Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas

For those involved with ministry, the hectic part of the season is over. Christmas programs are done for another year. (Unless you have a Christmas Eve Service) So now we can concentrate on the important things. Things like Christ, family, rice soup, silly string wars, snowball fights. Of course Christ should be utmost in our minds at Christmas time.
This last week in SS we looked at the Magnificat in Luke 1. Mary begins with “My soul doth magnify the Lord”. To make great or increase is the definition we have for magnify. Of course, there is no way we can have that affect on God. But we can magnify Him in our minds. This requires three things: first, we must have a genuine desire for God, second, we must think of Him or meditate on Him, and third, our thoughts of Him must be true according to His nature. In other words, we must think accurately about our Savior. As we magnify Him in our hearts and minds, we come to know more about Him. When you are hunting, you might see some movement, but not be sure enough of your target to shoot. But when you put the scope on it, then you magnify the animal and you can see the details. When we magnify man, we generally see more faults. But when we magnify God, we see more of His nature and character. To see Him more clearly is a true need of every child of God. So we can magnify Him in our hearts and minds by our estimation of Him. We can also magnify Him by our words and actions so that others can see him more clearly. May we accurately portray our Lord this coming year. Have a Merry Christmas.
Tim

So teach us…

Psalm 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
I started teaching the adult Sunday School class at our church 2 weeks ago. The hardest part was to decide what to teach. Our Pastor has preached through the entire Bible over the past 2 years. So what is left for me to teach? Since he has done it as book studies, that option did not seem the best for me. Prayer is a topic that I keep coming back to in my life. Probably because of my constant need to come to Him. I have been more impressed with my need to just commune with God. When I stop to think of my prayer life, at times it seems very petty and selfish. I know God wants us to bring our requests to Him, but what about our desire for Him. What part does communion play in our prayers? So I wonder and think about prayer. But I didn’t want to just study the topic of prayer. So instead, we are studying various prayers recorded in Scripture. We spent the last 2 weeks on Moses prayer in Psalm 90. (Yes, I think Moses wrote it) The first 11 verses are the thoughts of Moses on the frailty and brevity of human life, as compared to God’s immutability and eternality. Then he comes to verse 12. “So”, in light of the musings of the first 11 verses, Moses asks to be taught (translated “make me to know” in Ps. 39:4) regarding our days and the number of them. Compare this verse to these: Ps. 39:4; Deut. 32:29; Eccl. 9:10 (read the whole verse); John 9:4; and Eph. 5:16-17. One last thought, notice how he talks of numbering our “days” not our years.

Know Him

It is not unusual to hear athletes and entertainers acknowledge God and give thanks. Is this what is meant by Proverbs 3:6? “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” It might be, or it might not. I had never paid particular attention to this phrase until recently. Acknowledge is most often used as giving assent to. However, in this verse it is the word “to know” So we have In all thy ways, know Him. Gill has some good thoughts on this phrase, if you have e-sword or his commentary set. With every step, understand and know His sovereignty and submit to it.

Immanuel!

Immanuel

What a name! What a description! Of course, the fact of Christ’s humanity is a difficult concept. I’m glad we can accept by faith the things hard to understand. I hear of people wrestling or struggling with truths of God’s Word. I think what we struggle with is accepting something that doesn’t match with our perceptions. It’s hard to admit our perceptions may be wrong. But then that is all we have, what we perceive and what we believe. So it comes down to trust. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding”. Proverbs 3:5

Now back to “Immanuel”. It seems to me that “God with us” is what Job had in mind in speaking of God in Job 9:32-35.

“For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman between us, that might lay his hand upon us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me: Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.”

Doesn’t Christ fit the idea of the daysman in verse 33? He is the one who can (and does) lay his hands on both of us. Job longed for this One. We have Him, and according to Matthew 28:20, Romans 8:35-39, and Hebrews 13:5 we always will.

Immanuel!

Pearl Harbor

December 7 rolls around again. 65 years ago this morning, the US was attacked by Japan.

The survivors are gathering in Hawaii today for what they say will be there last reunion. We will see if 2011 finds them together again. My grandfather was one of those survivors, but has since, years ago, gone to be with the Lord. For most Americans, today will be marked by a brief reminder caused by a news blurb. In some schools (far too few) the students will briefly discuss the events. How can a “day that will live in infamy” be relegated to an event forgotten by many. If not for a series of movies, our youth would hardly know about that day. But then as everything else in history, we move forward, and away from it. We are certain that it will never happen to us again. Sadly, this is already happening to the events of 9/11.

No wonder that God in his Word urged His people to remember and to set up memorials. Without the Lord’s Supper, would we soon forget the price of Calvary? I think it is partly that we want to move away from the horribleness of the past. The past is not necessarily a pleasant subject for many people. How do you remember the past without despair? After all, horrible things have happened and there is nothing we can do about it now. We are left with emptiness and frustration if we dwell on it. But we also cannot, must not, forget. As Annie Johnson Flint, in a poem on another post (see below) said, our eyes must turn upward to Him who is our all in all. May I do that today!

Contentment

We heard a message Sunday on Colossians 1 about Christ being our all, and giving Him the pre-eminence. I was reminded of a poem I wrote after hearing a similar message on the all-sufficiency of Christ.

Contentment

I see the things that others have,

Their money, toys and more.

There seems to be such happiness

Behind the world’s door.

They laugh, they joke, they sing and play.

They go without a thought

That the pleasure soon will fade away

And all will be for naught.

We have abundant life, it’s true.

But it’s not found in things.

It’s found in Jesus Christ alone

And everything He brings.

The riches, mercy, truth and grace

From God’s abundant store,

I have it all in Christ,

How dare I want for more.

Tim Parish 11-18-2005

Prompted by a message by Pastor Matt Johnson

I’m dreaming…

It is nice to see everything white again. Snow is the great equalizer. Under 6 inches of snow, my lawn looks as good as my neighbor’s lawn. The Bible repeatedly speaks of things being “as white as snow”. ” As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.” Prov. 25:13

May God help us to be faithful in everything.

Keith E. Knauss made this statement- “If there is anything in which I would be inclined to contradict my Lord, it would be if I heard Him say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’ “
This is a statement I think I can agree with.

Just a thought!

I See Jesus

I ran across this poem in doing some research on Annie Johnson Flint. Her insight into the grace of God is tremendous. The grace of God is a theme of many of her poems, but that is not surprising when you consider she spent the last 40 years or so of her life with painful, crippling arthritis. The more I learn about her, the more I am impressed with the sustaining grace of God in her life, and her faith in the Lord. This poem has to do with our focus. It needs to remain on Jesus. None else will sustain and comfort through the trials of life. Enjoy!

 

“I See Jesus”

 

I don’t look back: God knows the fruitless efforts,

The wasted hours the sinning, the regrets;

I leave them all with Him Who blots the record,

And mercifully forgives, and then forgets

I don’t look forward, God sees all the future,

The road that, short or long, will lead me home,

And He will face with me its every trial,

And bear for me the burdens that may come.

I don’t look round me: then would fears assail me,

So wild the tumult of earth’s restless seas;

So dark the world, so filled with woe and evil,

So vain the hope of comfort or of ease.

I don’t look in; for then am I most wretched;

Myself has naught on which to stay my trust;

Nothing I see save failures and short-comings,

And weak endeavors crumbling into dust.

But I look up —Into the face of Jesus,

For there my heart can rest, my fears are stilled;

And there is joy, and love, and light for darkness,

And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled.

Annie Johnson Flint

Self-Inflicted Pain

On the afternoon of a sunny day, the missus and kids and I got away,

And took a ride up into the hills to where it was cool, quiet and still.

Of course, if you want quiet you go alone, but I wanted the missus and kids along.

Well we rounded the corner and came into town, and wouldn’t you know it the car broke down.

I phoned for help and while we waited for a ride, I spotted a drugstore with a soda fountain inside.

We went on in and ordered a coke, and listened while the cashier and the druggist joked.

Then the little bell on the front door went buzz, and we all turned to see who it was.

A lady on crutches hobbled in. She needed some medicine for the pain she was in.

As she moved to the counter, and went around the shelf, the druggest remarked how she’d shot herself.

They joked and laghed and teased her a bit.And I said to myself that that couldn’t be it.

We sat and listened as she began to tell how her day had begun. It hadn’t gone well.

She was checking the cattle early that day, and she went to step over a bale of hay.

Her boot came down upon the head of a rattlesnake, and it wasn’t dead.

Now she had a choice of what action to take; she could let it go, or she could kill the snake.

She didn’t want to raise her boot, so she pulled her revolver and got ready to shoot.

Part of the head could be seen as it lay, but when she pulled off the shot, her foot got in the way.

That pretty much ruined her boot and her day. Now she needed something to help the pain go away.

As she waited for her prescription to be filled, she hopped on one foot and tried to stand still.

The druggist laughed, ” You get what you deserve. You just need better aim to go with your nerve”.

She said, “Maybe I got my just desserts,. But self-inflicted pain still hurts”!

This little story hits awful close to home. No matter where I am , no matter where I roam

I tend to meet folks just like me, that are trying to hide the pain and the misery

That came because of a mess we made . Something we did or something we said.

When I think of myself and the shape I’m in, I know most of my pain is because of my sin.

You can rightfully say I deserved what I got. Too many times that lesson’s been taught.

I may have gotten my just desserts, but folks, self-inflicted pain still hurts.

Tim Parish – 2001