birth

A Christmas Story

12:00 AM


A Christmas Story
Suzanne Desmarais

              
  “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
“Who being made in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself to be of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” (Phil 2:6-9)

                But, “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
            He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and as for His generation, who considered? He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked- but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
            But it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:3-12)

                “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
               “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.” (Acts 2:24)
           “He was delivered over to our death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4:25)
                “Which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come, and He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things ...” (Ephesians 1:20-22)
               “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, Who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 8:1; 7:25)

                “O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”( Psalm 95:6)

                “Saying with a loud voice:
                         ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!’
And every creature which is in heaven and on earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard them saying;
                        ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever!’” (Revelations 5:12-13)

Merry Christmas!
                 

Death

The Final Deeds of Moses {Deuteronomy 31:1-34:12}

12:00 AM


The life of Moses can be broken down into three forty year periods. The first forty he spent as a prince of Egypt. The next forty he spent as a fugitive, living as a shepherd in the desert. And in his final forty years he served God, leading the Lord’s chosen people from bondage and into the promised land.

Knowing that his death was soon approaching, Moses spoke to the people of Israel saying, “I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and the Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan’.” (v. 31:2) Even though, “his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated”,(v. 34:7), Moses was no longer physically able to lead the people in battle. And because of his sin against the Lord in striking the rock (Num. 20:12), God punished Moses by not allowing him to cross the river. So as he prepares to leave them, he gives his final counsel to the Jewish people and puts the role of leadership in the hands of Joshua, the son of Nun from the tribe of Ephraim. 

Moses begins by telling the Israelites to be strong and courageous. “The Lord is the One who goes ahead of you; He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (v. 31:8) The nations who possessed the promised land were powerful, but none more powerful than God. When we love and follow the Lord in obedience, we never need worry about the battles we face. No matter the challenge, God has already gone ahead of us and secured our victory. Fear is a powerful tool of the enemy. He uses it to keep us weak and stuck. Many times he used it successfully against the people of Israel. And so Moses charged them to not be afraid. A message he also gave to Joshua; who heard the same message repeatedly spoken by God Himself. A message so important Moses wrote it down, gave it to the Levitical priests who kept it the ark of the covenant, and commanded it be read to all of the people every seven years at the feast of booths.

After commissioning Joshua in sight of all the people as the next leader of Israel by saying, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord  has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as their inheritance.” (v. 31:7), God commands Moses to compose a song. Sadly, the Lord knew that after the death of Moses, the people of Israel would again fall back into their wicked ways and forsake their covenant with Him. This sermon in song form wasn’t a hymn of encouragement, but rather written as a testimony against Israel for their rebellion against God. During our times of trouble, the first place we should turn to for lifting us out of sorrow is God’s Word. But when we reject and rebel against God that same Word can be used to lay a conviction upon our hearts. One of my favorite verses from the song of Moses is verse 32:11. “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.” “God brought Israel through many dangers to teach the people how to soar as His special treasure.” (Dr. Charles Stanley) What a beautiful picture of our Father who keeps us under His protective care. He is always there flying beside us ready to take us up and bear us on His wings when we grow too weary to fly.


Finally, like Jacob did before his death, Moses blesses each of the tribes of Israel. After, he climbs to the top of Mount Nebo. There God allows him to see the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I can only imagine the feelings that must have flooded the heart of Moses. There he stood finally seeing the land flowing with milk and honey. A land that took forty long years to reach, yet at the same time not being able to step foot in it. All because of his own sin and disobedience to God. So close yet so very far away. And there in the land of Moab, Moses died and was buried by the Lord. “Since that time, no prophet has risen Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to perform.” (vs. 34:10-11) As great as Moses was, He was still only a man. A man who followed the Lord through thick and thin. A man who because he trusted and obeyed, God did wonderful and miraculous things through. We should all strive to be like Moses. We should follow God with all of our hearts so that He can do amazing things through us as well!