Praise the Lord for
this Wednesday, just a week away from Christmas Eve. We will meet for our
midweek gathering at 6 PM this evening with a very special meal. We will be
looking at Isaiah chapter 40. We wish a very happy and Joyful Chanukah to our
Jewish brothers and sisters. We will keep praying for the Peace of
Jerusalem.
Our Choir will meet at tonight at
7:30 PM for a special Practice for this coming Sunday. Praise the Lord for the
signs, sights, songs, and sounds of the season. Praise the Lord for the people
of Jesus all around the world who are celebrating in diverse ways and methods,
in songs, giving, worship, serving, and receiving. Praise the Lord for the
cantatas, concerts, dramas, and plays focused on Jesus and His birth. In Cyprus
and as we flew by way of Paris, we saw many signs of Christmas. In Orissa,
people are preparing for many days of celebration, culminating in Christmas.
Here in the Southern Tier the Downtown Singers are preparing to present the
historic work, "Handel's Messiah", on Friday and Saturday evenings at the
Binghamton High School Auditorium. We are preparing the presentation of a
Living Nativity on Saturday from 5-7 PM at Center Court at the Oakdale Mall,
with a rousing rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus at 6.30PM. Come, share, and
rejoice.
In the midst of preparations for
Christmas around the corner and around the globe we have violence and bloodshed
in Pakistan, Sydney Australlia, Yemen, and the Middle East. I knew a beautiful
young girl who is now grown up. She became a teacher, Sunday School teacher, and
a member of the worship band of her church. She loved the Lord and she loved her
neighbors. She was found dead Monday morning after she failed to show up for
school. We pray for her mom and dad for the Lord to comfort them. "Comfort ye,
Comfort ye my people saith your God". When we see the world that has gone
insane we get angry and disturbed. Martin Luther put it bluntly in his Table Talk: "If I were
as our Lord God . . . and these vile people were disobedient as they now be, I
would knock the world into pieces."
Luther got a little carried away,
so praise the Lord that Luther was not God. God is not grouchy, standing
solemnly aside, staring at us with a cold, ruthless gaze. He is not some kind of
cosmic despot who plays favorites with one nation, one race, one political
ideology, and comes smashing down on others. He is not One who likes only good
people and checks off those who are bad. God
is a loving Father. He engages himself in our predicament, endeavoring to
counter our own self-destructive bent with the gift He has given us in Jesus
Christ.
"For God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:16-17). St. Augustine expressed the love of God by saying, "God
loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love." That's a universal love!
We have all seen detective movies
where hounds were used to track down the fugitive from justice. The bloodhound
has an amazing capacity to pick up a scent and follow through the greatest
difficulties to find the object of its quest. Francis Thompson, a British poet who lived during the last half of the
nineteenth century, was a man whose ill health early in life drove him to
opium addiction. His poverty set him to selling matches and newspapers along
the street. Later in life he experienced the love of God in a personal way,
giving his life to Jesus Christ. He wrote a poem, telling about the divine
pursuit of the human soul. He described God as "the hound of
heaven."
The Christmas message is not merely
one of sentimentality about little baby Jesus. It is a rugged, tough message
about the God-Man who walked the face of this earth, was nailed to the Cross,
who bore the heavy weight of sin, who was buried, who rose from the dead in
victory over your sin and mine and who now offers us a gift which we are invited
to receive. To receive the gift is to inherit the Eternal life.
Eternal life is a whole new dimension
of life. It is right here, right now, as well as forever. Eternal life functions
in time and above time. It is in this world and in the next world. Eternal life
is literally "God life now and forevermore."
In Christ,
Brown
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