On Day 2 (Monday) my scheduled reading from the Holy Book was from Romans ch1: vv1-17, however, I didn't stop there, I read verse 18, too. In my version, it reads:-

 

 

This morning Day 5 (Thursday) in Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" words from that same verse were quoted.

 

As teachers of The Word, it is imperative that we do not suppress the TRUTH in our own unrighteousness, we have to be right with God, or suffer the consequences, it is true that we are saved by God's grace, but, if we know the TRUTH, we should not be holding back from teaching the TRUTH.

 

The holiday period, the world calls Christmas is fast approaching, if you are a Pastor, a teacher of the Word, then now is a good time to tell the TRUTH about Y'shua, the real Jesus from the Bible. Almighty God will be with you when you do. If you are more afraid of your congregation than you are of God, or more worried about what people might say, then dear friend, I would question your calling. We were called to be bold. Be bold for Christ and take His message forward. Return to God, listen to what He is saying, a verse just came to mind, I believe comes from Matthew, "Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God, and obey it."

 

Brother, Sister - Be Blessed!!

OK, so we are still in August, but already this month, I have heard the C word many times, in relation to how many shopping days there are left, what the vegetables will inevitably be that appear on the plate, in relation to the entity that is called father Christmas, and so on.

 

Nothing is mentioned about the so-called real reason for Christmas.

 

So what is the real reason? You might say, "It is the time we celebrate the birth of Christ." or worse, you might say, "It is Christ's birthday."

 

It is true to say that this is the time when the church celebrates the birth of Christ. However in the Good book, the Holy Bible, it doesn't actually give a date for the birth of Y'shua (Jesus). There is however, enough written evidence to suggest He was born as man around the time of the Festival of the Feast of Trumpets, still celebrated by the Jewish people today.

 

There is not one verse in the New Testament to support the celebration of the birth of our Lord, who is the Alpha and the Omega, therefore, His true age in human terms is not known, indeed cannot be known, He is God, check out John's Gospel, chapter 1 verses 1-18.

 

I would go so far as to say that there are verses which argue against celebrating Christmas. For instance Mark chapter 7 vv7-8.

 

So what about the real reason? Augustine was sent to Britain in 597 to evangelise the Pagans, but, they wouldn't give up there festivals, so Christmas was an attempt to Christianise Paganism, but as is evident from the way it is celebrated today, it is quite clear Christianity has been paganised.

 

It is true the churches fill up for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, surely then Church AWAKE, tell the congregation the TRUTH, the WHOLE TRUTH, and NOTHING but THE TRUTH. Christ Himself said, I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE.

 

He is not a baby doll to be dusted off and placed in a makeshift manger near the font in your church or on the sideboard or mantlepiece at home. Christ is the Saviour of the world, living, breathing, doing those works through the people He has chosen in the world to be His disciples.

 

So come on Brothers and Sisters in Christ, do not celebrate Christmas as the world celebrates it. Search out those organisations who are prominent at this time and offer your services as a volunteer, you never know you might like it.

 

May the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the ABBA of our Lord, Y'shua the Christ, bless you and have mercy on you. Amen.

 

 

A few years ago, I had the privilege of working for a potato processing and packing business. One of the MD's always used to refer to me as his "diamond geezer".

 

One day, a matter arose which resulted in me having to attend his office, so I took the opportunity of why he insisted on calling me his "diamond geezer". It was just a simple mis-understanding of the pronunciation of my surname. He pronounced it as Jewel, when in fact it is Duell.

 

Both words do have something in common, they both end in "el" which in Hebrew translates as God. Jew-el, obviously means precious to God, and as everyone knows the Jewish people are most definitely precious to our Father in Heaven. Whatever the anti-semitists might think or say.

 

Duell, in the Torah, (Pentateuch, Books of the Law of Moses) there is reference to a Deuel, which again in Hebrew means, "known of God".

OK, I cocede that the spelling is slightly different. However, what it constantly reminds me of is this. To "duel" is to combat between two people, or in this case two forces. The forces of God(Light) and the forces of the prince of darkness.

 

Brother, Sister, which force are you fighting for today?

 

May El Shadai, bless you and continue to bless you. Amen and Amen

 

During the confirmation process of this ministry, Almighty God promised me, "It won't be easy!", and as if to make a point He took me back to a village where I once lived, there, there resides a stone mason, Bill, the stone mason showed me some works which he had completed and they were works of art, and in my eyes they looked flawless. And the message at the time was this, "You are working with people with hearts of stone, you just have to keep chipping away, until they get the message."

 

On the Sabbath of 28th June, the point was reinforced, God used a starling to do it, we had just read some of the readings for the day, when we heard an almighty bang on the brick wall of our house, now we are used to collared doves crashing into the windows, but this was a completely different sound, so we had to investigate. It was a starling, and judging by the crash, it should never have survived the collision, indeed we thought it hadn't as it lay comotose on the roof of the Garden room. I went inside to get the steps to remove the starling from the roof, but returned to see him standing up (recovered) and a few minutes later he flew off, none the worse for his ordeal. The message this time was, "Yes, it will be like banging your head against a brick wall, but - you must not give up!"

 

If Almighty God has given you a job to do, never give up, and don't be afraid to ask for His help either.

 

God bless you, today, shalom.