Merry Christmas.
Praise the Lord for this glorious day. Praise the Lord for His wonderful Birth. Praise the Lord for the glorious Good news of everlasting life and for an everlasting joy. The Lord blessed us during our Christmas Eve services yesterday evening. I get a great thrill being with His people in His house to worship Him. We sang 7 carols. Donna Netherton and Matt Cunningham blessed us with special music. Betty Phinney was at the organ. Our daughter Laureen played the keyboard. Donna also accompanied with the flute. And best of all, the Christ of Christmas visited us. I've been reflecting on my family and how Janice, Sunita, Laureen & Jessica seem only yesterday to have been small girls. Now they've grown up into women. I call them my "Little Women." We had some friends come in between services last night for a little buffet. Sunita, Laureen and Jessica helped their mom with the preparations and serving. Alice makes the best eggnog. I call it a seasonal drink...once it's gone, it's gone until next year:) Alice was up until 2:30 am this morning doing preparations for today. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such beautiful women in my life. My daughters have grown to love Jesus and serve Him faithfully and obedient. They challenge me in my own walk with Jesus and spur me to love Him more passionately.
It is always inspiring and renewing to read and hear the Christmas story. We spoke with some leaders in India this morning and they were able to hold Christmas services in refugee centers and churches. The police provided protection for them to meet. Thousands gathered in churches and open fields. They came from different denominations and worshiped in unity to honor the Lord.
I preached yesterday from Luke 2. Hope you can take a moment to go back and read it and the Lord will minister to your heart. I don't know what angels look like. Scripture does not describe them very carefully. The best description we have of the appearance of angels is that they are like young men dressed in white garments. Those were the angels that appeared at the resurrection. Never once are they referred to as having wings. I don't know where that idea came from, unless it came from the concept that angels are free to move about rapidly, and to us that suggests flying.
But the angel suddenly appeared out of the darkness of the night. Around him shone the radiance of glory -- a nimbus -- as the glory of the Lord shone round about the shepherds. And as the Authorized Version puts it, "they were sore afraid." Luke 2:10:
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." {Luke 2:10-11 NIV}
Thus the birth of God's long-awaited redeemer was introduced to a darkened, weary, and exhausted world. History tells us that the time of our Lord's birth was indeed a time of weariness and widespread despair among men and among the nations of the earth. The civilizations of that day had all played themselves out. This is how Matthew Arnold describes the world into which the Lord came:
On that hard, pagan world, disgust and secret loathing fell. Deep weariness and sated lust made human life a hell.
It is striking that the human emotion that was first encountered by the angelic messenger was that of fear. Men were afraid in that day. They were afraid of many things, as they are today. Perhaps the most striking thing to us about this story is that we can so easily put ourselves back into that situation of fear, for by far the dominant mood of the hour today is that of fear.
The first word of the angel to those shepherds in the field was "Fear not. Be not afraid." I do not think any greater news can come to us than that announcement. It came to them, as the angel went on to say, because a Savior was born in Bethlehem -- a Deliverer. Because of the presence of a Deliverer, they need not be afraid of anything.
You and I know how frequently we draw the parallel between the coming of Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem and the coming of Jesus into the human heart. Even our carols do this. The third verse of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" says,
How silently, how silently, The wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, But in this world of sin, Where meek souls will receive Him still, The dear Christ enters in.
Every Christmas season we remind each other that it is not enough for Christ to have been born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. What really counts is Christ being born in the human heart. Your Bethlehem is when Christ came to you and was born in your heart. It is that remarkable parallel that constitutes the good news of Christianity today -- that Jesus can be born in us as certainly as he was born in Bethlehem. Therefore, to us, the angel stands to make his welcome announcement: "Fear not. Fear not, for unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
The words "Fear not" appear in the Bible exactly 365 times. Did you ever wonder why? Did you ever wonder why we are not to fear? The reason, of course, is that a Savior has been presented -- a Deliverer, a rescuer, one who is adequate to free us from any threat and danger in any situation. That is why the shepherds were told not to be afraid. It did not make any difference what Herod or the Romans would do, or what the clever, manipulative minds of men would try to set in motion; there was a Deliverer, a Savior among them. A Redeemer had come who would change the situation and use it for his own glory and bring them through. Therefore the announcement of the angel was "Be not afraid."
I think this suggests to us that what the presence of Jesus in our lives ought to bring us, as Christians, is the absence of fear and the presence of joy. That is what it is all about. And it is not intended to be a once-for-all experience. I know that many of us look back to the moment of our conversion as a great moment of joy. We had a sense of deliverance, a sense of freedom, a sense of release. But this is intended to be an ongoing process. We don't face dangerous and frightening situations just once or twice in a lifetime; we face them every day. Anytime something strikes terror in the heart or grips us with the cold hand of fear, anytime we are anxious and troubled and weary, anytime something seems to threaten us or our loved ones is a moment of danger. And for that moment -- for that moment -- we have a Savior, a Deliverer. Therefore the continuing word of God to us who have such a Deliverer is "Be not afraid."
That is why the chief mark of the Christian ought to be the absence of fear and the presence of joy.I have often quoted the description of a Christian as one who is: Completely fearless, continually cheerful, and constantly in trouble.
The presence of joy and the absence of fear. Paul said in Romans 14:17:
The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, {Rom 14:17 NIV}
Therefore that ought to be the mark of every Christian, that same sense of being free, of being delivered because the Deliverer is present. And as we look at him -- not as we seek for the feeling or look for the joy, but as we concentrate on the Savior, as we remind ourselves of who he is and what he came to do and what he can do -- then we will discover again that same wonderful fulfillment of the angel's announcement. We need not be afraid. And there will break upon our hearts and faces a sense of continuing joy. Friedrich Nietzsche, the atheistic German philosopher, made this surly remark to some Christians one day; "If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, then you've got to look a lot more redeemed." The promise of the angel was "Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people [not to everyone, automatically handed out, but to anyone]. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."
This is what Christmas must mean to us. And all the days of the year that lie ahead are to be met by the fact that we have in our midst and in our hearts, if we have come to know him, a Savior, a Deliverer, a Rescuer, Christ the Lord. All authority has been given unto him, in heaven and on earth. No event and no circumstance can come into our lives that will be more than he can handle, more than he can take us through. It is that knowledge that gives the heart peace and puts joy upon the countenance.
Merry Christmas,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWn7HHI-rhE
Phulbhani-
25th Dec-08 Christians in Orissa had a "peaceful" midnight worship and also morning Christmas service amidst tight security across the state. There was absolutely no problem reported any where in Orissa. The arrangement made by the state government was satisfactory. The people in eight relief camps in Kandhamal performed their ritual church practice without any trouble. There were prayers, singing and dancing in Kandhamal and elsewhere in Orissa. 30 churches in Kandhamal were provided with security cover even as villagers held mass prayers last night in their respective places of worship.
There were reports of road blockades from three places in the Kandhamal district and one person was arrested in this connection near Raikia area and the tree logs have been cleared by Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force immediately .The blockades were set up by felling trees at Linepada and Shankarakhole under Tikabali police station and at Katingia under Raikia police station.
The Christmas Service at Barakhama Church is just finished without any problem. I talked to the church leaders . People are happy this year as last year they could not celebrate the Christmas because of Communal riot. The district administration is negotiating with the tribal leaders to conduct a peaceful tribal congregation near Barakhama in Kandhamal this afternoon . However the Tribal Leaders are insisting to hold the death anniversary near the Barakhama Church and have threatened to call another Bandh if they will not be allowed to hold the first death anniversary near the Church. The situation is tensed at Barakhama but under control. The administration had already imposed prohibitory order for the purpose in the disputed.
Thank you very much for your prayer support. Please continue to pray for rest of the evening Christmas service to be held after a short while.
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