Peace to you this Christmas!

"I will hear what God the Lord will speak,
For He will speak peace to His people and to His saints;
But let them not turn back to folly.
Surely His salvation is near to those who fear (reverence) Him,
That glory may dwell in our land.

"Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Yes, the Lord will give what is good;
And our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before Him,
And shall make His footsteps our pathway."
(Psalm 85:8-13, NKJ)

I read this the other day and it reminded me so much of what happened at Christmas time. The two pairs of words, in verse 10, "mercy and truth" and "righteousness and peace", grabbed my interest. This explains exactly what God did in sending us His Son, Jesus.

MERCY & TRUTH:
The truth was, that we were separated from God, alienated with no hope. Sin had done this, and we deserved death. Without God, we would perish!

But God, in His mercy, sent His Son to save us from our desperate position, which is what the name of Jesus means. As the angel had said to Joseph, "You are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins." He is a merciful God, the God of second chances!!

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believe 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, NIV)

RIGHTEOUSNESS & PEACE:
Righteousness means being in right relationship with God. This is not a matter how good we may appear, and we do lots of good things. None of it will measure up in God's eyes. None of us can make ourselves right with God by doing good works. As the Bible says, "There is no one righteous, not even one." (Romans 3:10) And again it says, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6) We just don't measure up!!.. we're never good enough!

But if we believe in Jesus, we are made right with God. Jesus stands in our place before God the Father... He becomes our righteousness. God looks on Jesus and not on us.

As a result of this right relationship, we then have peace with God. The relationship is that of Father and child, where we are loved children in His presence. And this is what the angels announced to the shepherds. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:14, NIV)

And Jesus said before He died, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:27, NIV)

I pray that you are encouraged and that you may know, more and more, the Prince of Peace!

The Bitter-Sweet of Christmas!

Here is another thought for those who face grief, sadness and hardship this Christmas. I guess, life is bitter-sweet!! In the times of pain and hurt, God sends a special sweetness. And we see that especially when we look at the Christ child.

Did he receive lots of presents from Santa?... NO!.. but he did receive gold, the gift for a king, and frankincense, perfumed resin used in the anointing oil of the priests, and myrrh, a spice used for embalming dead bodies. Strange gifts for a baby.

But the gold reminds me that Jesus is the King of kings... the frankincense, that He is our High Priest, advocating for us before the Father, ... and the myrrh, speaks of a suffering servant, and the Lamb of God, our perfect sacrifice, Who takes away the sin of the world.

Did they hold a big party in the palace for the new King who was born... NO WAY!! But the angels celebrated in heaven and announced on the earth the good news that the Saviour had been born.

And he was not born in a palace as is fitting for a King, but in an animals' stable and His bed was a feeding trough. He took the lowest of low places. And as it says in the Word, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich." This was the God of the universe come to earth, Immanuel, meaning God with us!!


These thoughts are echoed in this carol:
(Sung to the tune of "Greensleeves")

What Child is this, Who, laid to rest,
on Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
while shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
the Babe, the Son of Mary!

Why lies He in such mean estate,
where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian, fear: for sinners here
the silent Word is pleading:
Nails, spear, shall pierce Him through,
the Cross be borne, for me, for you;
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
the Babe, the Son of Mary!

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
come peasant, king, to own Him,
The King of kings salvation brings,
let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise the song on high,
the Virgin sings her lullaby:
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
the Babe, the Son of Mary!


And the words of Isaiah:
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on His shoulders.
And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6, NIV)

A Ray of Hope in the Darkest Hour!

As I was putting this card together, my thoughts for this Christmas were for those who may not have such a good Christmas... for whom Christmas may be a dark times.

For some, Christmas brings back sad or bad memories! Some may be facing tragedy this Christmas... and others may be suffering loss... loss of a loved one, loss of a job, loss of a marriage, loss of children to drugs and other things! And many in the world live amongst strife and unrest, with no sign of peace.

So, if that is you, my prayers are with you this Christmas. May, even in your darkest hour, Jesus shine His light in your heart and give you a new hope!!

Remember why He came to earth! Without Him, we are separated from God with no hope. But He came to live and suffer and die, and then rise again, to restore us to the Father, and give us that hope! There is a light for our darkness!!

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light; those who dwelt in the land of intense darkness and the shadow of death, upon them has the Light shined." (Isaiah 9:2, Amp)

"In Him (Jesus) was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it [put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it.]" (John 1:4-5, Amp)

"And again, Isaiah says:
'There shall be a root of Jesse;
And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles,
In Him the Gentiles shall hope.'
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:12-13, NKJ)

That is my prayer for you this Christmas!!

God's Glory over the WHOLE Earth!!

This is the sunset I saw last night, and it reminded me of God's glory!

And then this morning on Flickr I spotted shots of the sun from over the other side of the world, which reminded me of the hymn:
"Jesus shall reign wherever the sun,
Doth its successive journeys run,
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Til suns shall rise and set no more."

About the sun, the Bible says,
"It's rising is from one end of the heaven, and its circuit to the other end;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat." (Psalm 19:6, NKJ)

It also reminded me of something else:
"This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

"If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts." (1 John 1:5-10, NLT)

Anyhow, there is more I want to write about that, but don't have the time right now, so I'll leave it and write more later!!

SOMEONE'S WATCHING!!

PRINCE FROGGY MISSES A MEAL!!
Possibly because it was not fast food!!! :-)

When I took last night, Froggy was on the front step and it was pretty dark. I was only able to see the frog when I put the flash on him, and it was not until I'd taken the pic that I noticed this brown thing in the viewer and wondered what it was. It was only after I downloaded the photos, that I discovered it was the slug! What a blessing!! Strange to say that a slug could be a blessing! eh??

Today, thinking about how the flash illuminated the darkness and revealed the slug, it reminded me of these verses:

"There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." (Hebrews 4:13, NKJ)

"All things were made through Him (Jesus), and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." (John 1:3-5, NKJ)

What do you see??

CAN YOU SPOT BABY MOSES??

LOOK!!... in these bulrushes! Well, look for his basket, anyway! You won't actually see Moses! Can you see it?? Look again... then again??

How did you go? Did you find him??

Well, if you said you found him, you're under an illusion!! You're seeing what's not really there!

It reminds me of the story of "the Emperor's New Clothes". Everyone was admiring the kings new clothes, and nobody was willing to admit the truth.... THERE WERE NONE!! And one little boy, in his innocence said, "The king is in the altogether... he's naked as the day he was born!!"

(Read the whole story: http://www.taletown.com/emporer.html)

It proves that people would sooner believe a lie than accept the truth. Why? Because they do not have a love for the truth! Truth is too confronting!! It means admitting you're wrong! It means commitment! It means change!

The Bible says that this will happen in the last days:

"The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." (2 Thes 2:9-12, NIV)

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

"Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen." (Romans 1:20-25, NIV)

So the world becomes very twisted. People will call things beautiful, that are really not! They are under a delusion!! I think particularly in the realm of so called ART!!

As a friend of mine shared today, and gave some insight for Christian artists:

"Beauty is NOT in the eye of the beholder. May that truth ring. God is good and beautiful and lovely and pure. May we use our gifts properly.. and not distort that. Our calling is to twist things BACK. Back to the way they're supposed to be. to twist ART back. to show beauty. A man that I am inspired to learn more about, Makamoto (can't remember his last name, or spelling; my apologies)... has been a bright light in this area... he says it should be, that Christians SHOULD be creative. That is what God has made us to be. And if people want to be artists, they should come to the church, because that is where they see it coming from. And
isn't that true?!?!"


Hey! We are like that little boy in the crowd, watching the king parade his "new" clothes.... he saw and told the truth!!... and revealed what was ugly!! Can you imagine how the king really must have looked!?!? :-)

Let us point out what really IS beautiful!! ... depicting God's glory!!

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." (John 1:4-5)

My Prayer for You!

(I pray and ask God) to fill you
with the knowledge of His will
through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
And (I) pray this in order
that you may live a life worthy of the Lord
and may please Him in every way;
bearing fruit in every good work,
growing in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all power
according to His glorious might
so that you may have great endurance and patience,
and joyfully giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified you to share
in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

(Colossians 1:9b-14, NIV)