Good Saturday morning and may you have a fine Christmas weekend! Today has arrived, just as promised. Winter begins today and it feels like it outside as well. We received only a few flakes from this last predicted snow, but I am hoping that more will arrive on Christmas day. We, that is my fellow students and I, are still in class this weekend. To use a popular phrase, that really sucks. College continues to find new ways to annoy me, but it will have to hurry with just 3 months and a couple of days to go. Christmas is but three days away now, and the days will become longer as we move through the winter.
In proclaiming the word of God, Jeremiah learned of a plot to murder one of God's prophets, himself! Jeremiah didn't hear it through his intelligence network or from the king; God told him. Imagine having knowledge of Israel's coming destruction, warning everyone you could find, and then finding out their proposed solution was to shut you up...permanently. Jeremiah probably had a moment or two of panic, "they want to kill me?" However, Jeremiah was one of the few serving the Lord at that time, and he enjoyed the protection of the Almighty. We can learn from that story, for the world killed our leader and savior too. When speaking out for God, spreading the Good News and loving our neighbors, we too will incur the wrath of the world. Some of us may die for speaking out. To us the thought of dying for Christ is at once joyful and frightening. We would be honored to be counted worthy to die for Christ, but we are all afraid of dying. In Christ we are not afraid of death and what comes after, but we do rightly fear the pain of that transition. Even Jesus feared what was to come at Gethsemane; there is no shame in being afraid of a painful death, and He knew that His would be very painful.
Christmas is coming and here I am getting into the morbid again... but wait! Jesus death paid the price for our sins and His resurrection brings us the Good News of life everlasting! The bad news is not bad at all! Praise God for the life changing grace of Jesus Christ our Lord! Have a wonderful, merry Christmas!
Bucky
No comments:
Post a Comment