Especially His: Christmas

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Imagine Mary

I John 4:17-18: "By this love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us."

God's grace, like His love, banishes fear of judgment!

Mary would have been of marriageable age (perhaps as young as 13 or 14) and likely was betrothed to Joseph from childhood, perhaps even from birth as her lineage was rich, as was Joseph's. And she would have guarded her purity until her wedding night.

Unlike Zechariah, who wanted proof that the Angel was speaking truth, Mary is concerned more with the practicalities of how this can happen. In her innocence she would only know the "facts of life" from what her mother and other women may have shared with her, but how a virgin would conceive and give birth would have seemed impossible..

Gabriel shares a wonder that has puzzled and stumbled many over the years:

Luke 1:35: "And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God.'

The Greek word used here for "overshadow" is episkiazo. It carries the sense of the holy, powerful presence of God. It is like the description of the cloud that 'covered' (or "settled upon) the tabernacle when the tent was filled with the glory of God (Exodus 40:35; Psalm 91:4). It recalls the word used in all three accounts of the Transfiguration to describe the overshadowing of the cloud (Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:34).

In each of these passages, we read how a voice comes out of the cloud sharing the news that Jesus is God's Son. When Gabriel shared his good news with Mary it was to comfort her with gentle and reassuring words that the tenderness of the Lord God would envelop her with the softness of a cloud and miraculously, the result would be the birth of the Son of God.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Giving or Receiving - Which Is It?

Stores begin to decorate and gear up earlier for Christmas shopping each passing year. This year many places even stayed open on Thanksgiving Day instead of waiting for the "Black Friday" shopping extravaganza.

By the time you reach Christmas day, you’re exhausted from all the preparation!

Seems like Christmas has become a holiday so focused on gift buying and giving, you could easily forget the true reason for the season: celebrating God’s love gift to us: the birth of His only Son, Jesus Christ.

From the beginning, the relationship between man and God was broken. From that moment, God worked out a plan to open a new and living way for the relationship to once again be established and grow!

God's plan was in the form of a remarkable and mysterious gift: His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is God’s personal and expressive gift – an “I love you” present just for us. In all of history it is the most expensive gift ever given – it cost the life of the truly innocent, unique and precious Son of God.

And as personal as the gift is, the gift is also offered to the entire world -- so all may come to the Father and have a new life for eternity.

Almost everyone justifies the hassle and expense of Christmas as exciting, fun and easy. However, for most of us accepting gifts is more difficult.

How can we hope to imagine Someone who knows everything about us and who loves us in spite of our weaknesses, shortcomings and sins. The fact is, He loves us beyond anything we CAN imagine or understand.

Let's keep in mind as we approach Christmas Day that Jesus is THE reason for the season and the ultimate gift.

Intro Statement of Faith

Why "Especially His"? It comes from a closing statement in the WeakDay Devotions that I have been writing nearly every morning since 1999. Each day I close with this:

"Take care with love, especially His"

Although it is shared with many others around the world now, it seems each day's entry is written specifically for me and for what I am experiencing because I am, as the closing says, "especially His".

Over my lifetime I have been writing and teaching Bible-based studies and wanted a way for these teachings to reach a wider audience -- and hopefully be my legacy to a future generation. We all benefit from fellowship and good teaching and motivation that comes through prayer and reading our Bibles!

On this site you will find a variety of Bible-based and Christ-focused materials. My prayer is that they will help you grow and help you as you help others grow.

Modern-day Evangelism

Something amazing I learned as a young follower of Jesus Christ was that most of the efforts of modern day evangelism have little lasting effect, other than exposing an increasing number of people to God's Word. And as it says in Isaiah 55:11:

"So Shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."

Yet, many are not ready, have hard hearts, are surrounded by influencing family or peers and they slink away into the warmth and darkness of unexpected despair.

We Need Ways

I do not minimise the value of canned methods or fancy printed tracts or little gimmicks like colourful beads strung on a leather bracelet or origami-folded coloured cards. We all need to have a way to share our faith in a way we are comfortable using.

I myself, was brought to the Cross through a tract called "Peace With God" published by the Billy Grahame Evangelistic Organisation, and I have trained in most of the methodologies for sharing my faith with another. I even wrote one that focuses on how Jesus evangelised and is based on the four Gospels.

But while being discipled under a wonderful Navigator couple (Don and Elaine Lanier) I also learned a statistic that makes so much sense. It goes like this:

"If each one of us, won one person per year to Christ, and we spent that one year discipling them in the basics, every person in the world would hear the Gospel message of Salvation in just thirty-three years."

Earmarked from the Beginning

Our lives are drawn to deciding to or not to follow Jesus from the moment we are conceived. This journey is as unique as our DNA (yes I do know about identical twins).

The journey after we come to understand the grace of the Father is furthermore unique until we die and begin eternity with our heavenly Father.

Statement of Faith

There is more to come, but want you to know just the core basics of my beliefs.

1. I believe God made man in His image and loves him and desires fellowship with him (Genesis 1:26-27, I John 4:10, John 3:16).

2. I believe there is no other way to Eternal Salvation than through knowing I am helpless against my sin nature and choice of sin. (Romans 5:6-8; 6:23).

3. There is nothing I can do to be acceptable in Heaven (Romans 3:20).

4. The only possibility is to accept the freely-offered gift of Jesus Christ paying the price for my sins by His death and resurrection. (I Corinthians 15:3-6; John 14:6).

5. I believe that the gift of Salvation is just that a gift and it is a gift by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8-9) and because this is a gift of grace, there is nothing I can do to make God love me more than He does once I accepted His salvation and there is nothing I can do to make God love me less.

6. That my salvation is not transitory according to my behaviour and that He holds me firmly in the palm of His hand (John 10:29).

7. That from the moment of Salvation, my life is a personal journey of growth that He has designed just for me (Psalm 139).

8. That the Bible is His Word to help me grow daily. II Timothy 3:16. (The translation I use for all quotes, unless otherwise specified, is The New American Standard Bible, ©The Lockman Foundation.)