Christmas Archives - Colin Dye

Merry Christmas 2022

Colin Dye — Sun, 18 Dec 2022 10:06:39 +0000

CHRISTMAS 2022
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men (Luke 2:14).

The angels’ message to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem is heart-warming. But what about the freezing weather, the fuel crisis, the rise in cost of living, winter flu, Covid-19 infections and Russia’s war against Ukraine?

One thing is clear – the good news of God’s kingdom has yet to reach the hearts of general humanity. We know that the kingdom is here in part, and we know the joys of peace with God and his good will toward us in Christ.

May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

As well as enjoying the season, let us also take up the ministry of prayer for our nation and the nations of the world. As believers, let us also allow the true message of the gospel, once again, to penetrate our hearts deeply. Let us search out the riches of Christ so that we may increasingly become what we proclaim.

In the meantime, we are not alone. Remember Emmanuel. God is with us.

HAPPY 2023!

Many will want to put 2022 behind very quickly. It was difficult for most of us. But every New Year brings new opportunity. Perhaps we can make a fresh start. Think about changing what you can, one step at a time, to make life better for yourself and those around you.

Make 2023 a year of New Beginnings.

Colin and Amanda in Effingham, Illinois December 2022

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One birth changed everything!

Colin Dye — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 09:00:16 +0000

Around 360,000 new babies are born into this world every day. Can you imagine all the celebrations that are taking place right now over these new born children? Now also consider that the majority of human beings also celebrate their birthdays each year, that’s a huge amount of birthday celebrations going on each day! Births and birthdays are extremely important to us all. But out of the billions of births that have taken place in the history of the world there was one birth that changed everything and that is why we celebrate Christmas – or the birth of Christ. Any proper study of the Christmas story will reveal the most amazing of truths:

The Nativity

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
In the Christ child, born of a virgin, was the embodiment of divine glory, grace and truth. Out of that one birth would eventually come many spiritual births for whenever one truly puts their faith in Christ they receive a new spiritual birth – they become born again! Who would have ever thought that the grace and love of Almighty God would be demonstrated in the birth of a tiny vulnerable child? From the cradle to the cross everything Jesus did was for our benefit, he was born for us, he lived for us, he died for us, he rose for us, and he now lives evermore to intercede for us. Jesus is God’s gift to mankind.

What do you want for Christmas?

This is a question that will be asked millions of times in the next few weeks. But everything we could ever want, need or hope for as human beings is already found in Christmas and its message of glad tidings. This season amid all the celebrations, the Christmas services, the shopping, the holidays and the gathering of friends and families – draw close to Jesus and let his grace and truth fill you to overflowing – it’s the surest way to have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year! God bless you all this Christmas time!

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Christmas Mystery

Colin Dye — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:45:42 +0000

The Christmas story focuses on some the deepest mysteries of our faith. It speaks of God becoming human while yet remaining God. It tells of the infinite God contracting into finite space and a specific time zone, becoming as fully human as though he were never divine and yet remaining as fully divine as though he were never human.

The Christmas story focuses on some the deepest mysteries of our faith. It speaks of God becoming human while yet remaining God.

The term for this is, the Incarnation – God was manifest in the flesh and lived for a while among us. The origin of this distinctly Christian concept is the Gospels themselves. They tell, in simple and unembellished form, of the angel Gabriel coming to a certain family and revealing the birth of two great figures in religious history – John was to be born to Elizabeth and Jesus to Mary. Both would have a miraculous conception. John because his parents were old and his mother infertile. And Jesus, because he would not have a human father but be born to a virgin mother. John would become a great preacher but Jesus was to be called the Son of God.

The virginity of Mary shows in the Gospel story that this was not merely the creation of a new life, but the coming into the world of the Son of God. There was no procreation in the usual sense. No man was involved in the conception of Jesus, and neither is there any hint in the Gospels of the repulsive notion that God had sexual relations with Mary in order to have a son. The relationship between God the Father and God the Son (and indeed God, the Holy Spirit) is an eternal relationship. Christmas did not give the Father the son he never had, but it brought the eternal Son of the Eternal Father into the world by the agency of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was, as the Gospel says, the Word made flesh (John 1:14). As the Word of God, Jesus always existed but through the incarnation he came into the world by a miraculous and immaculate virgin birth through the Holy Spirit. And so the Trinity is complete, and revealed in the Christmas story. This, once again, is something utterly unique to Christianity. We hold that God does not exist in a cold arithmetic oneness, but eternally in three divine inter-related persons, all fully divine and clearly distinguishable and yet, at the same time, remaining one person, one God. We do not believe, as we have been falsely accused of believing, in three Gods, but one God.

But how do we put all the pieces of this Christmas mystery together? Simple. God is a God of relationship, and he created us to have a relationship with him. The Christmas story is about God coming to restore a lost humanity back to relationship with himself. And only a fully relational God could or would even want to go that far. Thank God for the Christian revelation!

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Will there always be a Christmas?

Colin Dye — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:25:52 +0000

Christmas time is a strange season for our society. Britain and Europe are becoming increasingly secular and anti-Christian. It is public policy to marginalise the Christian faith and push it? into the realm of the private and the personal. And yet Christmas flourishes! Or does it really? The shops certainly know it’s Christmas – and with good reason. But this has little to do with God.

The Christmas lights on Oxford Street, London.

The retail message replaces the Christmas message and money is the reason for the season. Local Councils in London want to have it both ways. Many frown upon and even “ban’ Christmas by removing all “Christian content’ from the “Festive Season’. This is, so they say, not to offend those from other faiths. But these same Councils are thrilled with the extra cash Christmas brings into their borough.

“Keep Christ out of Christmas!’

There are strong moves afoot to take Christ out of Christmas. The argument goes like this: Society has changed. Very few “go to church’ anymore. But Christmas is good (for business). So let’s enjoy it as a (pagan) Festival and let the “few remaining’ Christians keep the religious element to themselves. This way people can enjoy the partying, the family get-togethers, the drinking, and the indulgence – and not even think about the One in whose name and honour all this is supposed to be about. The truth is Christ now has very little to do with the public face of Christmas. For the Church to celebrate the birth of Christ is natural and right. For individual believers it is a real opportunity for celebration, worship and personal renewal. The holiday season is a welcome break from ordinary routine and a great time for friends and family. But would it be a great loss if the public presentation of Christmas was removed?

Replacing Christmas?

There are those who would like to remove the “Christian element’ totally from the “winter festive season’. They would replace all Christian festivals with their own. The revival of paganism today would certainly mean a return to pre-Christian pagan winter and spring festivals. That way the commercialism and paganisation of Christmas would be complete. But for us all this is far removed from the reality of our faith. We do celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Christ. But we also celebrate His life, His death on the cross, His resurrection, His ascension and His coming again. We don’t keep Him in the cradle, but see Him as the Mature Man of Heaven. We refuse to let our image of Him be limited to the sight of a little child – harmless, meek and mild.

Jesus Christ is Lord of all we see!

Jesus Christ is the Lord – the Lord of all. And His lordship extends to the High Street retailers, the pornographers of Christmas and the idolatry of the pleasure-seekers. His lordship lays claim to all we see and no amount of marginalisation can change that!

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The Imprint in the Gold

Colin Dye — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:17:43 +0000

The birth of Jesus 2,000 years ago, marked for centuries by the Christian Church on Christmas Day, brought God’s Gift to humanity. The Eternal God made Himself so wondrously close as to become a defenceless baby in the arms of a young mother. What a tiny and apparently insignificant start to God’s life on this planet – and yet so absolutely true to divine form. After all, the authentic hallmark of God’s activity – the imprint in the gold – is His overwhelming attention to detail and His infinite patience as He waits for us to recognise Him.

The Eternal God made Himself so wondrously close as to become a defenceless baby in the arms of a young mother.

God could have sent His Son fully formed in adult humanity to occupy some dominant position over the human race. Instead, He came by supernatural conception to be first a tiny speck in His mother’s womb and then, the full-term baby born with every evidence of full humanity. This was a brave, bold and immensely modest start to God’s revelation in Christ. But it was also necessary for Jesus to be treated no differently from any other human being – showing His complete identification with humanity.

God’s attention to detail is found everywhere in the Christmas story, beginning with the predictions of Old Testament prophecy such as Micah’s word spoken a startling 700 years before Christ:

“But you Bethlehem… out of you shall come forth to me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2

God also took care of the other details – the star, the angels, the shepherds, the wise men and, of course, the census which brought Mary and Joseph to the city of David. They were the right people in the right place at the right time.

The stage was set and the players were all in place. But the drama of Christmas was lost on the multitudes that were there. Only a few were chosen to witness it, otherwise Christ’s arrival in the world would have gone completely unnoticed.

Why did God work so carefully to plan this drama and yet for it to have had such a small audience? All heaven must have surely bent in wonder and amazement as the Christ child was born, but earth hardly even noticed it. Why?

It is God’s way – He is not intrusive. He speaks softly in the midst of the hub of life and waits for the hungry and humble of heart to bow their ear to listen. He will not trumpet His arrival in the world. The world must open its heart to receive Him.

The quiet, caring attention to detail and the patience of God waiting for us to recognise His coming in the smallness of the tiny child and in the stillness of the Christmas night – all this is the mark of authenticity of our Christian faith – the imprint in the gold. Jesus is real, the story is true, God is with us – forever our Emmanuel.

Happy Christmas!

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Utterly Unique

Colin Dye — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:22:48 +0000

At Christmas time we celebrate one of the most central and most amazing truths of our Christian faith. The Incarnation is, after all, utterly unique. God, in the Person of His Son came down to be born as a man and to become our Redeemer. There is nothing that even begins to compare with this in any other religious belief, philosophy or ideology.

May God bless you this Christmas time as you celebrate His joy and Love as well as the utter uniqueness of your faith as a Christian. Colin Dye

Through the Incarnation we begin understand that God is one and yet more than one. He is three-in-one and these three Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) all co-operate in perfect harmony. The whole Trinity is totally involved in the incarnation. The Father sent the Son, the Son came and the Holy Spirit brought it all about in the womb of the virgin girl, Mary.
These things have baffled the scientists, philosophers and theologians over all the ages. But every true person of faith learns to wonder and marvel at the mystery of it. And, more than that, we learn to open up to all the goodness and grace God pours into our lives through Christ.
The Incarnation shows us many practical things about our Christian faith. It shows us that God is concerned about community. He carries community in His very being. This means the very essence of our faith is not merely personal. It is communal. Let’s make a real effort to express community by reaching out to others in the festive season.
Also, the Incarnation helps us see that God is very concerned about the world He created. He did not abandon us to our sin. Instead, He drew so close that He became one of us and, apart from sin, lived exactly the kind of life we all live. God is not ashamed of the physical world. He is deeply involved in it and cares about every single detail of it – including you.
Finally, the Incarnation shows us the plan God has for our lives. Jesus didn’t shed His humanity when He went back to heaven. He lived and died as a man and was raised again into full humanity and He took this glorified humanity back to heaven where He lives today.
This means that God has a plan for you to follow Jesus and find in Him the hope of eternal salvation and the redemption of your entire personality – spirit, soul and body.
May God bless you this Christmas time as you celebrate His joy and Love as well as the utter uniqueness of your faith as a Christian.

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The God who sends

Colin Dye — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:41:01 +0000

The Father sending his Son into the world is the reason we celebrate Christmas. But the joy of the season extends far beyond the Christmas holidays. It continues all year round and impacts our lives daily. God, in giving us his Son, has given us everything. He is the fullness of the Godhead in human form, he is the light of the world, the hope of the nations and the Saviour of the world. No one could ever be a greater giver than God and the act of sending his Son determines not just our destiny, if we receive Christ into our hearts, but also our calling. For as the Father sent the Son into the world, so the Son has also sent us into the same world, with the same mission – to love and to serve.

God, in giving us his Son, has given us everything. He is the fullness of the Godhead in human form, he is the light of the world, the hope of the nations and the Saviour of the world.

The act of Christ coming into the world did not take place on the spur of the moment. God planned it, prepared for it, and waited until every last detail was in place before he sent his Son. The phrase “fullness of time” means Jesus came right on schedule. We can surely trust God with every detail of our lives, because we are not the product of impersonal forces, nor are we driven along by the cold winds of blind fate. We are the special creation of a God who lovingly formed us and has brought us into the world to fulfil his loving purposes.
Before the angel appeared to Mary, God was communicating his plan to the councils of heaven. Before the star appeared in the East to guide the wise men to the Christ child, God was in heaven preparing the cosmos. Before the shepherds were startled out of their peaceful vigil in the fields of Bethlehem, the Shepherd of Israel was preparing the Jewish nation for the coming of Messiah. All this took centuries of loving attention to detail and careful planning. In the same way, though on an infinitely smaller scale, we scrutinise every detail as we prepare a special meal for those we love or select and gift-wrap that precious gift for someone special in our life, so God in his infinite love worked out every element of the Christmas story before he set it in motion.
The preparation began centuries before, at the dawn of time. He gave our first parents who had so decisively rebelled against him the first word of gospel. The seed of the woman, would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). In order to bring Christ into the world, the Father raised up a nation to carry his purpose and to produce a Messianic line beginning with Abraham, the father of this special lineage. God sent him from Ur to Canaan, the first trans-local missionary in the history of the world. God’s promise to Abraham was that all nations would be blessed in him, showing that God’s plan was to embrace all humanity: I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:3).
The Sending God continued sending those called and equipped to lay the foundation for the coming of Christ. God sent Joseph into Egypt to preserve the Messianic seed during a time of severe famine. God then sent Moses to rescue the holy nation from bondage and become a worshipping community distinct from the nations. And after that, God sent prophets to the Jewish people calling them to purity of life and preparing them for the coming of Messiah. Jeremiah testifies to God’s deliberate acts of keeping the prophetic hope alive: Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them (Jeremiah 7:25).
The climax of the Heavenly Mission was God sending his Son
All this was to make the world ready for the coming of Christ. God’s sending nature found its fullest expression when he sent his Son. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law (Galatians 4:4). The most powerful New Testament description of the coming of the Son is found in the prologue to John’s Gospel: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Beginning with Abraham, the Sending God sent those called and equipped to lay the foundation for the coming of Christ.
He came, bringing God’s grace and truth and revealing the Father’s glory. There could have been no greater need for this world, darkened by sin, ignorance and injustice, than to see the light of God’s revelation in the person of Jesus. The one whose light having already shone down through the ages in the marvels of creation, now shines revealing the very nature of God and demonstrating his divine compassion, right where we are – in our sin, in our need and in the darkness of our lost humanity.
But the sending did not stop there. The Son of God incarnated into humanity had a further mission to fulfil. The Father sent him to the cross to be the substitute sacrifice for the sins of humanity. He came into the world to die the shameful death you and I deserve. And he refused to shrink from it: Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name (John 12:27-28).
He became obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). This shows that from start to finish, Jesus, the Son of God, had only one goal – to honour his Father and to fulfil his purpose. Following Jesus’ death and triumphant resurrection, Jesus was elevated to the Lordship of the universe. And from this position of power and authority he shared in the Father’s sending activity. On the Day of Pentecost, Jesus, seated on the throne of God received the promised Holy Spirit from God, the Father and sent him to his people, those who were also being called and sent into the world: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).
God’s sending nature found its fullest expression when he sent his Son.
Before his ascension to heaven, Jesus had made it clear that the Sending God had a plan for those who accepted his authority. In accordance with the divine plan, the disciples of Jesus were also sent into the world. Speaking on the Father’s approval Jesus said, As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world (John 17:18).
The Mission Continues
In the same way the Father sent the Son, so we also have been sent into the world. This is a staggering revelation. It means that we have a significant, even indispensable, part to play in the drama of God’s love at work in the world. Jesus expressed it like this in his prayer to the Father: I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world (John 17:15-17).
Jesus brought with him God’s grace and truth, revealing the Father’s glory.
So we are sent into the world to be in it, yet not of it. This balance is hard to get right. The church is neither a community removed from the world, nor a community indistinguishable from the world. We are, on the one hand a grace community, separated from the darkness of sin and its dire consequences. But on the other hand, we are as equally a part of the world as Christ was. He came to sit where we sit, to identify in intimate proximity and involvement with us in our need.
Grace Communities
We have been transferred from one community to another community – from the world of darkness to God’s kingdom of love: He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love (Colossians 1:13).
The church consists of gathered communities of those who have been saved from sin, judgement and the crookedness of the generation of those who have skewed their lives away from God’s loving and righteous standards. We are brought into the community of those who have surrendered their lives to God’s Rule of Love. This implies distinct boundaries both of belief and behaviour that must never be blurred. God’s holy people are obliged to live according to God’s standards and to emulate Christ in his purity and love.
Missional Communities
But churches are not just gathered communities; they are also communities who have been sent on a mission into the world. We do not just rest, huddled together, under the security of God’s grace – separate, different and distinguished from the world; but we are also sent back into the world to be in it, yet not part of its system. We are not just grace communities who enjoy the difference the grace of God has made in our lives individually and corporately; but also missional communities who take that grace and share it with others.
In the same way the Father sent the Son, so we also have been sent into the world.
The great command to love God and love our neighbour is the basis of our mission to the world. It continues that outpouring of love set in motion by the Father whose love for the world caused him to send his Son in the first place (John 3:16). Our love for God will naturally lead us to love our neighbour. God loves the world of people – as they are and where they are – in their sin, in their beauty and ugliness, sincerity and hypocrisy, both the lovely and the unlovely. We have been called, equipped by the Spirit and sent to do the same. Jesus said, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). The miracle of grace is that it produces a people who are both holy and zealous for good works (Titus 2:11-14).
What does it mean to be a missional community?
Missional communities are sent into the world as the Father sent the Son – to represent him in the world, to serve and to disciple all peoples. But the key in all of this is to have the servant heart of the Son. Everything Jesus did can be summarised by his servant attitude: For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves (Luke 22:27). Now he sends us, he says, as the Father had sent him. Therefore our mission, like his, is to be one of service. He emptied himself of status and took the form of a servant, and his humble mind is to be in us (Philippians 2:5-8). John Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World.
Some think of Mission as either being evangelism or social action, but this misses the point. We are to do both as humble acts of service. The Great Commission to preach has as its starting point, the Great Command to love. How can we fail to preach if we love; and how can we fail to love if we preach? The gospel lacks visibility if we only preach it; and it lacks credibility if we who preach it do not love our neighbour and try to meet his needs.
Love will drive us back into the world to be authentic expressions of Christ to a lost and needy world, to love as he loved and to serve as he served. This is not just that we might preach good news, but that we might become good news – to incarnate Christ and his gospel by our lives and by our acts of genuine love for the hurting, the broken, the disenfranchised and the lost.
As the Lord took on flesh and dwelt among us, so we must take on the world and dwell among it – not by being part of it, or indistinguishable from it; but by being different (as from another world) but decidedly among it – to serve, to bless, to heal and to testify to the Lordship of Jesus over the whole of life.
Every calling is a holy calling
The prominent slogan in Kensington Temple that makes this point is, “Your occupation is the location for your true vocation”. Our true vocation is to love, to serve and to testify to the truth. It is to call men and women to surrender to Christ who has first been seen in us.
How are we to take up the call of Christmas that comes from the heart of our loving, sending heavenly Father?
First we must all see ourselves as missionaries, sent to the pagans, the secular, the indifferent and to those who are lost in false religion and barren philosophy. Next we must learn to listen to them – their thoughts, feelings, fears, hopes and frustrations. We must understand them if we are to love them, serve them and point them to Christ, who has truly been incarnated in our lives. Then we must discover their needs and where possible help them by meeting these needs through acts of humble service. Finally, having demonstrated Christ to them, we must love them enough to tell them the truth and, as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, point them to the way of salvation so that they can also join the mission of God’s love to our lost and hurting world.

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Going Deeper – God Revealed

Colin Dye — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:35:03 +0000

God sending his Son into the world that first Christmas was his open invitation to the world to get to know him. The revelation of the Father in the Son is the greatest act of God’s self-disclosure in all human history. Nothing could ever surpass this. Jesus was able to say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”. He was and remains forever “the express image of God and the very stamp bearing the very likeness of God’s being and nature”.

The enormity of this is mind-boggling. That God would become a man in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ, is an act of almost unimaginable humility.

The enormity of this is mind-boggling. That God would become a man in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ, is an act of almost unimaginable humility. That God could do it is easy to understand. God can do anything. He is not so big that he cannot become small. His love drove him to do it. He wanted us to see him that we could know him and enter into deep communion with him.
The apostolic witness is clear: That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3).
The apostles saw him, heard him, and even touched him. They proclaimed their witness in truth and humility. It happened, just the way they said. And this message makes it possible for us to see him and to know him, not through his physical presence, but by the faith he gives making him just as real to us as he was to them.
We know that our faith rests ultimately on the revelation of God made known through facts of history. The incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection are not just nice ideas to lift our spirits through certain festivals of the Church. They remind us that God is real and is drawing us close to himself.
For those who have never received Christ into their life he says, “Come to me”, and for those who already know him, he says, “Come closer”. May God give you an ever deepening relationship with himself, this Christmastime and forever.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! From Colin and Amanda Dye

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College Wants Club to Change 'Christmas' to 'Holiday' for Tree Sale Fundraiser

Colin Dye — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:36:35 +0000

The suppression of truth is everywhere, and this points to the need to shine the truth into the darkness, dispelling the gloom.

Shocking that one could not use the word ‘Christmas’ to promote a Christmas tree

School officials at a community college in western North Carolina replaced the word “Christmas” with “holiday” in a student club’s announcement of a Christmas tree sale aimed at raising funds for charity, says a religious freedom law group. “We cannot market your trees in association solely with a Christian event,” a college official told the club, according to Alliance Defending Freedom.
Lawyers from ADF responded by sending a letter to Western Piedmont Community College pointing out that it had violated the constitutional rights of the club.
“It’s ridiculous that anyone would have to think twice about using the word ‘Christmas’ as part of a Christmas tree sale,” said Legal Counsel Matt Sharp. “Not only is it perfectly constitutional to use the word ‘Christmas,’ it is unconstitutional to prohibit use of it. This is another perfect example of the immense misunderstanding that far too many college officials have about what the First Amendment truly requires.”

Christmas, despite prolonged attempts by local and national government, is still a national Christian festival. The world loves it ? not always for the right reasons! But we have the true reason for the season ? God?s Reason, his Divine Logos. Let this Reason live in you, at Christmas and throughout the whole year to come. Let him think, speak and act through you. Then the world may begin to realise that Grace has truly come to the world, and his name is Jesus, the Word of God. He is the Reason behind the Season.

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Christmas:Understanding the reason behind the season

Colin Dye — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:04:57 +0000

Logos is the greek word for "reason" or for "word"

We read in John 1:14, that the ?Word became flesh.? The Word is none other than the Divine Word, the Logos of God, and he ?became flesh.? That is, the frail, vulnerable flesh common to all humanity. He became so completely human that, despite being God, he was in all respects like us, apart from sin. God has appeared in human form. He lived for a while (literally, he pitched his tent among us), to reside here temporarily, before he returned to the Father, taking his humanity with him.

My little Greek Christmas!

Why not add a little Greek to your Christmas celebrations? The New Testament as we have it is a translation from the original Greek text. The translators usually do a great job, but as in any communication there are bound to be treasures buried in the original that are lost in translation. So don?t be put off by a little Greek. Study the Strongs concordance definitions highlighted in this article and you will add a new richness to your Christmas!
The short life of the Word-made-flesh among us changed everything! Never again will we wonder what God is like? Jesus has forever revealed the Father. Never again will God be intangible, invisible and elusive to us ? Jesus has shown God in physical form so that eyewitness testimony can describe him and we can know him personally. Never again can we question our purpose ? it is to receive God?s grace and to behold his glory in the person of Christ. And it is to become sons and daughters of the Word-madeflesh? so that the Word may become flesh in us and we can show him to the world.

Full of Grace and Truth

The heart of the matter is that the Word (Logos) is full of grace and truth, and he is the glory of God we see in the real Christmas story. Truth is on the side of grace. That means we hold on to the truth by God?s grace and we live out that truth by the same grace. Law has absolutely nothing to do with it for, ?the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came (literally ?appeared in person?) through Jesus Christ (John 1:17).
The effects of this grace-truth appearing are incalculable! Now, we don?t just know about God; but we know him, personally. We receive his light and his life ? the very life that gives light to the whole world. The very source and ground of our being, and of everything else that is, lives with us and lives in us!

The Reason behind the Season

The divine ?Reason?, the Logos of God, is why we celebrate Christmas. God has made his thoughts and intentions clear. He has spoken to us in his Son ? his full and final revelation to humanity. It is complete, clear and visible. All that Jesus did and said was a revelation of the thoughts, intentions and attitudes of the Father. And, it is all good news! God cares. He did not send a messenger to tell us that ? he came himself, to show it through the words and actions of the Word-made-flesh.

It is time to think

The Logos is God?s reason, the rational thought and the reality that lies behind the universe. Everything in creation is the expression of that thought. Our capacity to reason and to understand comes from this gift of God?s creation. John says that this divine reason is evident to all humanity. Jesus, the Word, who came into the world?gives light to every man? (John 1:9).

?The Word? ? the Divine Logos*

STONGS NT:3056 logos (log?-os) something said (including the thought); by implication a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension, a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ).
This is the same truth found in Romans 1:20 where Paul says,?Since the creation of the world God?s invisible qualities ?his eternal power and divine nature ? have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.? That is why there is no excuse. The divine light has shone into our hearts and our choice is to receive it, or to suppress it.
The suppression of truth is everywhere, and this points to the need to shine the truth into the darkness, dispelling the gloom. The light of life shone that first Christmas morning and our Christmas lights testify to it today. The challenge is to let our light continue to shine when the decorations come down!
?Became flesh?*STONGS NT:4561 sarx (sarx); flesh (as stripped of the skin), i.e. (strictly) the meat of an animal (as food), or (by extension) the body (as opposed to the soul [or spirit], or as the symbol of what is external, or as the means of kindred), or (by implication) human nature (with its frailties [physically or morally] and passions), or (specifically) a human being.
Rekindle the flame of truth, beauty, nobility and passion in your heart and let the newly-trimmed lamps of Christmas wonder illuminate the darkness. Become a true warrior of this light.
The Logos, reminds us that there is reason behind the season, and everything else that is Christian. Your mind matters because ideas have consequences. It is time for Christians to think! Who said you kiss your brains goodbye when you commit your life to Christ. He is the answer to every question, the response to every need ?intellectual, moral and spiritual. We have the mind of Christ, the reason of God and the thoughts of the Spirit because the Logos lives in us.

It is time to speak

Logos is thought but, more than that, it is thought expressed in word. Jesus is God?s speech. His word going forth. Our faith is not the mystical contemplation of voiceless expression. God spoke, and worlds came into being. God spoke and Christ came. God speaks today and gives you a voice to love him and to proclaim him as a trumpet call to a waiting world.
When Jesus spoke, they marvelled at his gracious words. The Logos speaks through you in the same way. Let your voice be heard ? clear and confident, warm and affirming, strong and assuring. The angels at Christmas proclaimed,?Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and good will have come!? This is the most positive message of hope the world could ever wish for and is longing to hear. But, they cannot hear unless it is proclaimed. Be a herald this Christmas. Tell the world of his love and favour. Grace! Grace! Grace! to all who will hear. Make it clear ?God receives sinners, and to all who receive his Christ, he gives the right, the privilege and the authority to become his children (John 1:12).
Through the word coming from Christ in you, you can replace error with truth, indifference with passion and law with grace. Let the world know truth has come and that truth speaks today ? Christ the Word of God!

It is time to act

Perhaps the greatest revelation of the Logos at Christmas is that the invisible has become visible the untouchable, touchable. John writes in his letter, ?That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched ? this we proclaim concerning the Word (Logos) of life? (1 John 1:2). John says, in effect, ?We know he is real ? he came, and we saw him, we heard him speak and we even touched him!?
The apostles witnessed all these things ? his words and actions ? and as eyewitness, they gave trustworthy accounts of it. Their testimony is the truthful witness behind the Gospels. But their proclamation carried its own mark of authenticity. So must ours. The apostles did not merely speak, they acted. Everything they believed and taught was also visible in their lives. Their actions testified to the truth of their beliefs.
There is always a crisis of credibility when our lives do not match up to our beliefs. Jesus is the empowering word, the very life of God in us. He must be seen in us. We would be heard more if we acted more. Take the important moral issue of the sanctity of life for example. How will the world take notice our protest against abortion, if we do not look after the pregnant mother who believes abortion is the only answer because she could never cope with a child as a single parent? How can we condemn our liberal laws against unwanted pregnancies due to a disability diagnosed while the baby is still in the womb, when we do nothing to help families with severely handicapped children?
Words and works go together just as truth-in-action is far better than mere truth without visible expression.?And dwelt (pitched his tent) among us?*STONGS NT:4637 skenoo (skayno?-o); from NT:4636; to tent or encamp, i.e. (figuratively) to occupy (as a mansion) or (specifically) to reside (as God did in the Tabernacle of old, a symbol of protection and communion):

Showing Christ at Christmas

Christmas, despite prolonged attempts by local and national government, is still a national Christian festival. The world loves it ? not always for the right reasons! But we have the true reason for the season ? God?s Reason, his Divine Logos. Let this Reason live in you, at Christmas and throughout the whole year to come. Let him think, speak and act through you. Then the world may begin to realise that Grace has truly come to the world, and his name is Jesus, the Word of God. He is the Reason behind the Season.
*All Greek word definitions are quoted from Biblesoft?s New Exhaustive Strong?s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright ? 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.

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