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.

 

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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.

 

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