A Savior is Coming!

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On December 25 the whole world will celebrate the most significant event in human history: the day that God came to earth as a baby. Have you ever stopped to consider why this event is so important, why the birth of Jesus was the apex of human history? This was an event so monumental that the historical designation for time changed from B.C., Before Christ, to A.D., Anno Domini, Latin for “The Year of Our Lord.”

To give some perspective, the Christmas Story started way back in Genesis, “In the beginning,” when everything that God created was good, when humans had a perfect relationship with God. Adam and Eve even walked with Him in the Garden; they had perfect access to him. It was paradise!

Then came the ultimate tragedy: The Fall. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and their fellowship was broken, sin entered the world plunging the whole human race into rebellion against Him, putting everyone under his wrath, judgment and condemnation.

But there was Good News: a promise of restoration when God said to the serpent, that devil of old: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) There would be a constant battle between Satan and the woman, and with her offspring, the entire human race. Yet, a Savior would be born through that woman, one who would right the wrongs the devil had caused when He would “crush your head.” This was the promise from the beginning: He is coming! A Savior is coming!

Through all the Old Testament books, we are continually reminded that a Savior is coming! In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb, in Leviticus, our High Priest. In Numbers, Heis the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night. Deuteronomy: Heis the Prophet and Mediator like Moses.

A SAVIOR IS COMING!

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Christianity for Both Sides of the Aisle

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A recent encounter with two friends caused me to realize that I needed to approach political conversations in a whole different way. With our country divided the way it is, simple dialogues about how government should be run are now a thing of the past. Everyone has their guard up; everybody believes they’re right; all think the other side is wrong. Before the discussion with my friends even got past introductory comments, one person had her arms crossed, the other bolted for the door. I knew right then and there my days as a “Political Pastor” had come to an end.

“I write on the cusp of a momentous event—the most crucial midterm election of my lifetime,” wrote Janie B. Cheney in an article for WORLD Magazine. “It replaces the previous most-crucial midterm of my lifetime, which occurred in 2014. Farther back in memory is the third most-crucial midterm of 2010. But no sooner will Nov. 6 come and go than the general election of 2020 will loom like a tidal wave of crucial importance. Every two years the stakes crawl higher, with more lives and futures at risk. Everything we hold dear is on the line, threatened with extinction if the other side wins. Or maybe not.”

Cheney continues, “It’s happened before, but always with some well-defined danger in view: ‘secession in the 1860s, labor wars in the 1870s, socialism in the 1890s, the Cold War in the 1960s and ’70s. The current ‘crisis’ is not so well defined, and certainly not as cogently argued. After every ugly incident, furious fingers point at both sides: They started it. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Call down hell, and there’s hell to pay. This, pundits warn us solemnly, is a crisis of ‘civility.’”

With that in mind, I have come up with some directives that come from the Bible so that we can get back to the business of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF CIVILITY FOR A POLITICALLY-CHARGED AGE

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Jerry’s Next Step

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JERRY HAD ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT because of a terminal illness, so his wife asked me to visit him at the Veteran’s Hospital so that I could give him the Gospel. I started the conversation by asking him what his next step would be. He pointed upwards.

“Heaven?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Why are you going there, Jerry?”

“Because I’m a good person….”

good person

I gently explained that no one is good enough and asked if he had kept God’s Ten Commandments, which is God’s Moral Law. He understood that he was a liar, a thief, an adulterer-at-heart, a murderer and a blasphemer, that he’d be found guilty on Judgment Day and he’d end up in Hell because of his sin. I vividly described the consequences of his sin and the reality of Hell for all those who would die unforgiven.

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