For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
— Luke 2:11
Though his sermons were masterpieces, today they gather dust, moldering on the shelves of antiquarians like myself. Yet he still lives and has a revival every year about Christmastime. He is not known for the erudition of his sermons, for the eloquence of his speaking, but rather for the simplicity of one little poem he wrote.
I am talking about the Reverend Phillips Brooks, author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem." On Christmas Eve, in the year 1865, he arrived at the little town of Bethlehem and was struck by the sublimity, the beauty, the simplicity, the quietness, the darkness of that little town in whose streets there shone the Light of the World. Of that town and of that time, he wrote, "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight"—that night, when the Light of the World came into the darkness of Bethlehem.
As long as the Church shall last, Phillips Brooks and his little poem will be remembered. And as "God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven," so this Christmas hymn captures the stillness, the wonder, and the awe of Christmas. It happens every year it is sung: "where meek hearts will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in."
Question to ponder:
Will you take the time to quietly read through the lyrics of this and other great Christmas carols?
One Little Poem
December 22, 2022 • Luke 2:11
In God’s Dwelling Place
December 31, 2022 • Psalm 121:8
The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from now and for evermore. — Psalm 121:8 As we come to the close of another year, we see that the Lord has been with us. He has watched over and protected us. Yes, there has been trouble and pain, but He has been with us every step of the way. The Lord is the One who helps us through it all. As the psalmist said, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2). In all the hurry and hustle and bustle of modern life, we need to give God time to heal us and cure us, to build us up and strengthen us in Him. We need to trust in Christ and find that place of quiet rest. As one poet put it: Slow me down Lord. Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time. Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory... Let me look upward to the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well. Question to ponder: How have you grown in the Lord this year?
The Reality of Hell
December 30, 2022 • Matthew 18:9
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than having two eyes to be thrown into the fire of hell. — Matthew 18:9 Jesus took hell very seriously. He spoke about it as a real place to avoid at all costs. The most awful thing imaginable would be to die and go into eternity without Christ; to stand before the judgment bar of Almighty God, who knows your every thought and word and deed, and to have all of your sins brought out before the universe and be justly condemned unto eternal perdition and cast out into a lake of fire. There are some people who have tried every conceivable way to deny the reality of impending judgment for unrepentant sinners. This ranges from denying that there is a God who could possibly punish them; to denying that there is a Hell where they could be punished; to denying that a loving God would ever send anyone there (even such a reprobate as themselves); to claiming that God must, at least, give everyone the opportunity to hear the Gospel. Not that this would help them, because they have been doing what people constantly try to do, which is to justify themselves by condemning God and end up proving that God is unjust and unfair and unloving, and they themselves must be, by comparison, pretty decent sort of folks. Since Jesus took hell so seriously, so should we. Question to ponder: Is there anything in your life that you should get rid off, anything that hinders your Christian walk?
Spectator Christians or Active Christians?
December 29, 2022 • Mark 9:41
Truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, will not lose his reward. — Mark 9:41 Christianity is not a spectator sport. Christ does not call us to be "spectator Christians." There are some people in our churches, however, who, to my knowledge, have never done any work at all. They have merely seen themselves as spectators. They come to watch on Sunday morning, and that is the extent of what they do. They never put their shoulder to the wheel. They never dirty their hands. They never exert themselves in any work. But Christ says in His letter to the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:19, "I know you works, love, service, faith, and your patience, and that you last works are more than the first." Christ had not forgotten their good works. I am so glad that many Christians are always working and serving the Lord with love and patience. Christ calls us to get into the arena and glorify Him by our good works. Any deed done in Jesus' name is precious to Him and has its reward, whether in this life or the next. Question to ponder: Saved, not by works, but saved unto good works—how do these truths connect?