Know Joy. Show Joy: Pastor Rajiv's Midweek Message

Christmas is not about stress but about joy. But are we really joyful or are stressed with the shopping, Christmas eve dinner planning, gifting decisions etc. Christmas is not only supposed to be all about spending time with family and friends, eating good food, and sharing gifts, there are many things one can do to create joy in us as well as around us.

The Mind of God: By Pastor Francis Taylor

Who knows the mind of God.

By Francis Taylor.

As published in   KJV Daily Devotional

If we had any understanding of the mind of God, we wouldn't be so surprised when things happen that we can't comprehend. 

I have a feeling that the question we ask God the most is, "Why?" Why this disaster, why do people kill, why did the tornado take my house and none of the others on the street? Why me? Why didn't you stop/prevent that from happening? Even when we know that it was not God who caused whatever it is we're questioning, we question! 

If you're anything like me, you have a list of things you want answers to when you meet God face to face. 

I have sometimes heard it said that life is like a tapestry. We only see the bottom of the tapestry, the side with all the crisscrosses of threads and the hanging pieces. God sees the top side, the finished product. We don't know why things happen the way they do, and we never will. What is most important is that we trust in God, that we trust God, that we have faith. This is what gets us through the difficult times that we don't understand. 

Faith is also what keeps us from taking credit for the good things that happen or thinking that we are just lucky. God's hand is in everything. He can't prevent the bad things that people do as he has given us free will and sometimes, we use it in the wrong direction. Then, God gets us through it. 

In many ways the problems with weather are human's fault as well, as we have not taken good care of the planet we were entrusted with. When we trust God, we can have peace of mind even in the bad times and know that one day we will see what God sees and our questions will be answered.

The 4th Wise Man: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Long ago in the late 1800s a man named Eric Van Dyke wrote a short story about a "fourth" wise man (accepting the tradition that the Magi numbered three), a priest of the Magi named Artaban, one of the Medes from Persia.

Like the other Magi, he sees signs in the heavens proclaiming that a King has been born among the Jews. Like them, he sets out to see the newborn ruler, carrying treasures to give as gifts to the child - a sapphire, a ruby, and a "pearl of great price".

However, he stops along the way to help a dying man, which makes him late to meet with the caravan of the other three wise men. Because he missed the caravan, and he can't cross the desert with only a horse, he is forced to sell one of his treasures in order to buy the camels and supplies necessary for the trip. He then commences his journey but arrives in Bethlehem too late to see the child, whose parents have fled to Egypt. He saves the life of another child at the price of another one of his treasures.

He then travels to Egypt and to many other countries, searching for Jesus for many years and performing acts of charity along the way. After 33 years, Artaban is still a pilgrim, and a seeker after light. Artaban arrives in Jerusalem just in time for the crucifixion of Jesus. He spends his last treasure, the pearl, to ransom a young woman from being sold into slavery. He is then struck in the head by a falling roof tile and is about to die, having failed in his quest to find Jesus, but having done much good through charitable works. A voice tells him "Verily I say unto thee, Inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me." (Matthew 25:40)[4] He dies in a calm radiance of wonder and joy. His treasures were accepted, and the Other Wise Man found his King.

This is a story but isn't the fourth wise man like us? We want to worship Jesus in spirit and in truth but miss the bus so many times. However, as the wise man did, we can still use our time to be of service to our Lord, using the gifts we have, to lay at His feet, in His service.

Give Peace a chance: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Yesterday we lit the 2nd candle of advent, the candle of peace, reminding us that with the birth of Jesus Christ, God gave us the road to peace.

One of the central themes of the Sermon on the Mount is Christ's expectation that His followers be characterized by peace—not violence or war. In the famous opening to this great sermon known as the Beatitudes, Jesus taught, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

One can't think of a better practical demonstration of peace than of a time in the darkest moments of modern history: I am talking of World War I.

World War I, also known as the Great War, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

Yet in these four years, we demonstrated commitment to peace on Christmas of 1914, when a truce was called from Christmas Eve through Christmas, recognizing the fact that what we were doing was not Gods will. Imagine, one day in 1465 days ! 

Stephen Nichols describes that day so vividly-

"As darkness settled over the front like a blanket, the sound of exploding shells and the rat-tat-tat of gunfire faded. Faint carols, in French or English voices on one side and in German voices on the other, rose to fill the silence of the night.

By morning, soldiers, at first hesitantly, began filing out of the maze of trenches into the dreaded and parched soil of No Man's Land. There was more singing. Gifts of rations and cigarettes were exchanged. Family photos were passed around. Soccer balls appeared. Up and down the Western Front, soldiers, who only hours before had been locked in deathly combat, now faced off in soccer games.

For one brief but entirely remarkable day, there was truly peace on earth. Some have called the Christmas Truce of 1914 “the Miracle on the Western Front.”

Anxious to print some good news, The Times of London reported on the events of the Christmas Truce. Here’s a line from the diary of a German infantryman: “The English brought a soccer ball from the trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it." Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.

Today, we are in an era where countries are constantly at war with each other, whether economic or military. People hating other people, religious antagonism, race, color, nationality and so on.

In the words of John Lennon, we need to give peace a chance. And the decision to do that is not a country's or a nation but all the people, like you and me. We need to demonstrate peace to everyone around us. Slandering, backbiting, fighting, complaining, jealousy needs to stop. Peace will grow upwards, not downwards. 

Just lighting a candle won't make the cut for sure. We light the candle in faith. But faith without action is dead. Heed the words of James

If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14–17).

Today let us do our bit: Rise above our unpeaceful human traits and adopt the peace of Christ which He left us.