Monthly Archives: December 2011

Justin Taylor has an informative article about Bible reading programmes. He highlights several possibilities for people to use. As we approach a new year I hope you are considering how you will approach your Bible reading. If there is no plan for reading it then it will not happen. It is such a simple thing but so important. It is often one of the first things to go in our Christian life and when it does other valuable Christian practices often follow suit.. Most daily devotional books have a recommended reading for the day that will take you through the Bible in a year, so if you use one of those you already have a plan mapped out for you. One of the plans Taylor refers to is called “The Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers”, which actually looks pretty good.

For those of you who attend with us, just a reminder that our Christmas Day service is at 11:30 a.m. and not the usual 10:45.

Come and join us as we worship the eternal Son of God who came and lived for us, died for us, rose from the dead for us, now lives to intercede for us and will one day come to retrieve us.

Over at the Gospel Coalition, Justin Taylor posted this little presentation of the the meaning of Christmas.

Have a wonderful Christmas. If you are looking for a place to worship on Christmas Day please join us at 11:30 Sunday morning.

Of course, the best rendering can be found in the Scriptures. Read Luke 2:1-20, John 1:1-18 and John 3:1-21 for some powerful Christmas reading.

Merry Christmas.

Another goodie from the internet monk regarding the shepherds.

Luke 2:8-20 (ESV)  – And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  [9] And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.  [10] And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.  [11] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  [12] And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  [13] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
[14] “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
[15] When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”  [16] And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.  [17] And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.  [18] And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.  [19] But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.  [20] And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God … . Returned to where? They returned to where they were when the angel appeared to them to give them the announcement. They returned to their work. They returned to being the social outcasts that they were according to the community standards and traditions of the time. They returned to their sheep. They returned to the same work, salary, hours, hardships, disappointments. What they did not do was become professional preachers. They did not interpret the magnificent blessing that God had bestowed on them as a message that they should go on the road with their message. They did not consider themselves crucial to the world hearing about the birth of the longed for Messiah. They did not consider it a waste to simply go back to their work and homes as a group of blessed men. They no doubt told their wives and children about what they had been told and what they had seen.
Their lives did not become trouble free. They still had to fend off wolves and other predators from the sheep. They had to kill animals with infectious diseases and lose the income that killing them would have incurred. They had to haggle for a decent price for their animals and their wool. Life went pretty much back to normal for these guys, except that now they were changed men. The little circle of people that their world was, would have noticed a change in their behaviour and language and attitudes. Their prayer lives would have become more vibrant and their attendance at the local synagogue would have become more regular and their worship more vibrant. They would have become men who shared with others and did not let the difficulties they daily faced destroy their joy.
None of these supposed changes are unlikely. They are very probable. Oh that we would learn from these shepherds. We are called to bloom where we are planted. We are not called to fame and fortune – and no one else is either. We are called to be a witness in low paying jobs and sickness and ungodly neighbours and friends. We are called to simply maintain a joy that we have met the Saviour. We are called to gladly meet with our great God on a daily basis in prayer and the Word. We are called to worship Him in whatever circumstances that God chooses to allow us to serve Him. We are called to worship with others remembering that God has put us in fellowships with other believers for their good and God’s glory. We are to volunteer and serve and worship and grow in our knowledge of the Almighty – right where we are.
It is an immense honour God has bestowed on us to know Him, be forgiven, be guaranteed an eternity with Him and be allowed to do for Him what He can do better without us. Learn from the Shepherds. In your work or home or places of leisure, go praising and glorifying God for what you have seen and heard and what God has lavishly given you because of His great mercy.

 Isaiah 9:1-7

¹ But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
² The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.
³ You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
⁴ For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
⁵ For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Doug Wilson writes a superb piece in the wake of the deaths of Hitchens, Havel, and Kim Jong Il.

Here is an old post from a couple of Christmases ago. I had the opportunity to share it with someone lately and just thought I would post it again. Hope you enjoy it.

In November of 1970, my father, who was the pastor of a church plant in the Atlantic provinces, was told by his church board that they no longer wanted him as their pastor. In fact, they told him that his preaching was juvenile, that he was no leader and if they had their he way would never preach again. His life and that of our family, caved in, in unimaginable ways. There is no way to adequately describe the devastation that was brought into our home because of the things that were said and done.

I do not remember Christmas 1970. My father was unemployed and there was no money at all. I do remember him paying for gas with 200 pennies he had taken put of my piggy bank. I remember that when he was forced to move I remained behind as a seventeen year old youth and moved in with friends. Within a year Dad had gotten placed into a little church that was dying. I went to their place that Christmas and walked into a home that was not very Christmassy. Life was being very hard.

The house they lived in had no foundation and it was sitting precariously on masonry bricks. The cold Atlantic winds swept into the house and made it very cold.  Rats had infested the attic by climbing up  inside the walls that were exposed for anything that could fit into them. There was almost no money.

On Christmas Eve that year my father came into the room where my mother and I were sitting and announced that he was going to bed despite the fact that even though a tree had been obtained it was not yet up. Nor were there any other decorations. The heart was gone from my father to get at it at this late hour. My mother and I said good night to him.

We sat there and I do not remember whose idea it was, but knowing my mother I cannot imagine that it was not hers. She most likely said “I am going to get that tree up if it kills me”. (I’ll tell you more about her and that attitude some other time.) We decided to get that tree up no matter what. It was approaching midnight and Mom and I got the thing up and got to decorating it. I turned on the television to see if there was a Christmas special of some sort from one of the two stations that we got. A Cat Stevens special (Yes, that Cat Stevens). So we decorated the Christmas tree as Cat Stevens sang to us about peace trains and moon shadows and the celebration of the birth of Christ. We got the tree up and decorated and wrapped presents and managed to decorate the house as well.

I think I can safely say that this was the most valuable time I ever spent with my mom. We worked and listened to the TV and laughed together as we tried to bring a little bit of our traditional Christmas celebrations into that house. It was well into the morning by the time we finished. My younger brother and sister would be awaking soon to come in and unwrap gifts so mom and I said goodnight to get a quick couple of hours. I do not remember the opening of presents that Christmas. It may be that there were not very many to open. (Although it is more likely that there was an obscene amount of stuff due to the largess of my Aunt Mildred.) I don’t remember the Christmas dinner or the football games that may have been telecast or anything that I know were going on that day in that house.

But here is what I do remember. I remember my mother and I waiting with anticipation as my father got up to enter the living room to begin the process of opening presents. And I remember the look on his face as he stopped in the doorway and stared at the fully decorated tree and the room all ready for Christmas. And I will never forget his first comment. No, it was not some verse of Scripture or a shout of praise. He was a very godly man but he was also a real man who was fully expecting Christmas to be less than what he had wanted. As he stood there the words that came out of his mouth were “Well, there really is a Santa Claus”.

I have played Santa Claus since then but I have never been the real thing again the way that I was that Christmas. That little comment made my Christmas in a powerful way, not because I was able to decorate a tree, but because the decorating of it made the man I loved most in the world enjoy a Christmas that he was expecting to be less than what he wanted and was accustomed to. God did it and I am thankful that He was willing to use me to do something for that man. Thirty eight years later that memory still helps me. Amazing what little things God uses to encourage His children.

May the little things you do for others this Christmas be used of God to accomplish far more than you can ask or think. Merry Christmas.

Psalm 75:1-10  (ESV)  
    To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy.
A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.
    We give thanks to you, O God;
        we give thanks, for your name is near.
    We recount your wondrous deeds.
    [2] “At the set time that I appoint
        I will judge with equity.
    [3] When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,
        it is I who keep steady its pillars.  Selah
    [4] I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’
        and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;
    [5] do not lift up your horn on high,
        or speak with haughty neck.’ ”
    [6] For not from the east or from the west
        and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
    [7] but it is God who executes judgment,
         putting down one and lifting up another.
    [8] For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup
        with foaming wine, well mixed,
    and he pours out from it,
        and all the wicked of the earth
        shall drain it down to the dregs.
    [9]  But I will declare it forever;
        I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
    [10] All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,
         but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.
 
Psalm 75 begins with a note of praise and then, beginning in verse 2 and continuing through to the end of verse 5, God responds. There are three things that God says that He does in the world. In verse 2 He judges with equity. In verse 3 He keeps the planet from falling apart when its foundations are shaken and in verse 4 He calls on the boastful not to boast.
What a striking contrast. It makes one wonder which is the more laborious, keeping the earth on its moorings or making people humble. The human heart is a cesspool of self exaltation and it will not be cured without a powerful work of God.
For God to keep the natural disasters from destroying the planet, all it takes is muscle. To get a human being to stop being boastful and live in a state of humility it takes God the Son becoming a human being, living here in the midst of temptation and in weakness, enduring the punishment for sin that His people deserved, rising from the dead and then sitting at the right hand of the Father in order to constantly act as our Mediator, pleading the merits of His death for us (Hebrews 7:24-25).
He commanded that we stop boasting and then He came and did what it took to enable us to obey the command. It is a great and powerful work. It puts the ability to stop the earth from shaking, to shame.

Over at the internet monk, Chaplain Mike posted this little video yesterday. I can’t recall if we have put it up here before, but even if we have, it is worth having another look.

In the video, Robert McQuilken announces why he is stepping down as president of Columbia Bible College.

Are you hoping to get married? Pray that God will give you this level of commitment and love for your spouse.

We live in horribly selfish and narcissistic times. We need to pray that the attitude reflected in this man would spread. It can, and it will, if we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ and get serious about our obedience. What a testimony. May it become less and less exceptional in the Christian community.