And so it is Christmas (well Nearly)

And where are we I wonder?

Are we in awe of the miracle that is God made man as we enter the last twenty-four hours or are we merely treading the same annual path that leads us to the singing of 'Yea Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning'? It is so easy to lose the fervour, wonder and awe that we once had for the Christmas feast just as it is easy to forget the excited giggles as you and your cousins settle down to await the coming of the gentleman with the sleigh. The wonder of an eight year old turns slowly into the duty of one with an eight year old (or in our case 11,13,15 and 17) and the realisation that as much as we try, we cannot relive our childhoods no matter how we try.

Can I explain the virgin birth? No, not at all. Parthenogenesis is something I cannot claim to have gotten a handle on, but as I approach the time set aside to remember our Saviour's birth (and to be fair, it doesn't matter when it really is. What is important is that we celebrate the fact that He came and that we do it with all the others who call themselves Christian. We could do it in July, which would be handy as the shops are a bit quieter them, it wouldn't matter for what is important is that we keep the feast!

Can I prove that it happened? Well I can point to the conjunction of stars, constellations and planets and extrapolate back to show that the 'bright star in the sky' was a reality and that a bloke called Jesus apparently came into the world in the right place at the right time and in the right whatever to make so many prophecies that had been made (and not recent prophecies) all come together. Then again I don't need to prove it for it is up to those who would deny the existence of God, the reality of Christ and whatever to bring to me the concrete evidence that it didn't - this is their right and duty if they wish to make such claims. Mine is merely to stand in that which I understand to be true and enjoy it until such time that someone can prove me, and it, wrong.

Can I look at the services, written, run through and meticulously prepared for and see them as merely 'another service'? No I cannot, for the excitement, the joy and the waiting for the Christ and the expectancy of His second Advent are all goosebump-tinglingly a reality within me.

So here we, and so it is Christmas (nearly) and we look to the Peace of God to be taken up from the Prince of Peace, for Christ's coming brought it into the world as God made man and His death on the Cross made acceptance and relationship with God a reality too. All that is required is for those who wish to live within this reality to reach out and take it.

And for those who say there is no God? Well for them they might be right but of course this is the same as a man living in the desert who says, "There is no sea!" Of course there isn't, it isn't part of his reality, experience or hope. But were he to move and seek the sea it would be found. The same is true for Jesus and those who seek God and His peace.

So I pray that those who have no hope in the Christ-child, the crucified king, the risen Redeemer, the coming Lord of all creation will perhaps move just that little, for it is in the slightest of movements that the Christ is to be found.

may God bless each one of us and those we love, those we live amongst and those whom we have no knowledge of and assist them in the slightest of movements such that Christ may be found.

Pax

Camping - Four days to go?

One of the people leaving comments on this blog mentioned that the Rapture is set for the Feast of Trumpets, the Jewish feast of Rosh Hashanah, which takes place in the seventh month (Tishrei) which due to the way the Jewish calendar works means sometime in September/October in our (Gregorian) calendar.

This means that some Messianic and evangelical types (especially the people who want to rebuild temples and help God along with getting stuff right for the return) will be looking to the same time as Camping but will see it as the right place on the calendar but with the wrong year attached! Perhaps someone needs to work out when future feasts of Rosh Hashanah fall on a 21st October and encourage those who wish to set the conditions for prophecies regarding the end-times to get their finger out and build (or whatever it is they have to do) to head towards that time (wonder if God has a Gantt Chart on His wall?).

For those who wonder where some get the 'feast of trumpets' date from, it is derived from 1 Thessalonians 4: 13 - 16:

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first."

Don't see how this relates to Rosh Hashanah but this is the place I was first taught that the rapture (Parousia) will take up the 'dead in Christ' first and then the living in the twinklinh of an eye (i.e. pretty darned quickly!).

We have many more Bible passages to consider and will continue along that path some time later today when life lets me.

Happy Monday - Be ready, He will return - but in His own time, not ours!

Pax