Back in 1963 singer, Andy Williams recorded "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the year" Is it? Not this year, certainly not this year! We have and are dealing with seclusion, masked faces, closed restaurants, and more importantly empty chairs at dinner tables all because of covid 19. Certainly, the people who used to eagerly sing along with that now Christmas classic are more reticent. For Americans, this year has been the hardest of recent memory. The oldest among us can reach back to World War 2 or further still to the Depression for comparisons. News then traveled slowly, news now screams at us from multiple screes and we long for quiet and hope. In the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, we have both! He alone can quiet anxious hearts to sufficiently put one step in front of the other. And He personifies Hope, if you want to know what Hope looks like, look at Him! In the book of Acts 17:28, Dr. Luke the traveling physician of the Apostle Paul states this about our Lord: ...
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. John 17:3 Soon a New Year will arrive, 12 months untested, untried, and unknown to us but fully known to the Lord, this thought coming from the mind of the late Scottish Preacher Peter Marshall. Peter died at the tender age of 46. Heart problems in 1949 were simply beyond the reach of medical knowledge then. Today we live longer, and because of increased life spans, people have more opportunity to ponder, really consider the shortness of life, even for the most long tenured among us. I recently asked my mother who is 85 if her life has gone fast, she said a quick yes! We simply do not know how long we have, and the need to consider carefully the things that matter most is now, while there is time! I am thinking this December 24th afternoon of the ill fated Titanic, who on her maiden voyage sunk, the only thing that unsinkable ship did ...
27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him (Lazarus) to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” Luke 16: 27-31 ESV This is a parable; parables are often described as “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning” I have no problem believing this story from our Lord is based on historical reality. Jesus uses a person’s name here. Lazarus- meaning God is my help. Two men from the opposite end of the financial and social spectrum have died. One is in a place of safety and rest and peace, the other is in ...
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