New Year Greetings for 2004
EARLIER NEW YEAR GREETINGS
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New Year Greetings for 2004 |
2004 ? Divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, with its first digit half the last,
and a
balancing two zeros
in the middle, this year seems mathematically versatile;
but it is still
pondering SARS
outbreaks, devastating earthquakes,
murder as usual wrought against Israel,
like
some
sort of entomological excursion, while Israel as usual also,
is hauled over the
coals by
aggressive Europeans and others for her conduct
in seeking to reduce the murder
rate
by enwalling a minute proportion of the Palestine robbed from her,
after it had been ceded for her by the League of Nations;
Mars is still a fiasco for sci-phil fans,
the earth a target for religious
extremists,
deft in destruction, as a specialty rather than anything else,
Christ is still the only WAY, His loving constructiveness carefully excluded
from the highly intelligent and worthless words that pander to culture,
continually emitting from pompous places
(cf. Daniel 7:11,20, Revelation 13:5),
as this world moves ever closer in its nose dive to meet reality
in the Person of Jesus Christ, sometime soon
(cf. Answers to Questions
Ch. 5).
All things proceed as God said, as will the judgmental proceedings in that not
so nice
as Nuremberg court, which will open the books, in the end.
Marvellous
still is that most blessed book of life, where grace writes eternity into the
names of those who receive it
(Ephesians 1:11, John 1:12, 5:47, 6:40, 5:24),
for the sake of the Saviour,
Christ the unchanged, the ransom the same,
the power unaltered, the preciousness immutable.
With God, you see, you have it
all!
It reminds one of the story of the man who took two children
boating along the Niagara
River,
as told in a Reader's Digest volume some years ago (1965).
After a time even the
children grew somewhat concerned
as they found the waters turbulent, near the
Falls. It seems the man,
who died when the boat went over the Falls (without
him), did not stop till too late.
One child was amazingly rescued, a small number
of feet from the Falls,
by a heroic policeman and one assisting him, who all but
tottered in after her.
These just managed to get her; but another went over, and
apparently being light, may have been cushioned by blustery air,
and at the
bottom of the Falls
came out as his sister had done above, all but unharmed.
Rescue is always necessary, costly,
the peril great; but the way provided works.
It is a matter of seeing where you are, in time.
The world's Gospel
proclamation phase amongst crooked kingdoms,
is nearly over; and
the
Gospel can still grab people from the gyrations
and turbulence of the rushing
waters of history,
to the peace in Christ, whose war is on sin and whose welfare
program
is for cancellation in guilt
on Himself and overcoming in life through
faith,
by the power and perseverance of His Spirit.
His grace is still sufficient, His commands blessedly
followed by us who believe,
not at all in ourselves as if near the summits of perfection, but with earnest
desire,
aided by His presence who goes with us (Matthew 28:19-20)
and by His
everlasting mercy.
Our
terrain as we walk, Jesus Christ IS that summit of perfection.
It is not in
ourselves
but in Him that it lies, and He lives. This makes life exciting,
delicious,
like being a child
on a racing car, driven by an expert.
It becomes
intriguing in exploration of the graces and mercies,
the truth and wonder of
Him who is always the same, exuberant in vitality,
explicatory of all things,
coherent in all, eternal over time,
author over creation, marvel of mercy,
kind in the midst of a magnificence that nothing can imitate,
that of
God Himself.
Ø
A New Year Message for 2004
NEW
YEAR GREETINGS for 2003
May your year
indeed be happy:
but first go where it is:
To Him whose
happiness is intimate with holiness,
In the realm of
love, peace and truth.
For Your New Year Message, travel to
this station:
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