people around the world who read the Bible or have the scriptures read to them at Christmas services and yet take no pains to follow these essential standards of purity, integrity and inward holiness.
What the world needs most today is holy families, clean, morally upright mothers and fathers who can tell their children without batting an eyelid, that God gave them to live holy lives in the days of their youth.
It is time that the world knew that Christmas is no myth which we adore due to our sentimentality. These are livable and workable standards which come from the heart of God. We break them to our own peril and loss. Most of the sorrows and tears that I meet with today in my incessant travels, are the fruit of ignoring God’s standards of holiness in the days of their youth.
Oh, that the Lord would teach us to train our own children and thousands of other boys and girls according to the standards set before us by Joseph’s clean life and Mary’s life of spotless integrity.
- Joshua 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
“The Sweetest Name”
“Thou shalt call his name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
When a person is dear, everything connected with him becomes dear for his sake. Thus, so precious is the person of the Lord Jesus in the estimation of all true believers, that everything about Him they consider to be inestimable beyond all price.
“All Thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia” said David, as if the very vestments of the Saviour were so sweetened by His person that he could not but love them. Certain it is, that there is not a spot where that hallowed foot hath trodden —there is not a word which those blessed lips have uttered — nor a thought which His loving Word has revealed — which is not to us precious beyond all price.
And this is true
of the names of Christ—they are all sweet in the believer’s ear.
Whether He be called the Husband of the Church, her Bridegroom, her Friend;
whether He be styled the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world —the
King, the Prophet, or the Priest—every title of our Master—
Wonderful, the Mighty Counsellor —every name is like the honeycomb dropping with honey, and luscious are the drops that distil from it.
But if there be one name sweeter than another in the believer’s ear, it is the name of Jesus. Jesus! It is the name, which moves the harps of heaven to melody. Jesus! the life of all our joys.
If there be one name more charming, more precious than another, it is this name. It is woven into the very warp and woof of our psalmody.
Many of our hymns begin with it, and scarcely any, that are good for anything, end without it.
It is the sum total of all delights. It is the music with which the bells of heaven ring; a song in a word; an ocean for comprehension, although a drop for brevity; a matchless oratorio in two syllables; a gathering up of the hallelujahs of eternity in five letters.
Jesus, I love Thy charming name, ‘Tis music to mine ear.
— C.H.Spurgeon
“His Birth and Our New Birth”
“Behold: a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is, God with us.” Isaiah 7:14
His Birth in History
“Therefore
also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of
God.” (Luke 1:35) Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He
did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus
Christ is not the best human being, He is a Being who
cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. Jesus is not man becoming
God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from
outside. His life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the Lowliest
door. Our Lord’s birth was an advent.
His Birth in Me
“Of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ be formed in
you.” (Galatians 4:19.) Just as Our Lord came into human history from
outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human
life to become a “
“Ye must be born again.” This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.
God manifest in
the flesh—that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the
Redemption.
- Oswald Chambers
“This One is for Jesus”
A little girl was given ten bright new pennies as a Christmas gift.
Instantly she began to part with them. “This one is for Jesus. This one is for you, Mom. This one is for you, Dad,” — and so on until she had only one penny left.
“And this one is for Jesus,” she said again.
“But you have already given one to Jesus,” said the mother.
“Yes, Mommy, but that one belonged to Jesus. This one is a present!”
“Purity and Integrity”
“For mine
eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all
people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory
of thy people
Joseph and Mary marvelled at the things that were spoken of Jesus. Event after event was bringing to them a new revelation of the Babe Jesus 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 makeup of their youth was very different. Do not take the home life of Jesus as that which came all of a sudden. The parents were simple people.
The growth and achievement in your life will depend on the foundation that is laid in the days of your youth. After a careless youth you cannot build a spiritual home all of a sudden. I marvel at the simplicity and greatness of Mary and Joseph. How sublime, dignified and holy is the story of this home! There is wealth for Christian people in this story.
There was a man
in
Every man who reads the Word of God and meditates on it will see into the mind of God. Prayer not only helps us to thought-read other people but also thought-read God. Prophecy is nothing but looking into the thought of God. When your heart is purified and filled with the Word of God, you look with God into the future. You have a certain spiritual magnetism, which attracts people to you that you may give them the Word.
How happy Simeon was when he took up Jesus in his arms. Christ has come as a Saviour to this darkened world. He was a light to lighten the Gentiles. This old man prophesied the sorrow the mother had to face. After a glorious ministry of three and a half years, He would be hanging on the Cross. I do not know how His mother bore it.
Studying the
Word of God will give you the right kind of spiritual development and
perspective. There is a spiritual development that brings self-glory. Beware of
it. Such a thing does not happen to those who study the Word of God carefully.
Simeon was waiting for the consolation of
We must pray and look forward to the strengthening of the Church. The church must become strong and effective. The work we do for God must develop in the proper way and produce great men for God. Do not think only of yourself. You must first receive your spiritual life. Then you must expect God to do great things in the Church. Whenever we preach people must be prostrate before God; individuals, families and churches must turn to God. 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 and know that God is speaking through you. When you grow in spiritual life and prayer, God will give you such power that people will be convicted even as they come near you. So charged will you be 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 order.
— N. Daniel
“The Infinite Became an Infant”
The Word of the Father, by whom all time was created, was made flesh and was born in time for us. He, without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one day for His human birth. In the bosom of His Father He existed before all the cycles of ages; born of an earthly mother, He entered upon the course of the years on that day.
The Maker of man became man that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast; that He, the Bread, might be hungry; that He, the Fountain, might thirst; that He, the Light, might sleep; that He, the Way, might be wearied by the journey; that He, the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses; that He, the Judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge; that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust; that He, Discipline, might be scourged with whips; that He, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross; that Courage might be weakened; that Security might be wounded; that Life might die.
To endure these and similar indignities for us, to free us, unworthy creatures, He who existed as the Son of God before all ages, without a beginning, deigned to become the Son of Man in these recent years. He did this although He who submitted to such great evils for our sake had done no evil and although we, who were the recipients of so much good at His hands, had done nothing to merit these benefits.
-
“The Unspeakable Gift”
Long ago, there
ruled in
One time he visited a very poor man who lived in a cellar. He ate the coarse food the poor man ate. He spoke cheerful, kind words to him.
Then he left. Later he visited the poor man again and disclosed his identity by saying, “I am your king!” The king thought the man would surely ask for some gift or favor, but he didn’t. Instead he said, “You left your palace and your glory to visit me in this dark, dreary place. You ate the coarse food I ate. You brought gladness to my heart! To others you have given your rich gifts. To me you have given yourself’.”
The King of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave himself to you and me. The Bible calls Him, “the unspeakable gift!”
- 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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