Showing posts with label "A Candle Lit". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "A Candle Lit". Show all posts

Saturday 8 October 2016

A Candle Lit

A Candle Lit
Francis of Assisi wrote
“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” Francis of Assisi.
The Luke’s Gospel records
“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  
He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  
While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:4-7.
Johns Gospel records the incident this way
  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  
He was with God in the beginning. 
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  
In him was life, and that life was the light of men....  
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-4, 11-14.
On the day Jesus was born a candle was lit. Jesus whom we Christians refer to as the “The Word of God” God incarnate, entered the world He created. He came to point mankind to Himself. God realized that individuals on their own could not live lives pure enough to enter heaven. Thus in the form of Jesus He entered the world.
C. S. Lewis states,
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”  C.S. Lewis.
In coming into the world God was saying to each individual “I love you.” to quote Lewis again.
“He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.” C.S. Lewis.
The writer of Hebrews states,
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.  
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1:1-3.
Through Jesus God experienced all it is to be a human being first hand. We as individuals cannot stand before God and say “you do not know what it is to be a man, because you are all mighty.”
We cannot say that, because He did in fact enter our world. Through Jesus, God understands what it is to be loved by friends and family. He understands what it is to feel the day to day things, rain on your face, the sun, even the smell of dust.
Through Jesus he also understands what it is to be hated, accused of a crime he did not do. To suffer an inhumane beating and put to death wrongly.
  The apostle Paul writes,
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  
Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” Romans 5:6-11.
So the question to you the reader becomes who do you believe Jesus is?
Please think carefully about it. Please take time to read the New Testament and see what his followers believed Him to be.
Please think about it.