Giving and receiving this Christmas

Giving and receiving this Christmas

Do you appreciate your children and grandchildren? Do the stories of disadvantaged and ill children that you see when the various charitable appeals run pull at your heartstrings? Do you think - ‘that could be me or my child’? Do you wonder how you would cope? We should be truly grateful for how well off we are! It’s another reason why we all need to play our part in giving to charity this festive season. 

Recent political debates are in danger of encouraging a view that says we need to be selfish and look after ourselves. The great tradition in this country has been to be generous and look after the needy, the poor and the disadvantaged.

Have you ever wondered why there is consistently such a need? Why is there cruelty? Why are there disadvantaged children? Why does the problem never go away? What is the cause of the problem? It's one thing to give money to change people's lives it’s another to consider why the situation exists in the first place? That’s just life I hear you say! These things happen!

The Bible tells us why. It is because of sin. Our Forefather, Adam, brought 'sin into the world and death by sin'. If we are honest we are all in the habit of sinning. Sin is dressed up in many guises; pride, selfishness, lust, coveting things and people and so on. Sin rarely only affects me, it affects others as well and sadly it often affects people who have no power to do anything about it i.e. the young, the weak and vulnerable. 

But the good news is things can be different! I do not believe that society can enjoy permanent reform as a result of a political solution. The Bible promises a reformed world when Jesus returns to earth but until then change is made on a ‘case by case’ basis! This is the essence of why Jesus came. He came to bring hope in despair, joy in sorrow and life where there was death. This life is of a different quality. It is the life of God as opposed to human life. It is described in the Bible as ‘eternal life’. Jesus talked about it in terms of knowing God – ‘and this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’, John 17. 3. It describes the quality of life now and well as the length of existence in the next life. This life is available to everyone because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus but it only becomes effective in a person’s life when they repent and receive salvation as a gift from God.

Please, don't stop giving to good charities this Christmas but also give some thought to your need of forgiveness and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Thanks for reading this.

Stephen    

What if Jesus really is the Son of God?

Photo by Christopher Sardegna on Unsplash 

Photo by Soul devOcean on Unsplash

Photo by Szabo Viktor on Unsplash

WHAT IF JESUS REALLY IS THE SON OF GOD?

The Lord Jesus Christ is no ordinary person. I make this statement in the present tense because the Lord Jesus is not just a figure of history but he is, today, still alive in heaven. I don't mean alive in the way we might think about a relative who has died and hope is now in heaven (as a Christian I believe people who have turned from their sin and accepted Jesus as their Saviour will be in heaven when they die but this is not my point at the moment). I mean that Jesus is alive, physically in heaven. Your response might be - impossible and unbelievable! 

He's got the whole world in His hands - The Lord Jesus

 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

He's got the whole world in His hands.

Remember the song?  ‘He's Got the Whole World in His Hands’ is a traditional African American spiritual, first published in 1927. It became an international pop hit in 1957-1958 in a recording by English singer Laurie London and has been recorded by many other singers and choirs.

 

It's a celebration of God's loving embrace of everyone in this big old world and a good tune as well! I think it's a bit of an exaggeration, though. God doesn't need both hands to hold the world; in fact, the Bible states He is the One who has measured the waters ‘in the hollow of his hand,’ Isa. 40:12, and that 'In his hand are the deep places of the earth,' Ps. 95:4.

Unrecognised - Jesus!

Photos courtesy of Unsplash

On 12 January 2007, at 7:51 in the morning, a musician takes his position against a wall in the metro station of the Washington D.C. subway. He is wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and a baseball cap. He opens his violin case … removes the instrument, throws a few dollars into the case from his pocket as “seed money”, and begins playing.

He plays for the next 43 minutes, and during that time, he performs six classical pieces – flawlessly!  During that 43 minutes, 1,097 people passed by, tossing in a total of $32.17 into his violin case. Of that 1,097 people, only seven paused longer than sixty seconds to listen to this performance.  Of those seven who lingered, only one recognized the violinist!

The name of the violinist was Joshua Bell. He had filled Boston’s Symphony Hall three days earlier, where the cheap tickets sold for $100 apiece. Yet, when performing this day in the subway, he barely earned enough to pay for a pair of cheap shoes.