| |
"Christmas- The Birth of Jesus Christ"
We must prepare our hearts for Christmas and tune our hearts for heart worship.
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost" Matthew 1:18 . Here we see the introduction to the Christmas story. The first chapter of Matthew focuses attention on Joseph although Mary is mentioned. We see the preparation of Joseph and his rising to great spiritual heights.
Joseph was a godly man whose heart was prepared for a great revelation. I don’t know how long God prepared him. We don’t see in the Bible much of Joseph’s early preparation. But I marvel at this young man. He had a great mental shock when he discovered that his betrothed was expecting a baby.
We see in Joseph a beautiful character. He was in great perplexity. He might have well said to himself: "What shall I do? A great calamity has overtaken me. All right, I’ll break my engagement; I’ll put her away." But he had the ability to receive God’s revelation.
Today the world is full of suspicion. Men and women even in wedlock are full of suspicion. A heart full of suspicion—this is characteristic of many young people today. They begin with a life of impurity and this leads on to a mind obsessed by suspicion after marriage. They tutor their minds after the movies and its sexual promiscuity. Thus, there is no joy in their married life.
But Joseph had the ability to tune to Heaven. He could hear God. After all, that is religion—listening to God. Some are busy practising in their choirs for Christmas and laughing with their friends that they have no time for God. I don’t say you should not practise. You must praise the Lord in perfect tune and harmony. If you have a discordant voice ask the Lord to touch your voice. But don’t forget that the first thing which is needful is to listen to God. Many do not have this ability at all. So their Christmas is confined to the lower part of the abdomen—gastronomic delights only. They are not in tune with God.
All of us are going to come across perplexities and difficult situations. Many times I have to look to God for guidance. At times it takes a long time of prayer before I get guidance. But that is not the ideal way. We should be so close to God as to get continual guidance. Then there will not be any wastage in our lives.
If your father is a godly person and if you yourself don’t have guidance from God, submit yourself to your father’s guidance. Parents should know that it is a great responsibility to guide their children.
We should remember that very often we misjudge others. Joseph was misjudging God’s chosen virgin, Mary. He was evaluating the greatest birth in this world, in purely physical terms.
To conduct your family life, revelation from God is very essential. Otherwise you are at sea and are lost. How close Joseph came to departing from God’s great plan! "I won’t have anything more to do with her," he said to himself. God said, "Stop. Your fear is unjustified. Don’t fear Joseph, to take to yourself your espoused wife."
What is the truth about many of us? We are stubborn as mules. We do not stop but go on fighting against God’s will. What is the use of fighting against God’s will? God has the highest plan for you.
If you are not prepared to be guided by God, your life will be full of fears. If you are guided by God, there is no fear. We can be very wrong in our decisions. Suspicion springs very often from an evil heart. If you marry a chaste girl and you can’t trust her, that means you have lived deceitfully.
What was Joseph’s reaction to God’s guidance? He went ahead with the marriage and he knew her not until the arrival of the firstborn. Wonderful! Should a character like Joseph be only in the Bible? No, such men must be found in our midst. Has God’s revelation to man stopped? No. God wants to speak to you. He wants to guide you into all truth. He wants to deliver you from all your fears and perplexities. He wants to bring peace into your home.
There was no human solution to Joseph’s perplexity. No one could have guided him aright. Revelation was needed. Without revelation one is at sixes and sevens. Will you let God speak to you and bring your endless confusion to an end?"
- Joshua Daniel
"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 ; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.” Luke 2:34
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 named Simeon. We do not hear of him before this. He must have been a quiet man. He was just and devout. For 400 years there had been no prophet in Israel. This man was expecting a great fulfillment of God's Word. Every man who reads the Word of God and meditates on it will have a glimpse into the mind of God. Development of psychic powers help one to thought-read others. Prayer not only helps us to thought-read other people but also to thought-read God. Prophecy is nothing but looking into the thought of God. When your heart is purified and you fill it with the Word of God, you will look with God into the future. You will have a certain spiritual magnetism, which will attract people to you. How happy Simeon was when he took up Jesus into his arms. Christ has come as a Saviour to the world. It was a light to lighten the gentiles. This old man prophesied the sorrow the mother would have to face. Simeon seemed to see the anguish of the Cross. After a glorious ministry for three-and-a-half years Jesus would be hanging on the Cross. I do not know how this mother bore it.
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 Israel. We must pray and look forward to the strengthening of the church. The church must become strong and effective. Our churches must develop in the proper way and produce great men of God. Do not think only of yourself. You must first secure your spiritual life. Then you must expect God to do great things in the church. Wherever we preach, people must prostrate themselves 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. 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 went one day to Paddington Station to bid good-bye to a friend who was leaving the city. After the train pulled out, the lady then proceeded homewards. She boarded a bus, and a moment or two later, the conductor asked for her fare. To her dismay, she found that she had lost her purse. The conductor intimated that she had better alight.
It was a hot morning. She was miles away from home. What was she to do? Turning into Hyde Park, she sat down on a seat. She was in an awkward predicament indeed, but-- there was God! She would tell Him about it!
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 Hyde Park, God is Love, and my umbrella turned up this coin."
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 during the Christmas season. It was diphtheria, and it devastated the little Czech village of Velky Slavhov.Nearly half the village contracted the infectious disease, and many of the victims were less than ten years of age. Whenever a member of a family would show symptoms, a large black “X”would be swabbed on the doorpost of the house as a warning that it had been quarantined.
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 America with eight children, which included a set of triplets and two sets of twins.
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 Tibet, was cold, exhausted, and hungry. He had been seized by Communists following their takeover of in 1949, and his future was bleak. His captors drove him day and night across frozen mountains until he despaired of life. Late one afternoon, he staggered into a small village where he was given an upstairs room, swept clean and warmed by a small charcoal brazier.
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
About Us
This newsletter is produced six times per year by the Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship International. It is printed and distributed in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, Canada, and Australia and is supported by unsolicited sacrificial gifts of young people. For a free subscription or for other enquiries, please contact any of the addresses below.
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.
-
USA: P.O. Box 14, South Lyon, MI 48178, Phone – (248) 484-6326
-
CANADA: P.O. Box 31002, Windsor, Ontario N9G 2Y2, Phone– (519) 966-4603
-
SINGAPORE: P.O. Box 320 PSA Building Post Office, Singapore 91114.Phone – (65) 63562724 (Sam)
-
MALAYSIA: P.O.Box 236, Jalan Kelang Lama, 58700 Kuala Lumpur West Malaysia, Phone – 012-3416203 or No. 3, Lorong Beduk, Taman Sungai Bakap, 14200 Sungai Bakap, Seberang Prai Selatan, Pulau Pinang. Phone – 019- 4493115 T.K. Ong
-
AUSTRALIA: P.O. Box 24 Tuart Hill, Perth, West Australia 6939Phone – 09.345-3739
-
GREAT BRITAIN: P.O. Box 737 London SW2 4XT, Phone – 020-8677-6909
-
IRELAND: P.O. Box 18 Cavan Co. Cavan
-
INDIA: 9B Nungambakkam High Rd. Chennai 600034, Phone-044-2827 2393
-
INTERNET: http://lefi.org
-
EMAIL: post@lefi.org
|
|