FROM PASTOR TIM JOHNSON:
For those who get a chance to read this, may God bless you and your families during this special season of thinking about Jesus and all that He has accomplished for us in His birth, life, death and resurrection. Merry Christmas!
This past Sunday we ended our series on Jeremiah entitled, “I am watching over my word to perform it”, taken from Jeremiah 1:12. And did we ever see God perform His word in this series. There could be no doubt that God directed the activities of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Judah, the various, kings, priests, so-called prophets, and all the people of the world. And He still is.
In our day the issue attracting the most attention is the impeachment of the most powerful leader on earth, the President of the United States. People are asking if he should he be removed or not? God knows the answer, because God is “watching over my word to perform it.”
God is not surprised by what’s happening in the United States, or in China, France, Israel, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Chile, Mexico or Canada. He is sovereign and He alone puts leaders in place for the strict purpose of fulfilling His global plan, which began with the promises to Abraham.
Let us walk without fear that God has got all of this. At the same time, let us recognize certain patterns in our world that are incredibly similar to those revealed in God’s word, and in particular, the book of Jeremiah.
Those patterns include increased resistance to God Himself; rebellion towards God’s Holy Bible; the rise of unsavory leaders who threaten the known world; the incredible development of the economy and resources in Israel creating a massive migration of Jews around the world to Israel; a shrinking body of believers who sometimes seem bewildered; and the ever present need for intentional hope.
Most who stopped me on Sunday after the sermon commented on how they needed to hear a message of hope. It’s such a simple concept, but oh does it make a difference. If we place too much hope in transitory and fleeting things such as either the removal or acquittal of the President of the United States, we will find ourselves only temporarily satisfied. We’ll rejoice for a moment.
But when our hope is rooted in Christ, when our hope is increasingly shaped by God’s word as He reveals Himself, we will find a hope that is ready at the moment of seeming despair. We will find ourselves more joyful people. We will find ourselves eager to serve for God’s glory and not ours.
We will find genuine freedom.
Enjoy your family, friends and church this Christmas, and rejoice in the true, eternal and lovely hope that Jesus, born in a manger, died to pay for our sins, rose to prove He can forgive us, and will, by God’s word, return to reign forever.
Merry Christmas!
Pastor Tim