God Became Flesh

John 1:1-14, Isaiah 7:14

Our study of the Biblical account of the birth of our Savior should not be seasonal. Our thankfulness for His unspeakable gift should permeate our life throughout the entire year. We should live our entire life in the light of the glorious truths that normally only momentarily illuminate a few days of the Christian calendar each year. The story of the incarnation of God into the flesh of man is a vital foundation stone of the very gospel of Jesus Christ and should undergird our faith year round.

Two great philosophers who pre-date the birth of Jesus had this to say about the necessity of the incarnation, "God will never be known unless He reveals Himself in human form." "Oh, that someone would arise, man or god, to show us God." (Socrates) You do not have to be an intellectual to recognize the logic of the philosophers' argument. The proof is always in the pudding. The ultimate illustration is in the reality.

When God chose to become man He put paid to the long awaited proposition prophesied by the Old Testament prophets. The concept that Isaiah posited when he said, "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name, Immanuel (God with us)"

When God chose to come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to flesh out His eternal purpose of redemption for those who would be eternal sons of God, He not only personified an absolute selfless love, but He demonstrated the ultimate in communicating such love to those who were to be the objects of it. Can you imagine the infinite God of a limitless universe, condescending to imprison His infinite being in the finite flesh of man, on a tiny ball of mud, in a far off corner of a very mundane sort of solar system, in a less than spectacular galaxy that man calls the Milky Way?

Why would He do such an unlikely deed? Evidently, in order to say to His rebellious and ungrateful creature, man, "I love you with an infinite love and will make it possible for you to love me with such a love in return! In order to give you the privilege and capacity to do so, I am not only willing to live in your dirty, stinking, sinful and rebellious environment, but to die unjustly at your hands that you might, in turn, mercifully live forever in an environment fit for a Child of the King!"

If Jesus had not been born of the virgin Mary, God incarnate in the flesh, there would be no gospel, salvation, forgiveness or life eternal. We would be yet without Got, without Christ, and eternally lost in a dark and sin cursed earth. Is it any wonder the apostle Paul was moved to exclaim, ''Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift" (II Cor. 9:15) 

Should We Be Men-Pleasers Or God-Pleasers?

Christians are often faced with the alternative of pleasing God or man. It is all too obvious that many times it is impossible to do both. God’s ways are not man’s ways. The paths that lead to a position of popularity with God and man do not often run parallel. It was Jesus Himself who spoke of their divergence. He pointed to a broad way and a narrow way. He made it obvious that the broad way that leads to eternal destruction is man’s way. He also said, “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.” It was the wise man who gave us the proverb, “There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

How true the statement, “A man who wishes to lead the orchestra must first turn his back upon the crowd.” So it is with spiritual leaders and Christians who wish to please God. The desire to be liked, accepted, popular, and comfortable, compromises and destroys the witness of many today. Perhaps this is the primary reason we see those who once were looked upon as sound and scriptural preachers of the Word falling away from the truth and departing from the faith. The one thing that seems to be common among them is a seeking for popularity with the world and the approval of the powers that be in the world.

Some marketing organizations exist today for the purpose of determining just what churches and pastors can do to please and attract the world around them. Whole movements are focused upon the concept of structuring and implementing ways of worship that titillate the senses of the lost. Methodology and music are adopted in order to appeal to the tastes and attitudes of the unregenerate mind.

The Christian should seek the approval of God above all else. He should determine to be popular with Him, no matter what the cost. But so many today are like those in the day of our Saviour. He described some very religious folks as men pleaser's rather than God pleasers. He said of them, “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12:43)

These same difficulties sometimes face New Testament Churches today. The world’s view of a with it church has never coincided with God’s view of a church that glorifies Him. The choice today seems to be much the same as it has been in every age. Should a church seek to be in the mainstream of religious activities and be accepted by the world or strive to be in the center of God’s will?

A person who pleases God is a person God will bless. A church that pleases God is a church that is after God’s own heart. Why? Because the praise of man is at best fickle and fading. It means nothing in God’s economy. Its echoes in time will not even penetrate God’s eternity. But it will be sweet music to the ear when the sound of our Savior saying, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” fills His heavenly universe. The harsh sounds of some worldly church music and the words of praise and accolades spoken by men will have long since faded into trivial insignificance!

Why We Should Have Thanksgiving

Many in Australia may not know that the primary and most widely celebrated family holiday in America is Thanksgiving Day. It is the day that everyone who is anyone would like to go back to his or her roots and spend the day enjoying a special traditional home cooked Thanksgiving meal with their family. No matter how far one roams from the land of his birth, this remains the case. As one with this heritage, I would like to share with you some facts about this special day and its origins. In 1621 a little band of pilgrims, who had fled the religious persecution of an established church and sought religious freedom in a new world, paused in their struggle for survival to feast and give thanks to God for His blessings upon them. They feasted and gave thanks, in spite of the fact thatthe hardships involved in hewing a haven with their bare hands from the somber, granite hills of Plymouth, had already taken the heavy toll of half their number. Their meal was sparse. It primarily consisted of such things as native turkey, maize, pumpkin and cranberries; food the native Indian tribes had shown them how to gather and prepare. It is said that when they sat down for that first Thanksgiving meal they found five kernels of corn on each plate. This served as a reminder of the hardships they had endured during the previous year when rations had been reduced to five kernels of corn for each person each day.

A little over 150 years later, in 1789, George Washington, the first President of the new nation, issued this national proclamation of Thanksgiving, “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favour . . .etc..” Some seventy-five years later President Abraham Lincoln made and proclaimed the last Thursday of November a perpetual national Day of Thanksgiving. Even though the nation had just lost over a million of her sons in an awful and deadly civil war, the aftermath of which would soon take the President’s own life, there was still much for which to be thankful. Those of us who have the blessings of freedom today also have much to be thankful for. We should give thanks for the grace of God. “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” (Psalm 95:1)

We should give thanks for the greatness of God. “For the LORD [is] a great God, and a great King above all gods.” (Psalm 95:3)

We should give thanks for the goodness of God. Psalm 100:5 "For the LORD [is] good; his mercy [is] everlasting; and his truth [endureth] to all generations." (Psalm 100:5)

We should give thanks for the gift of God. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." (II Cor. 9:15)