Brown's Daily Word 12-09-09

Good morning,
Praise the Lord, for Jesus is the Christ of Christmas. I get excited about thinking about our Lord and serving Him with Joy. Indeed, He infuses us with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Without Christ the world is full of vanity.
Many world leaders are gathered in Copenhagen for the Summit on Global Warming. Many of them are confused and self-seeking. Without Christ every culture is in a crisis, subject to decadence and depravity. However, as Christians we serve a Savior who brings peace with all Creation (Isaiah 11.6-9). It is His nature and His desire to bring order to a culture and blessings to a nation.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul noted that even the created world was affected by the fall of mankind, and that it, too, will be returned to peace and wholeness by Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:20-21, "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." Isaac Watts sang it this way: “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; he comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found.” Even weeds are redeemed by Jesus.
Isaiah illustrates the same. The wolf and lamb will be friends; the leopard will sleep beside a goat and not eat it. Bears will no longer threaten the cattle and mothers will no longer scream when they see a cobra wrapping itself around their infant child. Peace of this scope and nature is seen as a pervasive reconciliation seeping into every pore of the universe. Such is the extent of the power and work of Messiah. His new creation restores the harmony and happiness that once characterized Eden.
Matthew Henry noted how these words apply to us, when he said, “The old complaint that man is a wolf to man, shall be at an end. Those that inhabit the holy mountain shall live as amicably as the creatures did that were with Noah in the ark…. This is fulfilled in the wonderful effect of the gospel upon the minds of those that sincerely embrace it; it changes the nature, and makes those that trampled on the meek of the earth, not only meek like them, but affectionate towards them…. Some are willing to hope it shall yet have a further accomplishment in the latter days, when swords shall be beaten into plough shares. What shall be the effect, and what the cause, of this wonderful softening and sweetening of men’s tempers by the grace of God?
The effect of it is that people shall be tractable, and willing to receive instruction. A little child shall lead those who formerly scorned to be controlled by the strongest man. Calvin understood it in terms of their willing submission to the ministers of Christ, who are to instruct with meekness and not to use any coercive power, but to be as little children. (Matt. 18:3, 2 Corinthians 8: 5. The cause of it shall be the knowledge of God. The more there is of that the more there is of a disposition to peace. They shall thus live in love, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, which shall extinguish men’s heats and animosities. The better acquainted we are with the God of love the more shall we be changed into the same image and the better affected shall we be to all those that bear his image.” The more we know God and his Messiah, the better this peace will characterize our relations one with another,
Further, peace with creation marks those who know Jesus. It is to our shame that we read our Bibles and claim to know when God made the world and how long it took him, but we know little of protecting and caring for the world. Environmentalists have carried the day, though their devotion to “mother earth” is idolatry, and the alarms about world overpopulation are often as surely an attack on children as were the Israelites’ offering their sons and daughters to pagan gods.
We Follow A Messiah Who Brings Peace with All People (Isaiah 11.10-16). In these verses, God tells Israel and Judah that though they have been punished, they will be restored. As a result, they will no longer hate each other; jealousy shall depart. They will not squabble and fight like selfish brother and sister; they will be best friends, but bosom buddies. Nor will peace between people be limited to a few tribes of Jews. In Isaiah 2 we find that all the nations will come together at the house of the Lord, so that God can teach us his ways and cause us to walk in his paths.
All reconciliation begins at the cross. Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” (John 12.32). Jesus creates peace between those who are his followers.
God gave us the “ministry and message of reconciliation because he is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” (1 Corinthians 5.18-19). “He makes us one, breaking down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (Ephesians 2.14-16).
The story is told of a pastor, new to a city, who wanted to establish a chaplain ministry involving mercy and compassion. He went to the local mental hospital to see if he might pray and counsel with the people. One section of the hospital was separate, blocked off because the people there were dangerous. The pastor asked if he could serve in that section. He was led to the section, but was shocked to find there only three guards watching over hundreds of "dangerous" patients. He asked his guide, “Don’t you fear that this people will get together, overpower the guards, and escape?” The reply was: “No, not really, lunatics never unite.”
We Follow A Messiah Who Brings Peace with God (Isaiah 12.1-6) When Isaiah looked out at the congregation to whom he preached, he saw a sinful people, a fearful people, and a sorrowful people.
1) They were sinful, and God’s curse lay heavily upon them. Each day brought the new conviction that their lives were inconsistent with their profession; each failure increased the grief they felt and the guilt they carried.
2) They were afraid, for they could not help themselves. The world, the flesh, and the devil were against them. They had made God their enemy—and no power can restrain his anger.
3) They were sorrowful. I have taken dozens of counseling training courses from many different teachers and a variety of theological and philosophical perspectives. One message is consistent through all—when people lose hope that life can change and improve, depression follows and we quit trying. Judah’s doom had been sealed; only debilitating dread remained.
Our God, as revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ, solves their every problem.
1) God redeems from the curse and makes his own a holy people.
2) God reconciles enemies, restoring friendship.
3) God rejoices the heart, by promising a future of hope and happiness.

He is active in the world today, beckoning people to Him, restoring lives and filling them with His joy.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9rw3RLv9AY