Praise the Lord
for this Friday. It has been mild and will be getting milder by this weekend.
The snow is melting fast and furious. My wife has gradually been taking down
some of the Christmas decorations, though some are still up. All our children
and the grandchildren are planning to come home on the weekend of the 19th of
January to celebrate my wife's birthday. We will also be celebrating our
youngest granddaughter Ada'a second birthday, which occurs on the 16th of
January. We are blessed and are very grateful.
In the church
calender it is the season of Epiphany. Christmas begins with Christmas Day
December 25 and lasts for Twelve
Days
until Epiphany, January 6, which looks
ahead to the mission of the church to the world in light of the Nativity. The
one or two Sundays between Christmas Day and Epiphany are sometimes called
Christmastide. The Wise Men or Magi who brought gifts to the child Jesus were
the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as "King" and so were the first to
"show" or "reveal" Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. This act of
worship by the Magi, which corresponded to Simeon’s blessing that this child
Jesus would be "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), was one of
the first indications that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all
races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few.
The Church is called to focus on the mission of reaching others by "showing"
Jesus as the Savior of all people.
In my
recent trip to Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan, I was blessed to see
the ongoing Work of the Gospel around the world that started in Bethlehem and
Jerusalem. It is still continuing to reach, teach, preach, and heal in the Name
of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the church.
During the
season of Epiphany I love to read the stories of the missionaries who have gone
before us. I get excited about Jesus our Lord and about His Kingdom
work. One of the
great missionaries of the 19th century was David Livingstone. He spent several
decades in south and central Africa. Although he is known as a great explorer,
and was the first known white person to travel across Africa, he was also a
dedicated medical missionary and slave abolitionist. David Livingstone died in
present-day Zambia on May 1, 1873 from malaria and internal bleeding caused by
dysentery. He took his final breaths while kneeling in prayer at his bedside.
Britain wanted the body to give it a proper burial, but the African tribe, who
loved Livingstone dearly, would not give his body to them. Finally they
relented, but cut Livingstone’s heart out and put a note on the body that said,
“You can have his body, but his heart belongs in Africa!” Livingstone’s heart
was buried under an Mvula tree near the spot where he died, which is now the
site of the Livingstone Memorial. His embalmed body, together with his journal,
was carried over a thousand miles to the coast, where it is was returned to
Britain for burial at Westminster Abbey.
You may recall the story
of when Henry Morton Stanley was sent by the New York Herald to find
Livingstone. He eventually did find him, and we remember the memorable greeting,
“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” By that time Livingstone had spent thirty years in
Africa, and Stanley wanted Livingstone to go back to England with him, but
Livingstone refused to go. Two days later Livingstone wrote in his diary: “March
19, my birthday. My Jesus, my King, my Life, my all, I again dedicate my whole
self to Thee. Accept me, and grant, O gracious Father, that ere the year is gone
I may finish my work. In Jesus’ name I ask it. Amen.” It was a year later that
his servants found him dead on his knees.
On every page of Bible
and in the annals of church history we read about remarkably dedicated followers
of God. One such dedicated follower of God is Anna. Luke wrote about her when
Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple for Mary’s purification and Jesus’
presentation to the Lord. While Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were in the temple
precincts they first met Simeon. We read about that encounter in Luke 2:25-35,
immediately prior to the encounter with Anna in Luke 2:36-38. Simeon and Anna
both testified to the true identity and mission of Jesus.
Luke
said that as Anna was coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to
God (2:38 a). Anna was walking in the temple precincts. Her eye caught Simeon
with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus so she walked over to them, and heard Simeon sing
his song of praise about Jesus. Immediately she knew that Jesus was the promised
Messiah, the promised Christ, and the promised Deliverer! She began to give
thanks to God. Anna began to speak of him (2:38 b), that is, of Jesus. Jesus was
the subject of her proclamation. She did not talk about her personal experience.
She did not speak about the blessing that she received by seeing Jesus
face-to-face. She spoke about Jesus.
The gospel is not about us. It
is about Jesus. It is what God has done in the person and work of
Jesus.
Luke said that Anna spoke about Jesus to all who were waiting
for the redemption of Jerusalem (2:38 d). Anna believed that God was going to
send a Deliverer, someone who would redeem his people from their sins. Having
seen Jesus she knew that God was doing exactly what he had promised centuries
before. May we likewise all be propelled to love and serve Jesus in this new
year , with zeal and fervor.
Soon after graduating from college,
Jim Elliot wrote in his diary: “God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my
life that I may burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life but a full one like You, Lord
Jesus.”
In
Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/KyWOIKCtjiw
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