“And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shall call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled whish was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Matthew 1:21-23
Mary was so blessed to conceive the Son of God. Oh how glorious that must have felt for her, to be blessed to bear the Child that came to be with us and save us. The Lord came to save us from our sin, but even more to be with us. He is there for us in all things.
Jesus, Emmanuel, came to restore that glorious experience Adam felt in walking with the Almighty. How, even more so for us, as we know from which we have been saved. To be saved from certain death, to reign with the Father eternally in His Kingdom.
Oh how wonderful it must have been to be a shepherd out in the fields and see the angel saying, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the City of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this is the sign unto you: Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and peace among men whom He is well pleased.” Luke 2:10-14
Our Saviour announced by angels, yet humbly found in a manger in a stable. What a place for the King of kings to be born. Lowering Himself to such a place to rise us up out of the depth of our sin. He came to die, that we may live. He came to be with us and walk with us. He came to restore that which was lost in the garden.
Oh Emmanuel, You are with us. You came in a manger and went to a cross to die for us. I join with the angels in saying “Glory to God in the Highest and peace among men.”
I am at peace as I receive that free gift from Christ our Lord.
I receive restoration to our Father who was well pleased to send us His Son.
Join me and raising your voice to say Glory to God in the Highest and peace to us all.
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Author of:
In The Hands Of The Father: My Life With God
Now available in ebook format:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Google
If you prefer hard cover or paperback use the following links:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Xulon Press
If you cannot afford a copy email me at bdknapp@yahoo.com and I will get send you a copy of my writings contained in the book. God Bless.
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Please read my other writings listed on the right of this page or read my columns. I periodically add writings in both places. My only goal is to share what it means to have a amazing relationship with God and how I have achieved that in the hope you to will be able to start on that path. It is a journey that I am still on, join me.
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Chanukah to Passover
We
all know that Easter and Passover coincide, but did you ever think about the
fact we celebrate Christ’s birth around Chanukah? As I write this it is 2005 and Christmas and
the start of Chanukah start on the same day.
Is there a connection between Christmas and Chanukah? Do Chanukah and Passover connect?
What
is Chanukah, otherwise called the Feast of Dedication? Chanukah is Hebrew for dedication. It is a lavish festival commemorating the
purification and reconstruction of the Jerusalem temple and dedication of the
new alter by Judas Maccabeus in 165/164 BC.
Three years to the day after Antiochus IV Epiphanes had desecrated it by
decreeing pagan sacrifices there. That
date was the 25th day of Chislev which is around the
November/December time frame.
We
were desecrated by the sin of Adam and Eve.
Christ came to reconstruct our relationship to God. He came to purify us through His blood. Just as God’s temple at Jerusalem was
reconstructed and purified, we God’s temple are to be reconstructed and purified
through Christ.
Chanukah
was commemorated with mirth and gladness, singing of thanksgiving hymns and
processions in which palms and other greenery were carried. When Jesus entered Jerusalem that final time
before His death on the cross and resurrection, He was met by singing of
praises and branches of greenery and palms spread out on the road before Him
(Matthew 21). After His entry He
cleansed the temple “And He entered the temple and began to cast out those who
were selling, saying to them ‘It is written; And My house shall be a house of
Prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.’” Luke 19:45-46.
Mankind
had made God’s creation a robbers den.
Christ came to purify and cleanse us.
“For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I WILL
DWELL IN THME AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY WILL BE MY
PEOPLE.’” 2nd Corinthians
6:16. We are God’s temple and we had to
be purified before the relationship could be restored.
Around
70 AD the feast was observed by the lighting of lamps in private houses. These lamps were lit on successive nights,
thus the designation “Feast of Lights.”
“Again therefore Jesus spoke to them saying ‘I am the light of the
world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light
of life.’” John 8:12.
In
the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5, Jesus tells us we too as His followers
are the light of the world. We are to
let our light shine before men in such a way that they may see our good works,
and glorify our Father who is in Heaven.
We are to stand as a purified temple of God where His glory can be seen
at all times.
He
came to purify us and ultimately did that at the time of Passover. God’s angel of death passed over the
Israelites in Egypt when they put the blood of the lamb on their
doorposts. It is now Christ’s blood that
is on the doorposts of us His holy temple.
For Christ is the Lamb of God; the perfect sacrifice.
It
is on the occasion of the Feast of Dedication that Jesus described Himself as
the Messiah, the Son of God. “At that
time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus
was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. The Jews therefore gathered around Him and
were saying to Him, ‘How long will You keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly’. Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do
not believe, the works that I do in My Father’s name, these bear witness of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of
My sheep. My sheep hear My voice and I
know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall
never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me is
greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.’” John 10:22-30.
The
celebration of a new life, reconstructed by Jesus, begins with Chanukah and
continues through Passover. Are you one
of His sheep? If so hear His voice then
repent and open yourself up for purification and be cleansed. Go out in live a life that glorifies God, for
He is dwelling with us in His cleansed temple.
We are to let out light shine to the rest of the world that they may
find their way out lf the darkness. Make
your life a perpetual feast of light.
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Author of:
In The Hands Of The Father: My Life With God
Now available in ebook format:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Google
If you prefer hard cover or paperback use the following links:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Xulon Press
If you cannot afford a copy email me at bdknapp@yahoo.com and I will get send you a copy of my writings contained in the book. God Bless.
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Please read my other writings listed on the right of this page or read my columns. I periodically add writings in both places. My only goal is to share what it means to have a amazing relationship with God and how I have achieved that in the hope you to will be able to start on that path. It is a journey that I am still on, join me.
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Author of:
In The Hands Of The Father: My Life With God
Now available in ebook format:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
If you prefer hard cover or paperback use the following links:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Xulon Press
If you cannot afford a copy email me at bdknapp@yahoo.com and I will get send you a copy of my writings contained in the book. God Bless.
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Please read my other writings listed on the right of this page or read my columns. I periodically add writings in both places. My only goal is to share what it means to have a amazing relationship with God and how I have achieved that in the hope you to will be able to start on that path. It is a journey that I am still on, join me.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Are you a slave to sin?
“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is free from sin.” Romans 6:4-7
You no longer have to be a slave to sin, as Paul writes we are free from its hold on our life. Live in Christ’s resurrection an in the glory of the Father.
Not there, still feel the tug of sin in your life? I too feel that and even slip knowingly into its trap. Am I lost, are you lost? Paul was right with us. After Romans 6 he writes Romans 7 addressing this very issue.
After talking about doing what he hates and knows he should not do, Paul says, “But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of death? Romans 7:20-24
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Romans 8:1-3
So when we sin it is okay? This answer is no. While we are tempted and my give in, it cannot be a way of life. We must walk in the Spirit. “that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For mind of flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:4-6
It is the path we choose to stay on that is the key. The longer you are on a path, the more difficult it is to get off. Walk down the path of the flesh too long and it will lead to death. Best to not even go there, but if you see yourself straying turn around quickly and get back in the Spirit and receive peace.
By Brian David Knapp Author and Columnist
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Author of:
In The Hands Of The Father: My Life With God
Now available in ebook format:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Google
If you prefer hard cover or paperback use the following links:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Xulon Press
If you cannot afford a copy email me at bdknapp@yahoo.com and I will get send you a copy of my writings contained in the book. God Bless.
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Please read my other writings listed on the right of this page or read my columns. I periodically add writings in both places. My only goal is to share what it means to have a amazing relationship with God and how I have achieved that in the hope you to will be able to start on that path. It is a journey that I am still on, join me.
“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is free from sin.” Romans 6:4-7
You no longer have to be a slave to sin, as Paul writes we are free from its hold on our life. Live in Christ’s resurrection an in the glory of the Father.
Not there, still feel the tug of sin in your life? I too feel that and even slip knowingly into its trap. Am I lost, are you lost? Paul was right with us. After Romans 6 he writes Romans 7 addressing this very issue.
After talking about doing what he hates and knows he should not do, Paul says, “But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of death? Romans 7:20-24
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Romans 8:1-3
So when we sin it is okay? This answer is no. While we are tempted and my give in, it cannot be a way of life. We must walk in the Spirit. “that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For mind of flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:4-6
It is the path we choose to stay on that is the key. The longer you are on a path, the more difficult it is to get off. Walk down the path of the flesh too long and it will lead to death. Best to not even go there, but if you see yourself straying turn around quickly and get back in the Spirit and receive peace.
By Brian David Knapp Author and Columnist
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Author of:
In The Hands Of The Father: My Life With God
Now available in ebook format:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
If you prefer hard cover or paperback use the following links:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Xulon Press
If you cannot afford a copy email me at bdknapp@yahoo.com and I will get send you a copy of my writings contained in the book. God Bless.
Read Brian's columns at:
http://www.examiner.com/faith-and-culture-in-los-angeles/brian-knapp
Please read my other writings listed on the right of this page or read my columns. I periodically add writings in both places. My only goal is to share what it means to have a amazing relationship with God and how I have achieved that in the hope you to will be able to start on that path. It is a journey that I am still on, join me.
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