And Ransom Captive Baltimore…
Sitting in worship Sunday morning I was struck by the words to O come, O come, Emmanuel:
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times did’st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
As I stood there soaking in the words, the power of the imagery became almost overwhelming.
Living in this day and age I can hardly fathom the setting when Christ first arrived on earth. Growing up in the United States I have never lived in a country that has been exiled, occupied, and dominated as Israel had.
Maybe that is why Christmas has become what it is.
At the time of Christ’s birth, Israel was waiting for a miracle…
They were waiting for something so profound that the world as they knew it would change:
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
They were waiting for something so profound that the mere thought of the coming Messiah was cause for rejoicing.
Call me a scrooge, a cynic, or whatever choice word that you prefer, but I think that some of the power of Christmas has been lost in this day and age. While it tends to be pretty popular to bash the commercialized nature of Christmas (Christ’s birth, brought to you by Lowe’s), I think that the problem is something even larger.
I think that the problem with Christmas is that it comes every year.
Christmas comes on time every December.
It is regular, and we plan around it.
Christmas has become trite.
How can you find joy in that which is trite?
How can you expect the miraculous from the trite?
Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, at least I love what Christmas means. I love what Christmas celebrates.
I hate what Christmas has become.
I live in an area where fifteen minutes from my doorstep there have been 277(and counting) murders. Where people are afraid to take the bus for fear of being beaten. Where countless teenage girls are having children long before they should…
The world needs Christmas today more than it ever has… yet instead of the savior, we give them a fat guy in a suit that comes to make you smile.
My prayer, this Christmas, is that we will come to know that the true power of Christmas is not in the giving and recieving, but in the child king that was born in a barn some two thousand plus years ago. The power of Christmas is that our creator has expressed His love to us, and sent His son to us to restore us to right relationship with Him.
My prayer, this Christmas, is that we do not get caught up in the hype and commercialization, but that we hope for, and expect a miracle of huge proportions, and experience Him who came to earth that day so long ago. That we might come and adore him.
Filed under: church, life, ministry, reflection, religion, worship
How true. Insert “baltimore” into that song and it nearly makes me cry.
God, crash upon us the New Jerusalem, the NEW Baltimore.
The Declaration of Dependence!
There are many who believe that there is a “god” who “helps those who help themselves”. Now if they can “help themselves” why do they need help?
There are many “gods”, yet there is only “One True GOD, Father of ALL” and HE will help those who cry unto HIM for help. And all who truly believe in HIM know how “poor and needy” they truly are. And so, just as The Messiah did, they also declare their dependence upon HIM as they cry;
“Father Help!”
The Declaration of Dependence
And HE helps!
Now the ‘american way’, the worldly way, speaks of ‘independence’. ‘Do your own thing!’ ‘Just do it!” Problem is they serve “the father of lies”, and his version of independence but creates dependence upon him. And oh, how destruction and perversion has multiplied in his evil world and especially in his seductive religious systems, all of which are the product of mankind’s “imag”ination, which he rules.
Sadly, the perverseness of this day is but one ‘fruit’ of the “strong delusion” that those of this world call ‘independence’! She/he’s and he/she’s abound and money rules as multitudes of double-minded men head off to war declaring they do so in the name of “The Prince of Peace”. “If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?”
Those same men return to a “home” dominated by ‘independent’ women who have been given legal authority to rule over them and abort(kill) their children. The prophecy of Isa 3:12 is fulfilled today for “women rule over, and children oppress, men”.
However, in spite of the dis-order that is of this world, The Order of The ONLY TRUE GOD yet bears witness to HIS Creation: “The Only True GOD is The HEAD of The Messiah, The Messiah is The Head of the man, and the man is the head of the woman”. And those who would pervert The Order of The Only True GOD’must answer to HIM.
”The Declaration of Dependence” was proclaimed by The Messiah in both His Teachings and His Life example. He was truly dependent and subject unto “The ONLY TRUE GOD” WHO was, and is, The Messiah’s GOD and Father, and WHO was, and is, The GOD and Father of The Messiah’s Brethren.
The Messiah testified, “The words that I speak are not My words but they are the words of The Father WHO sent Me! The works I do are not My works but The Father WHO sent Me, HE does the works”! “Truly, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees The Father do: for what The Father does, the Son does likewise.“ The Messiah testified, “I can do nothing of mine own self”!
The Messiah testified, “Love The Lord your GOD with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and questioned, “Why do you call Me, Master(Lord), Master(Lord), and do not that which i say”?
Are you now seeking to follow The Messiah? Or are you still a babe in need of “milk” and unable to ‘walk’?
The “sincere milk of the written Testimonies” needful for babes, must give way to the “strong meat” which is given those who have “exercised their senses (after ‘drinking’ of The Testimonies) in the discernment of that which is good from that which is evil.”
Such ‘discernment’ will not reject “suffering as The Messiah suffered” for temporal worldly comforts, ‘discernment’ will not seek to “please man rather than GOD”, will not let intellect rule over the simplicity that is The Truth, nor will ‘discernment’ hearken unto the voice of a woman rather than GOD. Those who exercise ‘discernment’ will not love their own life in this world, or the things that are of this world. ‘Discernment’ will not allow its disciples to color their conscience gray any longer.
Many have reason to avoid ‘discernment’ for it will but convict them of their love for this world and it’s things. One of the byproducts of “independence” ;-(
“Then said The Messiah unto him. A certain man made a great supper, and invited many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were invited, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray you have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go to prove them: I pray you have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring here the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as you have commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were invited shall taste of my supper.”
“And there went great multitudes with The Messiah: and He turned, and said unto them, If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross, and follow after Me, cannot be My disciple.”
The Messiah testified: “As GOD sent Me, so send I you”. Those who are ‘sent’ will trust and believe that The ONE GOD, Father of ALL, will “supply all their needs” as HE “works in them HIS Will and good pleasure”. They are dependent upon, and subject unto Their GOD and Father, just like their Master(Lord) and Brother, The Messiah was.
And what of this world’s religious ways?
The ONLY TRUE GOD has given HIS Call!
“Come out of her, MY people”!
‘christianity’, ‘islam’, ‘judaism’,.etc., are but religious systems that are of this world and all alike they are, and so it is that the seed of death is sown in their religious ways, because life becomes but a pawn in the wicked game they play!
And you? Do you have your part in their destructive and perverse processes? Are you independent? Or are you dependent upon The Only True GOD, Father of ALL?
There is but confusion and stress(dis-ease, no peace) for those who believe in the imagined systems of ‘order’ established by mankind. Systems that were established in service to the “god of this world” and his “way”. And his “way”, his desire, is to destroy the Creation of The Only True GOD. And mankind’s worldly systems: religious, political, social, economic, judicial, educational,,,, are all systems ordered of mankind to suit “the god of this world’s” purposes, and play their part in his destructive processes. The Only True GOD, Creator of ALL has declared that HE will “destroy them who destroy and pervert HIS Creation(land, air, water, creatures, Truth, Love, Peace, .etc.)”. Most play their part in the destructive processes because of their “love for money” and “ease of life“. Simply, Truth IS, “You can not serve The Only True GOD and money(mammon)”.
There is hope for those who take heed unto The Call of The Only True GOD and “Come Out” of this world and it’s seductive religious systems. Hope for those who “set their affections on things above”, eternal things, heavenly things. Hope because those who do so will quit serving ‘time’ in the prison that is this world.
There is Peace and True Freedom, In Dependence upon The Only True GOD! All HIS Children are dependent upon HIM, and as their Brother and Master, The Messiah, so they also desire above all else, “Father, not my will, But THY Will Be Done”!
“Our Father”!
Reality, now and forever!
HalleluYAH!
Peace, in spite of the dis-ease(no-peace) that is of this world and it’s systems of religion,
“for the WHOLE world is under the control of the evil one” indeed and Truth……. francisco