Praise the Lord. He is the Lord
of History. He is the King of all nations. Praise the Lord for His Church. He
blessed us in His house yesterday. The world is witnessing the rise of
barbarism, brutalities, lawlessness, and the sense of deep human depravity that
we have seen in Paris in last few days. We are called to seek His peace; are
called proclaim the peace that Christ alone offers. Jesus reigns . His light
shines brightly. The darkness has not comprehended it. " Shine Jesus Shine".
"Shine on us".
I preached from Genesis 1 and
John 1 yesterday. The creation event recorded in Genesis is amazing. The Jesus
Event -- the Christmas event recorded by John in John 1 is astounding. The
Christmas event portrayed in the Gospel of John is one that we cannot see or
visualize or draw. Painters cannot paint paintings about John’s Christmas
story. John’s Christmas story is abstract and philosophical.
There
is a website that I enjoy, entitled, "Illustrated Gospel" by Maurice Lamouroux.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/maurice.lamouroux/files/ill_e%20NT.htm
The French
man who created this website must have had a Ph.D. in both the History of
Painting and Biblical studies. Maurice Lamouroux has assembled famous paintings
of Biblical stories according to their Biblical theme. The website takes the
famous stories in the Bible, and assembles paintings from art museums around the
world that picture those famous Bible stories. On the theme of the birth of
Jesus, Dr. Lamouroux has 500 paintings that depict Jesus’ infancy. Those 500
paintings about Jesus’ birth are both visual and graphic. The Christmas stories
from Matthew and Luke are highly picturesque; they can be visualized and
painted. Then, the author of this website lists John 1:1-18, the Christmas
story from the Gospel of John. There is not a single painting of Jesus’
birth that is based on John 1:1-18. No, not one. Not one painter has been inspired
to attempt to paint the Christmas story according to the Gospel of John. John’s
Christmas story is too abstract, too philosophical, and too mind numbing. Dr.
Timothy George of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham states that John does
not deal with the baby stuff of Jesus found in Mathew and Luke but, rather, John
goes straight to the Majesty and the Wonder of of it all in Jesus. John
attempts to portray the magnitude and the majesty of Jesus.
John 1: “The Word became flesh
and lived among us, full of grace and truth, and we beheld his glory, the glory
of the only Son from the father, and from his fullness, we have all received
grace upon grace.”
This verse is one of the most beautiful
lines in the Bible, a line that I have loved and lived with for decades. “From
his fullness, we all have received grace upon grace.” I am personally aware
that my life has been overwhelmed with all the grace that God has given to me
personally, grace upon grace upon grace. There is a Russian hymn that is
entitled, “O Day Full of Grace,” and I am one of those people who have been
immeasurable blessed by God’s giving and giving and giving. But John’s
Christmas gospel is so clear; that all of us have received grace upon grace upon
grace. All of us.In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/G_eXpjYqmgo
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