Another New Year!

Another new year—what shall I make of it?
God gave it to me as a loan
Shall I search for earth's cheer with
Its pretense and take it—
Not bread for my soul but a stone?

Another new year—what shall I gather,
Earth's tinsel, her glitter to show

Another new year—what would I rather,
A flash or a deep inner glow?
A year full of getting or a year full of giving
The best that I have to give?
A year full of fretting or a year full of living
The way that God wants me to live?

Another new year—what shall I make of it?
God gave me the right to choose.
Another new year—God helping, I'll take it
And give it to Him to use.

--“Another New Year” written by Phyllis C. Michael

The Christian Paradox

A real Christian is an odd number, anyway.
He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen;
talks familiarly everyday to someone he cannot see;
expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another;
empties himself in order to be full;
admits he is wrong so he can be declared right;
goes down in order to get up;
is strongest when he is weakest;
richest when he is poorest;
happiest when he feels the worst.
He dies so he can live;
forsakes in order to have;
gives away so he can keep;
sees the invisible;
hears the inaudible;
and knows that which passeth knowledge.

—A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1955), 156.

Augustine on the Incarnation

Man’s maker was made man,
that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast;
that the Bread might hunger,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired on its journey;
that the Truth might be accused of false witness,
the Teacher be beaten with whips,
the Foundation be suspended on wood;
that Strength might grow weak;
that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.
- Augustine of Hippo (Sermons 191.1)

The Christmas Story

 

“What good is the Christmas story if it’s void of God and His glory?

What’s the worth of the words ‘peace on earth’ if it’s not rooted in the Truth of Christ’s birth?

What benefit is it for us to discuss the joy of the season unless we fix our hearts and minds on the principal reason that Christ has atoned for us?

See Christmas is more than just a story of a baby born in a manger,

More than a poor fiancé engaged to a humble virgin teenager,

More than a Magi, more than gold, frankincense and myrrh.

It’s more than a narrative of a Nativity scene, it was so much more that occurred.

It’s the coming of the Messiah, the fulfillment of all Old Testament promises,

The prophecy of the suffering Servant and all of His accomplishments,

The second Person of the Trinity commissioned to abandon His position,

And literally set aside the independent exercise of His attributes in full submission,

The Word manifested in the flesh, the fullness of God expressed,

The self-emptying Jesus poured out at the Father’s request,

The image of the invisible God, the radiance of the Father’s fame,

Holy, but retained His humanness to empathize with our pain.

He was unjustly crushed, chastised, cursed and shamed,

Mocked and adorned with a crown of thorns, disgraced but He still faced the grave,

To fulfill the Father’s will, to come and die in the place of sinful men,

And receive the fully fury of God’s judgment upon Himself instead,

The most monumental mark for mankind made in human history,

Wretched sinners being made righteous only by the wounds of the risen King,

The condescending of a holy God made in the likeness of men,

A child born to be the Savior that would save the world from their sins,

The offspring of the virgin’s womb,

The Christ, God’s own Son, fully God, yet fully man, the only theanthropic One.

This is what we celebrate, Christ the newborn King, veiled in flesh, the Godhead seen,

Hailed incarnate Deity.”

--Odd Thomas

 

 

 

Christmas

In the Christian story, God descends to re-ascend. He comes down;... down to the very roots and the sea-bed of the Nature He has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him
--CS Lewis, Miracles

God - My all

God be in my head,
and in my understanding;

God be in my eyes,
and in my looking;

God be in my mouth,
and in my speaking;

God be in my heart,
and in my thinking;

God be at mine end,
and at my departing.

--St Patrick
--Simple Faith, Pg 75,76