Grace For The Journey

  Well . . . you made it! It’s almost the end of 2016.  As I said in yesterday’s blog, I’d like to close out this year with one more observation on finishing well, an observation which is grounded in these words from the apostle Paul to Timothy:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

Yesterday we looked at two phrases Paul employed that I believe you and I can use to evaluate how well 2016 went for us: fighting the good fight and finishing the race. Today let’s examine one more phrase . . .

I have kept the faith …

Here Paul is talking about the “faith” found in the revealed truth of the wisdom of God. Paul had pondered it, preached it, practiced it, protected it, and praised it as much as was within his power. He tirelessly warned the churches against those who would distort the truth of God’s Word and against those who would water it down.

For Paul, “keeping the faith” meant keeping in view the all-consuming call God had placed in his life. He refused to let anything draw him off course. He lived a life of fidelity to His faithful Savior and poured himself out in unwavering service to his Lord. Did he do it imperfectly? Yes, as we all do, but he did it with all of his heart.

There was no half-hearted effort in the life of Paul. Think about it this way. Everything he did as Saul, prior to his conversion, he did with all of his heart. Now, as the new man, Paul, he also did everything with all of his heart, but now he was motivated by giving glory to the One who had called him.

In closing out this year, let me suggest three key qualities that marked the life of Paul:

• Sold out
• Steadfast
• Single-minded

Paul was able to fight the good fight because he was sold out in staying in the fight. Paul was able to finish the race because he was steadfast in running it. And he was able to keep the faith because he was single-minded in his focus on it.

It is my prayer that you will look back on this past year and see all the good God has done – both in you and through you. Learn from the times you fell short of the intended mark and take that lesson into 2016 with the confident assurance that He who began the good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6), just like He did in the apostle Paul’s life.

Thank you for spending time with me this past year. My prayer is that you have learn more about the truths of God’s Word and have experienced the joy of living by His Word.  Lord willing, you and I will be talking with each other again next year.

Grace For The Journey

  I would like to close out the year with a two-part blog, which will be rooted in these words from the apostle Paul to Timothy:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

I believe you and I can use three phrases Paul employed to summarize all that God had done in his life after his Damascus Road experience to evaluate how well 2016 went for us. Today we’ll look at the first two of these phrases; tomorrow, we’ll concentrate on the final one.

I have fought the good fight . . .

If Paul had said “I have fought A good fight” he could have been speaking about any challenge or trial he had encountered. However, the Spirit of God moved him to speak of “THE good fight,” and the only “good fight” for you and me is the one God has called us into. God turned Paul’s life upside-down when He changed Saul into Paul; instead of the violent persecutor of the church, Paul was now the preacher and pastor of the church. Paul did indeed fight the good fight God had called him to fight.

I have finished the race . . .

Paul was fond of comparing his life to a race. Always keep in mind that he was not speaking of a short sprint, but rather a marathon. Paul lived a life that was reflective of the truth that He who had begun a good work in him would absolutely complete it (Philippians 1:6). Yet at the same time, Paul knew that he must continue, by God’s grace, to prayerfully put one foot in front of the other foot every step of the way to the finish line.

So . . . as we draw near to the end of 2016, take some time to consider both of these phrases: “I have fought the good fight . . . I have finished the race.” Can the same be said of you? Was 2016 marked by fighting the good fight? Are you progressing steadily, in the strength of the Almighty, through the race He has set before you?

Please remember, just as Paul did, that we are not talking about fighting the good fight and finishing the 2016 race perfectly. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul freely confessed that he was “the worst” of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).

Everything we do we do imperfectly.

But here is the question we should honestly ask and answer: Did I make God’s plan in my life my primary passion and pursuit throughout 2016?

Give that some thought . . . and we’ll dig a little deeper tomorrow.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

  How would you evaluate the life you’ve lived throughout the past 12 months?  Were your days marked by shrinking back from all God was calling you into?  Or was it marked by stretching into God’s plan for your life?  Here are a few examples from the Scriptures of a shrinking life:

• Abraham shrunk the size of his life down to the size of his desire to save his own skin when he told Pharaoh his wife was his sister.
• Jacob shrunk the size of his life down to the size of his desire to receive his father’s blessing, regardless of the cost.
• David shrunk the size of his life down to the size of his desire to satisfy his own sinful and self-absorbed lust for another man’s wife.
• Peter, like Abraham, shrunk the size of his life down to the size of his desire to save his own skin when he told the servant girl and others that he did not know Jesus – 3 times!

Now, here are a few examples of lives lived marked by stretching into God’s calling, even in the face of uncertainty, difficulty, and even death.

• Abraham stretched the size of his life up to the size of God’s plan when he left everything behind to follow God into an unknown future.
• Jacob stretched the size of his life up to the size of God’s plan when he wrestled with God all night and refused to let go until God had blessed him and renamed him Israel.
• David stretched the size of his life up to the size of God’s plan when he fought the giant Goliath and refused to fight against King Saul, even though Saul was unjustly persecuting him.
• Peter stretched the size of his life up to the size of God’s plan when he recovered from his courtyard denials and responded to the call of Jesus to “feed His sheep.”

No doubt you noticed that I used the same people in these examples . . . to show times when they shrunk their lives down to the size of their lives and times when they stretched their lives beyond what they could have ever imagined.

This should be a source of great comfort to you today!  It certainly is for me, because there are those days when I shrink back . . . others when I stretch forward.  This is true for all of us.

We all live lives marked by advancing into God’s perfect plan and retreating from it.  The key is to keep getting up, by God’s grace, and keep moving in the direction God is calling us to go, regardless of how many times we fall down.  The Bible says in Proverbs 24:16, “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.”

The Christian life is marked by shrinking and stretching, and it will be that way until the day we get to heaven.  We all find ourselves living in moments when we care more about satisfying our own desires and meeting our own needs than we care about living for the glory of God.

The only cure is to keep our eyes fixed on the Author and Finisher of our faith.

The more we focus on Him, believe the truths of the Gospel, and act in obedience the more we will stretch for our Savior and the less we will shrink for ourselves.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

Change is happening all around us.  I am sure that you have experienced change in your life this past year.  Everything changes: lawns never stay cut; shelves never stay dusted; and, babies never stay dry. Amidst all of the ongoing changes in this life – changing relationships, changing careers, changing addresses – there is a great comfort for the Christian in knowing that one thing never changes…GOD!

Both the Old and New Testaments remind us of this marvelous truth.  The Bible says in Malachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I do not change.”  And the Bible says in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

There is truly no end to the comfort found in the unchangeable character of our Creator. In a world of ceaseless change, we can depend on our unchanging God. What God was in the beginning, He still is today, and will be forever!

• His purpose is unchanged
• His plan is unchanged
• His power is unchanged
• His promise is unchanged
• His wisdom is unchanged
• His justice is unchanged
• His mercy is unchanged
• His grace is unchanged
• His truth is unchanged
• His forgiveness is unchanged
• His love is unchanged

How incredibly reassuring to know that our God changes not!

We could never in a lifetime exhaust these precious truths about our God, but I would like to sharpen our focus for a moment on His unchanging love. His love is an everlasting love: He loves us today as much as He did yesterday and as much as He will tomorrow. And this is not because of anything we have done to cause God to love us, but simply because He chose, from before the foundation of the world, to love us.

This truth sets us free from the anxiety and fear of losing a love we did nothing to earn. The love that God in Christ lavishes on us is a gift.

It was not gained by our merit,

But given by His mercy.

And because we did nothing to earn it, we can do nothing to lose it! If we did not gain the affection of the Almighty by being good, we cannot lose His affection by being bad. We are eternally loved (Jeremiah 31:3)  . . . even when we are messing it all up. Romans 8:38-39 plainly asserts that nothing can separate us from the love of God . . . nothing . . . period!

Now, there are certainly times when you and I do not love God as we should.  But our God loves us constantly and consistently with an everlasting love. We must remember that we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We are kept by His love for us, not by our love for Him. It is His faithfulness to us, not our faithfulness to Him that keeps us in our faith.

This truth of God’s unchanging, eternal love liberates us from the prison of our past and propels us into the promise of our future with the freedom and joy of knowing we are securely held in the nail-scarred hands of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

  Well, Christmas has come and gone.  Many are recovering from, and perhaps even celebrating, the end of the “Holiday Rush.”  How did it go for you? See if any of the following were things you said, or were said to you . . .

• “Hurry up! We’re running late for the Johnny’s / Sally’s performance!”
• “Hurry up! We’ve got to finish decorating the tree before all the needles fall off!”
• “Hurry up! We’re going to miss the start of the Christmas pageant!”
• “Hurry up! All the sale items will be sold by the time we get to the store!”
• “Hurry up! We need to get home with these groceries to finish the baking!”
• “Hurry up! We’ll never get all these presents wrapped in time!”
• “Hurry up! We need to leave this party and get to the next one!”

I am sure that we could add many more this list:

It seems like we spend the days prior to Christmas hurrying from place to place so that we can check off all our Christmas season “things-to-do.” By the time we get to Christmas day, we are so frazzled from this almost month-long marathon that we find it hard to remember the reason for the season!

There is an important reminder about this in God’s Word.  The Bible says in Luke 2:16, “And they (The shepherds) came with haste (hurried off) and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe, lying in the manger.”

Those shepherds remind us of the kind of holiday hurry that should mark the lives of God’s people, not just at Christmas but every day.

• Instead of hurrying to the store we should hurry to our Savior.
• Instead of hurrying to the party we should hurry to our Prince of Peace.
• Instead of hurrying to wrap all those presents we should hurry into the presence of the One who offers the greatest gift of all.

When was the last time you hurried off to spend some alone time with Jesus? As someone has said, “There is more to life than increasing its speed!”

These shepherds understood what kind of hurry would be best. They hurried off, not to the marketplace or the mall, but to a stable where our Lord was to be found, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger next to Mary and Joseph and some animals.

So . . . you slowed down long enough to read this far. That’s good! As you reflect on these thoughts, would you have to admit that you’ve been pressing harder to get your “to-do” list done than to draw near to the Savior? Regardless of the answer, fear not! During these last days of December, let me encourage you to hurry off to the Holy One, just as those shepherds did. They knew that the only kind of Holiday Hurry that would truly profit their souls would be the one that led them to the Christ-child Who would one day go to the cross to pay the ransom for their sins.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

  My third blog on “Truths That Help Us Celebrate Christmas” will take a brief look at the How Of Christmas.

The Bible says in Isaiah 9:6, “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.”

At first glance, this verse might seem to contain needless repetition of the same idea. “A child is born . . . a Son is given.” That might be the conclusion of a shallow consideration of the terms.  But, to the serious student of God’s Word we find that there is an incredible distinction to be made between “a child born” and “a Son given.”  Let’s take a look:

1. A Child Is Born!

God promised back in the Garden of Eden that a child would be born as a descendent of the woman Eve (Genesis 3:15).  In spite of Adam and Eve’s act of sin and rebellion in the Garden, God was gracious to pursue these rebels on the run. He promised to send the solution to their sin problem: a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

The Bible says in Galatians 4:4, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under that law, that we might receive the adoptions as sons.”

Just as any child was born of a woman, Jesus was born of a woman too.

However, there is one critical difference.

The “seed” of every child born of woman belongs to a man, but the “seed” of Mary belonged to God the Holy Spirit and did not originate from a human man.  The miracle was not the birth; the miracle was the conception.  It was a virgin birth, but a birth nonetheless; and in His humanity Jesus was a child born.

2. A Son Is Given!

The Bible says in Luke 2:8-12, “There were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.  Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: you will find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’”

In His humanity, Jesus Christ was a child born.

But as God the Son,

He is not born, but given as the Savior of the world.

The Bible says in Psalm 2:7, “I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.”

And in Matthew 3:17 the Bible says, “And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  (Matthew 3:17)

Who can fully comprehend this incredible truth? The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon profoundly put it this way . . .

“The doctrine of the eternal affiliation of Christ is to be received as an undoubted truth of our holy religion. But as to any explanation of it, no man should venture thereon, for it remaineth among the deep things of God – one of those solemn mysteries indeed, into which the angels dare not look nor do they desire to pry into it – a mystery which we must not attempt to fathom, for it is utterly beyond the grasp of any finite being.  As well might a gnat seek to drain the ocean, as a finite creature to comprehend the Eternal God.  A God whom we could understand would be no God. If we could grasp him he could not be infinite, if we could understand him, then were he not divine. Jesus Christ then, I say, as a Son, is not born to us, but given. He was not born in this world as God’s Son, but he was sent, or given, so that you clearly perceive that the distinction is a suggestive one, and conveys much good truth to us. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given.”

Knowing that the “secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:29), we can receive this truth of the How Of Christmas: that a child was truly born . . . and a Son was given for you and me. And if we have received this truth by grace through faith, then we can be certain that it has been done “unto us” and that, dear reader, is Good News of great joy!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

Today I have a word of encouragement for you that just might surprise you! We will take a brief look at what “The Why of Christmas was not . . . and then what it was.”

1. What It Was Not.

It was not SIN!

As a pastor who labors to point people to Jesus each week, I stress the point that we are sinners in need of a Savior.

The Bible says in genesis 3:6, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

Adam and Eve were the federal heads of our humanity, perfectly created by God for this privilege. When they fell, we fell, making all of humanity sinners in desperate need of a Savior. But sin could not have been the primary “Why” of Christ coming, because sin was already in the world.

In Isaiah’s and Ezekiel’s references to the kings of Babylon and Tyre, we see the fall symbolically described . . . and we also see references to the spiritual power behind those kings: Satan.

“How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:12-14)

“You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.” (Ezekiel 28:15-17)

Here we are given a glimpse behind the veil of heaven, where we see the fall of Lucifer and the sin that was in this world before the first sin of man. Jesus confirmed this in Luke 10:18, when He said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

If sin was “The Why Of Christmas,” God would have sent Jesus to redeem the fallen angels. But that was not the purpose for His coming, as the writer of Hebrews confirms:

“For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.  Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sin of the people.” For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”  (Hebrews 2:16-18)

So, if sin is not “The Why Of Christmas,” what was it?

2. What It Was.

LOVE!

The Bible says in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

God came after fallen and sinful man, and the reason is located in the heart of God and His love for man: a special love . . . a redeeming love . . . a love purchased by His beloved Son on a cross so that we could be in the family of God.

And that is why everything works toward your salvation. God so loved you that, if you have trusted in Christ’s redeeming work on your behalf, God is working every circumstance of life (the good, the bad, and the ugly) for your eternal good (Romans 8:28).

May this truth of God’s amazing love for you bring you glad tidings of great joy this Christmas season and all the days God gives to you!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

 Pastor Terry

 Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

  For the next three days our Gospel-encouragement comes out of the truths that cause us to celebrate Christmas.

Today we will focus on the WHO of Christmas.  It is rooted in the Revelation of John and asks three important questions:

1. Who Does God The Father Say He Is?
2. Who Does Jesus Say He Is?
3. Who Do You Say He Is?

The Bible says in Revelation 5:1-5, “Then I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?’ But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’”

To discover the WHO of Christmas, we must answer three questions:

Who Does God Say He Is?

In Matthew 3:17 we read, “A voice from heaven said, ‘This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’”  This testimony from heaven confirms the identification of Jesus as the Son of the Living God.  He is the One God promised to man all the way back during those terrible moments immediately after the Fall: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head and you will strike His heel” (Genesis 3:15).  He is the One God provided to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

Who Does Jesus Say He Is?

Jesus confirms what God the Father said when He responded to Peter in Matthew 16:16-17. “Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’  Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.’”

Here are a few other things Jesus said about Himself:

“I and the Father are one.”  (John 10:30)

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  (John 14:6)

“He was saying to [the Jews], ‘You are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world.’”  (John 8:23)

God the Father confirmed from heaven that Jesus was His beloved Son.  Jesus Himself asserted that He was the Son of God, born from above, and equal with the Father.  But what about you?  Have you discovered the Who of Christmas?

Who Do You Say He Is?

Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15), and He is asking us that very same question today.  C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Either Jesus was who He said He was or He was not . . . and if He was not, there is nothing good about Him or His teaching.  So who do you say Jesus is?  To be sure, Jesus is the WHO of Christmas, the only One worthy and able to do for us what we could not do for ourselves:

To save us from the penalty of sin and the power of our sin.

And when He comes again, He will remove us even from the presence of sin!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

  I remember as a little boy my mom reading, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to me and my brothers and sisters. For millions around the world, the reading of the poem by Clement Clarke Moore has become an institution. But I want to speak with you today about a different “night” before Christmas, the night that deeply impacted all of us long before the very first Christmas Day.

The Bible says in John 1:1-5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Before the darkness of sin entered the world, there was light. The Bible teaches us in Genesis 1:3 “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.’”  Let’s explore this concept under two headings: the reality of this darkness and the remedy for it.

1. The Reality of this Darkness

Before the darkness enveloped mankind, there was light in the world.

The Bible tells us that God says in Genesis 1:3-4, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.” (Genesis 1:3-4)

The Bible says in Psalm 104:2, “The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent.”

Adam and Eve were created to be image-bearers of God.

The Bible says in Genesis 1:27, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”

Our first parents were to walk in the light, just as God is light. But sin shrouded that light.

The Bible says in Genesis 3:1,6, “The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ . . . When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

Since Adam and Eve’s terrible, treacherous fall in the Garden of Eden, we live in a dark world, a world marred by the stain of sin and the slime of the serpent. The world is darkened by . . .

• Depravity
• Despair
• Dread
• Doubt
• Disappointment
• Defeat
• Death

This is the bitter reality of the darkness that entered into this world when the serpent convinced our first parents to turn away from God. Adam and Eve were not satisfied with being made in the image of God. They wanted to be God, and they chose to do the one thing that God had commanded them not to do.

But, praise the Lord, God did not leave them in their sin!  Instead, He proclaimed the remedy – the only remedy, the perfect remedy – for this darkness.

2. The Remedy for this Darkness

God promised to redeem us from the darkness and bring us out into the light.

Listen to what the Bible says in the following passages:

Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.”

Isaiah 42:16: “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”

Psalm 18:28: “You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.”

Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

John 8:12: “When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

John 9:5: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

The light of Jesus Christ, the God-man born in a manger in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, leads us out of darkness and into God’s wonderful light.

A pillar of fire lit the way for God’s people who were coming out of bondage in Egypt.

A bright star showed the way for the wise men who were coming to find the Savior.

Jesus Christ is the way -the only way -out of the darkness into the light.

The Bible says in 1 Peter2:9, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

God’s remedy for dispelling the darkness of sin is our Redeemer, God’s precious and beloved Son, Jesus Christ. He is the Child of Promise, who came to take away the sin (darkness) of this world by His perfect life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection.

Is this the truth you stand on this Christmas? Is this your celebration? Have you received, by grace through faith, Jesus as the light of your world? Have you trusted Him as your personal Savior? If you aren’t sure, you can be! You need only confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and salvation comes to you today.

C.S. Lewis’s classic allegory, The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, tells the tale of a land populated by talking animals, mythical beings, and a self-proclaimed queen, the white witch, who controlled Narnia through her magically imposed rule. Her spell made it, as Lewis memorably wrote, “always winter but never Christmas.” This had been the dreary truth in Narnia for one hundred years. Edmund, one of four children who had entered the Narnian world, was captured by the white witch. Yet even as he languished in captivity, Edmund realized that the witch’s spell has been broken:

All around them, though out of sight, there were streams bubbling, splashing, and even (in the distance) roaring. And his heart gave a great leap (though he hardly knew why) when he realized that the frost was over . . . Only five minutes later he noticed a dozen gold, purple, and white crocuses growing around the foot of an old tree.  The melting snow was a sure sign that Aslan, the great lion, was on the move and that the frozen, joyless reign of the white witch would soon end.

Aslan, of course represents Christ, the Lion of Judah. His birth, death, burial, and resurrection are the sure and certain sign that the cold winter darkness, which had held man’s heart in its grip for millennia, has been broken. The great Lion is on the move; He has reversed the curse of sin and death, He is shining the light of eternity into our darkened hearts, and there is new life growing all around us!

This is the wonderful promise of Christmas. I pray that this Christmas you will be filled with . . .

• The surprise of Mary
• The surrender of Joseph
• The song of the angels
• The strength of the shepherds
• The sureness of the Magi
• And the salvation of God’s wonderful Remedy that dispels the dreary darkness

May this truth keep the “merry” in your Christmas this year and every year.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

   Take a moment to reflect on this past year and really review all that God has been doing in your life.  To be sure, He has given you many victories in 2016.  It is always good to take some time to reflect on these; even better, write them down and file them away so you can keep a record of all the blessings God has brought into your life.  The refrain from an old hymn says it best, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”  I have made this a periodic routine in my life, and it has proven to be a source of great encouragement to me.  It is such an encouragement to be reminded of just how faithful our God has been!

Today, however, I am going to ask you to do something that you’ve probably never been challenged to do:

Take some time to review all of the

difficulties

you’ve faced throughout the past year.

By nature, we have a tendency to look only at our victories and block out “the bad stuff.”  Yet every good athlete will tell you they learned more from their defeats than they ever did from their victories.  So take a moment to reflect on the difficulties, disappointments, and defeats you faced in 2016.  There is much that God teaches us in our times of struggle and suffering.  Of all the lessons we should learn, at the top of the list is this one:

Difficulties Deepen Dependence!

The difficulties we face in life are divinely ordained to deepen our dependence upon God.  They are designed to drive us back to the cross, where we find the strength to press on.  As Peter reassures us, “For a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).  When we get to the other side of our difficulties, we know that it was the grace of God that carried us through.

This understanding puts us in the place of Paul, who said, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).  Paul did his part by working through every difficult situation, yet he knew he got through only by the grace of God.  He knew this because he knew just how broken, sinful, and flawed he was . . . and how desperately he needed Jesus.

It is only the power of the Gospel that gets us through the difficulties of life.  It is only the power of the Gospel that encourages us to run to Jesus when we are in deep need.  It is only the power of the Gospel that empowers us to quit depending upon ourselves and place our dependence where it should be – on Christ.  The key to difficulties deepening our dependence upon God is to rest in the truth that we are never alone in our difficulties.  Your colleagues, neighbors, friends, and even family may abandon you, but Jesus will not.

Listen to what the Bible says about this wonderful truth . . .

Deuteronomy 31:6 – “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Psalm 94:14 – “The LORD will not forsake His people; He will not abandon His heritage.”

Hebrews 13:5 – “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Difficulties deepen our dependence when we remember that in every difficulty Jesus is right there with us ready, willing, and able to give to us everything we need to get through it.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”