Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Psalms 119:105
Jesus the star of Bethlehem is still leading us today if we will follow. Come and follow Jesus! We must have a godly sorrow which worketh true repentance. If you haven’t repented and invited Christ to be your Savior today, now is the day of salvation. He is our only hope for a happy content life that is full of peace and joy. This contentment is an inward grace from Gods, it isn’t conditional on our circumstances, nor what season of life we’re in. When God’s light is in your heart it will point souls to Christ and lift up Jesus in this world. For Jesus is the light of the world and when we follow Him we will not walk in darkness….”but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12
The Christian life is living above this world, it draws us closer to God and nearer heaven, our heart is fixed on our eternal home, for this world is not our home, we’re just passing through. “But on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.” That light will illuminate the minds of men. It will diffuse the light of heavenly knowledge, and give off a warm glow of The Divine love of God to those within your influence.
Friend, let that light illuminate and guide your life that it may lead souls to Jesus.
—Tammy Edwards
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil.” I Corinthians 13:4-5
Love is the gospel message of Christmas. The amazing love of God to this world is through the gift of His Son Jesus. Jesus sacrifice for us teaches us how to love one another. He went about doing good. Love worketh no ill to anyone, love is the fulfillment of the law. Love breaks all the chains of division, unforgiveness and bitterness. Love brings unity and peace in our lives, marriages, families, congregations and every relationship we have.
When we love as Christ, we will have the same sincere love and happiness for others as we do for ourselves. The love of God in our hearts is an active burning love that lives in obedience to the whole law of God.
Having a knowledge and understanding of the law of God without a charitable hear is of no value to us and a dead religion. Doing good to others will do nothing for us, if it does not first come from our genuine love to God. We can even manifest a charitable heart yet withhold our own heart from God, this will profit us nothing eternally. If we look for a reward and acceptance for our good works that stems from a corrupt and selfish heart. Perfect Love is the opposite of self-seeking praise; it does not desire to hurt, neglect or offend others. Christian Love always prefers others over themselves. This active Christian love in our hearts shows the gospel of Peace to this dark and sinful world more than anything. Examine your heart today! Is this divine fervent love active in our life and bringing about the gospel of peace in your life? Lord help us to be praying, watchful and diligent to let this divine love move us and guide us to share the gospel of peace with this dark and sinful world.
—Tammy Edwards
When there was no vacancy in the Inn, the Christ child was born in a lowly manger. The accommodations for His birth were not what any of us would consider a worthy birth place for the King of Kings. He came into this world by very humble means, in a lowly stable with the animals. He made his grave with the wicked by taking on their sins and with the rich in his death and tomb. He covered every social spectrum of life from His birth to His burial.
He stayed awhile in this world and ruled it with truth and grace. He was in all points tempted like we are, but never committed sin. His life is our supreme example that teaches us today how we’re to live our life to please Him. We can expect to be outcast by the world just as our Savior was.
When we reflect on Christ’s humble birth it should check our hearts. Live carefully so that the spirit of the world that has excessively commercialized Christmas doesn’t influence us to ever deter from the true celebration of Christmas. Let us be challenged this Christmas season and always to be temperate in our personal lives and share the good news of salvation that Jesus birth and sacrifice made for us. May our conversation and actions exemplify to others the love of God this Christmas season. May the world see Jesus every day through our lives, in our church and in our families and homes.
—Tammy Edwards
“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 imperfectly, 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 Satan`s 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!"
