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Birdwell Lane Church of Christ Big Spring, TX |
Weekly Thoughts - December 2009
| <---- November 2009 | -- | January 2010 ----> |
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06 - ASK YOURSELF SERIOUSLY 13 - WHAT CHRIST WAS MADE 20 - CHRISTMAS SPIRIT 27 - No Bulletin This Week |
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ASK YOURSELF SERIOUSLY A string around the finger; A note left in a conspicuous place; A single word written in the square of a date on a calendar—reminders. Let’s face it, we all need them. Our memories are not perfect. We may have been told, we may have known, but sometimes the gray matter needs jogged so we can remember what we know. Christians need reminders, Peter wrote, “This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder.” (2 Peter 3:1). We need to be reminded of the great grace by which we have been saved and the commitment we made to the Lord the day we gave our lives over in obedient submission to Him (Eph. 2:8; Gal. 2:20). We need to be reminded we are no longer our own but have been bought with a price. We need to be reminded that while the church is the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23) it is comprised of sanctified sinners. These are people who struggle and toil, who try to do good and right but don’t always succeed. They are people in need of compassion and forgiveness and encouragement and that we are numbered among them. We need to remember that as we are constantly being pressured and pushed to fit into a certain way of thinking, that we are instead to be transformed and not conformed. This comes with a renewed mind and a renewed mind is one filled with the mind of Christ. We need to be reminded that the world is LOST in sin, a world for whom Christ did and sin which His blood is able to cleanse. As one who wears His name I must remember that God’s saving power, the gospel, has been given to me as a great treasure. I need to be reminded that as I have been blessed I also now have a responsibility. See Ya Sunday, Ralph |
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WHAT CHRIST WAS MADE “For Him who knew no sin has God made to be sin in our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him!” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “MADE SIN!” THE SINLESS ONE “MADE SIN!” IN HIM WAS NO SIN” YET “MADE SIN!” Holy of Holies this into which unhallowed eyes cannot look, behind the veil which none dare to intrude with cheap scorn. I know of nothing more vast! “Made sin”-What does it mean, these two words – “made sin” – that stagger under a weight of agony? It means that God dealt with Him as He must deal with sin – in severe and unrelenting judgment! It means that God sentenced sin, ordered sin to execution in the person and death of His Son. Jesus has made up before God for all we failed to do and be. Jesus takes all our sin upon Himself and bestows all His righteousness upon us. Jesus took sin’s place on the cross! Took MY place there! It means that He, the perfectly righteous one, was made sin that we, that I, the unrighteous one, might be made righteous. For God meted out to Jesus the full measure of punishment sin deserves. It means – “He stood before God with all our sin upon Him that we, through faith, might stand before God with none of our sin on us”. He who was righteous was judged before God as unrighteous that we who are unrighteous should be judged before God as righteous! He was made for us all that God must judge and was are made in Him by faith all that God cannot judge. This verse is a fortune in a single diamond; the glories of many flowers in one flower; the eloquence of much eloquence in one utterance. By the truths it reveals, some luminous with noonday brightness, some dark with midnight blackness, it is one of the stateliest cathedrals of human speech. By the mercy and mystery it testifies to, it stands among real sublimities of Bible vocabulary. By the tragedy it acknowledges it is a pathos of language that defies all definition. By the victories it assures, it contains a splendor of revelation that leaves little to be said. “For Him who knew no sin has God made to be sin in our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him!” See Ya Sunday, Ralph |
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CHRISTMAS SPIRIT Now I don’t know about all of you, but I love this time of the year. For the most part it is one time of the year that we would rather give than receive. I love the spirit of the season and the fact that so many take a long look at my Lord. Yes, I know that He was not born on Christmas day. I don’t celebrate it as a religious holiday but I do celebrate the spirit of the season. I am thankful that at least many will stop and think about the arrival of God’s Son. Were it not for His birth we wouldn’t have the benefits of His death. Which we celebrate each Sunday morning as we partake of the memorial feast. What I like about the season was well said by E.C. Baird many years ago. CHRISTMAS SPIRIT I am the Christmas spirit I enter the home of poverty, causing paleface children to open their eyes wide, in pleased wonder, I cause the miser’[s clutched hand to relax, And thus paint a bright spot on his soul. I cause the aged to renew their youth, And to laugh in the glad way. I keep romance alive in the heart of childhood, And brighten sleep with Dreams woven of magic. I cause eager feet to climb dark stairways with filled baskets, leaving hearts amazed at the goodness of the world. I cause the prodigal to pause a moment on his wild, wasteful way, and send to anxious love some little token that releases glad tears-- tears which wash away the hard lines of sorrow. I enter dark prison cells, reminding scarred manhood of what might have been, And pointing forward to good days yet to be. I come softly into the still, white home of pain and lips that are to weak to speak just tremble in silent, eloquent gratitude. In a thousand ways I cause the weary world to look up into the face of God, and for a little moment, forget the things that are small and wretched. I am the Christmas spirit! E.C. Baird Now I don’t know about you…but I do know about me…I like the Christmas spirit. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you from Kay and I. See Ya Sunday, Ralph |
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