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Christmas Greetings
Peter and Vivien Wade send Christmas blessings to all our friends around the world who are part of this ministry of God's Positive Word. We rejoice with you at this season, as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Ministry news...
What a year 2004 has been! Our web site has been hacked twice, altering the content. Someone must not like us (one guess as to who that is!). The hosting server was hacked in September and we were offline for several days. No wonder we sometimes feel like the early church, "Men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 15:26). Thankfully our personal backups enabled us to weather all these storms and to keep on blessing the many visitors to our site. In October we celebrated our 9th year on the Internet -- our site first went live just a year after the World Wide Web was born!
Vivien and I spent five weeks in the United States in August/September, holding two "In Christ, Christ In" seminars, and speaking at other meetings. We travelled across the country from the west coast to the east coast, from Seattle to Atlantic City, and to North Carolina and Kentucky for the first time, as well as to Ohio and California. We were able to attend the National Quartet Convention in Louisville KY, a life-long dream come true, and spent a week learning the ins and outs of DVD video production.
Many of you obtained books and CDs through the website, and we thank God for Geri Johnson who, in spite of a move from California to Oregon, was able to service your orders and blessed the believers everywhere with her love and care.
We are almost ready to test out our new Studio Complex next month, when some equipment we ordered shows up on our doorstep. Most of you will be surprised at what can be accomplished these days in the digital video field, and we look forward to sharing the Word with you through this medium. We thank you for your prayers as we grasp the fine detail of the equipment and software.
Christmas Starts in Genesis
For 47 years I have preached on the events of Christmas, and every year I wonder whether there is any new way in which to present this great event to my listeners. I have found that the impact of Christmas spreads much further than the Gospel record. In fact, the story really starts in eternity, before time began.
The first promise that there would be a Christmas was given by God after Adam sinned, and is recorded in Genesis 3:14-20. "So the Lord God said to the serpent: 'Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle; and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel' " (NKJV). There are four great facts in this first promise of Christmas (verse 15), four facts that are foundational to the Christian faith.
The first is: there would be hostility between Satan and women. Throughout history this fact is most evident. Women have always been oppressed, being treated as no more than slaves in most cultures. Only where Christianity has had influence has women's lot been improved. The women's liberation movement was first echoed in the pages of the Bible, especially in the New Testament where women are shown to have dignity, self-esteem and great value to the community. Christian liberation of women does not turn them into unisex individuals, but enables them to fulfill their potential as beautiful people loved of God.
The second fact in this promise of Christmas is this: there would be hostility between Satan's seed and the woman's Seed. Seed refers to offspring, children. Ephesians 2:3 states that at one time we "were by nature children of wrath, just as the others". We "were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience..." (verses 1,2). Jesus stated that some of His Jewish critics were "of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it" (John 8:44). The Bible makes it clear that what we call the unsaved, the non-Christians, are Satan's seed who have Satan's nature in them. The Old Testament contains record after record of attempts by Satan's seed to destroy God's righteous line and thus prevent Christmas ever happening.
A further fact from the first promise of Christmas in Genesis 3:15 is that the woman's Seed will bruise Satan's head. To "bruise the head" is an Oriental term meaning to break the lordship of another. The Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, would break the lordship Satan has held over the human race ever since Adam committed the sin of high treason and sold out his rights to God's enemy. Humanity has longed to be free, and the constant heart-cry throughout Old Testament history is for deliverance from the bondage of the devil. The victorious Christ did break Satan's lordship and all who believe in Christ are now free! Colossians 1:13-14 tells us that "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." One translation of the word "delivered" is "rescued" "He rescued us from the authority of Satan's dominion and gave us citizenship in the kingdom of His beloved Son".
Since this is true, then the laws of the old kingdom no longer apply to believers! The old laws of sickness, poverty, defeat are replaced by the new laws of the new kingdom -- peace, power, joy. Jesus had to come as a babe in Bethlehem in order to take human form and provide a legal and vital redemption for you and me. Let us remember that Easter starts at Christmas -- for without Easter, Christmas would have little meaning to humanity.
The final fact from the promise of Christmas is that Satan will bruise Christ's heel. The heel speaks of the earth walk of the Church and the bruising of the heel is Satan's attack on the Church from the Day of Pentecost until this current time. The Church Universal has been and still is the subject of vicious and unwarranted persecution throughout the world. Even today in these "enlightened" times, there are countries where the Church is not welcomed and where believers are in gaol for their faith. And the Book of Revelation teaches that persecution will continue to almost the end of time. No wonder the Church epistles encourage believers to remember that they are blessed and not forgotten during times of persecution.
Yes, Christmas was first promised in Genesis and the Bible records the extent of God's work to make Christmas a reality to you and me. "He is the Reason for the Season", and we have good reason to make this a season of thankfulness for the unspeakable gift of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no doubt that the best way we can show our appreciation is to invite the Babe of Bethlehem to be born anew in us and to experience to the full His gift to us -- "Christ in us, the expectation of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
Read the complete article again online and discover afresh the realities behind and in Christmas. -- Peter Wade
Insights From Every Chapter Of The Bible
G. Campbell Morgan was a well-known preacher and writer of over 60 books from the first half of the 20th century. In each issue of this newsletter he gives a comment from one verse in every chapter of the Bible. We continue with Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.
"I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some" (I Corinthians 9:22).
That would seem a superlative application of the principle of accommodation, and it is somewhat startling. Moreover, it is none the less so when interpreted by Paul's illustrations of its working in his own case; to the Jews, under law, he had become as one under law; to the Gentile, without law, he had become as one without law; to the weak he had become weak. The question arises as to how far we may go in this direction. Many applications might be suggested which would seem to us in danger of imperilling our testimony and our usefulness.
A second look at the Apostolic word will save us from all doubt in the matter. Paul became all things to all men that he might save some. The purpose in view must for ever qualify our accommodations. To go so far with men as to imperil our chances of saving them, is wrong. Thus the idea of these words is, not that the end justifies the means; but rather that the end qualifies the means! In our modern life, it means that I may travel sympathetically with men along the pilgrimage of their doubts, but I must not go so far as to deny my faith. If I do, I cannot help them to faith. Or again, it means that in order to save men I may enter into their social life and share their recreations, but never in such ways as to imperil my power to help them in spiritual matters.
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(c)2004 Peter Wade
http://www.peterwade.com
http://www.inChristRadio.net
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