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Monday, December 20, 2021

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD

I love the Christmas Story from Luke. I memorized it as a small child. I still love the powerful wording from the King James Bible. “And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus—” “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night.”

Look with me at verses 8-16 of Luke Chapter 2.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

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.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

Can you put yourself on that shepherd hillside? As night falls your family is keeping watch over the flocks. Who knows what might come in the night, but you never dreamed of The Angel of The Lord coming upon you. You are stunned by his appearance and the thunderous words that proceed from his mouth. The first thing the angel says is, “Fear not,” If you are not terrified by his visage, you are still asleep. But he explains that he is bringing you good news of great joy. For unto you is born a Savior.

Listen to what he says. To the shepherds the angel said, “Unto you.” He did not say, “Unto all mankind is born a savior.” He did not say to “men and women, boys and girls.” He did not say “to all generations from creation to the end of time.” Nor did he say “to every nation, tribe, people, and language.” He said, “unto you.”

Those shepherds were nobodies. We do not know one of their names. We do not know anything substantial about them. But God knew and He said, “Unto you is born a Savior.” God sent His Savior to you as well. The Angel announced A Personal Savior.

The Angel of the Lord said, “Unto you is born This Day.” You might have said, “one who will become Savior.” But the Angel of The Lord said “Today.” Many people have a once upon a time savior. You may remember a time when you were serious about God. But you have pushed every thought of Him out of your life.

I have met people who have a someday savior. Someday I will get serious about God, But your heart is getting harder and harder. This is certainly the easiest time you will ever have to hear the voice of God. Every day that you live without Him, your heart will grow harder. This may well be the last time you are able to hear that God sent His Son to be your Savior.

You can only come to Him as A Present Savior.

The Savior was not born in Rome, Alexandria, Ephesus, or even Jerusalem. He was born in the little town of Bethlehem. Do you know why? Because some 500 years before, Micah of Moresheth said,

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

That is not the first time the coming of the Savior was prophesied. In Genesis 3 God told Satan who had tempted mankind to fall into our desperate need for a Savior.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring[e] and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

1 Peter 1:20 tells us,

“ He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but made manifest in the last times for your sake.”

This is not a blink in the eye of history. From beyond time God knew you would be lost without Him. He foreordained that His Son would die on a cross for you.

He is A Prophesied Savior.

This is not government aid. This is not a political solution. This is not the bright idea of your broker or the latest expert. The Angel announced to the Shepherds on the hillside, “A Savior who is Christ the LORD!”

Peter said it in Acts 4:12.

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

God sent A Powerful Savior! He is enough to forgive your sin, change your heart, and redeem you from the judgement that is to come.

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021

A CHRISTMAS NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN

My mother was a wonderful storyteller. Especially at Christmas time she would be asked to tell stories at church or community functions. Several weeks ago my sister sent me a file of Christmas stories Mother told. One of my favorites came out of her own childhood during a worldwide pandemic that took the lives of millions. And I wanted to share it with you as we seek to emerge from such a plague.

It was in the Spring of 1918 that my family sold everything at an auction and set out from Oklahoma to homestead in New Mexico. This was an exciting adventure for my brother and me, who were 7 and 5 years old.

Part of our journey was made by train and the rest in a covered wagon that Papa purchased along the way. In order for us to live until our house was built and our crops harvested, Papa worked with a road construction gang with all of the families living nearby in tents. This was just like a camping trip that lasted all summer.

Cold weather hit in the early fall. At the same time the flu epidemic struck our country. It was quite frightening because people were dying everywhere.

We moved into a house in Cimarron and managed to get one bed set up before we were stricken. My brother walked through deep snow for a doctor only to find when he arrived at the doctor’s office that his own temperature was 105°.

The four of us were sick in only one bed. A kind Mexican man came every day to check on us and care for our needs. My aunt, who was a nurse and very dear to us, came to care for us and literally saved our lives.

When Christmas drew near Mama was still in bed recovering from pneumonia. Papa was too weak to return to work yet. More than anything else, Brother and I wanted a Christmas tree because the Swearingen family next door had an enormous one that turned round and round on a track playing Christmas music. We only needed to climb a mountain to get one, but Papa was not yet strong enough to cut and bring one home.

On Christmas Eve we hung our stockings near Mama’s bed so she could see us open them on Christmas morning. I can see them yet, long brown stockings like all the children wore in that cold country hanging from nails on the wall. We were not expecting much because everyone had been ill for so long.

Christmas morning we rushed into the room long before daylight. Our stockings hung there on the wall just like we had left them, flat and empty. Brother darted back to his room where no one would see him cry. I looked forlornly around the darkened room.

“Brother! Oh Brother!” I cried, “We’ve got a tree!” There in the corner stood the most beautiful tree we had ever seen. My doll and his skates were hanging on the tree, but for a long time we didn’t touch them. Kneeling down beside the tree, we folded our hands and gazed at it.

Our neighbor had climbed a mountain and cut a tree just for us. Papa and my aunt had gone downtown after we were put to bed and brought decorations for the tree. Truly this was a Christmas never to be forgotten.

Mildred Young

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Friday, December 10, 2021

UKRAINE AND THE WORLD

Pray for Ukraine.

Why has Russia massed 175,000 troops on the Ukraine border? Some years ago German University Professor and historian, Martin Aust, said, “Russia, even with Crimea, is not an empire. But Russia with all of Ukraine is an empire.”

This scheme did not begin with Vladimir Putin. Joseph Stalin put to death a huge percentage of the Ukrainian population, millions of them by militarily enforced famine. Then he moved people of Russian descent and language into Ukraine and other Soviet states to establish the future of the Soviet empire.

The Kremlin's present efforts to annex Ukraine is a step toward expanding their power on the world stage.

Make no mistake, Ukraine's steps toward joining NATO does not threaten Russia. Russia is the aggressor. The Kremlin doesn't want Ukraine to be protected because they want to swallow them up.

What can I do? Nothing and everything. I have no influence upon Russia. But I do have access to the throne of God. And I am praying for Ukraine and for the world. And I am praying for our president and the leaders of other countries as they try to negotiate with Russia.

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Wednesday, December 1, 2021

ADVENT!

I love the celebration of Advent. I grew up in a church that avoided anything that smacked of formality. We were ritualistically anti-liturgical. But I have come to rejoice in ways that we can celebrate the truth of Scripture with such interactive visual expressions.

We are following what is for us a different order of candle lighting this year. We began with Hope. I think that is appropriate for two reasons. First, we celebrate the fact that the coming of Jesus fulfilled the hope of the ages. We quoted the promise of Imanuel, which means God with us, from Isaiah 7. Our granddaughter spontaneously led us in singing, O come, O come Imanuel.

The word advent specifically refers to the coming of Christ. And from the early Advent celebrations the church celebrated the second advent as well. Our great and blessed hope is the second coming of Jesus. That hope is the anchor of our souls.

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Sunday, November 7, 2021

The Cusp of Revival

Statue of Jeremiah Lamphier

in the King's Lobby

on the King's College Campus

in Lower Manhattan

Could America at long last be on the verge of the great revival many of us have prayed for all our lives? I believe it is possible for a reason that you need to judge for yourself.

Four great spiritual awakenings helped to shape American history. What I want to point out is true, to some degree, of all four awakenings, but it is most visible in the prayer revival of 1858.

On March 6, 1857 the United States Supreme Court handed down the Dread Scott decision disallowing African American citizenship and labeling black people as property. This decision further divided churches, states, cities, neighborhoods, and homes. This division ultimately led to a great civil war.

On September 23rd, 1857 a man named Jeremiah Lamphier announced a noon time prayer meeting in The Fulton Street Dutch Reformed Church near Wall Street in New York.

For the first half hour Jeremiah was alone. But before the time was up 6 men showed up to pray. More attended each week. On October 10th the stock market crashed and thousands of people lost everything.

In the ensuing weeks the prayer meeting grew. Each meeting began with a hymn and a short scripture reading. Then they prayed.

They soon had to move to a larger room in the church, then to many churches throughout the city as thousands gathered to pray every day. The press got wind of the prayer meetings, and reports spread to other cities who began similar gatherings. One of the men who showed up that first day had a passion to take the prayer to his hometown of Philadelphia. In a short time as many as 2,500 people were meeting in Philly. The news spread to England and prayer meetings broke out throughout the British Isles.

Now I want to point to something else related to this prayer meeting. You can be sure that God knew the civil war was brewing. Abraham Lincoln believed that war was a divine punishment upon our country for the evil of slavery. I suspect he was right. It is estimated that over a million people trusted their lives to Jesus Christ as a result of the Prayer Revival. Many of those people died in the war, and went to heaven rather than hell because of the revival. I believe that is part of the reason God sent revival when He did.

Our nation is again severely divided. I don't see how our democracy can survive the present hostilities. I would not be surprised if our country were to fall into great calamity, and judgment in the very near future. And I am praying that God will again prepare us for such an ordeal by sending an unprecedented movement of His Spirit. Are you praying for revival?

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Thursday, October 7, 2021

PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

When I was still pastoring, I occasionally told my people, “The most important things I ever tell you, you already know.” This is especially true of what I have to say to you who are living in this day. Jesus warned us that great difficulties are going to come upon us.

In the first verses of John 16 Jesus said,

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.”

You see why I said you already know what I have to say. I don't need to tell people with any spiritual awareness that we are under attack anymore than a quarterback needs to be told the opposition is out to get him.

Let me remind you of the list of spiritual armor in Ephesians 6. The passage climaxes with the words,

“Put on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the.Spirit which is the word of God, praying in the Spirit at all times with all prayer and supplication.”

I want to talk to you about Praying in the Spirit. The verses just before and immediately following the warning from Jesus in John 16 give us the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Look with me at the prayer depicted in John 15:7-8.

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is for my Father's glory that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.”

Jesus said, “If you abide in me—”

We are to Pray in the Fellowship of the Spirit.

How much time do you spend in prayer? Many of us who serve God in these frantic days tend to be doers. God bless you who are not just hearers, but doers of the word. But lest all your activity become works of the flesh, you must empower it with extraordinary prayer. You can ask God to quiet your spirit and draw you deep into extended fellowship with Him. Is Jesus asking you, as he did the disciples in the garden, “Can you not even watch with me for an hour?”

We broaden our spiritual fellowship when we pray with others who also have the Spirit of God. In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, the words, “you abide,” are plural. We abide with Him together. When several of us pray together you can join your heart with what another prays. You can even pray off of their prayer. When someone lifts a prayer request in a group, several people can pray for different facets of the need as the Spirit promts. This even includes new believers already indwelt by the Spirit.

So, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you—”

We are to Pray in the Revelation of The Spirit.

If I had been one of the disciples before the crucifixion of Jesus, I might have prayed for Him not to be crucified. We need God to plant His heart and mind in us through His word.

I am trying to memorize some scripture. And I pray for God’s help as I work on those verses. I do not just pray for the words to stick in my forgetful mind. I pray to encounter Jesus Himself and to be transformed by the impact of His word.

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish—”

We Pray in the Freedom of the Spirit.

When we pray in the Spirit we have a freedom to pray whatever we wish. In Romans 8:26 Paul admitted that we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But we can trust the Spirit to help us pray with groanings and impressions deeper than words. In Matthew 17 Jesus said, if we have faith like a mustard seed we could tell a mountain to move and it would. But I do not need to worry about moving a mountain on top of your house because the Spirit of God is interceding in me. We especially see Him do this as we pray together. When I pray for a need, I may see only one perspective on a problem. But the Holy Spirit will impress others to broaden our perspective in the will of God.

Finally, “and it will be done for you. This is for my Father's glory that you bear much fruit—”

We Pray in the Power of the Spirit.

Many people in our day have come to believe that the weapons of our warfare are political.

But as we pray in the Spirit. God will unleash His power to bear fruit through our lives and through His church.

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Wednesday, September 29, 2021

LIGHTNING ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP

Standing on the thundering alp,

Drenched in heaven's driving tears

With bending knees and tingling scalp

My glasses whining in my ears;

He's drawn me to this holy place.

Shying from His glorious essence,

I'm wincing from His gleaming face,

Trembling in His holy presence.

Streamers reaching from my heart

Do not draw the heavens there.

Though I do my trembling part

Heaven draws and meets my prayer.

This poem was published in the book Take Me To The Garden.

Take Me To The Garden by [Jonna Padgett and David Young]

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Tuesday, September 21, 2021

DO YOU LOVE ME?

John 21:15-18

At the very end of the Gospel of John

Jesus asked Simon Peter a crucial question of discipleship.

“Do you love me?”

Everything we do under the motivation of the Holy Spirit will be motivated to some extent by our devotion to the Lord Jesus. A universe of spiritual depth can be mined from this passage. Everyone who follows Jesus would benefit from memorizing these verses, asking God to give you more and more insight into them.

These verses call us to a priority of loving our Lord. Jesus began by asking Simon if he loved Him “more than these things.” I believe Jesus was referring to Simon’s life as a successful fisherman rather than a fisher of men. But of course the question applies to anything in our lives that we are tempted to love more than we love Him. Do you love success, or approval, or comfort or anything more than you love Jesus?

We often try to do godly things with inferior motivation. You can enter any discipline of discipleship so other people will be impressed. Do you want people to notice your spiritual depth? I have been trying to discipline myself to do some things that I never tell anyone about. God already knows. To be honest I have not been completely successful at telling no one. But that is what I am reaching for. I want to do these things simply because they please God.

Let me show you something in these verses that may not be self-evident in whatever language you study God’s word. In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, Peter and Jesus use different words for love. Their differences are significant.

Jesus used the word, AGAPAO. This is the word used for love in 1 Corinthians 13. This word actually receives it's depth of meaning from the Bible. It was not commonly used in other Greek writings. There its meaning was vague. In the New Testament we see it as a supernatural work of God in our lives.

I suspect Peter thought PHILAO, the word he used, was the stronger term. It spoke of strong feelings. Peter drew from this kind of love when he declared to Jesus in John 13:37, “I will lay down my life for you.”

If you look at AGAPE, or the verb, AGAPAO, as defined in the New Testament, you find faithfulness rather than feelings. Jesus points this out with His responses to Peter’s assurances of his devotion. “Feed my lambs,” “Shepherd my sheep,” and “Feed my sheep.” I am reminded of familiar bumper stickers of the 1960s. One read, “Honk if you love Jesus.” A similar sticker responded, “Tithe if you love Jesus. Anyone can honk.”

This is a call to repentance. And while I don’t believe Peter noticed the difference, Jesus used PHILAO this third time He asked. In Mark 14:29 Peter declared his devotion to Jesus. “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” That night, as Jesus had warned, he denied the Lord three times. I do not think it is a coincidence that Jesus asked Peter to answer the question of his love three times in this post resurrection appearance. It broke Peter's heart, that Jesus asked three times if he loved him. I believe true repentance is always emotional. It was also an opportunity for Peter to commit again to following Jesus.

We need to pray for God to deepen the faithfulness of our love for Him. The night that Jesus was arrested they went to the garden where Jesus poured His heart out in prayer. The Lord asked Peter, James and John to watch with Him in prayer. But they could not stay awake. And three times Peter went to sleep when he should have been praying. Jesus warned them to “Watch and pray so you will not fall into temptation.” We build our love for Him in earnest prayer. There is no other way to keep from falling when temptation comes. AGAPE does not rest on the fierceness of our devotion, but on the power of God in our lives.

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