Greetings to you in the name of the soon coming King, Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! It is time to once again, boldly declare…”this is the day that the Lord has made and I am going to rejoice and be glad in it!” I trust that you had a good weekend and a grand beginning of a new week. It seems that the words of the song are true…and lo, the days are hastening on– I think it is interesting that time drags on some days and then speeds-up on other days, yet I know that it is always going sixty minutes an hour. Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to come alongside you with all the resources you need to meet the demands of the day…health, strength, laughter, peace, connection, and love.
I received an email from one of my ministry contacts addressing the issue of spiritual warfare. They alluded to the fact that we are celebrating the coming of Jesus Christ who declared at one point that came to deliver “life”…and life that was full and meaningful. However that was balanced by a warning that there is an enemy who infiltrated our world so that he could “steal, kill, and destroy” all that made life good and rewarding.
We are aware that right now this enemy is using covid-19 as a weapon in his arsenal to “steal, kill, and destroy” our Christmas celebrations, traditions, and excitement. We began Advent with the candle of hope and the enemy has given us a hopelessness. Then we lit the candle of peace and the enemy released chaos and suspicion. Last Sunday we lit the candle of joy and light…then the enemy replaced it with shadows and doubts and fear. This Sunday we will light the candle of love and the enemy has been stirring up hatred in the hearts of people mixed with selfishness and pride.
So we need to know that we can fight back by choosing to connect with each other more consistently. We need to become a little less complicated and focus on simplicity. We need to let go of pride and grasp humility. We need to spend a little more time in worship…deliberately magnifying the reason for this season – Jesus.
Perhaps God wants to use our enemy’s tactics to teach us that we need to re-orientate ourselves…”come, let us go and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” Maybe we need to revisit “Bethlehem” and see that God has a plan!
Have a blessed day!