“No man puts a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the rent (tear) is made worse. 17. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”
2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things have become new." The point that Jesus made about old and new cloth and old and new wine, was that the old and new do not mix. Jesus was telling the Pharisees that He came to bring a new day and that His disciples were part of the new day. Let me explain: Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament law and the Old Testament sacrificial system. The kingdom of God would now be centered in the person of Jesus Christ, and it was through faith in Him that people could be forgiven and cleansed. Jesus’ death and resurrection ushered in a new covenant. Hebrews 8:13 explains it this way: “In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete and what is growing old is ready to vanish away.” ESV Jesus brought in a new day and to offer new life. Paul explained it 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away and all things have become new.” When we invite Jesus into our lives by faith, we are saved and given new life. When we .truly confess our sins and receive Jesus’ forgiveness, no one has to tell us that we have new life. This is impossible to explain; it has to be experienced. New life in Christ is not something that we brag about, nor does it make us spiritual elitists. It makes us what Paul called “ambassadors for Christ.” He explained this in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20: “And all things are of God, Who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19. To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ stead, be reconciled to God.” We are living in the “new day” that Jesus came to give, and we are “new people” saved by grace through faith in Christ. Let’s share Him with the world…. Bro. Joe
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“A time to keep silence and a time to speak….”
Ecclesiastes is an unusual book and some things in it are hard to understand. Our text verse in chapter 3 is not difficult to understand: There is a time to close our mouths and a time to open them. if you are like me, there are times that you speak out of turn and say to yourself later, “Why did I say that?” I want to feed off of the wisdom of this short verse in this article and point out some times that it would be good to keep silent. It is good to be silent when you don’t really have anything to say. Sometimes we talk just to hear ourselves talk, or we want to throw in our two cents worth to add to the conversation. We need to learn that if we don’t have anything to say that will be helpful to the conversation it would be better if we just kept our mouths shut. As I type this, I am saying to myself "physician heal thyself.” A good lesson to learn is that if we do not talk out of turn, we will never have any reason to regret what we say. It’s good to be silent when we don’t have anything constructive to say. What I mean by this is if what we have to say does not offer encouragement to the person with whom we are talking, it is better just to be quiet. Sometimes discouraging words will come up in our mouths before we get our minds in gear. One of my daily prayers is that I will be an encouragement to somebody on that day. Most often that encouragement, or discouragement, will come from what we say. I do not mean to imply here that we always have to say positive things to encourage people, but I think that the positive things that we say to other people should be predominant. Some of the best advice that I have gotten from people has been about something negative, but the people who said the negative things said it in a way that was constructive. We will never grow if all we ever hear are things that appeal to our egos. I think that this is what Paul meant in Colossians 4:6: “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man.” A good rule of thumb is that if what you have to say, negative or positive, will really help a person, say it, if not seal your lips. It’s good to be silent when we have not heard the whole story. Proverbs 18:13 reminds us: “He that answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.” This is how gossip gets started. It is really best to not speak about anything before we know what the real story is. One story that I have shared over the years about this is about Senator Inouye of Hawaii. When he was sworn in as senator, the editor of a newspaper made a big deal out of the fact that Senator Inouye took his oath of office with his left hand raised instead of his right hand. Imagine how he felt when he was told that Senator Inouye could not raise his right hand because he lost his right arm in the Second World War. A good thing to do when we hear something about somebody is to just not say anything to anybody about it. I certainly have not written this to be judgmental toward people, for I have to watch my words just like everybody else. I know that we would all be better off in our families, communities and churches if we would all follow this sound biblical advice. Bro. Joe “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth; and a word fitly spoken in due season, how good is it.” 15:21
“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” 25:11 This idea came to me when I saw a sign on a church road sign that read: “Words may not break bones, but they can break hearts.” (If you do not know where this is from, it is from a saying that says, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”) We should never underestimate the effect of our words on other people. Anyone who has ever been the victim of vicious words will attest to this. There is an incident from 2 Samuel 15 that reminds us of the importance of words. Absalom, one of the sons of David, decided to replace his father as King of Israel. He sat at one of the gates of Jerusalem and criticized his father’s abilities as people who had anything against his father came through them. He did this until he became the king of Israel in his father’s place. Absalom didn’t become king because he had actually done anything that qualified him to be the king of Israel; rather, he became the king of Israel because of the words that he used in winning people to his side. It doesn’t make any difference as to whether or not words are true, once they are unleashed in a negative way they can damage reputations beyond repair. There are a lot of people who have been totally defeated by false words. They might have even been vindicated of what they were accused of, but they were still defeated. Indeed, words can break hearts and ruin reputations. This is the negative side of the issue. Thankfully, there is another side to this issue: Take the words from Proverbs 15:21: “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth; and a word fitly spoken in due season, how good is it.” Nothing can encourage a person as much as being told that he or she has done a good job. Someone once asked me if I ever tired of people telling me that they “enjoyed the sermon”? My answer was, “Heavens no! Do I want them to say “terrible sermon”? Preachers like all other humans, need words of encouragement to remind them that they are doing a good job. We need to remember this when we are talking to people. It is good to remember that, “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth.” For the most part, I want the answer of my mouth to bring joy. This is not always possible, .but it should be the predominate purpose of the answer of our mouths. We should never use words to intentionally hurt people. If we use negative words, and we sometimes have to, let it be for the good purpose of helping the person to whom we are speaking. Personally, I have been helped by words of criticism that I knew were given in love to help me do better. I particularly needed this when I was a “young preacher boy.” Proverbs 25:12 speaks to this issue: “Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man’s rebuke to a listening ear.” It is always true that, “A word fitly spoken in due season, how good is it.” It is also true that “words fitly spoken, are like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” I have to admit that I have always had a difficult time figuring out exactly what this means. (Hey, I never claimed to know everything. J) The Jeremiah Study Bible gave me some insight into this verse: “The right word spoken at the right time in the right setting can be pleasing and beautiful.” This commentary referred me to Isaiah 50:4: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak. A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned.” This was a quote from “the Servant,” and is commonly referred to as a prophecy about Jesus Christ. Jesus is the epitome of the two verses that I have written about. His words were beautiful, and helpful. For example, in Matthew 11:28 Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Beautiful words, indeed, that have been helpful to millions of people. Use words wisely and helpfully instead of being critical and mean-spirited. Bro. Joe “For unto you us born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
This sentence, culled from the angel’s message to the shepherds, gives the greatest message of the ages. It is the announcement that the long-awaited Messiah had arrived as it had been prophesied. It is the message that the Son of God had become flesh to live a perfect life and to ultimately offer Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. I was thinking about this today and our title, “Why Christmas?” came to my mind. Why, indeed, did Jesus come to earth, to “be tempted as we are, yet without sin,” and to become the sacrifice for our sins. Here is what I concluded: We celebrate Christmas because God loves us. You know that my mind went immediately to John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This is not old news; rather, it is eternal, and ever relevant news. John 3:16 is as true now as when it was written. Wait, it was true before it was written. We can be saved and have eternal life in heaven because of the love that God has for us, and because of His “only begotten Son.” We celebrate Christmas because of God’s grace. Grace is defined as “God’s unmerited favor.” This means that we can’t earn that favor Ephesians 2:8-9 says that: “For by grace have you been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one should boast.” We can’t brag about what we have done to be saved, but we can brag about what God has done for us through His Son to save us. We say that gospel of Jesus Christ is the best thing that has happened to humankind, and it is true because God is the God of grace. We celebrate Christmas because of God's forgiveness. If God was not the forgiving God, no one could be saved. God’s love, and God’s grace are applied to His forgiveness. 1 John 1:8-10 explains God forgiveness: “If we say that we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” We can be thankful that He is the forgiving God, otherwise, we would all be in trouble. We can celebrate Christmas because of God’s presence. In Christ, God became a human being in order to be our Savior, and He promised to always be with us. We need to remember that the Christ who was born in Bethlehem was God in the flesh. The great thing is that He has not ceased to be among us. He promised that He would always be with us. Christ did not go back to heaven and say: “Thank goodness that’s over…” He continues to love us and to be interested in our lives from heaven. Remember these points about Christmas as you celebrate Christmas with your family and friends. Bro. Joe “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
A paradox is a seeming contradiction. It is something that is true, yet defies human reason. Christmas certainly presents us with paradoxes, for the Son of God coming to earth to live as a human being defies human reason. Take a look at some of these Christmas paradoxes. Sanctuary in a Stable If the Son of God should come to earth, surely He would be born in a mansion or a palace. After all, there should be nothing but the best offered to the Lord of the universe. This was not what happened. His parents could not find a room in the inn; therefore, He was born in a stable. The stable became a sanctuary for the “word made flesh.” This is a paradox, but it should not seem strange to those of us who read and believe the Bible and serve God daily. Haven’t you discovered that God is full of surprises? What is the significance of this “sanctuary in a stable”? Christ became flesh for all people. In His birth, Christ identified with the worlds lowest as well as with the worlds highest. His birth in a stable tells us that no one is beneath, or beyond, His saving grace. The modest family to which Christ was born tells us the same thing, as did the modest lifestyle that He lived as an adult. Christ identifies with all people, not just the rich and famous. No level of society is beneath, or beyond, His reach or His love. You have heard that “the ground is level at the foot of the cross.” We can add to that “the ground is level at the foot of the manger.” Majesty in a Manger A manger is an animal’s feeding trough. God incarnate had a feeding trough for a cradle. Jesus hallowed a simple feeding trough. The King of kings was “wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.” This is really what we call a paradox. What is the significance of “majesty in a manger”? The King of kings does not rule in human majesty and power; He rules in love and humility and represents God's majesty and power. This was illustrated for us in John 13. The King of kings, who was “laid in a manger,” washed His disciple’s feet. This really surprised them. In fact, Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet, but Jesus told Peter that if He did not wash his feet, he would have no part with Him. What was true of the King of kings is also supposed to be true of His subjects. In John 13:13-14, Jesus told His disciples: “You call me master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” The disciples had visions of ruling and reigning with the Messiah, but He told them to “wash one another’s feet.” They, and all believers, will one day rule with the King of kings, but all of us must go by way of “majesty in a manger,” not by way of worldly power, fame and fortune. The Consequences of the Child’s Birth This child, born in such lowly circumstances, is the Savior of the world. Joseph was told in Matthew 1:21: “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” This tiny baby would one day break the bonds of sin and death and save all of those who would come to Him by faith. This is what we call a paradox. The significance of this paradox is that as a consequence of Christ’s lowly birth, humble life, excruciating crucifixion and magnificent resurrection, all who come to Him by faith are saved and enabled to live the abundant life here to live with Him in heaven forever. God’s paradox is our hope. As you celebrate Christmas, thank Jesus for His “sanctuary in a stable,” His “majesty in a manger” and for the consequences of His birth. Bro. Joe “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. 2. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3. He will not suffer my foot to be moved: He that keeps thee will not slumber.”
Psalm 121 is referred to as a “song of degrees,” or as some translate it, “a psalm of ascent.” It was a song that Jewish people sang as they made their journey to Jerusalem and to Mount Zion, where the temple stood and where Yahweh (the Lord) came among His people. The principle is still the same; we know that it is to the Lord to which we can go for help. We are never so strong that we do not need intervention of the Lord in our lives. The One who “created heaven and earth,” and who can keep us from stumbling, and who never sleeps is our steady source of help. In what ways does He help us? The Lord helps us in our personal lives. He is the greatest guide that we have in making decisions that will affect our lives. Through Jesus Christ, He invites us to a relationship with Himself, and promises that we can “come boldly to the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:16) There are people who assert that they do not need God in their lives. I am not one of them. I hope that you are not one of them. Today, we have the Holy Spirit present in our lives to be a constant source of help. We need the Lord’s help in our family relations. We need the Lord’s help and strength to face life’s difficulties. You need His help! He created us to be dependent on Him. The Lord helps us in our social lives – for lack of a better term. We certainly need the Lord in our relationships with other people. To put it mildly, we can get on each other’s nerves, and we need the Lord to give us the patience to relate to each other. We need the Lord in our Christian fellowship. We forget sometimes that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and that the world will know that we are His “disciples by the love that we have for each other.” (John 13:35) We need the Lord’s help in dealing with people in the places where we work. All of our social relationships are better when we depend on God’s help. The Lord helps us in our commitment to Him. He is the “rock” on which we stand. Verse 3 confidently asserts: “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved, He that keepeth thee will not slumber.” That promise is as good now as it was in the psalmist’s day. This is why we need to be constantly in prayer. It is through our communication with Him that we find the spiritual strength that we need to live the Christian life. There is really no aspect in our lives in which we do not need the help of the Lord. Let’s take seriously what the psalmist has given us and go to the Lord for help. Bro. Joe “And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”
People celebrate Christmas in many different ways. It is viewed by many as a time for family and friends to get together. It is celebrated by the giving and receiving of gifts. It is celebrated, if that is the right word, by joining the crowds at the shopping malls across the country. I am not being critical here, because I also enjoy some of these secular activities surrounding Christmas. But the coming of Christ into the world is not a secular event that is to be celebrated during one season of the year. If you know Christ as your Savior, it is a daily celebration of what He has done for you. I don’t mean to imply that I am the only “expert” on knowing how to really celebrate the Christ event, but I hope that you will find my thoughts enlightening, and that they will enable you have a merrier Christmas. We should celebrate Christmas in a spirit of thanksgiving for what God has done for us in Jesus. The angel announced to Joseph concerning the birth of Jesus: “And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.” Saving us from sin is the stated purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world. Jesus did many mighty works that inform us about His deity, but these mighty works were not the main purpose of His coming. He came to “save His people from their sins.” Jesus’ saving us from our sins has to do, not just for this life, but for all eternity. Since the Garden of Eden, sin has been what has been wrong with the world, and the Bible plainly tells us the story of the devastation of sin. All we have to do is look around us to see the devastation of sin. We can point to our own battles in life that have to do with sin. When we realize the seriousness of sin in our own lives, we should celebrate all the more because Jesus saved us from it, and we should be thankful for it. We should celebrate Christmas in a true spirit of giving. Christmas is all about giving. John 3:16 tells us that, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” When the Magi visited the family of Jesus, we are told: “And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” My guess is that this is where the idea of exchanging gifts at Christmas originated. What is a true spirit of giving? It is not a spirit of “getting” – if you get my drift. We are reminded in Acts 10:35 about what a “true spirit” of giving is: “I (Paul) have shown unto you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.”I think that a “true spirit” of giving is a spirit of excitement over the opportunity to give rather than to receive. We should celebrate Christmas in a genuine spirit of worship, adoration and praise to our Lord Jesus Christ for what His coming has meant to the world, and what His coming has meant to us. Again, we should emulate the Magi, who when they went into the house and saw the child Jesus with His mother Mary, “they fell down and worshipped Him.” All they knew about Jesus was what they had read. We know much more about Jesus, which is why we should certainly follow the Magi’s example and worship Him. Hopefully, you know what it means to know Jesus as your Savior. Hopefully, you know what it means to have a hope in this life that transcends anything that the world can give. Hopefully, you know what it means to experience His love on a daily basis. There are countless reasons to worship Him. As you celebrate Christmas this year, thank Jesus for His coming to save us from sin, give in the true spirit of giving that it is “more blessed to give than to receive," and worship Him for who and what He is in your life. Bro. Joe “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.”
If you have been sheltered from Sunday School and church, you are not familiar with the story of “Daniel and the Lion’s Den,” otherwise you know it well. The “administrators and satraps” decided that anyone who prayed to any god except King Darius would be thrown into a lion’s den. Of course, Darius signed the awful decree and it was set as law according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which could not be changed. They did this to get rid of Daniel. The decree, or the “writing” was signed and it became the law of the land. But Daniel 6:10 tells us that Daniel continued to pray to the God to Whom he had always prayed. He was thrown to the lions, but God kept him safe. What we need to think about today is why did Daniel continue to pray, knowing the consequences? Daniel continued to pray because he knew that it would be wrong to pray to anyone but Yahweh (Jehovah). The first two commandments are about not worshiping any God but Jehovah. Daniel knew that Darius was a powerful man who held his life in his hands, but Darius could not take the place of God in Daniel’s life. We need to ask if God/Jesus is more important to us than anything or anyone else. Is He more important to us than our lives? That is the question that Daniel had to answer, as did many other great men and women of God in the Bible. In the future, we might have to answer that question with our lives. Daniel continued to pray because pleasing God meant more to him than pleasing people. Daniel was faced with the same choice that we face today, i.e., was God’s opinion of him more important than people’s opinion of him. One of the greatest desires of people today is to be popular and to fit in with the crowd. Because the “administrators and satraps” were out to get rid of Daniel shows that he was not a people pleaser. I’m sure that, otherwise, Daniel was an easy person to get to know and that he was easy to love, but not to the detriment of his commitment to God. This was a choice faced by great people of God throughout the Bible. The early disciples in Acts had to face the question of who they would please. Here is what Peter and John told the Jewish leaders when they were confronted with pleasing people or God: “But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to listen to you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20) The nature of the world has not changed and we have to decide who it is that we want to please - God or people. Daniel continued to pray because he needed to pray more than he needed to obey Darius. In those days, Jews had regular times of prayer, and devout Jews faithfully committed themselves to prayer at those times. We are told that Daniel “kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before God, as he did aforetime.” We would say that he “knelt and prayed as he had always done.” We need to get this down good in our own lives: Prayer is our connection with the Lord and is not just good that we pray, but that we must pray. Daniel needed to communicate with God, but he also needed to express his thanks to God. It is interesting that Daniel expressed thanks to God, though doing so would land him in a den of lions. Though the consequences are not as dire in our lives, we still need to heed the lesson of Daniel and continue to pray and serve God, though the rest of the world seems content to go their own way. The fact of our faith commitment to God sets us apart and makes us different. This does not make us prideful, but it makes us humble. Let’s heed the lesson that Daniel taught us in this text. Bro. Joe “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
“Bless the Lord,” means “praise the Lord.” Praising the Lord is one of the greatest benefits and privileges that we have, and Psalm 103:2 gives us a good definition of praise. It tells us that it is praise to the Lord. It is the Lord who gives life and sustains it. Paul reminded the Athenians in Acts 17:28 that it is in the Lord that “we live and move and have our being.” The Lord created us. The Lord loves us. The Lord cares for us to the point that even the hairs of our heads are numbered. He is aware of everything that goes on in our lives and is always concerned for our lives. James wrote that the Lord gives us “every good and perfect gift.” Indeed, the Lord is worthy of our praise, but do we really praise Him? When we sing in church are we really and truly praising the Lord? When we read the Bible, or hear it read, do we really and truly praise the Lord for His word? Better yet, when we drop our tithes and offerings into the collection plate, are we really and truly praising the Lord? Do we praise the Lord on a daily basis? For example, when we get up in the morning do we praise the Lord? When we go to bed at night, do we praise the Lord? Understand that praise is not the noise we make. We can make a lot of noise in church, or in private worship, but that doesn’t mean that we are really praising the Lord. The text also tells us that praise is from the soul: “Bless the Lord, O my soul…” Our souls are who we are in our hearts. Our souls are the deepest part of ourselves, where real worship and praise take place. This kind of praise comes from all of the faculties and powers of our being. To praise the Lord from the soul is to praise Him with all that we have and all that we are. Psalm 103:1 actually describes what takes place when we praise the Lord from our souls: “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me bless His holy name.” The best way that I can describe this worship and praise is that when we worship from our souls, we worship the Lord with all of the positives and negatives within us. We pour it all out in praise of Him! In other words, praise from the soul is honest. The text further tells us that we praise the Lord for His benefits: “Forget not all His benefits.” How do we remember all of the benefits of the Lord in our lives? We remember through praise. It is possible that the reason many people are not grateful for the Lord’s benefits is because they do not praise Him as they should, or as often as they should. How can we not praise Him, for example, for the benefit of salvation? After all salvation is a gift of God. We could never have earned salvation. We are saved because of God’s grace and love for us. How could we not praise Him for the benefit of the indwelling Holy Spirit? There are many more benefits that we have from the Lord than we do not have room for here. Suffice it to say that we need to praise the Lord for all of His benefits. Praise the Lord from your soul, and do not forget all that He has done for and will continue to do for you. Remember your utter dependence on Him and you will have no problem praising Him. Decide today that you are going to make it a practice to praise the Lord wherever you are. You do not have to do it with words; you can just praise Him from your heart. Do it! Bro. Joe “And she (Mary) shall bring forth a son and thou shall call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.”
This is the angel’s announcement about the birth of Jesus. When the time was right Jesus can into a world that had great needs. The world is still in need, but Jesus will come into people’s lives and meet their needs. The first need that Jesus met then, and meets now, is the need for salvation. Since “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” all stand in need of the salvation that only Jesus can offer. The angel announced to Joseph “thou shall call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” The name “Jesus” itself means “one who saves” When people realize that their main problem is sin, they can confess to Jesus and He will forgive and save them. Lest we forget, this is the main message of Christmas.) The second need that Jesus came to meet is personal peace. People who lived in Jesus' day were living in a troubled world, controlled by the Roman Empire, and they did not have personal peace. The fact is that people are still troubled today and still need the peace that only Jesus can give. Jesus promised to give people His peace in John 16:33b: “I have said these things, you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, take heart; I have overcome the world.” This is really the truth and Jesus wants to give you peace in your life. What better time to get the peace that you need from Jesus, “the Prince of peace” (Isaiah 9:6) at the time of the celebration of His birth that we call “Christmas.” Claim His peace and have a merry Christmas. The third need that Jesus came to meet is the need of personal joy. Jesus promised to give us joy in John 15:11: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” He did not say that we would always be happy, but happiness is fleeting and the joy of Jesus is eternal. In fact the joy that I have in Jesus has rescued me in a lot of unhappy situations. This joy can be yours too. Reach out to Jesus and claim His joy and have a Merry Christmas. I will conclude with what you might have thought I would have begun with: Jesus came to fulfill the world's need for God’s love, grace and mercy. These are at the foundation of all that Jesus brings into our lives. Without God’s love, grace and mercy, we would be eternally without hope. The foundational Christmas passage in the New Testament is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in should not perish but have everlasting life. “Jesus loves (you) this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Bro. Joe |
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