Emmanuel - God With Us : the real meaning of Christmas

At this Christmas time, may we not forget the real meaning of Christmas - God With Us....and as part of that reminder here are two YouTube links for you....

False Christmas Hope.....and the True!

…it’s one of the words often seen as part of Christmas decorations or on Christmas cards, and its because the true message of Christmas brings true HOPE and we should never lose sight of it.

The World needs it more than anything.

Recently it was reported that Michelle Obama was interviewed by Oprah and she expressed her thought that she felt that under her husband’s administration there was ‘hope’ and that this was evident by the fact that she believes there is now a lack of ‘hope’.  She went on to say:

"Hope is necessary. It's a necessary concept….

"I mean, he and I and so many believe  what else do you have if you don't have hope?

"What do you give your kids if you can't give them hope?”

…...Hey, it's gonna be OK. Let's remember the good things that we have. Let's look at the future. Let's look at all the things that we're building'."
"All of this is important for our kids to stay focused and to feel like their work isn't in vain, that their lives aren't in vain,”

How sad!

But this is a reflection of how people understand hope.

The hope they seek is based on what they see.  Mrs Obama wants people to ‘look’ at the good things we have, what we are building and what we think the future is going to be.

Unfortunately, much of the reason people don’t have hope is because of what they see.

And when we start building hope only in what we see, in what we do, and what we have and what we think lies ahead, we are building false hope on unstable sinking sand.

You see when we are brutally honest with ourselves we know we are not the biggest and most powerful force on the planet.  An accident, bad health, terrorism or the evil of others, and our own foolishness or inadequacy can wipe out or prevent what we put our hope in.  Deep down, apart from God, we know our lives and efforts are all in vain….just have heart-to-heart counsel with a few people and read the book of Ecclesiates.

We are fearful because we have lost hope in what we see and have no hope beyond our human existence with its limitations and risks and even our smallness in the face of natural disasters.  We know we are not all-powerful, and when life looks ‘uncertain’ to any degree to our own eyes, we lose hope.

Just finding ways to instill greater hope in ourselves and our world doesn’t ultimately build hope - its destroys hope….because it excludes the only ONE who can bring a sure hope to us.  To tell ourselves over and over that we determine our own destiny, or that we can do anything, or that we are in control, and even that we can instil hope in others, is to set ourselves up for a fall!

photo credit: CreativeCommons2.0

BUT, in the midst of reminders that what we do see is not secure,  Jesus brings hope for what we don’t see.  

When He came into this world, he didn’t come to encourage hope for this world, but to bring hope despite this world and beyond this world.  The Jews, like the Obamas, and so many like them, were/are looking for a change in politics, circumstances, education, health cover, and laws to bring hope.  The Jews wanted Jesus to change their circumstances and be a new earthly ruler to conquor their enemies.  

But Jesus came to be an eternal ruler to conquor the greatest enemy - sin and death.

People in our world are looking for hope through rescue from their earthly fears and concerns, - through better circumstances as they understand it.

But the message of Christmas is that the hope promoted by the Obamas is an empty and false hope and will ultimately dissapoint in this life, and destory, bringing death in the ‘life' to come. It doesn’t matter which human being or which human ability or which human achievement we put hope in, it is not a secure or sure hope.  It will not only be empty of all it promised but it will bring the opposite of all it promised.  It will bring heartache and turmoil and despair, because at some point it will fail us.

But Jesus is the one in whom we can have true hope - He brings answers and enabling and joy and peace to this life and brings the true and sure hope of victory over death. He brings eternal hope.

I started this post by saying how sad it is that this world is only looking to itself for hope.

But I want to finish with how glad I am that this world is verbalising that it is looking to itself, and that at this Christmas time, we can agree that it is hopeless if we only look at this world. To tell ourselves something is hopeful when it is hopeless is foolish and destructive, because God says a ‘fool has said in his heart there is no God’. When we only look to this world for hope, we are functioning as if there is no God.

Recognising the hopelessness of what can never truly offer us hope anyhow, is actually a good start on the road to discovering there is true hope on offer - from the ONE who is not only bigger and more powerful and in control of what we aren’t, but He is our Creator and loves us and wants the best for us……

And then the good news is that God has not ceased to exist or care just because we have rejected or ignored Him…..that is why He sent Jesus, to be and bring THE hope which we had lost sight of. He reminds us this world is not that which will give us hope, and it was never meant to be.

God alone, in Jesus - Immanuel, God with us, brings true hope.  

Don’t settle for the false.  

And this Christmas, share this truth with the world!….and REJOICE in the wonderful HOPE we have!

"Privileged" - Dr Helen Roseveare - goes to be with her Lord

This week Dr Helen Roseveare went to be with her Lord aged 91

Famous for her books and speaking at conferences around the world, she served the Lord as a missionary medical Doctor in the Congo (which became Zaire and is now the DRC-Democratic Republic of Congo just a couple of countries to our north.)

Her unwavering faith and commitment to serve her Lord and His faithfulness to her in the midst of some of the most horrifying of circumstances including rape by rebel soldiers, has been a great example to me from long before I ever became a fellow missionary in Africa.

I remember hearing/seeing her speak at a Keswick Convention I attended with my parents when I was young. She shared our lunch table on one of the days too, and her name and stories were firmly etched into my memory. They played a part in the picture I formed of a 'missionary' as a child.  I read some of her books that my mum had on her bookshelf and have some on my own bookshelf now too. Probably the two main things that impacted me from her life was that there is a cost to serving the Lord but that at the same time God is totally faithful and able to do above and beyond what we ask or think.

In more recent days one of the stories from her life went viral on the internet - the story of the prayed for hot water bottle and little doll.

As she would speak in various places she would emphasise that God's grace is sufficient.  She would also repeatedly emphasise that she felt her walk with Christ including suffering for His sake, was just an amazing privilege....another word for privilege is 'honour'....she is such a wonderful example of the great peace, joy, contentment and thankfulness that comes into a person's life when they feel the great undeserved favour and honour of God in being His child.

A tribute on The Gospel Coalition website posted this quote of Dr Roseveare's

God never uses a person greatly until He has wounded him deeply.
The privilege He offers you is greater than the price you have to pay.
The privilege is greater than the price.”
—Helen Roseveare

Here is an interview she had on 100 Huntley Street (its in four parts so you have to click on each part to watch it) - and if you click across to watch them on YouTube directly many other videos will come up of her sharing in one-on-one interviews or with hundreds in large audiences.

Christmas on Sunday

There's a problem with Christmas this year! …..apparrently in some parts of the world anyhow.  

Well its more a problem of the calendar…..the problem that Christmas is on a Sunday this year. 

It's actually a subject that is not on my radar at all, but I have just read an interesting blog post about it.  While I continue to live in Africa or Australia it probably won't ever be on my radar…..but the blog post was encouraging Christians in the USA to still go to church on Christmas Day.

This seems to be a unique cultural 'problem' for Americans, who as I understand it do not normally have a Christmas Day Service at their churches.

As Australians living in Africa, it doesn't pose a problem for us at all, in either our home country or our country of service.  

In both places it is normal tradition to always go to church on Christmas Day for a special Christmas Day Service.  The UK is the same.  Even the British Royal Family go to church on Christmas Day.

Because, (as I read recently somewhere else), Christmas day in the USA has become a day 'for family not faith',  Amercians seems to be worried about how they can manage to have family gift-giving on Christmas morning AND get to church. And like in the blog I mentioned above, some are concerned that people will opt for a family devotion at home and skip Sunday church for that week altogether.  

In my husband's family, family gift giving was on Christmas Eve when they were young kids, and in later years the gift-giving happened after church.  In my home as I grew up,  gift-giving was first thing on Christmas morning and we had a quick breakfast and all piled into the car and headed to church.  

It was never a problem, and in fact as kids we seemed to all manage to wear or take something to church that morning that we had received as a gift to be able to share stories with other kids of gifts received.

It was a wonderful time of carol singing, and remembering the whole reason for Christmas. Often the service structure was a little bit innovative with a 'sermon' in parts interspersed with appropriate carols, or the opportunity for the Pastor to bring out an aspect of the Christmas story that normally gets overlooked.  It always set a good tone and focus to the day.  

It was also the day that we knew church service numbers would swell with people who normally would never go to church - those twice-a-year folks - Easter and Christmas.  It was a great opportunitity to share the gospel with those who came, simply by reminding everyone of the real meaning of Christmas and its implications.

From there folks would head back home or to relatives' homes for family Christmas Lunch.  

Since it was holiday season anyhow, Sunday School was in recess and on Christmas Day the service was normally scheduled a little earlier (normal at the church I grew up at was 10am and Christmas was 8am) and it was limited to 1 hour to allow those time who had to travel longer distances to reach family gatherings. 

Here in our corner of Africa, it is the same, there is always a Christmas Day service.

So the fact that Christmas is on a Sunday this year, if anything it will feel a little strange for us because we will only meet together as a church once in the Christmas week instead of twice.

Though Americans may be stressing as to how they will manage to have proper gift giving AND gather with the church in the morning, other parts of the world have always done that and find no tension in the process, but instead find that it enhances the focus of the day and reminds us of the real reason for the day and its meaning for us.  

After all - we are the church only because of Christmas. Because the Son of God came and entered our world for the purpose of dying for sin and rising again to bring us new life, we in this world can be reconciled to God and united with Christ as His church.  

Surely for Americans,  that is a great reason to WANT to have such a unique opportunity this year to combine Christmas with a Sunday and share it not just with our earthly families but be reminded of our greater spiritual families and the GIFT that made it all possible!!  

We are just sorry that Americans only get to make it a church family day this one year, when in our part of the world, we get to do it every year!