A Christmas Question--Is It So?

A Christmas Question

Is it so?

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Introduction:  Hundreds of years before Mary placed the baby Jesus into the manger, Isaiah foretold the fact that a child was going to be born and a son was going to be given.  He farther said that the mother would be a virgin when this occurred.  There were a lot of people who had their normal night interrupted by the strange goings on that night.  I would not be surprised that somewhere a blind man that night dreamed that he could see, a deaf man dreamed he could hear, a cripple man dreamed that he could walk and perhaps even some old bones inside a tomb near Jerusalem stirred slightly within the grave.

     This same Jesus that caused such a disturbance over two thousand years ago is still disturbing the hearts of men and women around the world.  I would hope this morning that he might in some way cause a slight disturbance in your life and lifestyle that would prompt you to do more for His cause.

     My question for today, Is it so? Is no questioning whether or not Jesus was actually born.  As far as I am concerned that is a settled fact.  When you consider that most of the nations of the world use a calendar that in essence says every time they write a document and date it, they are dated it—In the Year of our Lord.

     Ask a devout Jew today if Jesus, the Messiah came and he will say no.  Ask a Muslim if he came and he would say, he came but not as a Saviour.  The Gnostic's said he came but was all man and some of them said no he came but he was still all God.  Ask the atheist today and he will say he did not come.

     My question for you, Is it so that he was born unto you.  To an unbeliever the birth of a baby over two thousand years ago in a town so small there was no hospital and to such insignificant parents that there was no place for them to have a place for him to be born, except a stable, is completely insignificant.     But if the child was born unto you, it makes a world of difference.  The fact that Jesus was born into an earthly family enables you that by putting your faith in Him, you can be born into a heavenly family.

     The second part of Isaiah’s statement that deserves us seeking for an answer is that a son is given..  John 3:16 states so eloquently and yet so simply, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him shall have everlasting life.  Again John said, He came unto his own but his own received him not, but as many as received him gave he power to become the sons of God.

     Sometimes I think you can expound upon that verse and translate “his own” in several ways.  He came unto his own creation and his own creation received him not.  The creator was rejected by the creation.  He came unto his own beloved people and his own people received him not.  The Messiah is rejected by his own special people.  He also came unto those that he would choose and they received him not.

     You see when there is a giving of gifts there must be an acceptance of gifts.  The Christmas question is was he given unto you.  He was not given unto you unless you have accepted that gift as being your very one.

 

    
     There has been a long-standing disagreement between the Armenian and the Hyper-Calvinistic camps as to whether man has a free will to do as he pleases or is bound by predetermined factors established by God.  Somewhere between the views of the two camps is the area in which most people find themselves.  By no stretch of the imagination do I have any designs to change the view of either of the two extreme positions, but rather to give a rambling discussion in areas where most of us can agree.
     The majority of us never realize our full potential.  We neither use all the brain cells that He gives to us, nor utilize the time that is allotted to us.  God wants us to experience the abundant life that he has provided for us.  The statement to the church in Revelation, "Behold, I set before you and open door", can be applied to the individual as well.
     Unfortunately, most of us let circumstances dictate to us the type of life that we are going to have.  We begin to perceive that we are locked into a certain type of lifestyle and never struggle and endeavor to rise above that conception that we have.  To complicate things even farther, we can become a morning person or an evening person.  Whichever we are the rest of the day is obviously not going to yield 100% for us.
     There must be a purpose for living in your life, even beyond the life that you owe to God.  That purpose must be of such magnitude that it will transcend the moments of weakness that you may experience.  Often in the darkness and stillness of the night, I feel like an old man who is desperately trying to pick his final bale of cotton and at the same time pulling two children on the ten foot sack behind him.  But, come morning when God has restored my strength and renewed my will, I become the captain of an exploration ship and me and my trusty crew launch out in search of new worlds to conquer.
     May we each be found doing with all our might what God places before us behind the open door.

To Forgive Is Divine

     The coach's star athlete had flunked math again.  The coach went to the math teacher and pleaded for the teacher to give the player another chance.  The teacher said, "All right, son, what is nine times seven?"  The player answered, "Sixty-three."  Quickly, the coach said, "Give him another chance, give him another chance!"
     Wonder if he would have gotten the correct answer if the question had been, "What is seventy times seven?"  That is the answer Jesus gave to Peter when Peter asked, "How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?"  It is human nature to turn your back on those that offend you.  But God says to forgive others because you are forgiven and if you expect forgiveness for your own future sins.  To put it in perspective, you are only hurting yourself when you do not forgive others.

Matthew 6:15  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Copied from So? Whatever--365 laughs and Devotionals, by Charles Jones and Mary Crisp.  Sold through Amazon.

All Changes Are Not Good

     Someone once said, "Pity poor Rip Van Winkle, he went to sleep and woke up with his whole world having been changed."  I am sure it must have been quite a shock for old Rip to wake up twenty years later and having to deal with all the changes that had taken place.  However, it could have been worse; old Rip could have lived in our day and age.  Then he would have really seen some dramatic changes.
      Those of you, if there are any left, who have lived as long as I have lived have noticed unthinkable changes.  Obviously we have been blessed with some wonderful changes that have made life more enjoyable, but there are changes that have completely offset much of the advantages.  Technology has provided us with so many labor saving devices that we have more free time than ever before.  But what do we do with that free time?  So much of it is being spent to entertain ourselves so as we will not become bored.  The freedom granted to us has almost become a slavery that binds us to "keep up with the Joneses".
     There once was a time, though the schedule was tight, we found time for the family, for friends to visit, and to attend church.  My what a change:  we don't want to become involved.  There once was a time when  a person would come to the aid of someone in distress, but no more.  It is not uncommon to hear of a woman being raped and killed and those who saw it would not come to her aid.  God have mercy on us!!!
      If someone had told me when I graduated from high school that I would live to see the day when some would say, "Kill the babies, but save the owl."  I would have thought they were insane.  I wonder how we are viewed in much of the rest of the world when we become, as well as we should, about a few hundred children being gassed to death and we have literally allowed millions of babies to be snuffed out in the past few years. 
     Perhaps more disturbing than the fact that things that once were wrong or now right, and things that were once wrong are now right is that so often many things are neither right or wrong, black or white, but a very confusing color of gray in which the only guiding rule is, "If it feels good, do it."
     If you are looking for something that is not confusing, that is constant in the midst of a changing world, consider God.  He is still unchanging and his 10 Commandments have not been changed to 10 suggestions.

Labor Day

     Monday is Labor Day.  Perhaps it is one of the holidays that should be eliminated from our calendar.  Gone are the days that God mentioned when he said, "six days shall thou labor."  Gone are the concepts of Paul, in the New Testament, and John Smith in Jamestown, when they both said, "he that does not work, shall not eat."  Gone, in many instances,  are the days when man took pride in his work.   I remember one of my grandfathers who had farmed until he was unable to physically farm, crying when he had to accept commodities.  Many are crying today if they cannot get the replacement for commodities, food stamps.
     There once was what was considered as--a dignity to work.  Now it is looked upon by so many as being beneath their dignity to accept certain types of work.  I might quickly add, it will stay beneath their dignity as long as the government keeps handing out checks for doing nothing.  It seems like the government looks upon the concept of giving out checks as a way to get the population to do what the government wants them to do.  We will control what is grown on the farm by paying the farmer not to plant cotton or not to plant peanuts.  It is past time for the government to stop giving out money.  If nothing else, those who are able to work put them to doing something even if it is picking up trash on the side of streets.  Oh, I forgot that would be beneath their dignity.
     Most of you remember when there was an element of pride for something to be labeled, "Made in the USA."  Also unless it was a camera, it was a joke if it was labeled, "Made in Japan".  Now our current president seemingly delights in farther destroying the concept of the dignity of labor.  Maybe we should just rename the holiday make it become, "Handout Day."  Only problem with that is pretty soon there will be nothing left to hand out. 

A Cobra by any other name would still be deadly!!!!

     It is past time that someone said what I am about to write.  I realize that it will not be accepted by many of my liberal friends, but say it I must.  By no stretch of the imagination can Islam be considered a religion.  It does not meet any of the requirements of all of the religions of the world.  If you wish to become a Christian, you simply accept the truths as told by the Christian religion.  If you do not want to be a Christian, no one is going to force you to become one.  That same statement can be applied to all religions of the world, except Islam. 
     If you do not wish to convert to the Islam thought structure, no problem, off with your head.  It makes no difference if you are Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, or any other religion your fate will be the same when they gain control.  Oh, yes, atheists will be in the same situation.
     Have you ever noticed that it is totally impossible for light and darkness to exist at the same time.  If it is dark in the room, you flip on the light and the darkness is gone.  I can turn on an electric light, a kerosene lamp and a fluorescent light; they will all function in varying degrees of effectiveness.  That is true because they all have the same common goal, to give light.  Darkness cannot dwell where light abounds.  The religions of the world and Islam are direct opposites and cannot coexist together.
     It is not in the nature of the religions of the world "to do unto them as they would do unto us."  So what is to be done?  Stop giving Islam the protection that is offered to religions.  This country, in spite of statements to the contrary by our president, is a Christian nation.  It was founded on the principles of the Jewish and Christian faiths.  Those concepts are the underlying concepts of our freedom.  It allows those of other religions to be able to express their faiths.  But Fascism, communism, Marxism, and Islam should look somewhere else for protection than under the freedom of religion clause.

One Size Won't Fit All

     Education within the United States in times past was even more than adequate.  But that was in the day when the local citizens had total and complete control over their school.   They decided what was to bee taught, when it was to be taught and by whom it was to be taught.  The small school was the norm.  Many a person was taught in a one-room school house.  Pre-civil war days you would find that these schools were private schools.  Gradually, the schools were merged together into community schools with tax money coming back to the school, but the local school board maintained control.
     The first enemy of the local school was the entity that should have been their greatest supporter, the state department of education.  Moves were made to have larger and larger schools even though at the time it was being promoted everyone knew that the larger schools were where most of the problems were.
     But, the great enemy of the local school entered the picture--The Federal Government.  Everyone should know that the most of the things they touch; they mess up.  It was such a noble thought to have--No Child Left Behind!  That sounds much better than--No Child Going Ahead, but the end result is so similar.  Everyone knows that there are differences that cannot be ignored.  All children do not have the same potential, the same personalities, the same drives.  There will always in the real world be a gap between the haves and the have-nots.
     Since that was a dismal failure, let us change the name to Common Core and change our approach.  But do not be deceived, it is an attempt to do the same thing in a different package.  In order to better promote the concept let us use statistics to make our case.  IN ALL TESTING THE UNITED STATES COMES IN LOW WHEN COMPARED WITH THE REST OF THE COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION.  That statement is grossly misleading at the very least and is a blatant lie at the worse.  Statistics can prove anything.  I heard of a man who drowned in a river where the water averaged only six inches deep .  Too bad he stepped into a six foot hole.
     Do you think for a moment the other countries are figuring the scores of the special education students, the handicapped, the hungry, the homeless, or the unconcerned in their averages.  No, I think not, and when you remove those from our stats you will find America at the top.
     There are problems in education, but they cannot be solved from the state capitol or Washington, D.C.  Get the government out of education and put it in the hands of the people who educated the generation that put men on the moon and brought them safely back--the local school board.

A Democracy Was Never Intended to be a Utopia

     We live in the greatest country on earth and under the best political situation available to mankind--a democracy.  Granted, we have flaws and we have problems with our situation that is caused by human error.  Much of our problems can be traced to the fact that men who wanted to be public servants developed our system, but it is now controlled by men who seem to be intent upon advancing their own public agenda and feathering their own nest.
     If we lived in a Utopia, each of us would always get and have the things they wanted.  That is not the way that our government is structured.  It is a given fact that many in our country think that the government is supposed to work, at least for them, as a Utopia and provide the things for them that they both want and need.
     Lest my remarks be misunderstood, let me quickly say that there are many times in my own life when decisions are voted upon by our citizens that are contrary to what I would like to see.  It seems as if there are more and more decisions being made that are in direct opposition to the Christian principles that I believe.  There are many today that would like for it to be that the minority always wins and the majority always looses.  That cannot be.
     Thus far in our country's history, for the most part, the majority has usually made provisions for the wishes and desires of the minority.  Hopefully, it will always be so.
     There once was a time when things were either right or wrong within itself.  Gradually, we have lead people to believe that nothing is absolutely wrong or absolutely right, but somewhere in between reality lies.  Since nothing is totally wrong or right, if it feels good do it.
     From my front porch it seems as if most things work pretty good as long as the local citizens handle their own projects.  Once the government becomes involved, either state or federal, and the local citizens have no voice in the matter things go down hill.
     Remember as Thomas Jefferson once said, "A government that is big enough to give you everything you want, is large enough to take everything you have.

Marriage On the Brink of Destruction

     Let me begin by stating that the man who had more to do with civil rights accomplishments in this country was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..  He alluded to the fact that he had seen the other side of the  mountain.  Perhaps if he had been allowed to remain upon this earth longer he might have seen what many of us can see today.  It is not all bright and shiny on this side of the mountain.
     The family unit is in much turmoil and great danger.  First, it is in danger because of the concept of marriage itself.  Marriage was never intended to be a temporary arrangement to last only as long as ever thing goes well.  I am not concerned as much about the couple themselves, but the effect it has on their children.  In some places and cultures in our country today there are more grandparents raising the children than their own parents.  So as marriage itself goes the family will also go.
     Marriage has always been between one woman and one man.  I care not what the gay (bad choice of word, many seem anything except happy)  people think about it, nor do I even care what benefits they can manage to get for themselves, you cannot just change what a word is to suit your fancy.  I don't like the narrow definition of "boat".  So I want to start a campaign to also include in that term the use of trains.  From now on trains will be referred to as boats.  But rest assured they will never float.
     To open the door of "marriage" to include anything besides one man-one woman, is inviting all manner of possibilities.  How can you tell a person that marriage does not include one man and two or more women, or one woman and two or more men?  God forbid, but what if a man wanted to take on as his sexual partner a cow or sheep.  Can he get married to it?  Why not?
     Tied very closely to the marriage and family is the abortion issue.  People have thrown logic out then windows, using only one argument, the woman has a right to do what she wishes with her body.  If that argument becomes the guiding principle for decisions, how can any court ever again find a prostitute guilty of anything?  Does not that argument make prostitution legal?
     All that I have said thus far affect the immediate family.  There are far reaching ramifications that extend into every spectrum of society.  The first outside entity to be directly affected by the breakup of the family is the public school.  Pity the student from the broken home when the teacher assigns homework and there is no parent there to help. In cases where the grandparents are taking care of the student, many of them are unable to assist in the educational process as it exists today.

Settling Down In A Strange Land

     Does it seem strange to you that some of the Children of Israel did not want to go into the promised land that God had promised them and He was willing to fight the battles for them.  They eventually decided they would go into the promised land, fight for the other tribes right to have the land and then return to settle down in a strange land.
     It ought not seem strange because that is exactly the situation that we have today in most of the churches across the land..  God wants each Christian to enjoy life to the fullest, yet many are content for a sermonette on Sunday morning, (unless it is too pretty a day to waste at church) and then spend the rest of the week "doing as the Romans do."  They ignore all warnings that God has given then in the Word about dedication and faithfulness.  The reality that they must face God some day and give accountability to him is a remote possibility instead of a certainty.
     I remember seeing an advertisement for a certain brand of automobile many years.  It showed an eloquently dressed lady getting out of a car without a wrinkle in her dress or a hair out of place.  The caption at the bottom of the picture said, "One of the nicer things about riding in a car with the body built by Fischer is knowing that you will be approved upon arrival."  I would think that would be the desire of every Christian as he considers arriving at the end of his/her life that they would want to be approved upon arrival.  However, it seems that those who settle down in a strange land give no thought about being approved upon arrival and are totally ungrateful that Jesus paid the price of the fare to get us to our destination.

First or Second: What difference does it make?

A cab driver picked up a passenger one day that was an evangelical Christian.  During the course of the ride the passenger asked the cab driver if he were a Christian.  The driver avowed that he was a Buddhist.  The Christian then said, "You need to be a Christian."  The cab driver responded, "If being a Buddhist is good and being a Christian is good, I will be a Buddhist-Christian."    
     There are many situations in life where it really does not matter if a person comes in first or second.  So often the things that we compete for is so trivial that it really does not matter.  Even in sporting events, where we live and die by each pitch, most folks don't remember who came in second a few years ago.
     But there is a totally different aspect to the first or second situation when you come to Go.   Make no mistake about it God is the "God of the second chance."  Thank God that he is that type of God, for all of us have found ourselves committing the same error over and over.  Paul referred to that inability of ours as laying aside "the sin that so easily besets us."  It is refreshing to know that God is faithful to forgive us of our sins when we confess them to Him.
     But make no mistake about it, even though He is the God of the second chance, He is not the God of the second choice.  THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GOD BEFORE ME.  Yet there are so many Christians who seemingly believe as the cab driver believed.  For six days of the week they serve another god.  It might be the job, fame, popularity etc., but God does not accept competition.  Someone referred to these type of people as being worldly Christians.  Sounds rather strange since the two or opposites.  Why not call them heavenly devils?
     Be sure you understand the different; God is the God of the second chance, but he is not the God of the second choice.