Praise the Lord for
this fantastic Friday. We are excited about the New Year. Praise
the Lord for the way He puts an open door before us so that we all can move and
serve Him with confidence and Joy. When the Lord opens the door and keeps
the door open no powers can shut it. He is the power, He has all the
power, and He has the authority on earth and in Heaven. We are praying
for Steven Larkin, who is battling with some severe health problems and
has been hospitalized.
On
Sunday morning we will gather for Sunday school at 9:30
AM and for worship at 10:30 AM. followed by a special fellowship
reception. We are praying and planning for exciting ministry events for
this New Year. My wife is going to celebrate her birthday next
week. She is praying for snow for her birthday although, for now at
least, rain is in the forecast. We live in the Snow belt of Central
New York. We are blessed to have an iconic ski resort next door to
us. It is ironic that the weather reporters are predicting very little
snow for the next several days here, but forecasting massive snow falls in the
Southern States like North Carolina, the Virginias and even Georgia. Our
friends who have migrated to those states to escape may be thinking that snow
will follow them all the days of their lives.
I
was talking to one of my friends the other day, who shared that he owns
hundreds of acres prime farm land in the Lake District (near the Finger
Lakes). He leases them to other farmers in the region. Some dairy
farms in that region have some mega dairies. Some dairies have up to
10,000 milk cows. Praise the Lord for large and small farms. Alice
grew up on a small dairy farm that still is in operation in Upstate NY.
I also have spoken with an organic farmer not far
from us who raises goats, sheep, turkeys, geese, ducks, and chicken.
There are some bee keepers not far from us; one family has over 1000
hives. The Finger Lakes region of NY is blessed with some of the
best vineyards. One of our sons in law reminds me that we here
in Central New York truly blessed with a land of "Milk and Honey
". NY is one of best growers of grapes and has many
wineries. New York state is one of the best for agriculture. I get
excited about the farms and farmers, and, best of all, I get overly
zealous and excites about the One who is the winsome, wonderful,
and wonderworking farmer and vine dresser who gives us the finest
bread and best wine. His own body and His own blood He gave for our
redemption and for ransom.
Today is Epiphany in the church calendar. This day we celebrate the
coming of the Magi, the kings, the astrologers to worship Jesus the New Born
King. This is also Christmas Eve for millions of Christians of the
Orthodox Tradition. We once again celebrate the the birth of our
Lord Jesus who designed and orchestrated Christmas. He is a author of
Christmas. He owns Christmas. He owns the world. He owns the whole
world. He owns us. He loves us. He lavishes on us with
the wonders of His love and mysteries of creation and New Creation.
The Gospel of John tells us what the meaning of Christmas could be, if we were to open our hearts to it. It says: “Now this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). What would it have been like if Jesus never came? What would the story of our lives be? Where would the meaning of life be, let alone Christmas? What could possibly give us a reason for living and make sense of this thing we call life? Without His coming there is no meaning, there is no reason, there is no sense to life. Because he came we can experience a purpose for our lives and know that our lives can become one with the purpose of God for the world.
As C.S. Lewis once put it: “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God.” The Word of God says, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman...” (Galatians 4:4). We are to give gratitude to God for his unspeakable gift of Jesus Christ. He is Emmanuel. He is God with us. We can be forgiven. We can know Him and have a relationship with Him. We can be a part of the Kingdom of this great king.
When we are part of Christ's Kingdom, the trivial matters of this world no longer should overwhelm us nor plague us because we have entered a new dimension of life. The Light has come! It has illumined our hearts. Jesus Christ has pointed us to God and opened the door to his Kingdom. God is approachable. He can live in us. We know now that he desires to give us forgiveness and peace. He has lavishly displayed it in a new born child that came to give us new birth. It is written in John 1:9-14, "The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.
The unbelieving world is blinded by the the enemy, Satan. Many fail to receive the Saviour; many are still hostile towards Him. As the old spiritual puts it: “Sweet little Jesus boy. They made you be born you in a manger. Sweet little holy child. We didn’t know who you was. Didn’t know you’d come to save us, Lord, to take our sins away. Our eyes was blind. We couldn’t see. We didn’t know who you was.”
Ron Hutchcraft tells the story of Harold, who wanted to be in the annual Christmas play which was always a big production in his town. But Harold was not the top student in his class and seemed to have a lot of problems. The directors of the children’s play did not want to hurt Harold’s feelings, but they were worried about whether he could handle a part. They finally decided to give him the part of the Inn Keeper. All he had to say was, “I’m sorry, there is no room in the Inn.” Tthe night of the big play came and the church was packed. At the precise moment Mary and Joseph came and knocked on the Inn door. The whole fabricated village of Bethlehem shook as Harold tried to open the cardboard door to the Inn which was stuck. At last he got the door open, and the pitiful young couple was standing there looking all too real to Harold, but with a little coaching he blurted out the words: “I’m sorry, all the rooms are full, and there’s no room for you here.” The couple turned sorrowfully away and began to walk off stage when all of a sudden the door of the Inn swung open again, and Harold ran up to the couple and said in a loud voice so that everyone could hear, “Wait a minute. Come back. You can have my room.” It was a great addition to the play, even though it was not in the script.
Jesus says to us, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20)
In Christ,
Brown
https://youtu.be/sChB8_NRpNM
