Prepare Him Room

'…They will call him Immanuel – which means ‘God with us'' ~Matthew 1:23b.

Willow Tree figurines

The birth of Jesus was an event that was foretold thousands of years before the event actually occurred. There are numerous accounts written of a child to be born, a son to be given to us. ‘He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’ ~Isaiah 9:6.

At the exact time appointed by God, it came time for Jesus to enter this world. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and told him that his wife ‘“(Mary) will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save people from their sins”. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet*: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means ‘God with us’’ ~Matthew 1:20b, 21-23; *cross reference Isaiah 7:14

‘The time came for the baby to be born, and she (Mary) gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn’ ~Luke 2:7.

Every single prophecy concerning Christ’s first coming was fulfilled to the letter, and every prophecy concerning His second coming will be too. That time is drawing near. It will be a horrible tragedy to be ‘left behind’. We have the opportunity now to know Jesus; to love him and accept him as our Saviour. We are told to watch and wait (Micah 7:7a&b) and be prepared for that moment that will happen at a time no-one but God knows (Matthew 24:44) ‘in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye’ (1 Corinthians 15:52a).

    Many people today, have no room for Jesus in their hearts. They are too busy, too preoccupied and believe that Jesus is not relevant for this modern world; with the state that this world is in, really the opposite is true. On the other hand, others may acknowledge Jesus and try and ‘fit’ him in to their life, but too many other 'things' are competing for priority, so Jesus takes a backseat, rather than sit in the driver's seat.

Jesus ought to be the centre of our lives: the forefront of our mind, our hearts, our lives. We are called to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind' (Luke10:27b); to ‘Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness’ (Matthew 6:33a) and ‘trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight’ (Proverbs 3:5-6).

He will direct our path through life, he has plans to 'prosper you... to give you a future and a hope' (Jeremiah 29:11); we just need to trust him implicitly in all things (Psalm 31:14) and allow him to implement these plans in and through our life (Psalm 31:15a).

Prepare him room in your heart.

For unto us a child is born

O behold, the mystery now unfolds
See the star shine on the virgin foretold
Angels sing and light up the sky
Hope rings out in a newborn’s cry
Swing wide, you ancient gates
For Christ is born today!

CHORUS
Prepare Him room
Prepare Him room
Let the King of glory enter in
 
God with us, the promise has come to be
This, the one the prophets were longing to see
In the darkness a blazing light
To the hungry the words of life
His kingdom now is near
For those with ears to hear

Oh, our hearts, as busy as Bethlehem
Hear Him knock, don’t say there’s no room in the inn
Through the cradle, cross, and grave
See the love of God displayed
Now He’s risen and He reigns
Praise the Name above all names!

Accept him into your heart today – you will not ever regret it.

It is my prayer for you:
 ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope…’ ~Romans 15:13

Encounter Him

We encounter the love of God everyday in our lives. One way that he expresses His love for us is in His creation.

‘Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing’ ~Isaiah 40:26.

It’s amazing to know that ‘by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth’ (Psalm 33:6). What a wonderful thought! ‘He spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm’ (Psalm 33:9).

We cannot ‘fathom the mysteries of God. (We cannot) probe the limits of the Almighty’ ~Job 11:7.

The majesty and wonder of God cannot be fully comprehended by man. God himself cannot be ‘boxed into’ a mere English word or a collection of words that describes his majesty, his ‘awesomeness’ completely and in its entirety, justly.

 ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse’ ~Romans 1:20.

The essence of God's divine nature is love and righteousness (Psalm 33:5). He is the source of a divine love called ‘agape’ love; love of unmerited favor, that which is offered to all of mankind through God's grace (Ephesians 2:4-6). He is the source of righteousness in the world; his nature is the source of all goodness, love, truth, and wisdom (Colossians 2:2-3).

How true it is – ‘How great is our God – beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out’ ~Job 36:26.

There is so much about God that we don’t understand – it’s overwhelming just how wonderful He is.

'Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. By faith we understand that the universe was formed by the word of God (by God's command), so that what is seen was not made out of what is visible' ~Hebrews 11: 1 & 3

One thing we do know, one thing we do see, one thing we do experience is his LOVE.

‘The earth is full of his unfailing love’ ~Psalm 33:5b.

God wants us to ‘experience’ how wonderful he is – how majestic, mighty, powerful, faithful and loving he is. However, in our imperfect human state, we can’t fully do that. Thus, for now: ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Psalm 34:8a). It is just a ‘taste’; it is a glimpse of what is to come ‘for those who love him’ (1 Corinthians 2:9)

'The wonders' (Psalm 9:1b) of his creation – 'the work of his fingers' (Psalm 19:1b) that surrounds us: the natural beauty of the heavens and the earth is an expression of his love to us. The beauty and exquisite detail of a nighttime sky illuminated with millions of stars. The grandeur of a mountain range or canyon, the refreshing and beautiful sight of a waterfall. The soft colours of fading daylight and the vibrant of a new day dawning.

'The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy' ~Psalm 65:8

There is something magical about a sunrise. The abyss of darkness fades away as the light begins to pierce through. The magical blue becomes a warm, rosy glow with its radiance ever increasing, as the bright colour of scarlet heralds the arrival of a new day. There is a moment, a pause, before it harks its song and takes flight; spilling golden light upon the plains, across the hills, penetrating the deepest of forests, and scaling the tallest of peaks.

‘Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life’ ~ Psalm 143:8

‘Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days’ ~Psalm 90:14

'It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night...' ~Psalm 92.1-2.

God’s ultimate expression of His love was giving us His Son, Jesus:

‘This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins’ ~1 John 4:9-10.

It is truly a beautiful, wonderful, comforting and empowering concept to grasp:

…‘Neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ ~Romans 8:39.

  

‘The Lord your God is with you; he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing’ ~Zephaniah 3:17.

As the time of year where we celebrate the birth of Jesus nears, may you reflect on what the love of God truly is and know that:

'For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast' ~Ephesians 2:8-9

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes.

You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore.
~Matt Redman

'Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good...'

‘Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; his love endures forever’ ~Psalm 107:1.

As this time of year approaches once again, and in the light of a catastrophic tragic accident of an up and coming Cricket champion, that sent shockwaves around the world this week, many deep thoughts have been at the forefront of my mind...

 The reality that life is so fragile, so fleeting.

 Job contemplated the evaporative concept of life: ‘(Man) springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure’ (Job 14:2).

 How true it is, we ‘do not even know what will happen tomorrow. (Our) life is like the morning fog that appears for a little while and then vanishes’ ~James 4:14.

(Photo taken from: wallconvert.com)

In a split second life can be cut short ‘in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye…’ ~1 Corinthians 15:52ai Eternity is determined in a split second. No turning back, that’s it. Forever, for eternity, for all time with no end. It’s hard to take in, almost too much really; but it’s reality and it’s seldom taken seriously by many people today.

 I wonder what the young man’s last thoughts were? Thoughts that flashed through his mind in the final few seconds of his life that he was conscious? Did he know Jesus? Had he accepted or rejected Him as His Saviour? Only eternity will tell.

I pray that you, dear reader, may think on this for a moment. I pray that you may know or come to know the joy that comes with having Jesus in your heart (Habakkuk 3:18), entrusting him with your life and knowing that you have a place prepared for you in Heaven (Romans 14:3).

        What are you thankful for?

 I am thankful for my life – each and every breath, each and every heart beat, each new day that I wake to see. I’m thankful for my family, the people placed in my life, my church, and above all my Saviour and His everlasting, unconditional love!

As Job writes, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives… I myself will see him with my own eyes… How my heart yearns within me!’ ~Job 19:25a & 27a,c

I pray that you, dear readers, may be filled with all joy and peace as you choose to trust in the God of hope, so that you may overflow with hope… (Romans 15:13).

 As Jesus hung on that cross, with his arms stretched open wide – his final words were “It is finished” (John 19:30a). A guaranteed place in hell for eternity was no longer the only option – we now have the choice to choose Jesus. To choose Him whose arms stretched open wide metaphorically say to us “I love you THIS much”.
 

The truth is, He loves you more in one moment, than anyone could in a lifetime.

'The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song’ ~Psalm 28:7.
 

Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You

It is you, Lord
Who came to save
The heart and soul
Of every man
It is you Lord
Who knows my weakness
Who gives me strength,
With thine own hand.

Lead Me on Lord
From temptation
Purify me
From within
Fill my heart with
You holy spirit
Take away all my sin

Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You.


~Leah

A Glimpse of Eternity

I have recently returned from a place that, prior to going, captivated my imagination in all its natural beauty. It is a place that is virtually untouched by urban development; a place that is hugely photographed and widely advertised. It is a place that exhibits natural wonder and beauty.

No specific photo can do this place justice. The true beauty, magnitude, grandeur and expanse of it all, simply cannot be grasped in one’s mind until it is personally experienced. The photos merely provide a glimpse of what is absolutely spectacular and breathtakingly magnificent. I recall on many occasions being lost for words – unable to express the overwhelming joy that filled my heart as I marvelled at the awesome handiwork of our Creator God. As I stood still for a moment – a mere fleck on the spectrum of the vast landscape above and below my feet, my mind was filled with verses of praise from the Bible.

      ‘I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High’ ~Psalm 9:1-2

I watched the sun slowly descend towards and dip below the horizon. Daylight lingers as if left behind. The rich, warm pastels stretch across the expanse of the vast desert landscape and up into the endless expanse. The clouds displayed a glowing vibrance as it locked in the rich golden tones emitted by the beaming ball of light on the horizon.

Uluru (Ayers Rock - NT) sunset

As the light of day fades, the vast, rich array of colours soften and deepen as ‘the sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night’ (Haruki Murakami).

 

One by one, the stars begin to peep through the darkness, and ‘…light the universe with their admonishing smile’ (Ralph Waldo Emerson). One ‘star’, in particular seems to beam its radiant light brighter than all the others – and it is first to appear in the nighttime sky. The evening star. Also the morning star. It is actually the planet Venus.

I lifted my eyes to the heavens. The beauty and exquisite detail of a sky luminous with more stars than I had ever seen before was breathtaking. Truly, 'no sight is more provocative of awe than the night sky' (Lleweyn Powys).

In that very moment I was overcome by God’s omnipotence (unlimited power), His omnipresence (present everywhere), His omniscience (infinite knowledge) and His omnibenevolence (perfect goodness). I was amazed at the thought that God placed them there with His hand, and knows ‘each (one) by name’! (Psalm 147:4)

      ‘He stretches out the heavens like a canopy… He brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing’ ~Isaiah 40 22b & 26.

It was a clear, moonless night, where urban air and light pollution ceased to exist. Clearly visible to the human eye was the hazy band of white light that characterises the ‘Milky Way’ – the galaxy in which our solar system is. From where we stand on earth, this dim glowing band resembled a luminous arch of cirrus cloud across the night sky.

Cirrus cloud

What makes it more amazing, more wonderful and more glorious is the fact that the glowing band is itself made up of thousands of stars in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individually. Of the 5,000 to 8,000 stars in the Milky Way visible to the human eye from Earth, one can usually only see about 2,500 at a time. In fact, the few thousand stars we can see of the Milky Way with our naked eye are only about 0.000003% of the 200-400 billion stars that inhabit the Milky Way! (universetoday.com) Wow… It is was and remains impossible for my finite mind to comprehend it, in its entirety.

I was conscious of the Bible verse, ‘Be still and know that I am God’ ~Psalm 46:10a (emphasis mine).

Know that God is the Creator of our universe (Genesis 1:1 & Revelation 4:11); that He is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 22:13). Know that He is our Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Know that He is the Lord Almighty, the King of Glory (Psalm 24:10). Know this in your heart.

For a brief moment, I felt so small, so insignificant; a mere fleck, on this little blue planet that hangs (in space) on nothing (Job 26:7b), in this endless, boundless universe. “Who am I?” I thought.

      ‘When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?’ ~Psalm 8:3-4

I know full well, as the Bible tells me so that I am His. He is mine. We are His. He is ours.

He died for me and He died for you.

      ‘How mighty must He be who made the stars as ‘the work of (His) fingers’ (Psalm 8:3). How wise must He be who knows the number of each one (Psalm 147:4). How lofty must He be who humbles Himself to ‘look on the things that are in heaven’ (Psalm 113:6). Ah, but how loving must He be who came to this little orb and, on His way to the Cross... slept on… a hillside with the stars as His only canopy [see Matthew 8:20]’ (excerpt from Foreword written by J. B. Nicholson, Jr, taken from H. C. Howlett’s The Glories of Our Lord).

That still, quiet moment will forever be etched in my mind. It was a moment where I experienced the splendor and majesty of God on a profound scale; where I was filled with awe and overcome with immense love, joy, peace, gladness, stillness, gratitude and appreciation as I pondered the Glory of God and His goodness, graciousness, mercy and love. It is moments like these, when we are amazed by the natural wonder and beauty of God’s creation that I believe we get a glimpse of eternity.

‘For great is your love, reaching to the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the skies’ ~Psalm 57:10. ‘How priceless is your unfailing love!’ ~Psalm 36:7.

 ‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ ~Romans 5:8.

The Lord tells us, ‘You are precious and honoured in my sight… I love you’ ~Isaiah 43:4a

If you were to count His thoughts towards you, ‘they would outnumber the grains of sand’. Psalm 139: 17-18

I love the words of a hymn I recently heard, written by Geron Davis:

I'm glad I know Who Jesus is!
I'm glad I know who Jesus is!
He's more than just a story;
He is the King of Glory.
I'm glad I know Who Jesus is.

He's the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End;
He's Counsellor, Deliverer to me.
He's the Everlasting Father; He is the King of Glory,
I'm glad I know Who Jesus is!


AMEN!

A Love Letter like no other

   'See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called
children of God! And that is what we are! ...' ~1 John 3:1

   'Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become children of God children born not of natural descent... but
born of God' ~John 1:12-13.

God changes us from the inside out: our heart is renewed and filled with God’s love and joy that overflows; and as our heart is changed, life has new purpose and direction.

   'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast' ~Ephesians 2:8-9.

God’s grace: His kindness, unmerited favour and forgiving love displayed ultimately by giving us Jesus, His only beloved Son, to die so that we can spend eternity in Heaven with Him, if we give Him our heart to change while here on earth.

What a comforting thought - to know that we are His little ones!