“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
We live in a weary world. Financial reverses, broken relationships, death, physical and emotional struggles surround us. The cold winds blow as we trudge along, pulling our coats a bit tighter against the biting wind of circumstances. Some years are just hard years, some seasons take more than they seem to give. But hark! A thrill of hope and the weary world rejoices.
It was a weary world into which Jesus Christ was born. Long centuries had they lay in sin, pining and groaning for hope and deliverance. Then Jesus appeared, the hope of the nations and He showed us our true worth, “For God so loved the world!” A glorious morn dawned upon a stable and a manger where He lay and a group of lowly shepherds who had experienced that same thrill of hope were spreading abroad the news of a Saviour who had been born.
When weariness presses in, let us fall again to our knees and experience the thrill of hope found only in surrendering completely to the Babe who brought Heaven to earth and made us joint heirs with Himself to the King of Glory.
O holy night the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior`s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new glorious morn
Fall on your knees
O hear the angels` voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
-René Smith
“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is giv’n!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of the heav’ns.
No ear may hear his coming,
but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him still
the dear Christ enters in.
In 1865, the year the Civil War ended and the year President Lincoln had been assassinated, themes of peace and quietness would have been welcome to a war weary nation. In that year, Rev. Phillips Brooks took a trip to Israel. He was in Bethlehem for Christmas and rode on horseback through the fields around Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. This experience inspired the hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem which was written in 1868.
In the midst of the turmoil of a census, Christ was born in relative anonymity. Only shepherds are recorded to have attended his stable dwelling in worship. Yet he came the gift to all mankind, their Deliverer, their King. In the mad concourse of the world today, there remains for all the current of Divine Love that transforms the heart.
Are you longing for that inner quietness and rest? Turn away from the noise of the world and fix your heart upon Christ. In meekness, acknowledge your utter neediness for His leading in your life. Yield to Him the questions, frustrations, disappointments, or fears. He will come to you.
Not in the earthquake, wind or fire, but in the stillness.
His voice.
Wait for it.
-René Smith
“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25
Genesis 3 gives us a picture of a world gripped by the curse of sin. Sin and sorrow abounded as sin took its natural course. Brokenness became the natural state of mankind. Satan gloated and jumped with glee. Mankind was under his power.
There remained a few who held to the promises of a Savior and this thread of hope ran through the generations as Creation groaned and suffered and waiting.
In the fulness of time, Jesus came, lived, died and rose triumphant. He defeated sin and death. He broke the chains.
Satan has NO power and claim on those who will receive the free gift of salvation. There is no sin too black, no addiction too strong, there is no such thing as “too far gone” or “beyond hope” because the blood of Jesus has power to cleanse to the uttermost all that come to Him in Faith. To every corner of the sin-sick world, just as far as the curse is found, THAT is where salvation will transform from darkness to light.
This is true hope of Christmas!
Never give up on yourself. Never give up on those you love who are bound in sin. Keep praying and keep believing.
The truth remains that
“He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found.”
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
-René Smith
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3
“Oh, how sublime is the life of the Christian,
Filled with the glory of Jesus divine;
Deep in his bosom he’s joyfully conscious
That he is born of a heavenly line.”
There is no existence so joyfully blissful as the life of a Christian redeemed back to God, forgiven of sin, and raised to life anew. We are joint heirs with Jesus and eternal life is our possession. The Holy Spirit fills the heart and impulses the heart, mind and life to walk in holiness. Sin has NO MORE dominion over us!
The world can go on; give me Jesus alone. He comes to make His blessings flow and they are flowing still: rivers of peace, joy in trials, power over temptation, and glorious freedom. Come, partake of the glories of Salvation! Jesus brought it, paid for it, and sits at the right hand of the Father right now interceding for you.
-René Smith
Refrain:
I am a child, a child of the King,
I am a child, a child of the King;
I am a prince in the kingdom of love,
I am a child of the King.
Song: I Am a Child of the King by D. S. Warner
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8b
The Christmas story begins in an unlikely place. If asked, many would say in the Gospels, with an angel’s visit, with a virgin and her betrothed. But the need for Hope was found in a garden when the first woman encountered a serpent, partaking then of forbidden fruit and when the first man decided to doubt God’s Word and follow the path of temptation yielding to sin.
It began with banishment and thorns and pain. It was followed by death and the reign of the serpent was unbroken for centuries. By placing the story of Christ’s birth in the larger storyline of the Bible it opens up its significance to us.
Genesis 3:15 is the first Messianic prophecy of Scripture.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Amplified Version
God implemented the ritual of sacrifice for sins. He sent Moses to lead His children to the Promised Land. He gave Kings to lead them, but all led unperfectly, and God’s chosen people often strayed, complained, worshipped idols, married idolaters, fell into captivity of heathen nations, repented of their sin until God would deliver them.
Then, in the fulness of time, God sent his Son, born of a Virgin into the world. Born of flesh to condemn sin in the flesh. When Christ died, that serpent bruised his heel, but on the third day Christ rose triumphant and in the life of every Christian he daily ‘bruises Satans head’. Our victory comes from Christ!
Come, Desire of nations, come,
fix in us thy humble home;
rise, the woman’s conquering Seed,
bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface;
stamp thine image in its place.
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy love.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new born King!"
There is not a friend like Jesus. I have been meditating recently on how God created us to communicate with Him. Our soul craves that prayer time when we can have sweet communion with Jesus. In a world that is still rejecting the Christ child, how precious it is that we can call on “that friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” He fearfully and wonderfully made us and takes pleasure in helping us through our trials and troubles of life. He wants us to depend on Him for our strength and help.
Let us trust and remain faithful and true to Him no matter what comes our way. Don’t think it strange when we’re tested, Jesus was born to be our Savior and our friend. What a friend we have in Jesus. He wants us to cast all our cares upon Him, today’s troubles and the futures. These are too burdensome to carry, and often very sinful, when they arise from unbelief and distrust, when they torture and distract our mind it will keep us unfit for the purpose and work God has for us to do. They will hinder our delight in the service of God too.
The remedy is, to cast our care upon God, and leave every event to his wise and gracious disposal. A firm steadfast faith and belief that God’s Divine will and counsels are always right, will calm the spirit of a man and bring lasting peace. Truly the godly too often forget this, and fret themselves for no reason.
God has spiritual comfort available to us. We live below our benefits too often! Then, will God not furnish what is fit for us, if we humbly trust him, and lay the care of providing for us, upon his wisdom and love? Submit your trust today to the greatest friend you will ever know.
—Tammy Edwards
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” Romans 5:1
The power of the gospel rests in this transformation from darkness to light, from evil to good and from sin to righteousness. The sinner is at complete odds with a Holy God. Man is not equipped to deal with sin. As such, their living is continual death as Satan came to steal, kill, and to destroy. Mankind may try to do good works or to rehabilitate themselves from sinful behaviors, but they can never attain salvation or escape the sentence of death that rests upon all sinners.
“And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” Colossians 1:20-22
If you are a sinner, put your faith in the saving atonement of Jesus’ death on the Cross, confess your sin and repent. You will receive forgiveness and be delivered from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of his dear Son. (Colossians 1:13)
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled."
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th` angelic host proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem."
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!"
“And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.” Luke 2:16
O Come, all ye faithful! There is a sense of urgency to this hymn. Imagine a child, tugging at your hand, saying insistently, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” In the same way, imagine someone pulling at your sleeve or grasping you by the hand, half dragging you as they run through the crowd, saying over and over again, “Come!”
We are told that patience is a virtue, but in this case, impatience is a beautiful thing. For who could stand by and wait when all we want to do is worship our Lord and Savior? Albert Bailey writes, “The poet takes us by the hand and leads us with triumphant song to the cave of the Nativity in Bethlehem, shows us the Babe, and bids us adore” (The Gospel in Hymns, 279). This hymn invites us to sing with the angels, sing with our families, sing with our fellow believers, and with every fiber of our being, worship Christ the Lord.
O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him,
Christ the Lord.
Take a few moments right now to singularly worship the Lord. Thank Him for the price He paid for your Salvation. Praise Him for taking up human flesh and subjecting himself to the sufferings of this life so He would know your sufferings as well. O come! Let us adore Him.
