Not even the most negative critic can deny the change of attitude that occurs each December. Books have been written, movies filmed and relationships renewed by the change. Most people would gladly retain the feeling of Christmas but without the REASON it exists. Indeed, our culture can think of any number of “what it’s all about” reasons Christmas is special. Without concentrating on the one essential reason we can’t have an alternative to “what it’s all about.”
Consider: Sudden population movements occurred in the U.S. after December 1848, when President Polk verified substance to a rumor. He talked about GOLD in California. That accounted for the migration of hundreds of thousands of people to find their fortunes. Up to December 7, 1941, Americans remained dangerously divided on waging war in Europe. Many wanted involvement of war against Germany. Being an “arsenal of democracy” seemed plenty of involvement to most. And nearly as many chose pacifism. Why then, on December 8, 1941, did hundreds of thousands of young men flock to recruiting stations all over America? PEARL HARBOR. And on and on. Every effect has a cause. Every decision a motivation. Every response a corollary energy prompting it. Why then would we think the superior feelings in December of every year in western culture should rise from NOTHNG? As spontaneous combustion of latent feelings of good will we can’t express except ONE MONTH each year? No. Jesus Christ’s birth gives substance to all hope that would otherwise be an illusion. December teaches us that we can forgive because Jesus has forgiven us. We can love others because Jesus loved us. We can reconcile our differences because Jesus reconciled us to God. It all has a cause
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The meaning of the Christmas event itself is plain; clear; undoubted: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord” Luke 2:11. Always remember that Savior and Christ the Lord, refer to the same person and to his triple purpose. He would forgive sinners, be Israel’s Messiah and Rule with All Authority over heaven and earth.
Always remember that Jesus Christ came first of all FOR himself. Christians sometimes say we also are the reason for the season. But no. Forgiveness of our sin is the reason the season has such delight for Christians, but not the primary reason Jesus came. Since he fulfilled Genesis 3:15, he came as PROOF of God’s sovereignty. Before Jesus could save anyone he had to prove he had crushed Satan’s head. He did that for himself, proving he could do anything he pleased, including be Savior of the world. Jesus came for himself. To confront and conquer Satan, death, sin and Hell. For himself he did it ALL to PROVE GOD ALONE is the Original Power and no other exists. He then graciously includes us in his victory. End Part I New Apologetics book at: Amazon Check out Virg Hurley books at Amazon Check out Virg Hurley Digital books at: Smashwords Three illustrations verify God’s inclusion of misfits, outcasts and unclean people.
Bad men will turn away from harm they caused. Once on a train pulling into a station, Adolf Hitler saw some soldiers pass by. Some crippled, some carried, some bloody. When they saw him, they snapped to attention and saluted. In turn, he ordered the blinds drawn closed! Even good men turn from scenes that overcome them emotionally. Years ago I heard of a church that had a home visitation ministry, including feeding people unable to care for themselves. A man involved—the veteran—took a friend—the recruit—with him to the patient’s home. The veteran feeding held the spoon to the man’s mouth. Some of the food stayed in, most of it spilled out. The veteran continually assured the man he was doing fine as he tenderly took a napkin and wiped away the saliva and food the man couldn’t hold. He kept it up throughout the feeding. The recruit told us all: he watched as long as he could but finally had to turn away. Joe Theismann watched as Alex Smith was tackled in a recent NFL game. The injury Smith received was the very one Theismann had received when Lawrence Taylor tackled him years before. The instant Taylor saw the injury he frantically waved to the sidelines for help. Seconds before Theismann was his foe. In an instant Taylor became his first responder. When Theismann saw Smith writhing on the ground, and saw the injury, it overcame him. “I turned away,” he admitted. Jesus never turned away when he saw pain, injury, brokenness or despair. He not only didn’t turn away, he went forward, arms out to embrace the unfortunate. “Come to me”, he said to them all. And they all came. Christian friends, pray we don’t turn away when we see human need. Pray that Jesus will make us like him to reach out and help. So they will know someone cares. So they’ll know it’s a Christian who cares. If we do, in their life and ours, the interaction will sound like nightingales singing and have the fragrance of blooming spring flower beds. Remember, Jesus always REACHED out his arms to embrace. And when he wanted to express the Greatest Compassion ever een in humanity, he STRETCHED out his arms to save! Fini God chose shepherds, of all people in Israel, to first hear of Messiah’s birth. I suggest but one reason, though others exist. God proved that he cared for all. Certainly those who knew they were least and needed help. Even those who felt they were best, and didn’t.
That offers a particular point of integrity. Famous in Israel, and history, as a man of AUTHORITY, Jesus ordered demons OUT...and they left their victims. He ordered the dead UP...and they rose. He ordered winds and waves STOP...and complete silence followed. It all proved he could do whatever he pleased any time he wanted. But in the most remarkable example of empathy, never in history has anyone possessing all power and fame had such compassion for people. Even for people who hated him. Even for those who couldn’t help themselves. Remember now, that which is most helpful to us must first be faithful to God’s word. And remember that information can weigh on us like flower petals or a ball and chain; like air or lead; like the frost of many winters or the freshness of spring flowers. Therefore...through the angel—likely Gabriel—God preached the shortest, greatest information sermon ever in saying, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” Luke 2:11. To be joined by an angelic host singing the greatest song ever composed. What we needed to learn. What we wanted to hear. What we despaired of ever hearing. The most uplifting, encouraging faith-building words ever heard: GOD with us, in us, for us. We never had to be afraid or alone again. God wanted everyone to hear that message and sent Jesus, his perfect messenger, to embody and proclaim it. For none but HE would be known through the centuries as The GOOD SHEPHERD, the one who not only canonized a disreputable occupation, but proved the embodiment of the shepherd of Isaiah 40:11 who tends his flock, gathers the lambs in his arms, carries them close to his heart and gently leads them—Our gracious Savior! End Part II It’s appropriate: first responders in emergency vehicles precede anyone to disasters: when tornadoes twist, hurricanes blow and floods rage. The first to help, they give confidence. They assure the stricken that they’re not alone, that the responders represent only the first of many who CARE.
It’s incongruous: shepherds as the first audience of the first Noel—carol—ever heard. The lowliest of citizens, a step above tax collectors, perhaps two above lepers, but not the company you want to keep; who had value only as workmen, not as persons. Thought good enough to care for sheep used in temple sacrifices, they couldn’t enter temple precincts to offer them for personal forgiveness. Whose only company amounted to others like them since no one else cared to befriend them, be seen with them or trust their word. Why would God send, not one angel, but an angelic host to those men huddled around campfires for warmth? Caring through the night for animals as helpless before predators as the men before life? To no one else in Bethlehem or Jerusalem did God offer such a testimony. Why would he entrust the first witness of his Son’s Glory to those thought least in Israel? End Part I New Apologetics book at: Amazon Check out Virg Hurley books at Amazon Check out Virg Hurley Digital books at: Smashwords Bernardo Bertolucci is dead, a loss to none, a film maker considered so depraved in Italy it censored his work The Last Tango. He sought through psychoanalysis of his own lost spiritual estate the answers to morality found only in God’s Word. He liked to boast that he made movies as his way of “communicating with the audience.” San Diego U-T, 11/27/18
What would they share in common? Not a belief in the Biblical morality dominating western culture since the beginning of the Christian era. Only the rejection of that uplifting ethic to embrace the 1960’s depravity as the “new normal”. Perhaps competitive rebellion against God’s Word, one group seeking to out-wicked the next. Perhaps disagreement on the degree of rejection of God—some wanting to maintain a measure of faith, the other discounting it altogether for the ersatz freedom to be masters of their own blasphemous fate? But nothing straight from God, straight at lost humanity and straight to Christ’s disciples, daring anyone to change anything he said. In whatever place Hollywood appears, in whatever form it presents itself, it never reveals or uncovers truth. Because its whole basis is illusion—pretending a reality that is at heart deception. No one, in any age, let alone the Hollywood age, has ever competed with the GOD who Is Truth, Embodies Truth, Preaches Truth, Lived Truth, Died as TRUTH sacrificed and Rose because HE IS ETERNAL TRUTH. Jesus Christ and His Father and Holy Spirit, the great eternal Trinity—are that ONE God in three Persons. New Apologetics book at: Amazon Check out Virg Hurley books at Amazon Check out Virg Hurley Digital books at: Smashwords Joachim Ribbentrop and Mikhail Molotov huddled in a Berlin bomb shelter in 1940 during an English air raid. The German foreign minister suggested that Russia and Germany divide the spoils of a defeated Europe after the war. The conversation then went something like this. Molotov: what should we do about England? Ribbentrop: England doesn’t matter. Molotov: if England doesn’t count, why are we in this bomb shelter? And whose bombs are falling?
The humanists have decided, in their collective hubris, “We are alive, God is dead.” As the old black preacher said, however, “If God is dead, why haven’t I seen his obituary? Since I’m in his family, why haven’t I been notified? When exactly did he die? And when was his funeral held so I could attend”? Indeed, since we live in the land of the dying, how can we pontificate on any matter in the land of the Living? And whose benefits continue falling on us every morning, all day long and through the night? For those who love him, and those who don’t. For those who don’t want to live a single hour without him, and those who don’t give him a second thought. Who but God shines his sun on good and bad, and sends rain on the just and unjust? In the longest eight minutes NASA scientists ever spent, they anxiously waited in Pasadena for the final descent of the Mars InSight spacecraft after a 100 million mile journey from earth. With touchdown confirmed, wild jubilation, dancing, hugging, shouting and screaming erupted. San Diego U-T, 11/27/18 If God is dead, who created the 100 million miles of space InSight traversed? How pitifully we congratulate ourselves on our smaller achievements and forget God’s greater ones. How truly Jesus condemned humanity in John 5:44, “How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?” Yours for a faith that makes the mind a throne and asks Jesus Christ to sit there and rule! I have in my files a number of now-famous and wealthy people who began working at entry level positions with equivalent pay: the classic work that begins at the beginning: as janitors, they began, as MacDonald’s employees, as a nail-puller for his dad—receiving a penny for each nail pulled from old boards, etc., etc.
Which suggests that growth in discipleship needs to be more incremental that sensational; more stair-stepped than inclined; more the building of plateau’s than scaling sheer cliffs. It begins with practices like Bible reading and prayer, church attendance and Christian fellowship. It increases with tithing and sharing one’s faith with unbelievers and offering counsel to troubled, burdened Christians. The effort protects Christians from falling too far from grace in life’s “quiet times”—the “zero growth plateau” periods. When we’re absorbing and incorporating what had previously been initial impressions. Movie personnel taking the longest to achieve star status usually stay longer in that status. Just so those who gradually and perseveringly deepen in faith are often the long-lasting “work horses” of discipleship. They continue increasing in maturity without achieving it, knowing the pursuit is more challenging than the arrival satisfying. Besides, they know they can only deepen in Christ’s presence, never plumb his depths. They know they’re more mature than they have been, but not as mature as they’re going to be. There’s one more benefit to incremental growth as a Christian. However useful we have or haven’t been to Jesus, our best is still to come. As Richard Trench wrote in a poem, “If Heaven has aught for us to do or say, Our time will come....” Chambers Complete Works, 873 True...that takes little faith when we’re young and feel our time hasn’t yet come. It takes lots more faith to believe when we’re older and feel our time has passed. Nevertheless, faith teaches us that when God wants a servant, he’ll ask only his preparedness to serve, not his age. New Apologetics book at: Amazon Check out Virg Hurley books at Amazon Check out Virg Hurley Digital books at: Smashwords I haven’t commented on the latest effort by immigration lawyers to force America to accept illegal immigrants from south of our border JUST because they insist on coming here. Not at all equating them with the “wretched refuse” of Emma Lazarus, America is not the dump for all the people from Catholic countries who seek to live here.
I’ve said it before; I’ll say it now: Roman Catholicism is the worst enemy Catholics in Catholic-controlled countries have. The Curia has multiplied its wealth while leaving the vast majority of its people in poverty. It will continue to further disenfranchise them to enrich the Church—which is the bureaucracy, not the people. Mexico, controlled by the Catholic Church, depends on America to be the safety-value for its economic problems. Instead, revolution should occur in Mexico to force economic reforms that give opportunities to most, not a few, Mexicans. American outsourcing can’t and shouldn’t be expected to do it.. Now...a word about “faith” leaders being at the Mexican border demanding protection of illegal immigrants and their asylum. Why do those “people of faith” think America has a responsibility to provide for Mexicans and people on South? We didn’t invite those immigrants to walk from deep South America to the Mexican border. We have no responsibility to protect them on their way or to provide sanctuary. Look at it from a Biblical standpoint. In one way alone America is like the Kingdom of God. God’s Heaven is open to all who obey his rules for entering it. It doesn’t matter to him that many want to enter but don’t want to obey his rules; who want to decide for themselves how it will be done. He won’t accept them Matthew 7:21-23. Case closed: obey his Son, you’re saved; refuse to obey his Son, go to Hell. In the same way Protestant America is a land of opportunity for all people that Catholic countries are not—and can never be. But...to enter America rules must be obeyed, not broken. Quotas must be observed, not disregarded. And anyone observing neither can’t come in. They will be sent back. Without apologies from our government. Whatever greedy immigration lawyers want or misguided religionists say. As a sovereign power, we WILL defend our borders! Another perspective should make this clear. Most of the religionists at the border kneeling and praying and demanding open borders have specific requirements for anyone requesting membership in their religious bodies. No one can FORCE his way, in defiance of the rules, just because he wants to belong. He might be able to attend, to sing, to fellowship, to give, but he won’t qualify as a member! Just so, let all illegal aliens stop at the Mexican-American border and look across. That’s all they’re entitled to. They can come over only by obeying the rules. Anyone who doesn’t will be sent back, just as anyone wanting to be in a religious body will be shown the door OUT if he wants membership on his own terms. Indeed, such people will be encouraged to go to the Unitarian Church. They’re too concerned listening to what others believe to have personal convictions. Consider a single thought in summary. Seniors should celebrate their maturity in Christ. God nowhere asks the age of the trumpet he wants blown. And never seeks only the young to blow it! It’s true that 10 year old Samuel had a spiritual experience denied 90 year old Eli, but only a “senior-citizen” Samuel had the spiritual maturity to anoint both Saul and David. It’s true a 17 year old David had faith in God denied 35 year old Saul, but only as a faithful king of 40 years did he have the credentials to be Messiah’s namesake. It’s true a 12 year old Jesus astounded scholars with his questions and answers. Nevertheless, only as a MAN did all the potential in the BOY blossom. While older believers don’t have a monopoly on faith, they often have a depth of experience in faith denied younger disciples, simply by having lived with Jesus longer. And, as Pasteur said, as chance favors the prepared person, the years spent with Jesus produce depth in Christian faith younger disciples can covet but not possess. Senior Christians should celebrate their experience with Jesus, nurtured through the years, and more exhilarating by practice. It prepares them for greater service now, not eliminates their testimony. It makes their faith more relevant and delightful—and the BEST is yet to come! Fini New Apologetics book at: Amazon Check out Virg Hurley books at Amazon Check out Virg Hurley Digital books at: Smashwords |
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