Anticipation

Well, Sunday is the day!  We will be in a new year.  The sun will begin to rise in the west, the moon will be full every day, it will only rain between one and four o’clock (AM of course), diseases will all be cured, cars will all drive on air and Congress will get some work done.  It will be a glorious year!  Really!  Well, really?  That is rather what we all expect in many ways of the new year.  Anticipation is always greater than reality in all of our minds.

We meet the “perfect” girl.  (I am a man writing this, OK.)  Suddenly the sun shines, the flowers burst forth in bloom, the birds sing, the radiance of pure joy envelops us and we know, just positively know, that it will be like this for the rest of our lives.  Then the pastor goes and says something completely unlikely at our wedding.  “For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health til’ death do us part,” and he makes us say it.  Of course, none of those things is likely to happen.  We will always be comfortably well off, have five beautiful blue eyed blond haired babies who each will become a doctor or professor and live on the same block where we live.  Our grandchildren and great grandchildren will all love and honor us until in the fullness and vigor of health we will quietly slip into eternity at age 100. 

That is how so many people embrace the new year and by January 10 are sorely disappointed.  That is also the way too many people embrace the thought of becoming a Christian.  God is the God of big promises so I will never be poor, lonely, sick or sad again until Jesus comes back.  Heretics preach this nonsense from their pulpits and invite people to be born again to health and prosperity.  Then the new life doesn’t turn out just that way and people say that God failed them. 

The Bible gives a different view of the new life in Christ.  Jesus said that if the world hated Him it would hate us.  Jesus said that in this world we would have tribulation,   that is the troubles of life would hit us as well.  Paul said that we are to use the comfort God gives us in our times of trouble to comfort the lost so that they will see a God who really matters in real life.  The true anticipation of new life is in the reality of sins forgiven, a Friend that sticks closer than a brother, comfort in sorrow, hope in despair, rejoicing in hope and eternity with Christ.  These are all promises for the new life that are honest and sure. 

With these is the constant assurance that “Jesus Never Fails”. Arthur Luther wrote this beautiful hymn and we should anticipate its truth for us in the New Year. 

Earthly friends may prove untrue, doubts and fears assail; One still loves and cares for you, One who will not fail.  (Chorus)

Tho’ the sky be dark and drear, fierce and strong the gale, just remember He is near, and He will not fail.  (Chorus)

In life’s dark and bitter hour love will still prevail, trust His everlasting pow’r—Jesus never fails.  (Chorus)

Chorus: Jesus never fails, Jesus never fails; heav’n and earth may pass away, but Jesus never fails. 

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

 

For quality inspirational, educational, and fictional Christian books visit www.davidccraig.net

Looking Both Ways

“Do not come near (the ark of the covenant), that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not been this way before.” Joshua 3:4

The people of Israel were about to enter the promised land, a place where they had never been. They were being sent there by God and led there by God. But it was still a place where they had never been. So, God told the people to wait while the ark of the covenant went first across the Jordan. They would stay well back and then follow it. What was there in the Ark that they should find confidence in as it went before them?

The Ark contained the table of the Commandments. The laws of God would remain as their guide in the new land as well as the old. The Ark contained the rod of Aaron by which God set aside the leadership of the Aaronic priesthood as the guiding spiritual leaders. When the people came into the land and false prophets from false religions tried to lure them away, God had already firmly set the right religious practices and leadership for Israelites. The Ark contained a jug of manna. God had provided for them food in the wilderness for forty years. His past provision was a promise of His continued care and provision.

We are at the brink of a new year. God’s laws have not changed. His leadership through His Word and His Son have not changed. The promise of His presence and provision have not changed. We need to keep our eyes focused on God and the new year will reveal itself according to His gracious, loving, and compassionate will. 

Dear Father, Give us steadfast confidence in Your will and Your love. Amen.   

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Looking Back - Part 2

Yesterday our looking back took us back about 35 years. Let’s go a little less far back. What were you doing ten years ago; that would be just on the cusp of 2007. What was the biggest concern in your life that late December day? Perhaps it was something so monumental that it is actually remembered. For most people, however, it is a question we would have to really probe our minds to figure out.

For Jacque and I it was monumental. My dad was living with us and he had Alzheimer’s. He had come to live with us in 2005 and his disease had continued to worsen a great deal since. I have recounted the whole story in my book, “Taking Care of Joe”. But that wasn’t written until 2013 which was long enough after the experience to have let me process the events that had taken place and put them in perspective. My thoughts at the start of 2007 were not the thoughts I had in the retrospect of 6 years later.

Guess what? We survived. That is usually what happens, isn’t it? In those days when Dad was always angry, and always angry particularly at me, when he was ranting in deep rages every day, and ranting in deep rages every day particularly at me; I didn’t know if I would survive the day or not without some great disaster. But I did, Jacque and I did together and the horrible sting of those days is only a memory and not a gaping wound. We survived.

What help did we have to survive? First, we had the recourse of prayer. Second, we had the recourse of a loving spouse. Third, we the resource of a supportive church. Fourth, we had the resource of a caring Christian nurse that visited once a month and was always on call. Fifth, we had the resource of a Christian friend who would come to our house once a week and play cribbage with Dad and Jacque and I could go take a walk. I don’t think Dad would have stayed with us for over three years without those resources, each of which begins with the undergirding support of God. God above and God in others was the greatest resource that helped us.

What problems await us in 2017? I don’t know and don’t want to know until or unless they happen. What I do know is that God is already in 2017. He’s checked the way out before He takes us there. He will be there when we arrive. His resources of strength from Himself and His people will be an undergirding stay. Sometimes looking back isn’t such a bad thing. When we do we discover how we got through bad times before, and that gives us real assurance that we can get through them again. 

For quality inspirational, educational, and fictional Christian books visit www.davidccraig.net

Looking Back

Looking back certainly has a place in our lives.  It can give us great perspective on the bigger picture than our day to day lives permit.  The year is the forest and the days are the trees.  Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees.  Perspective is good as long as we don’t get stuck in our backward look.  Solomon warned against this in Ecclesiastes. “Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.” (7:10) The “good old days” are not to be the focus of the life of the believer.  Looking back is for perspective and not to be a stalemate for our life.

I remember my first big writing opportunity.  I was given a spot in two local newspapers for a weekly column.  That would be the equivalent of a blog today.  I did each article on my old Olivetti and was often frustrated by the way I had to go back and erase and correct typos.  It taught me to be careful.  I truly appreciate the computer where I can correct all I want without messing up my paper.  When the articles were finally finished in a presentable way I had to send them by post to each paper.  Yes, I actually spent 30 cents each week on postage.  That would break me up today as I do a daily blog and postage has gone up.  So, I appreciate the send button on my computer.  No postage, no delays and no missed deadlines are great.  Isn’t today a great improvement?  

When I got my first book ready for publication I made sure that each page was “plate” ready for printing.  Then the publisher told me they don’t use plates anymore. It is the digital age, my friend.  I was shocked, but not unhappy.  Plate ready takes a lot more time.  It freed up my writing process and my more recent books have been easier to write and prepare.  I won’t abandon the discipline of the “good old days” but I will enjoy the advantages of today. 

One important thing hasn’t changed, however.  The God who was so great in the “good old days” is still great today.  When we complain, we are really complaining in the ears of God who is still alive and active today.  He is still at work on earth and in His Church.  Nations that received missionaries in the “good old days” are now sending them.  New means of communication have enhanced the delivery of the Gospel to so many more people that we must constantly praise God for the advancements made.  As we look back with delight at what God has done, let us look more eagerly forward to what God is going to do tomorrow and on into the future.  

As we prepare for the New Year enjoy this nearly forgotten hymn from the “good old days” by Carrie Breck.  “I go to meet another year, with faith no doubt can dim, God reigneth, and I will not fear, but trust my way with Him. Then if that way be bright or dark,
let peace unshaken be! And let me, like the soaring lark; sing God is good to me!”

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The Great Exchange

Well, It’s the day after Christmas.  The stores are full again.  Some are seeking to buy next year’s gift wrap or a few marked down scented candles.  Many others are at the store to exchange what they didn’t want for what they did.  Many don’t stop to think how much love Grandma put into choosing that sweater.  Many don’t know how long Mom and Dad agonized over just which “right” video game to buy their child.  Many don’t appreciate fruit cakes, and if the store won’t exchange them, send them to me.  I really like fruit cake, but that is a different issue.  The point is that we want what we want and don’t often care how much someone else loved or cared in the selection of what we got.

That is the way with mankind.  We have always wanted what we want. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had it all.  Try to think of one thing they truly lacked.  The list is so short because it doesn’t exist.  But, they wanted to exchange it for something else.  What God in love and grace had provided for them; what He had created for them; what He had known they really needed wasn’t enough in their minds.  They traded it for what they wanted and then they ended up discovering that wasn’t such a great exchange after all.  But God, in His immeasurable love, promised them a better Christmas.

God wished to exchange their rags for His riches.  After they had thrown away His riches for their rags that was a lot of love from God to offer.  Romans 5:8 says, “But God showed His own love to us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for our sins.”  Jesus, who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  He exchanged His riches for our rags so that we could exchange our rags for His riches.  That is what Christmas is all about.  It is the great exchange by God for us.  There is a gift that we can hold dear for all of life and eternity.  When God offers you that gift exchange, will you accept His offer? 

Alongside Adam we did say, let us exchange God’s gift today

And let us choose the way to go, let’s ignore Him who loves us so

And so the gift was given back, exchanged a mansion for a shack

The choice we made was very bad, our life was hard are hearts were sad

But God in love appeared again, to trade His own Son for our sin

The great exchange He freely gave, His own creation so to save

Restored by love through His great grace, if we His great exchange embrace

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Poems of Advent 3

Christ is Born!  Hallelujah!:

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Christ is born!  Hallelujah!  Christ is born! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

On this glad morning Christ is born! 

With trumpets sounding Christ is born!

Christ is born!  Hallelujah! 

Day of Days:

O day of days the earth awakes. Behold! The King has come!

O day of days our hearts awake.  Behold! The King has come!

O joyous hour the angels sing.  Behold!  The King has come!

O blessed night the shepherds watch!  Behold!  The King has come!

Hallelujah and Rejoice:

Christ is born!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!

Christ is born!  Christ is born!  Christ is born!  Hallelujah!

Rejoice!  Hallelujah!  Rejoice!  Hallelujah!

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!

Behold!  Thy King has come!

Rejoice!  Hallelujah!  Rejoice! 

Merry Christmas to you all! 

(From the Cantata: “Hope is Born” by David Craig, © 1975: renewed 2013; from the book “Exclamations of Praise” © 2013) 

Poems of Advent 2

The Song of Jesus:

He left His throne in paradise to come to earth for me

He left the praise of ten thousand angels to dwell in old Galilee

He left the beauty of golden streets, and He left the right hand of God

And He sacrificed the honor He had known, upon this earth to trod

He left is all, yes, and willingly, in a stable to be born

He set aside for swaddling clothes, the robes that He had worn

He who alone was equal to God cast it all aside for me

And humbled Himself to a lowly birth to my Savior be 

The Promised One:

The earth was filled with dying, and suffering from the fall

But the promised coming Messiah would offer hope to and life to all.

The sign of God was declared; to Isaiah the prophet was given

That a child would be born of a virgin and be the Son of God in heaven

From the fruit of Eden’s fate came the promise God had given

His seed shall surely bruise your heel, but your seed shall crush his head

The sign of God was declared; to Isaiah the prophet was given

That a child would be born of a virgin and be the Son of God in heaven

And now the hope of the faithful, the salvation of Adam’s race

The promised coming Messiah to offer mankind God’s grace

The sign of God was declared; to Isaiah the prophet was given

That a child would be born of a virgin and be the Son of God in heaven

Star Song:

And now the moment had arrived

The hope of all man’s yearning

For high up in the eastern sky

A new bright star was shining

(From the Cantata: “Hope is Born” by David Craig, © 1975: renewed 2013; from the book “Exclamations of Praise” © 2013)

Poems of Advent

For the next three days I will be sharing my Advent Poem, “Hope is Born”.  This has been somewhat modified for use here from its full musical form as a cantata.  I have twice had the joy of directing choirs in singing the full cantata.  Please enjoy these joyous psalms of Christmastide. 

Mary’s Dream:

Young Mary the virgin was dreaming, she was dreaming a dream that was fair

She was dreaming of her promised Joseph and the life of love they would share

Yes, young Mary the virgin was dreaming of a future so pleasant and bright

But there was a greater joy than she knew then, for she would bear mankind’s Light.

Angel’s Song:

An angel stood by and awoke her and then the angel said

“Woman you’ve been chosen of God, chosen of God, chosen of God

Woman you’ve been chosen of God to bear His Son, to bear His Son

Joseph’s Dream:

And you shall name, and you shall name, and you shall name Him Jesus

And He shall save His people, save His people, and free them from their sins

Man’s lament and hope:

Oh what a wretch is man, Oh what a wretch is man, Oh what a wretch is man!

He sinned and fell short of God’s glory, He sinned and fell short of God’s glory!

But God loved Him and sent His Only Son to be born as a man

To be a savior for all men as a light in the darkness, as a light in the darkness,

So came He amongst man 

(From the Cantata: “Hope is Born” by David Craig, © 1975: renewed 2013; from the book “Exclamations of Praise” © 2013)

Fear Not, Joseph

In Nazareth there dwelt a man, a carpenter by trade,

Espoused to lovely Mary, a holy virgin maid.

Each day his work was flying by, as the day of marriage neared,

But then he heard unsettling news; his heart sank down in fear.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, the Virgin undefiled

O Blessed Virgin Mary, a virgin yet with child.

Now Joseph was a righteous man, a righteous man and kind,

He loved his virgin Mary, and so made up his mind.

He would not drag her through the streets, and make an ugly scene,

He’d let her go most quietly, as if they’d never been.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, whose womb held mankind’s joy,

The laws of desperate angry men, your life they would destroy.

But in a dream God shed His light, rejoicing Joseph’s heart,

His lovely Virgin Mary and he need never part.

For He who grew within her womb, would be God’s Holy Son

Jesus would be His given name, O’er sin the victory won.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, To you the Christ child born,

O Blessed Virgin Mary, From you mankind’s new morn’.

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The Magnificat – A Song (A week of poetry for Advent)

My soul shall magnify the Lord, for He has done great things.

My soul shall magnify the Lord, for He has done great things.

My spirit rejoices in my God, all nations call me blessed

My spirit rejoices in my God, all nations call be blessed

My soul shall magnify the Lord, for He has done great things.

He lifted His humble servant up, and cast down the proud,

He lifted His humble servant up, and cast down the proud

My soul shall magnify the Lord, for He has done great things.

He blesses those who fear Him, Holy is His Name

He blesses those who fear Him, Holy is His Name

My soul shall magnify the Lord, for He has done great things.

He showed His arm of power, and scattered all His enemies

He showed His arm of power, and scattered all His enemies

My soul shall magnify the Lord, for He has done great things.

He feeds the hungry with good things, the rich He sends away

He feeds the hungry with good things, the rich He sends away

My soul shall magnify the Lord, for He has done great things.

He remembered all His promises, His promises to Abraham,

He remembered all His promises, and kept them in me.

My soul shall magnify the Lord, for He has done great things.

If you have trusted Christ as your personal Savior, then He has kept His promises in you as well. For as in Mary, Christ lives in you. And as Christ was born in Mary by the Holy Spirit, so has He been made alive in you. 

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God Remembers - Do We?

“And they remembered His words.” Luke 24:8

God remembered His promise to Eve (deliverer), to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob (progeny), to King David (established throne), to Isaiah (virgin birth), to Micah (place of birth), to Daniel (time of birth), and to Malachi (a forerunner), and all the hosts of Old Testament believers who expected the promised coming Messiah. In short, God keeps His promises.

But what about us? Do we remember? Jesus had told His disciples that He was to be abused, crucified, and resurrected. As they huddled in the Upper Room on that dark Saturday after His death, did they remember? No. Did He still rise from the dead? Yes. Then in shock and amazement they remembered. It should not amaze us that God remembers us and His promises to us. He always has and always will. He will remember to come again – the second glorious Advent. Are we still believing and looking forward to it? God is.

Dear Father, Help us to be ever mindful of the promise of Christ’s return. Amen. 

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

 

For quality inspirational, educational, and fictional Christian books visit www.davidccraig.net

God Remembers His Promises # 4

“And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” Exodus 2:24

Where is God when you need Him? As a pastor and a Christian I have heard that sad comment all too many times. God is supposed to be at our beck and call to solve everything from a tummy pain to a fatal disease; at least that is the theology behind the question. But when we are truly suffering we are tempted to ask that question whatever our theology.

The children of Israel were slaves in Egypt. They were being ruled by a genocidal government that sought their extinction. If God was really God, where was He? He was there setting the stage for the magnificent Exodus that both judged Egypt and established His glory in all the regions around Egypt. He was there waiting for the time to be fulfilled that He had sworn hundreds of years earlier to Abraham that would take place. And He remembered His promise. And He will remember His promise of the return of Christ at the second Advent. 

Dear Father, Thank You for giving promises and keeping every one of them. Amen

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God Remembers His Promises # 3

“Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea.” Genesis 25:21

  God made a promise to Abraham and said that those promises were to come through his son Isaac. Those promises concerned progeny numbering as many as the stars in heaven. Isaac and Rebecca had been married twenty years and still had no children. So Isaac sought the Lord and pleaded for the promise to be fulfilled for future generations.

Isaac was praying for future generations that would lead to the first Advent of the promised Deliverer. The New Testament ends with a similar prayer, only this one is a prayer for the second Advent. As Isaac prayed for the Deliverer to come, so we are to pray that He will return and do it quickly. “Even so come, Lord Jesus.” Rev. 22:20 Amen.

Dear Father, Let us hold fast to the promises made to our fathers. Amen.   

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God Remembers His Promises # 2

“I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold Sarah shall have a son.” Genesis 18:10

“Hurry up and wait” is a common frustration. We rush to the store and then stand in line for what seems like forever. We are told to hurry to a meeting and wait for an hour for the boss to show up. We spend a lot of time hurrying up and waiting.

God had promised Abraham a son. He was seventy-five at the time of that promise. Sarah was sixty-five. They were rather old to have children. But God seemed to have failed in delivering his promise. In today’s Scripture Abraham is almost ninety. Sarah is well past child bearing age. Now God renews his promise and sets a specific time. Within a year, Sarah would have a child.

We seem to wait “forever” to get to see God fulfill His word that Jesus will come again. God hasn’t forgotten his promise. He never does. We just need to trust and not forget all the promises of God.

Dear Father, Help me to hold Your promises with absolute trust. Amen. 

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God's Promises Remembered # 1

“And God remembered Noah and every living thing.” Genesis 8:1

Noah was a patient man. God warned him over one hundred years before the flood came that he needed to prepare the ark. He labored for all those years and it didn’t rain. He was mocked by the world for waiting for something that would never happen. Still, he labored on. He taught his sons to labor on.

And then it happened. It rained. It just didn’t drizzle; it poured. To add to the rain God opened the floodgates of heaven and the floodgates of the deep and added to the deluge. Now Noah had to practice patience again. He was a year on that smelly ark and it seemed it would never get dry. But it did.

For one hundred years Noah waited for the flood and for a year he waited for it to dry out. That was a lot of waiting, but Noah knew that God would remember him. That is an act of faith. God will remember us and His promises of another Advent of Christ as well.

Dear Father, Help me hold fast to faith in your promises. 

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Merry Christmas to Mary and Joseph

“Jesus is the sweetest Name I know,” says the hymnist, and it is true.  What is the most precious name of Advent?  Jesus!  Mary and Joseph had no problem naming Him.  Many couples spend months agonizing over just the right name.  They want a name not too odd or too familiar, but just unique enough for their dear little one.  Some choose family names to honor or recognize a relative or parent.  Others choose names of great men of their day.  Jesus was named after no relative or great person of His day.  He was named for who He was.  The angel said to Joseph, “You shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins.” 

This name echoes clearly from the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve had been promised a Deliverer.  It rings from the days of Abraham who had been promised that his Seed would bless the whole world.  It sings down the halls of time from David whose true Son would be the King of Israel and the whole world.  It resounds from the time of the prophets who foretold that the Deliverer and King would be born of a virgin in Bethlehem.  He is Emanuel, God with us, the Deliverer and Savior. 

Jesus birth was not a surprise. It had been promised and anticipated for millennia.  His name reflected all the promises that had been made concerning Him.  Elizabeth told Mary in Luke 1, “Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord."  She recognized the promises made and now being fulfilled by God.  In Mary’s response, the Magnifcat, she declared, “He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud.”  She declared the deliverance to be brought about through her Son.  Then Zacharias stated, “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people.”  He declared the salvation of the Lord which would soon come at the birth of Jesus. 

Each Advent season we remember the joyous news that the Savior has come.  We celebrate the hope and salvation that comes through Him who bore the name Jesus.   Jean Perry wrote “That Beautiful Name”.  Sing it joyfully this Advent season.  “I know of a name, a beautiful name, that angels brought down to earth. They whispered it low, one night long ago, to a maiden of lowly birth.  That beautiful name, that beautiful name, from sin has power to free us!  That beautiful name, that wonderful name, that matchless name is Jesus!”  

The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

 

For quality inspirational, educational, and fictional Christian books visit www.davidccraig.net

Merry Christmas to David and Nathan

In a world where others get a lot of attention, do you ever feel obscure?  Do you have siblings who have gained the limelight and you sit in the shadow?  Does your boss seem to know everyone well but you?  Then you will love the name for today.  His name is Nathan, son of David. 

Did you know that King David had a son named Nathan?  He is listed twice in the Old Testament, both in the book of I Chronicles, in those first nine chapters that many people skip because they are mostly just a list of names.  People actually are saved by reading those chapters, so don’t discount the power of the whole word of God.  Anyway, Nathan is listed there.  His more famous brother Solomon got a lot of press.  His famous half brothers Adonijah and Absalom got a lot of press.  But Nathan got mentioned only in a list of names.  That is all the press he received in the New Testament as well.  But it is an important mention. 

Jesus was his direct physical descendant.  Jesus did not descend physically from Solomon.  Luke 3 tells us that the genealogy went from David to Nathan.  The Gospel of Matthew records the kingly line which was cut off because of the sin of Jeconiah (Matt. 1:11). That means that Solomon was not the ancestor of Jesus, but Solomon’s mother Bathsheba was.  She was also the mother of Nathan.  Obscure Nathan, the son of David about whom we know nothing, is the ancestor of the Christ. 

Jesus talked much on this topic.  His disciples were always pressing Him on who would be the greatest.  He put a little child in front of them and said, “Here he is.”  Jesus said that He came to serve and not be served.  Paul said that we should live in “lowliness of mind” and “esteeming others better than ourselves”.  The message is simple.  No matter how obscure our name is on earth, what matters is that our name is written down in glory.  That we are part of the family of Jesus Christ is all that truly matters for now or eternity. 

Christ is worldwide King and we are His. There is full joy and no obscurity in this truth.  Martin Luther records this in his Christmas hymn “Dear Christian People, All Rejoice”.   “The Son came, saying: ‘Cling to Me, thy sorrows now are ending; freely I give Myself to thee, thy life with Mine defending; for I am thine and thou art Mine, and where I am there thou shalt shine, the foe shall never reach us’.”

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Merry Christmas to Rahab and Ruth

Grace, grace, the sound is sweet; through grace we see the mercy seat

Grace, grace, God’s gift so free, inviting all at Calv’ry’s tree

Grace, grace, no outcast there; God’s table now for all to share

In the list of names given in Matthew we find a few surprises.  They are declarations of God’s grace.  Two of those names are people who were not Jews.  How did they get in there?  Grace is how.  God had chosen Abraham and given him great promises.  The greatest was that his seed would bless the whole world.  Salvation was from the Jews, but salvation was not only for the Jews.  All the families of earth would be blessed by that Seed. The extension of God’s grace to all mankind through the Jews is found repeatedly in the Old Testament and seen clearly in the genealogy of Christ.

For their overwhelming wickedness and lack of repentance at the preaching of the patriarchs, God had consigned the Canaanite civilization to destruction.  Their perversity was not to corrupt God’s people and they had to go.  The time for their repentance was past and their judgment day had come.  The same thing will be true for the entire unrepentant and unbelieving world at the second advent of Christ.  But there was one of these doomed Canaanites who did believe.  Her name was Rahab.  Here is her simple testimony, “For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.”  With that statement of faith she was saved from Canaan’s destruction.  She married an Israelite man who was in the ancestry of Christ and became the great-great-etc grandmother of Jesus. 

Matthew then records another outsider in Jesus’ ancestry.  Her name was Ruth.  She was of the people of Moab.  They were cousins to the Jews, but not close cousins.  They were idolaters and had treated the Israelites very badly during the Exodus.  There were frequent wars between the nations.  Moabites were banned from temple worship for ten generations.  But there was Ruth.  Ruth had faith.  She said, “Your God will be my God.” She was received into Bethlehem, the future birthplace of Christ, and married a faithful Israelite, Boaz, who is a picture of Christ the kinsman Redeemer.  She became David’s great grandmother.  God in grace both gave her a witness and accepted her faith.  That is the great message of Advent.  God sent His Son into the world to save the lost. 

Grace, grace, beautiful gift, sent by the Father above

Grace, grace, wonderful gift, sent by the Father of Love  

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