Praise the Lord, for today is Orthodox Church
Christmas Eve. Tomorrow millions of Christians that belong to the
Orthodox tradition will celebrate Christmas. The party is on. We are getting ready for worship tomorrow for the First Sunday of 2018.
We will be joining untold millions who will be celebrating the
Lord’s Supper tomorrow.
We are planning for a church wide fellowship hour following the worship
service. Plan to be in the Lord’s house wherever you might be. Joining in corporate worship every Sunday faithfully and regularly is part of the holy
habits of a Christian. May we all commit
our service to Jesus and to His kingdom afresh and anew this year. May we
keep abiding in Him that we might bear much fruit. May Jesus provoke us
to remain faithful in witness and service this new year. I was listening
to a song titled, "Did You Hear the Mountain Tremble?" by Delirious?.
When people old and young turn to Jesus
and sing, mountains tremble and the oceans roll.
I was reflecting on the song and on the witness
of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. Elizabeth was, for years, barren, bereft, and
broken. Suddenly the Lord of miracles
intervened. Elizabeth, like Sarah, became
pregnant in her old age. When Elizabeth
met Mary and heard what God was doing in her, the unborn child in her womb
leapt for joy. Elizabeth then broke out in joyful exclamation! How Zechariah (stricken mute) must have wished
that he, too, could sing with his wife about the news!
Elizabeth’s was a blessed song—a happy song
that spoke of the absolute fulfillment in the marvelous conception of Jesus
Christ to people aware of their need for a Savior. In Elizabeth’s song, we are given a
Spirit-filled reply to Mary, which focuses on the blessed consequences of God’s
grace in sending Jesus for every believer.
When she heard that her relative Mary was carrying the Messiah of God,
Elizabeth cried out, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb.”
In Luke1:44, Elizabeth sang forth the truth
that as soon as Mary announced the good news, the unborn John the Baptist leapt
in her womb. The good news of the
Messiah shaped the household of Elizabeth and Zechariah and their little boy. One heard and rejoiced, and the Holy Spirit
came upon the other. Here is a glorious
consequence of Christ’s coming: every member of a family was impacted by the
announcement of the Lord’s salvation.
When Jesus comes into a home, He brings joy. When families yield to the Savior and embrace
and follow Him as Lord of their homes, Christ sends rivers of joy through their
families.
In Frederick Buechner’s The Longing for Home, Buechner’s deeply moving book of reflection
and recollection on his own life and longing for home ended with some thoughts
about what he called, “The Jesus Who Was and the Jesus Who Is”. He wrote that “the Jesus Who Was” is a
largely historical Figure who came, who lived, who died, and who rose again from the dead. However, “the Jesus Who Is” is the Lord who
brings vision not only to blind eyes in the gospels but to our own narrow and
blurred vision. He not only is the Jesus
who opened the ears of the deaf but the One who speaks to our deafened world,
as Buechner put it, in “a voice unlike all other voices.” Buechner said: “the Jesus Who Is” is the one
whom we search for even when we do not know that we are searching and hide from
even when we do not know that we are hiding.”
We can read Elizabeth’s testimony, her
song of blessings, which come to those who welcome the good news of Jesus
Christ. The only thing remaining for
each of us is to make certain we welcome not the “Jesus Who Was” but the “Jesus
Who Is,” the Son of God, the Dayspring from on high, the Promised One for
humble servants, who came, lived, died, rose again, ascended, and—right now by
the power and presence of the Holy Spirit—stands in our midst, bidding needy
people to open the doors of the secret places of your lives that He may come in
and dwell with you.
In Christ.
Brown
https://youtu.be/ek26sskZERQ
Brown
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