Thanks to be Jesus for
this First Full week of the new year. Praise the Lord for the magnetic
power of Christmas that brings people, families, and churches closer to
Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and closer to each other. Praise the Lord for
the Christ of Christmas who draws us to Himself once again, to the manger scene
and the humble hamlet of Bethlehem, where shepherds and wise men come to
fall prostrate before Jesus. Indeed the babe of Bethlehem connects
us to the Divine and to others.
Thank you for your Christmas cards and greetings and gifts. We heard from so many of you. We heard from a very dear couple for the first time in 26 years. They love the Lord and have served Him well faithfully. They are now great-grandparents. I rejoice in what the Lord is doing in all of our lives. We heard from one family. The wife was my secretary of the first church I served in 1978. She had a stroke and is in rehabilitation. Please join me praying for her that the Lord would raise her up into a newness of strength.
The Lord blessed us with beautiful gathering in His house yesterday. Praise the Lord when His church gathers for worship and witness around the corner and around the globe.
I read a story of Kalamazoo, Michigan reporter Don Rice, who was stopped at a traffic signal when he saw a billboard for a medical center. The billboard had a picture of the nativity scene with the words, “After Thousands of Births, One Still Inspires Us.” Rice writes, “I salute the creator of the posting…I think one does not have to profess to be a Christian to get the impact of the message. For whatever else Jesus was, I feel He seems to have been, and still is, man’s best man.”
Mr. Rice is so right about the impact that Jesus’ message has made on the world. Our Lord Jesus is God incarnate. His impact is on several fronts in life.
Jesus impacts society. Rice quotes Sidney Harris, “It is easy to think Christmas, and easy to believe Christmas; but it is hard—sometimes intolerably hard—to act Christmas. It is not our false commercialism that prevents it, but our false spirituality, not the clang of the cash register, but the jingle of bells calls us to sentimentality, seducing us from the year-round ministry of brotherhood.”
Doing Christmas isn’t easy. Christianity is not a soft religion, but a tough faith to live and act upon.
Rice said that the fraying of the fabric of our social life today is more and more perceived as a national obsession. Fear is still everywhere, as it was 21 years ago when Rice was writing. Fear is a major concern in our world today.
A U.S. News & World Report editorial has stated, “Instead of a culture of common good, we have a culture of constant complaint; everyone is a victim…gone are the habits America once admired; industriousness, thrift, self-discipline, commitment.”
In such a culture it is more difficult than ever to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite this, our Lord calls us to make a difference in the society. Jesus came to impact society, but He does it one person at a time. Each of us matters to God.
As I read the Bible I am impressed with the individual attention Jesus gave to people like us. He talked one on one with people such as Nicodemus, Philip, Nathaniel, Mary, Martha, John the Baptist, an invalid at Bethesda, Peter, and many more. We never will be lost in the crowd. He knows us individually. The Bible tells us that each individual is known so intimately that even the number of hairs on our heads are numbered. Whatever we are going through, God will help us individually, so break down the walls and be open to Him. It truly is a birth that inspires.
In Christ,
Brown
https://youtu.be/WIYz9w8Iom4
The Work of Christmas
by Howard Thurman
Graphics by Heather Peck
Graphics by Heather Peck
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the Kings and Princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins.
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner,
To teach the nations,
To bring Christ to all,
To bring Christ to all,
To make music in the heart.
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