Quotes of the month
To the American People:
Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.
Calvin Coolidge
Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son. The only requirement is to believe in Him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life.Corrie Ten Boom
It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you… yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand.
Mother Teresa
Jesus is everything. He is the reason for our existence and our eternal lives. He is more important than anything life throws at us, and Christmas is an excellent time to focus on Him and His sacrifice.
Pastor Timothy Keller
(Editor’s note: Besides what is contained in the New Testament, ever wonder why the Three Wise Men just up and took off hundreds of miles to go see Jesus. This article from Pastor James Merritt helps fill in the blanks.)
Believe the Word of God
by Pastor James Merritt
Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw the star when it rose and have come to worship Him. Matthew 2:2
Have you ever wondered why the wise men in nativity scenes followed a star? And how did they know about the birth of a Jewish King? You will discover that it wasn’t a star, but God’s Word that led these men, and all after them, to the Savior of the world.
In most nativity scenes, you will find the presence of three wise men offering gifts to baby Jesus. Although they were never at the actual manger, (their visit was later) they are included in the nativity scene because they are an important part of the Christmas story. These wise men help link the long-awaited story of the Old Testament to the nativity scene in the manger.
Sometimes it’s hard to understand how the Christmas story connects in the whole Bible, but God’s Word shows you how the events in Bethlehem were planned and foretold long before.
Today’s verse is said by the Magi, or wise men, as they arrived in Jerusalem to look for Jesus, but the first time that Magi (wise men) are ever mentioned in the Bible is in the book of Daniel. Who was Daniel?
Daniel was a Jewish exile that was taken captive by the Babylonians. Daniel 2:48 says that Daniel was placed in charge over all of the Magi in Babylon. He would have shared God’s plans to send a Messiah to the Jewish nation; that’s because God oversees His plan of
salvation even when His people do not recognize it.
Since Jews remained in Babylon after the exile, their teachings were passed down from generation to generation. The teachings of the Old Testament foretold a time when a new king would come, and his kingdom would not end. So people watched and waited.
The Magi were stargazers. They took their cues about life, death, the present, and the future from the stars. These astrologers would compare what they saw in the sky with what they read in the Jewish scriptures. So when they read in Numbers 24:17 that, “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel,” it was plain to them that a Great King would come and be announced by some type of an astronomical light.
But why did they follow this specific star…this specific light? The answer is because in Daniel 9:26 he foretold that the Messiah would come 490 years after the command to rebuild the Temple had been given. The wise men were able to calculate back and realize that this was the time on God’s clock for the Messiah to come.
It really wasn’t the star that led these men to Jesus; it was the Scripture that led them to the star that led them to Jesus. These men made a journey of several hundred miles through distance, difficulty, and danger because they chose to believe God’s word.
The Word not only declares that there is a God, but who He is and how you can find Him. You, like the wise men, can believe the Word of God and follow it to the Son of God. Welcome the Holy Spirit to be the light leading you to Jesus right now so that you, too, can come to worship Him.
Prayer: Dear Lord, I praise You for the wonderful plan You have put in place from the beginning. Thank You for watching over Your Word, and bringing Your plan to completion. And even when I cannot see or understand what You’re doing, help me trust that You are bringing Your good plan to pass in my life and in the world. I thank You for Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and worship You with all my heart. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Merry Christmas
from Frank Paul
It is “Merry Christmas” not “Happy Holidays,” for the singular most significant event in the history of our known world is what we are celebrating; the birth of the Son of God, which ultimately was for each and every one of us. Without Jesus’ birth, where would we be? I personally would be lost, scrambling around life trying to figure it out on my own. Jesus
provides us the example on how to live, how to treat others, how to forgive, and how to reach our final destination in heaven. We must not lose sight of the fact that we are merely sojourners on this earth, visiting for a while, and then going home to Him. Celebrate this Christmas season with more kindness in your heart and in the way you express yourself, and less interest in the commercialization of this season which has crept into our culture over the last few decades. We owe everything to Jesus, and that is what we should truly celebrate this season. Pause, breathe, meditate, pray; immerse yourself into the Christmas Season with a sense of gratitude that you even have another Christmas Season to celebrate; many others will not be with us this year.
Thank you all for supporting The Sower of Seeds over the last year and being a major part of why I continue to do what I do: to plant the seeds and let Jesus take it from there.
Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year
Staying Awake
by Alistair Begg
The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed…Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
Romans 13:11, Romans 13:13
“Careless talk cost lives,” proclaimed a campaign by the British Government during the Second World War. The government wanted people to be aware of the danger around them: that listening enemy ears were ready to pounce on any slip of the tongue.
Here, Paul gives us a similar warning for our Christian lives: carelessness can cost lives. Carelessness makes us susceptible to danger. So many of us live carelessly when it comes to our spiritual lives, walking about in a kind of moral dream, failing to stay awake and alert to the dangers around us. That leaves us vulnerable. Consider just two reasons why it is vital that we stay awake and alert in our pursuit of purity.
First, the apostle Peter tells us, "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8. Let’s not kid ourselves: sin is predatory. The enemy is a lion. Recall the way the Lord spoke to Cain when he was angry with his brother: “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:7.
Do you know who makes for easy prey? An isolated Christian. When we’re isolated, we’re vulnerable and without accountability. We “walk properly” most easily in godly company. As children of the daytime, we must not be lured by the darkness, because darkness creates isolation. A passion for purity demands that we walk in the light and with the children of light.
Second, we must stay awake and stay alert because eternity awaits. What is it that made the heroes of Hebrews 11 worth of the title “heroes”? They were looking for a city beyond them. They looked for a city whose foundation and builder was God. Hebrews 11:10.
Moses, for example, did not succumb to the lure of instant gratification. He did not sell his soul for the moment. He did not give up his ministry, future, and family for comfort and privilege. He chose instead a more difficult course. And what was the explanation? “He considered the reproach of God greater wealth than the treasure of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” Hebrews 11:26.
Moses was not without blemish, and neither are we. But that must not excuse us from living for the sake of Christ in matters of purity. After all, our salvation is drawing ever closer, and we want to be found ready for the Lord Jesus when He appears.
Whatever your past has been, whatever your recent mistakes and
disappointments, it’s not too late to wake up and stay alert. The enemy will not sleep, and eternity will be worth it. Ask God today to write a commitment on your heart to a life of purity, so that today you would walk properly and carefully, with your head up and your eyes fixed on that glorious future day of your salvation.
Christmas prayers from the 1800s
Our heavenly Father we rejoice in the blessed communion of all Thy saints, wherein Thou givest us also to have part. We remember before Thee all who have departed this life in Thy faith and love, and especially those most dear to us. We thank Thee for our present fellowship with them, for our common hope, and for the promise of future joy. Oh, let
the cloud of witnesses, the innumerable company of those who have gone before, and entered into rest, be to us for an example of godly life, and even now may we be refreshed with their joy; that so with patience we may run the race that yet remains before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; and obtain an entrance into the everlasting kingdom, the glorious assembly of the saints, and with them ever worship and adore Thy glorious Name, world without end – Amen.
Book of Prayers, 1851
Almighty God, we give Thee thanks for the mighty yearning of the human heart for the coming of a Saviour, and the constant promise of Thy Word that He was to come. In our own souls we repeat the humble sighs and panting aspirations of ancient men and ages, and own that our souls are in darkness and infirmity without faith in Him who comes to bring God to man and man to God. We bless Thee for the tribute that we can pay to
Him from our very sense of need and dependence, and that our own hearts can so answer from their wilderness, the cry, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” In us the rough places are to be made smooth, the crooked straight, the mountains of pride brought low, and the valleys of despondency lifted up. O God, prepare Thou the way in us now, and may we welcome anew Thy Holy Child. Hosanna! Blessed be He who cometh in the name of the Lord – Amen.
Samuel Osgood, 1862
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