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“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” Matthew 1:23 (NRSV) It seems that amid the noise and haste of Christmas preparations, that we have lost the simplicity and joyous wonder of the season. We need to reclaim the One who has been forgotten. At Advent our first attention is Jesus. The gift of giving ourselves to Christ will take precedence over our gifts to family and friends. For it is Jesus’ birthday – not ours, not the children’s, not our friends, but His. So the nourishment of our souls in intimacy with Jesus must be more important than the physical food we emphasize in this season. The beauty of His presence must be greater to us than the array of glittering tinsel and coloured lights. Our peace must first be found in times of silence with our Lord, rather than in the noisy clamour to spend more. And the good, in-filling times alone with Christ must come before the outpouring times with family and friends. Our priorities need to be turned around so that Christmas is not a burden but a blessing. This is how we reclaim Christ at Christmas. May we grow in an increasing awareness of His presence with us over this season, so that rather than being squeezed out of Christmas, Jesus becomes the only reason that we celebrate it at all. May our desire be not to fill our days with all that needs to be done before the twenty-fifth of this month, but rather a willing responsiveness to be led into worshiping our Saviour and being obedient to His desires alone. Jennifer Woodley
South-East Queensland, Australia - info@grace-lines.net The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Thoughts on Humility12/11/2021 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited (Romans 2:16). Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2). Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others (Philippians 2:3) If conceit is the most blatant vice in the eyes of God, its exact counterpart, humility, is the most misunderstood virtue in the eyes of man. Many confuse humility with weakness, servility, defeatism, even humiliation. The New Testament pays homage to this divine virtue in the life of Jesus Christ: his humble birth in a manger, his apprenticeship as a carpenter, his choice of disciples from the common people, the profound simplicity of his teachings and parables, his stoic suffering and ultimate resignation on the cross. Yet these poignant references somehow fall short in delivering the message of humility to our hearts. In speaking to the Romans, Paul advises harmony. The word derives from αρμονία, an ancient Greek concept that is best visualised in art by the complete absence of any abrupt transition. Viewed metaphorically, pride is a sharp peak that spoils the continuity of harmony wherever it appears. Along with humility comes compassion, along with compassion comes charity, along with charity comes Christian love. Not the sentimental mawkishness but the love that stays distant in order to envelope with its grace all those who suffer, showing no preference, like the good parent who does not discriminate between his children. Being divine, Christian love is completely unsentimental, otherwise it would be another form of human emotion. Jesus was the nobleman who put his own life on the line to save his servants and having done so, is taken away in chains. The people he saved are devastated to see him being carried to his death, but as far as he is concerned, he has done what his conscience dictated. That is all that matters to him. A few moments before his death he secures the blessing of the Eternal; his eyes are shut in resignation. Thy will be done. This is perhaps one of the most difficult things to accept. We often hear ourselves say: Why me? Doesn't God love me? What have I done to deserve this? The preoccupation with ourselves prevents us from being attentive to others. How can we be graceful behind a panoply of self-indulgence? We feel so secure in it that we forget to take it off. The glittering armour of self-pride makes us impervious to the breeze of charity. Humility is disarming, and that is precisely its hallmark. The only leader except Jesus Christ who was genuinely humble was Mahatma Gandhi, the man who preached non-violent resistance and eventually paid it with his life. But his message lives on. The fervour of orators serves to raise men’s spirits into a state of fight, whereas humility is a silent voice that asks every individual to look within, underneath his armour of hardness. To be humble presupposes (in an ecumenical sense) that one is humane; humaneness is the precondition for humbleness, one cannot exist without the other. The persons who still glow in my memory after half a century, do so because of those two virtues: from the man who out of his own volition, spent two hours over the engine of my car, along the M1, trying to make it start again, to the head of department in a London-based consultancy who paid as much attention to the personal problems of his staff as to their assigned projects. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit” says Paul to the Philippians. We function as individual members of a larger group, and we work towards the common benefit of that group even if at times we feel desolate and isolated. If “in humility we value others above ourselves” as the apostle advises, we forget our own pride, which is the main cause of friction in achieving social harmony. Friction dissipates itself as heat and decreases engine efficiency, I was taught many years ago as an Engineering student in the Northeast of England. Humility does away with all that. For humility is humanity’s essential oil, a blessed balm. Costas Nisiotis
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Beholding Jesus12/11/2021 “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NRSV) Believers are being changed into Christ’s likeness by one degree of glory to another. As the second hand moves around the face of the clock, so too the Spirit continues to move slowly, but assuredly, upon our inner being changing us to glorify Christ more and more. And when we behold Christ as we read the Scriptures, as we gaze upon His life, we too will be conformed to reflect more of Him in our life. Gradually Christ’s divine glory overtakes us and we find ourselves changed by it. Beholding Christ in the Word and surrendering to the work of the Spirit upon our hearts are the crucial elements that alone transform us to become like our Saviour. His glory shines upon us and fill us until it shines out from us again. We are becoming a glorious and splendid work that will draw others to the wonderment of our Heavenly Father. Do we want to be like Christ? Is this the deepest yearning of our heart? Then if we truly long for this and place ourselves humbly before Him and linger upon the life of Christ in the Scriptures, the Spirit will joyfully and faithfully change us. Let Christ’s ways become ours and His consuming love for people be our passion also. There is no other way. Only by beholding Jesus and gazing lovingly upon His life, can we become like Him too. Jennifer Woodley
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Discerning the implications12/10/2021 Imagine a class of brilliant physicists funded with billions of dollars and unlimited means to build a machine so fantastic and complex, it could theoretically unlock the mystery of dark matter and open a hole in the fabric of time and space. There are such brilliant men and women, and they may have succeeded in engineering just such a complex machine. It is called LHC which stands for Large Hadron Collider. According to Wikipedia, "CERN's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research." CERN headquarters is also the birthplace of the World Wide Web, which has a limitless capacity for spreading world wide good or evil depending on whose disseminating the content. A large statue of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction is poised in front of the CERN complex where the Large Hadron Collider is up and running again after a two year hiatus for repairs, not having blown itself into smithereens on it's first run. Shiva is one of three gods in the Hindu triumvirate responsible for the creation, sustaining, and destruction of the world. According to Hindu belief, Shiva's destructive quality is mostly used for the purposes of good. Shiva destroys in order to rid the bad within our world and within all of us, in order to create something better. Similarly, according to Christian belief, Jesus Christ (an actual historical figure) came down from heaven to be born of a virgin, and to die and rise again to destroy the power of evil, in order to save us from our sins. But back to the brilliant physicists. With all that unfathomable physical power at their disposal, what happens when it becomes too risky to regulate? Do they secretly believe, with Shiva like powers our planet can be led to "something better" by the genius of men and the manipulations of quantum physics? Who will claim responsibility should cosmic chaos take place as a result of the colliders experimentation? Is there no independent governing authority that can intervene before it is too late? Does mere hopeful thinking believe a porthole to a parallel universe could become a star gate for alien intelligence to cross over and fix us, and reprimand us for our destructive ways, ushering in a new dawn like the classic sci-fi, The Day the Earth Stood Still? The Bible already quotes our creator God as saying, "be still and know that I am God", but humankind as a whole hasn't listened (ref. Psalm 46). Christians believe the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the answer to mankind's dilemma that few have paid serious heed to. We understand He didn't need a machine to create a hole in the fabric of time and space. Of His own will he came to earth to live and to die for our sins. Of his own power he rose from the dead so we might experience eternal life, and the power to live according to His will. All this was accomplished without upsetting the course of nature and the natural laws of the Universe. Someday He is coming again - and he won't need our sophisticated machinery to get here. We cannot argue with the fact that tampering with energies we don't understand is risky business. When God crosses a universal boundary to become like man, it is for the good of man. When man crosses a universal boundary to become like God, man's fate is up for grabs. Toni Babcock
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Love rejuvanates12/9/2021 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another John 13:35 NIV Love is the passion of Christ. Love is what He is. If I am asked “what is love?” I would say it’s Christ. We all recognize care, concern, encouragement, and dedication; and we say we are loved by our family, friends, neighbours and others—but do we really know what love is? Many say “we are taken care of by our parents” but only a few understand it’s the dear Lord taking care of them through their parents. Very few acknowledge its God pouring out His love through the people around them. Perspective is all that matters. The natural mind is absorbed and enwrapped in itself. It fails to recognize the actual spiritual reasoning behind life and its events. Sadly, some people do not have close families or loved ones, yet God takes care of them through other loving people around them. In light of such earthly relations, we often fail to recognize God at work. Also, many have a wrong sense of stating and recognizing God’s love! It’s good they are recognizing God at work, but they state it in a prideful way, seeking glory for themselves. Such judgment rules a carnal mind, and this is what the darkness takes advantage of. We may state our abilities in a prideful way, but know that it’s all in vain. Pride is not from the Lord. When we receive our portion from God, we should not reflect God to others with a prideful mind. God doesn’t give abilities to His people in order to make others feel like less. Jesus never did that. He didn’t consider himself to be superior to others because of His abilities. Love rejuvenates. Love enlightens because it’s from the Light. Recognizing God’s love might be difficult for some, but such realization comes from the heart and not the mind. Stay connected with the Spirit in the right way, shrugging out self-righteousness. Get wrapped in His love and stay blessed. Deepika Emmanuel Sagar
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The power of the Gospel12/9/2021 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth…” (Romans 1:16a KJV) The gospel, by virtue of its own power, gives us the ability to respond. I call it our “response-ability”. We who have a responsibility toward God and have often failed, now have a supernatural power to turn to and believe in. At last we can be saved from sin and self through the power of Jesus. The gospel ignites a faith that takes God at His word. A faith that runs, not a faith that drags itself half-heartedly. A faith that leaps, not a faith that lugs as it were, a kind of deadness behind it. The Apostles Peter and John met a beggar at the temple one day who was lame from his mother’s womb. He had nothing to give and couldn’t do anything but ask. Peter looked directly at the man and said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he, leaping up stood and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping, and praising God.” (Acts 3:6-8 KJV) Every Christian was once a beggar who had nothing to give and couldn’t do anything but ask. “Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matthew 7:7 KJV). This is the glory of the Gospel. Toni Babcock
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Begotten, not made12/7/2021 “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God’” (Luke 1:35 NIV). Before the trek of time began, which saw the heavens unfold and earth acquire its form[1]; the eternal Son, through the Spirit, did determine that limitation which, as Christ, he would, in time, assume[2]. Thus, foreordained of the Father and through the Spirit, the Son so fashioned and ordered the material realm[3] to this very purpose; that, at the time appointed, he would enter the terrene sphere of his own formation, to redeem it from the corruption of sin, under whose power it was destined to fall[4]. When our beloved Saviour, through the eternal Spirit, comes into the world, he takes to himself the flesh of Adam[5], whose body and coessential spirit, once the apex and crown of that expansive and delightful creation, is of itself, by that one man’s sin[6], become both gaol and gaoler, sin’s slavish servant[7], the cold custodian of man’s ruin. Of this flesh, so foully fallen, the Holy Spirit prepares a body of mortal habitation[8], which body the eternal Son will take to himself, who alone can confront and reverse the sinful course. And it comes to pass that a chaste and comely maiden, the chosen daughter of Zion[9], cloaked in the innocence of youth and the childlike obedience of her faith, submits to God’s design for her[10] and the Holy Spirit moves over this virgin territory, to quicken the substance which he takes from fallen man, to support, empower and sanctify. It is to this human soul, thus anointed of the Spirit, that the eternal Son, at the behest of the Father, humbles himself[11]. Here, in the womb of Mary, do two natures conjoin, the divine and the human. So, the Holy One who proceeds from Heaven, whom the Father in his mercy sends, to be born of sinful flesh[12], shall be called the Christ, Son of God and Son of Man[13]. By this incarnation is man’s face turned back to God, in loving obedience of the Son, who, in corporeal life, will so effect the Father’s will to this end. [1] Genesis 1:1; [2] 1 Peter 1:20; [3] John 1:3; [4] Romans 8:20; [5] John 1:14; [6] Romans 5:12; [7] Romans 7:14; [8] Hebrews 10:5; [9] Luke 1:28; Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 7:14; [10] Luke 1:38; [11] Philippians 2:7; [12] Romans 8:3; [13] Matthew 16:16; John 3:13; Mark 14:62; Luke 1:35 Richard Dempsey
Cambridgeshire, England - info@grace-lines.net The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Enter his rest12/6/2021 'Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest' (Heb. 4:11) The Lord promised rest to His people as He delivered them out of Egypt. Entering God's rest happens when we believe and entirely rely in His promises, assured of their fulfilment. 'For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work' Heb 4:10. This spiritual rest happens as we remain still in His finished work. No longer struggling and fighting in our own strength, we trust the battle to the Lord so we can do His work that brings hope. His labour produces good fruit and provides us with a promising future and a blessed eternity. In His rest, we are usable, as we cease worrying about ourselves, no longer overly occupied with health conditions, finances, jobs and other cares of this world. His rest focuses on 'life' that comes through Him and not the false peace found in the world. God has already taken care of every situation of our lives. But when we do not let Him have authority and try to deal with things in our own way, we will not receive the assurance and working of His promises. During this pandemic, many have experienced difficult situations and suffering. Do not fear. No matter our circumstances, we can enter His rest. Combine your hearing of the Word with faith and receive His promises. For the Word of God is living and active. He knows our heart. He knows our situation, our worries and our anxieties. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. The promise of entering His rest still stands. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. For whoever puts his hope in the Lord is never put to shame. Deepika Emmanuel Sagar
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