Yesterday, Today & Forever

     Yesterday “You shall not go out with haste, … for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard” (Isaiah 52:12).
 

     Security from Yesterday. “… God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

     Security for Tomorrow. “… the Lord will go before you … .” This is a gracious revelation—that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

     Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste … .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

     Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

Oh Beautiful Star of Bethlehem

     From the Book of Matthew 2:2 we read: “Saying where is He who is born King of the Jews?  For we have seen HIS STAR in the East, and are come to Worship Him.”

THE KING OF THE JEWS

     The question, “Saying, where is He who is born King of the Jews?” proclaims the certitude of the knowledge of these “wise men.” In that they did not ask “whether there is?” but “where is?” They showed no sign of doubt.

THE STAR

     The phrase, “For we have seen His Star in the east,” probably would have been better translated, “We, dwelling in the east, saw His Star.” 

     This Passage, with Verses 9 & 10, seems to make it clear that the star did not precede them in their journey to Jerusalem, as is popularly supposed, but upon seeing it in the “east,” they knew it was “His Star.”

     Many questions beg to be asked concerning that statement, of which are few definitive answers:

·       What was the star they saw in the heavens? Astronomy can suggest nothing which satisfies all these conditions, and therefore, the appearance must have been strictly miraculous.

·       About 1,600 years before, Balaam had prophesied, “…there shall come a Star out of Jacob…” a Prophecy with which these wise men may very well have been acquainted (Num. 24:15-19). And yet, this Prophecy alone would have given them precious little information!

·       How did they know it was “His Star”? They were emphatic in their statement to Herod and could have only achieved the knowledge through Revelation from God, which they, no doubt, had received.

No doubt, they had hungrily studied the Prophecies of Daniel and had been convinced of this coming King.

From these brief statements, there is every evidence that they knew Who He was and what He was, at least up to a point!

WORSHIP

     The phrase, “And are come to worship Him,” does not necessarily mean the acceptance of Him as God, but rather as Lord and King.

     However, for these “wise men” to come without delay, especially, a journey of several hundred miles, requiring several weeks, would not have been undertaken without something powerful happening to them far greater than the ordinary.

     Having tabulated Daniel’s Prophecies, and knowing this was the approximate time for the Birth of this King, quite possibly, they had accepted Daniel’s God and had sought Him earnestly pertaining to these all-important events, and consequently, experienced a Revelation from the Lord of some magnitude. Little else could explain their attention, haste, and knowledge.

Hope We Have in Christ

The Meaning of HOPE:

    1.  As is written in God's WORD: Confident CERTAINTY that God will fulfill all He has promised.

    2.  As is used in today's WORLD: A wishful FEELING that wants and expectations might be met.

1 Peter 3:15-16 ¹⁵But Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts (“set apart Christ as Lord in the heart”): and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asks you a reason of the hope that is in you (every Believer must know the Word of God); with meekness and fear (never from a Holier-than-thou stance): ¹⁶Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed who falsely accuse your good conversation (Godly lifestyle) in Christ. (Irrespective of what people may say, the Righteousness of Christ will ultimately prevail. In other words, those who falsely accuse will ultimately be proven wrong.)

Please understand Biblical HOPE is a gift from God -- given to those who have put their faith in Him and received His Life through His Spirit. Listen in Verse 15 "'To give a reason for the hope that is in you" is not at all the same things as convincing by rational argument why that hope is in us. The work of the Spirit of God in us transcends reason, but never contradicts it. And when a Christian says 'the reason I am so-and-so is because I have received the Holy Spirit,' or 'I have received from God something which has made this possible,' it doesn't contradict reason. It transcends it, and is an answer concerning the hope that is in you. The line we are continually apt to be caught by is that of argumentative reasoning out why we are what we are. We can never do that, but we can always say why the hope is in us.

"Reason is the faculty of mind by which man draws conclusions. Every man is always striving after a true expression of what he is. When a man is born again, his personality become alive to God as the Source of inspiration! Paul's words in Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" are the expression of the only worthy rationalism...."

Listen: As long as we use the image of our own salvation, our experience, the image of our feelings, or answers to prayer, we shall never begin to understand what Paul meant when he said, 'Christ lives in me.' The exercise of man's essential reason is drawing on God as the Source of life.

Those who don't know God can't understand the wonders of the hope that God has put in our hearts. It makes no sense to the secular mind! The world's finite reasoning and "rational" understanding clashes with the reality of God's plan and eternal Kingdom! The key to understanding -- God's Holy Spirit -- is missing!

The only real gift at Christmas is Jesus.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Redemption—Creating the Need it Satisfies

     “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him …” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

     The gospel of God creates the sense of need for the gospel. Is the gospel hidden to those who are servants already? No, Paul said, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe …” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). The majority of people think of themselves as being completely moral, and have no sense of need for the gospel. It is God who creates this sense of need in a human being, but that person remains totally unaware of his need until God makes Himself evident. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you …” (Matthew 7:7). But God cannot give until a man asks. It is not that He wants to withhold something from us, but that is the plan He has established for the way of redemption. Through our asking, God puts His process in motion, creating something in us that was nonexistent until we asked. The inner reality of redemption is that it creates all the time. And as redemption creates the life of God in us, it also creates the things which belong to that life. The only thing that can possibly satisfy the need is what created the need. This is the meaning of redemption—it creates and it satisfies. 

     Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). When we preach our own experiences, people may be interested, but it awakens no real sense of need. But once Jesus Christ is “lifted up,” the Spirit of God creates an awareness of the need for Him. The creative power of the redemption of God works in the souls of men only through the preaching of the gospel. It is never the sharing of personal experiences that saves people, but the truth of redemption. “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).