Praetor

At the change of the year I inevitably think of the Book by Henry Blackaby, “Experiencing God”. He refers to Noah. Doesn’t matter what Noah had planned if God was going to destroy the world through the flood. I inevitably wonder, What is on God’s mind for 2010?

We are all excited about the Soccer World Cup. I am amazed at some people’s optimism that Bafana Bafana is going to win the world cup (in spite of their poor performance to date). We make our new year’s resolutions. We plan for the coming year, but what will it avail to, if it does not fit in with God’s plans?

I was watching a challenging movie last night. (I seem to be watching out of the ordinary movies at new year’s eve - see post of 5th January 2009). It is a movie by Cloud Ten productions called “Tribulation”. It reflects on the persecution and oppression the followers of Jesus will experience in the end times before the return of Christ. That made me think … what if Christ’s return will be this year? How will that affect my agenda? Quite some thought!

People see good or bad omens in unnatural occurrences. Last night there was a moon eclipse that happens “once in a blue moon” (literally). Some people were reading a good omen into it. Then there was an albino deer that was born, also a once in a life time occurrence. White being a symbol of purity, they said the new year will be one that brings purity (or something to that effect). It made me think of Scripture where Jesus answers the question of his disciples namely, When will the destruction of Jerusalem be and the end times? (Matthew 24).

Among other things He says that at the time of his return the people will marry, bury, and go on with life as usual. Many people love the heat of summer, so they immediately notice when the cold of winter is over. But they are not particularly observant of the trees budding and the flowers sprouting decorating nature in a beautiful cloak of colour. The rat race of everyday life preoccupy them. There is no time to appreciate the change in nature or to reflect on it (that you perhaps do whilst on holiday). So the people will not understand the signs of the times and will be ignorant of Christ’s return.
What will 2010 bring us? Will we understand the signs of the times that things are not progressing as “normal”?

Jesus, the anointed one, regards us with such high esteem that he shared his character with us. He is love. We can see this in his approach to us.

He is inclined to be good towards us; He has our best interest at heart. He accepts us unconditionally, just as we are with our shortcomings and failures. We don’t have to pretend, we can just be ourselves in his presence. It is no effort for Jesus to reach out to our needs. He spontaneously gives himself for our benefit. He knows when to withhold things from us that will be detrimental to us. He knows when we need encouragement. He knows when we need praise to build us up.

How do we know this is the attitude of Jesus towards us? First of all he gives us the freedom of choice. He does not force himself on us. He allows us to choose extreme suffering in hell if that is what we want. The poverty and suffering in India is bad, but worse is their belief in karma. It disallows them to reach out and help the poor suffering people because help would change their karma and worsen their situation in their “next lives”. We chose to live independently from him, which brought a lot of suffering our way. But he did not say. “you want to be independent, now suffer”. No! He came into our world, lived among us being born in Bethlehem and sacrificed himself on the cross for us to pay our karma. He did not insist that we must first do something about our shortcomings and failures. While we were his enemies, he sacrificed himself in our place. He invites us to be his friends.

Do you have a bosom friend? Someone you can share absolutely anything, everything with. Someone you will entrust with your deepest secrets. Friends stick together through thick and thin. In time of need you discover who your real friends are. They are there for you no matter what the cost in time and effort. Well, Jesus wants to be your bosom friend. He invites you to be his friend. He gave everything for you. He is doing everything to bring joy to your life (John 15 vs 11,15).

Dr Phil says you cannot give what you don’t have. We can’t enter into a lasting love relationship if we have not experienced the love of Jesus. Do you agree?

Wow! I just read a book that slashed religion wide open! William P Young’s book The Shack addresses the question of unfair suffering and in the process challenges a whole lot of stereotypes.

The story is about a family going on vacation into a nature reserve. On the last day the little girl of the family disappears. She is not found but all evidence points to the fact that she was murdered. The family is emotionally cut up. Then something extraordinary happens ….

This book has really set me thinking. It is well written. It started slow, but soon the tension was there and kept you going to the last page. I want to encourage you to read it if you like an intellectual challenge.

This young man plays the lotto against his father’s wishes and wins the jackpot, a US $100 000 000! He decides it is too boring at home, he is going to a nice country where he can spend the money as he wishes. His father pleaded with him to stay, but he just turned his back on his dad, packed his things and left without saying goodbye.

He decides to go to Egypt for the African Soccer Cup, but on the way there he tours around a bit.  In Cairo he went to stay in the 5 star Sheridon Hotel. He orders the best food and wine. He goes to the most expensive shops to buy him new clothes fitting for this desert climate. Soon the people catch on that this foreigner is wealthy and likes spending, so they hang out with him to share in this luxurious lifestyle. He especially enjoys the company of the beautiful Middle eastern ladies.

He enjoys it so much that in Cairo that he decides to stay on in Egypt after the African Cup finished. He goes around sight seeing and visits the old part of Cairo where the graves are small “houses” big enough to fit the coffin. Some people illegally stay in these graves.  It is quaint, but very spooky.

He heard about the Christians living on the refuse dumps, so he goes to have a look at this. No matter what he offered the taxi driver, a Muslim, he did not want to enter this filthy, infidel neighbourhood. He had to walk the last Km up the hill. The people keep their animals in their homes, the streets are filthy and muddy. Worst of all at this one house they slaughter some pigs in the street! The blood mingling with the muddy filth.
Uphill at the side of the mountain it is better. There are three large caves where the people have made beautiful places of worship. Looking down on this little village built on the refuge dumps, he sees how they sort the city’s refuge to use it again for other purposes. To his shock he sees they have pigsties at the back of their houses, right at the kitchen door. He can just imagine how terrible the flies must be there, and the stench! He is happy to return to his nice clean, cool hotel where there is a wonderful fragrance hanging in the air.
A US $100 000 000 is a lot of money, but it does not last forever. With a shock he discovers one morning that he does not have enough money to pay his hotel account. He pleads with the hotel manager to let him work off the remainder of his debt, but the manager has no mercy. Either he pays by noon or gets locked up by the police. The young man goes to all his friends to hear if they cannot help him in his hour of need, but they disappear quietly leaving him alone with his problem. All he can do is to sell his expensive clothes and jewels to get the outstanding amount.
He leaves the hotel with the clothes on his back, nowhere to stay or wash, nothing to eat. He is sleeping out on the streets, but is scared to death they will mug, assault and even kill him. Before long his clothes become sweaty, sticky and dirty in this terrible heat. Everybody looks suspiciously at him and chases him away. He tries to find a job, but nobody wants to employ a dirty vagabond.
Very hungry he decides to return to the Refuse dump village. Surely there he will find work and get something to eat. He discovers when you walk, this village is quite a distance out of the city. Exhausted, sweat pouring down his brow he arrives there, but still no luck.  At nights he sleeps up the hill outside the grotto churches, at least it is safer than in the city. After about a week he is fortunate to get a job tending to a man’s pigs. Every day he has to collect the kitchen slop and throw it in the troughs of the pigs. He is getting thin and weak of hunger, having to live off a few slices of bread per day. He is hungry enough to eat the slop, but afraid it might cost him his job and the few slices of bread he is getting.
Hungry and dirty he is sitting outside up the hill in the dark, feeling miserable and sick. What can he do? He can’t go on living like this?! He is angry at himself for just squandering his money like that without investing some. He can’t even return home because when he came he bought a one-way ticket. Even so the way he left home, has closed that door. He did not even write to his father once in all the time has been in Cairo.
WHAT CAN HE DO? WHEN DID THINGS GO WRONG FOR HIM?

Are we not spiritually in the same boat as this young man? We do our own thing, thinking we are OK and don’t even give God a second thought. Just like this young man, we will only discover our miserable situation when it is too late. What can we do to change the situation?

Luk 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those who have his good will!”

What a remarkable song the an­gels sang. Through all ages men long for peace, but it escapes them.
Since mankind’s rebellion against God peace escapes us. Satan’s heart was filled with pride to be higher and greater than God. As a result war broke out in heaven and Satan was thrown out of heaven onto the earth.
When the crown of God’s cre­ation was set on earth, Satan was determined to lead mankind into rebellion against God. Man listened to Satan and disobeyed God with the result that man was separated from God. Man joined the ranks of Satan through this rebellion. Immediately blame shifting happened and not long after the first murder took place.
Is this, however, all that the an­gels are announcing - the end of war and strife? No. Clearly this did not happen. We are still plagued by strife and war today. Note that the angel first an­nounces that God sent his anoin­ted One to earth (Today your Savior, Christ the Lord, was born in David’s city. vs.11). For this God is glorified in heaven. His splendour and glory shone around the angel.
The effect of the coming of the anointed One is peace on earth. This peace first of all holds sal­vation for the men on whom God’s good pleasure rests. Peace can only be received through salvation in Jesus Christ.
He is the Prince of Peace (see Is 9:5,6). He is the one who gives the gift of peace. We can only receive it in His presence, through a committed relationship with Him.
Isaiah also announced that through His wounds there is healing for us, He took up our infirmities and carried our sor­rows, he took the punishment for our sins (see Is 53:4,5).
God’s peace thus holds well-be­ing in the widest sense of the word in all areas of life: right­eousness, free from the bur­dens common to mankind, bodily health, contentedness, good relations and wholeness.
Goed DOES have the last say!
Jn 15:19 If you had anything in common with the world, the world would love you as one of its own. But you don’t have anything in common with the world. I chose you from the world, and that’s why the world hates you. - The world does not accept Jesus that is why the world cannot have true peace.
Do you long to have true peace? Have you committed your life to Jesus and live in his presence?

Our local newspaper placed a cartoon depicting the grim reaper reaping his share of lives on the roads in South Africa during the festive season. More than 800 open graves at a time that is supposed to be filled with joy and happiness. But it is also the time of year that more people attempt suicide and crime is flourishing - blowing up ATM’s.
But isn’t this just part of Christmas?

Mat 2:16-18 When Herod saw that the wise men had tricked him, he became furious. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys two years old and younger in or near Bethlehem. This matched the exact time he had learned from the wise men. Then the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah came true: “A sound was heard in Ramah, the sound of crying in bitter grief. Rachel was crying for her children. She refused to be comforted because they were dead.”

Bethlehem and vicinity was not densely populate
being a small town in a rural area. 12 -20 boys may have been
massacred. But why did they have to die? Clearly Herod felt threatened
in his political power by this new born king. In his anger at being
outwitted he ordered the death of all boys younger than two years of
age, hoping to eliminate the new born king. Can you think of a more
self-centred act. But are we not the same. We don’t go around killing
people, but we are just as self-centred. We have our own hopes and
aspiration regardless of that of others.
Matthew was also making the point that what happened wasn’t haphazard, but prophecies made centuries before.
Rachel was the favourite wife of Jacob who had great difficulty bearing children. Through the Lord’s grace she bore a son, Joseph. Imagine her heart sore when she heard that a wild animal supposedly devoured him. During the birth of her second child, Benjamin, she cried of pain and died at his birth.
This quotation from Jeremiah refers to the mothers whose children were exiled to Babylon. The mothers weeping as their sons passed the grave of Rachel (in the vicinity of Ramah).
Why is Matthew referring to this scripture? He is bringing home the fact that God has the last say in spite of the circumstances.
Rachel was weeping, but her sons were alive and God was in control of their lives even though at the time it did not seem so. The exiles returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple and the city. A new covenant was promised them. God intervened and brought about his purposes.
A spiritual perspective at what happened at Bethlehem and the fact that God has the last say is bonre out by Rev 12:4b-6.

The boys of Bethlehem were the first casualties in the warfare between the kingdoms of the world with Satan as its ruler and the kingdom of God and his Christ. Through the ages the warfare has been going on.

Also here we see God in charge. He has the last say. The Christians overcame the Dragon.

We need to engage in this battle because ultimately victory is ours. We engage in the battle through prayer. Intercede against the grim reaper causing the carnage on the roads. Engage because you know that the grief and heart sore does not have the last say. Engage because Jesus opened a way for us to be victorious over our self-centredness. Praise the Lord that He has the last say!

God saw this terrible condition of man. He knew we were in a predicament, we could not save ourselves from this condition.
He wanted to help us, but we can’t see him and we can’t identify with him. So he decided to come to us - in an incarnation of mankind - he became fully human, just like you and I. He came into this world and lived and went through all the experiences of human life. His name is Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem! He was born poor - in an open feeding trough in a stable. He grew up in a very humble home - worked at a carpenter’s bench. He was hungry and thirsty - he was fully human! Yet, He did not cling to his status as God. He set aside the privileges of deity and became human. This was an incredible humbling process. He lived a selfless, obedient life. The only difference was that Jesus had no sin. Thus there were no place for lust, anger, pride, jealousy, fascination and avarice in his life. He was perfect, so no future judgement awaited him. He was not attracted to the pleasures of this world because he knew the glory of his kingdom awaiting him. He is the only person that could SAVE US FROM the tiger and the snake. He is the only one who could rescue us and give us true peace.
He did so much for mankind: He healed them, fed them, helped them, tried to bring them to God and yet …. some of the religious leaders turned against Him because of jealousy! They arrested Him, brought all kinds of false accusations against Him and then condemned Him to die! In those days they condemned criminals to die on a cross. So, this good, innocent person died on the cross, not because of His sins or anything He had done wrong. He was absolutely sinless! He died because He faced our judgement and took our punishment. He took our sins on him and died in our place! If we commit our lives to Him, He will protect us and save us from our terrible predicament. Then we will experience a peace that the world does not know. But if we turn our backs on Him we remain in our terrible condition.

Since all of these sons and daughters have flesh and blood, Jesus took on flesh and blood to be like them. He did this so that by dying he would destroy the one who had power over death (that is, the devil). In this way he would free those who were slaves all their lives because they were afraid of dying. Heb 2:14,15 (God’s Word Translation)