PSALM NUGGET, OT LESSON, NT LESSON

PSALM NUGGET:

"Your testimonies are very sure; holiness adorns Your house, O Lord, for length of days."  (Psalm 93:5)

OT LESSON:

"Sing, O daughter of Zion!  Shout, O Israel!  Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!" (Zephaniah 3:14)

NT LESSON:

"And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."  (1 John 5:11)

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2

PSALM NUGGET, OT LESSON, NT LESSON

PSALM NUGGET:

"Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your Name." (Psalm 86:11)

OT LESSON:

"Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city."  (Ecclesiastes 7:19, NIV)

NT LESSON:

"Beloved, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning.  The old commandment is the Word which you heard from the beginning."  (1 John 2:7)

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2

"....DAYS OF ETERNITY"

"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.  His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."  (Micah 5:2, NASB)

This is an Old Testament version of the "Christmas Story."  In time-space language, the New Testament stories tell us that it happened; the Old Testament stories told the ancients that it would happen.

"From days of eternity," is a phrase which you and I cannot comprehend, because we are, as someone once said, "eternity blind."  Right now our senses are "enslaved" in the time-space world.  So for us the interpretation of our text is most thought of as stated above, viz., that it happened, and that it would happen.

If, "we walk in the light as [Jesus] is in the light," we accept the reality that, "His times of coming forth..," never had a beginning, nor do, "His times of coming forth..," have an end.  And, when you and I surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ we entered that eternal dimension, as Strong's defines it, "that which has neither beginning nor end."  John 3:16 affirms this.  

Christmas and Easter are really, "....days of eternity."

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You for bringing me into, "....the days of eternity."  Amen.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2

"....LIKE ONE WHO LIFTS A LITTLE CHILD TO THE CHEEK...."

"I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.  To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them." (Hosea 11:4, NIV)

Well, it just does not come any more loving and compassionate than this.

This is the Living Triune God of the Universe, keeping our Planet in orbit at a speed of 67, 000 mph around our Sun, and here He is, "....like one who lifts a little child to the cheek and I bent down to feed them."  Today's text is a perfect simile of what the Godhead did in that field outside Bethlehem so long ago.  He "fed" us Jesus.

The song says, "chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose, Yule Tide carols....help to make the season bright."  I offer our text.  As I read it this morning, it made the Season most Bright.

Father, what glorious expression of Your love for me.  In Jesus' Name, thank You.  Amen.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2