“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

“Sun of Righteousness”

"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." Malachi 4:2

Christ is compared to the Sun of righteousness. The sun gives us light and heat. The sun kills the disease germs when its light is allowed to reach the earth in its intensity. Christ came with spiritual warmth for spiritual healing. He brought spiritual light. The sun is responsible for all the energy on the earth. The sun’s energy is stored up in oil, coal, and wood. So also whatever spiritual light, illumination, and warmth you find on earth is due to the Sun of righteousness- Christ. Christ was with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fire. Spiritual illumination in whatever form it has come, has come from the eternal Christ. Just as the sun rises in the east and drives away darkness and cold and bring warmth into the air, so when Jesus Christ came the terrible darkness in the world had to flee.

The impact of Christ’s teaching was felt all over the world. The reformation of Hinduism in India is also due to this impact. The Greeks were idolaters, but within 200 years after Christ the whole framework of their religion crumbled down. They reformed and re-reformed their religion to make it co-exist with Christianity, but ultimately could not succeed. The light of Christianity is penetrating Light. “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise.” How true it is!

The long expected Messiah, who had already sent His rays by the prophets, has come. When Christ came the pure light came. The red glow, before the sun comes into view, is not the pure light. Even the sun appears red at the horizon because the light cornea beams through the dusty atmosphere of the surface of the earth. When the prophets had spoken the earth received a part of the light. We get the pure light when the sun comes up higher. We cannot look at the sun when it comes overhead.

The corrupt priesthood had to hide its face and could not see Jesus. They wanted to kill Him and finish Him off. But human society felt the warmth of His light. Those who received His rays retained them. The words of Jesus stored up in the Bible still energize people. If we meditate on them, the Sun of righteousness rises in our hearts. As you study the Bible more and more you feel His warmth more and more. Healing also takes place.

When a man has the true righteousness of God, he ultimately treads down the enemies of righteousness. Jesus was crucified, but who stands condemned now? Those that condemned Him stand condemned now. Healing is automatic when we walk close to the Lord.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” (Malachi 4:5) John the Baptist was Elijah. He came before Christ. He came with the spirit of Elijah. When he preached the people trembled. He did not care for food or dress. He ate wild food and wore very rough clothes and lived by river Jordan. The Jordan flows 600 feet below sea level and at the dead sea it is 1,300 feet below sea level. In the Jordan valley there were caves in which there were a number of Jewish priests, but only John the Baptist had the vision of Christ, and began to preach the gospel. People flocked to hear him. He preached and baptized. He said he was not the Christ. When he saw Jesus he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Jesus came when the nation was astir by the preaching of John the Baptist.

When Christian living goes down, it is the family that is hit; the unifying love and discipline fail and children turn against parents; Homes are ruined. During those 400 years between the Old and New Testaments many set-backs came to the Jewish religion.

The greatest hindrance to the preaching of John the Baptist was the sinful life of Herod, who pretended to promote the Jewish religion by building them synagogues, while living in overt sin. He had to go boldly and rebuke this big man. It meant imprisonment and death to him but the whole country felt the impact of this rebuke.

After this came Jesus, who brought them the perfect Truth. The world never heard such words or saw such a consistent life. People thronged to hear Him and be healed. Have you found the key to this powerful life?

May Jesus put the principle of the new life and the resurrection power into us!

— N. Daniel

“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

“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 “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God, unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth.

“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

“The Wonder of Incarnation”

“And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” (Luke 2: 12)

When God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ was incarnate among men, it was a complete identification of the deity and humanity: God in Christ became man, in all points like unto man, except that He only of all the Sons of man was completely free from sin. The Lord of glory became a child of earth. How great a mystery! The tiny Babe lying in the manger of Bethlehem was the One without whom “was not any thing made that was made.” The tiny, chubby hand upon the cheek of the Virgin Mother was the hand of Him who holds the universe in the hollow of His hand. The baby arm about the mother's neck was the arm of the One whose everlasting arms are underneath all things.

The whole wonder of the incarnation is this: it was for us, for you and for me, that God became flesh and dwelt among us. The personal application of His shed blood to our sinful hearts cleanses us; faith in Him imparts salvation to us. How wonderful that God should take upon Himself the form of man, become an inheritor of the “ills that flesh is heir to,” suffer the ignominy of the Cross! But how much more wonderful that He did this for us!

-Selected

“The Joy of Giving- Santa Claus”

Long ago, in the country of Lycia, there lived a nobleman who had three daughters. He was a good, kind father and, while his daughters were young, he was able to give them all the things they needed because he was very rich.

When the girls grew up, troubles fell on the family and their father lost all his money. The family became so poor that often the girls did not have enough to eat and had to go to bed without any supper.

The time came when the girls wished to get married, but their parents told them sadly that they had no money for marriage, and this made the girls very unhappy.

In a monastery nearby there lived a saintly man called Nicholas. He heard about the plight of this family and was very sorry for them. His parents had left him some money when they died, but he felt it would be wrong to use it for himself. He loved people, because he loved Jesus, and he wanted to do the sort of things Jesus would do.

‘Now there is a family I should help,’ thought Nicholas, ‘but I must do it without them seeing me or they will want to thank me. God has entrusted my money to me so that I can help others. It is God whom they must thank.’

So he went to his treasure chest and counted out a bag of gold coins. He waited until it was evening and then he set off into the darkness.

As he drew near the nobleman’s house he saw, by the light of the moon, that one of the windows was open. He dropped the bag of gold through the open window, and turned and hurried away.

When the nobleman found the bag of gold on the floor he was very surprised.

‘Wherever can this have come from?’ he asked, but as no one had seen Nicholas, no one could tell him.

‘It must be a gift from a very kind person,’ he thought and, because he too was kind, he gave the gold to his eldest daughter. She was delighted. Now she had money and could marry.

A few nights later Nicholas went to the house again with a second bag of gold, and dropped it through the open window as before. Again he made sure no one saw him, and when the nobleman found the gold he was more puzzled than ever. He gave the gift to his second daughter, and she was delighted: now she too would be able to marry. The nobleman decided he would keep watch for the next few nights to see if he could discover who his kind friend was.

When Nicholas came for the third time, the girls’ father was ready for him. Just as Nicholas was turning to go, the nobleman appeared out of the shadows and caught hold of his robe. He drew him into the moonlight.

‘Why! It’s Nicholas, the servant of God!’ he exclaimed in amazement. ‘Why do you hide yourself away like this?’

Nicholas replied that he did not want the world to praise him for his deeds. ‘It is God who sent me to you, for he put the thoughts into my mind. You must give him the thanks,’ he finished.

So the nobleman and his wife had the joy of giving all three daughters a lovely wedding; and how happy they all were! But the one who had the greatest happiness of all was Nicholas himself, because he had discovered that there is no higher joy than in making others happy.

Later, Nicholas became Bishop of Myra, and spent his life helping others. Many years after he died, he was made a saint, and is now called Saint Nicholas.

The story of Saint Nicholas spread across the world and other people wanted to copy his good deeds. So when children receive presents at Christmas, and no one sees who brings them, it is said that Santa Claus has brought them. Santa Claus is another name for Saint Nicholas and, dressed in his red robes, he is known the world over. Some call him Father Christmas, but whatever Saint Nicholas is called, his kind actions are remembered as people copy his deeds and leave presents without being seen to do so.

-Selected

“Reality Check”

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." - Isaiah 7:14


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