A Devotional Verse From Ezra

Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.     Ezra 1:2

The LORD God of heaven (a.k.a. the One true God, the God of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ) gave a charge, a responsibility, to the Persian king, Cyrus. That charge was to build a house for God at Jerusalem. So he sent Israelis, willing to return to Israel from Babylon, to Jerusalem to begin building that Temple. Understand now, this is a pagan king, who worshiped false gods, who acknowledges the God of heaven, states that his own position as king of the kingdoms of the earth was given to him by the LORD God of heaven, and announces that God had given him a charge. This is a big deal. This is an amazing confession by a man who doesn’t even worship the LORD God of Israel.

Now here is a lesson: government leaders, even those who do not worship the God of the Bible, are in the position they are in because God allows, or raises them, as he did Cyrus. Though their charge may be specifically different than that of Cyrus, the general charge of government is to be righteous, to suppress evil, and to do good for their people and the people of the world at large. The charge includes (among others issues) respecting the national borders of other nations; stopping persecution and beheading and crucifixion in the land they rule; ending corruption in government; using foreign aid as it is intended; breaking down racial and religious barriers; providing religious liberty for all people; establishing freedom for all their people.

Sounds like a dream come true, and it is literally a possibility held in the hands of the world’s leaders. What will they do with it?

A Devotional Thought From 2 Chronicles

For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.     2 Chronicles 28:19

This verse illustrates two things. One, it points out that the ruler (King, President, Premier, Governor, dictator, Chancellor, Czar, warlord, gang leader) can be the determinative factor in whether a nation (or organization) thrives or dives, hits the heights or sinks in the mud. Judah suffered hard times because Ahaz did not do right in God’s eyes. A nation following a wicked leader is headed for hard times, if not a disaster.

If you are ruler, in a big or small way, do what is right in the eyes of God and your people will be blessed. So will you be! If you don’t you are leading your followers down the primrose path to some sort of earthly perdition. The record and assessment of history will put you right down there with Ahaz, not up there with leaders like George Washington.

Secondly, this passage has an intuitive warning to people who have the privilege to choose their own leader. As much as you have occasion influence your nation toward the wise and godly leader, otherwise you throw your nation under the bus as much as the Ahaz-like leader does.

Christmas Truth In The Christmas Songs

A great line in the carol O Holy Night sings, “And in His name all oppression shall cease.” One day that promise will be globally fulfilled. Look at it from the perspective of history.

You Romans and your brutal power and occupation will not last. Though you rule the world your kingdom shall pass. Ho, Ottoman Empire your time of rule will end. Nazi Germany, your Third Reich will not last the 1,000 years you expect. When you think of 1,000 years think of Christ’s millennial kingdom. That Kingdom will be a 1,000 year reign and Jesus will rule the world in peace. Soviet communism you will fall no matter the number of your bombs or iron curtains. Isis, and terrorists of all sorts, one day you will be gone, and if you exist at the time of Christ’s coming He (not Christians, Hindus, or other Muslims), He, Jesus Himself, will rule you. He personally will require peaceful and decent behavior. He will make you stop killing and start helping others to better lives. He, Jesus, will do it. Any place oppression reigns: China, Iran, Kenya; anywhere oppression is strong it will one day cease in His name. The name of Jesus. “He shall reign where e're the sun doth his successive journeys run.”

Christmas is the promise that one day this earth will be set right. Whenever anyone, believer or not, sets up Christmas lights, a Christmas tree, sends a card, sings a carol, tastes a candy cane, or celebrates “Winter Holiday,” they are by that action, whether they desire to do it or not, they are noting the existence of Christmas, and, thus, recognizing the promise. The first advent heralds the second. Jesus is coming again, and He will rule and literally all oppression will cease. All!

Christmas In The Carols

The 14^th century Latin Christmas Carol, one of my favorites, Good Christian Men Rejoice gives us the clear understanding that Christmas (the coming of Christ) is life. True Christmas in the heart gives eternal life. Christ is Christmas! He has come, and if we truly trust in Him as Savior and Lord “Now ye need not fear the grave.” God is with us to save us! And, He calls us one, and calls us all to gain His everlasting hall. All, every person in the entire world is invited to eternal forgiveness and life by making Christmas real through trusting in the Savior who came among us to save us. Those are the good tidings the angel spoke of to all people. Those are the tidings that bespeak God’s good will to all men.  To be right with God it is not enough to put up decorations, or to despise the holiday because you belong to a different faith, to know true Christmas one must know Christ by asking Him into your heart to save and change, and enlighten you. As the apostle Paul put it: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house (Acts 16:31).

Modern Herods

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.     Matthew 2:16-18

The wickedness of men today is no less than Herod’s was when he destroyed the innocents of Bethlehem at the time of Christ’s birth.

Rachel, as representative of all the mourning mothers of this dangerous world, is still weeping for her children. Islamic terrorists butcher 132 children in a school in Pakistan, wounding another 121. Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria routinely behead and crucify children who are Christians. Terrorists attacks on Christians, children (and adults) around the world continue to multiply, and mothers continue to weep.

Herod was killing toddlers for the sake of politics, though I would not put it past that wicked old man to explain it away for some other reason, even religion. Rachel’s tears meant nothing to his hard heart. The butchers of today’s children are doing the same thing. They claim their evil is part of their religious piety: honor God with the screams of children; paint icons with the blood of babies; build religion on the bones of their victims. Their monstrous acts are ultimately political, and give the lie to the claim that they are men of faith, or that their god is merciful. They are killers. They are murderers. They are monsters. What they do is unjustifiable, evil at its very worst. We know that many men and women of the human race around the world are evil and cruel, but that is no excuse for them, we must speak out against their sin for the true honor of the One True God of the Bible, and the protection of the innocents of all nations and faiths. The very reason Christ came to earth was to put an end to all death ultimately, and certainly to that caused deliberately by killers who give themselves over to to such sin.

Theology In The Christmas Carols

The story of Christmas is one of the most doctrinal sections of God’s revelation. The sentimental recalling of the Christ child’s birth points us to the fullest meaning of the Baby’s personhood. Charles Wesley laid it out clearly for us in a carol we sing each year “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail th’incarnate Deity, Pleased as men with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.” Do you get it? Jesus is God, God manifest in the flesh, fully God and fully man.

Many years ago a grandfather in the congregation I was serving at the time told me something his granddaughter, then around eight or ten years old, said. Referring to the pulpit ministry in the church. She asked something like, “They always talk about Jesus here. When are they going to talk about God?” That question represents those, and I think there are a some in the church, and many outside it, who do not get what the Bible makes plain in the Christmas passages. It’s all summed up in one scriptural name: Jesus is Emmanuel. Emmanuel means, literally, God with us. When you get that, you get Christmas!

A Devotional Thought From 1 Chronicles

Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps with psalteries and with cymbals;…    
1 Chronicles 25:1

It is interesting that, of some of the music ministers in the temple, there was the expectation that they would prophesy the truth of God through their music. I don’t know how that worked in the temple, whether they prophesied or preached already revealed truth of God through their music, or whether God sometimes revealed new truth through Psalms later incorporated in the Scripture, but it seems clear that the Lord did minister to the hearts of the king and people through the music they heard, and, perhaps, sang themselves in their worship.

Certainly the gospel hymn writers of the past and our day, though not inspired in the same way that the temple singers were, bring us the truth of God in the great hymns and wonderful praise songs that bless the church. For example look at Bishop Phillips Brooks’ great stanza in his beloved Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

How silently, how silently The wondrous Gift is giv’n!

So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heav’n.

No ear may hear His coming, But in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive Him still, The dear Christ enters in.

One of the glorious things about the Christmas season, at least in America, is that you don’t only hear the gospel message in song in our church services, but if you keep your ear attuned to the background music in grocery stores, department stores, and even restaurants you may hear the gospel proclaimed in those public places because of the music of God’s people. How many people have there been, and how many more will be, impacted to let the dear Christ enter in because of the Christmas prophesies of the carols and songs that fill the air at Christmas?

Especially in the Christmas season sing the gospel: at church, in your home, in the stores, while walking the streets. Be a singing telegram from God.

A Devotional Thought From 1 Chronicles

For at that time day by day there came to David to help him, until it was a great host, like the host of God.     1 Chronicles 12:22

     David’s followers and supporters came to him day by day, on a regular basis, building a ground swell of support that helped make his kingdom great. Wouldn’t this be a great thing for a local church pastor? To have people coming day by day until his congregation grew to be a great size and ministry to God, as King David experienced?

     Such a thing only comes about through the work of God, but, of course, God uses people. So what kind of leader and ministry might attract people like David did? A guy with a biblical calling. A strong expository preacher of God’s word. A genuine shepherd to his congregational “sheep.” A pleasant and joyous personality. A man in the world but not of it. A lover of Christ, His people, and all humanity. A man of God dependent on the Holy Spirit.