A season of gifts

English: child Jesus with the virgin Mary, with the Holy Spirit (represented as a dove) and God the Father, with child john the Baptist and saint Elizabeth on the right (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These days people are busy trying to get enough time to do their special shopping. Now they are more concerned buying things which are not always necessary. Often they want to break their brains to get to know what they could give to the persons they like. Best solution they think would be to buy those things which they would like themselves as well. By the years it comes more and more difficult because the other person seems to have everything already.

When people are getting older an increasing number of people on the gift list already have everything that they really want and need. This tends to make the season more stressful than delightful as the would-be giver struggles to find gifts that are more than just clutter.

In the shops there is enough material which is not worth to be produced, let stand to be sold. Everywhere you can find silly attributes and unnecessary gadgets. The world of consumption has lots to offer, good and bad things, useful and useless things.

The many decorations want people to give a glorious feeling for what they consider should be the happiest and busiest time of the year for millions of Christians and some non-Christians throughout the world. Songs, films, and TV programs promote a jolly and exciting holiday mood — the Christmas spirit.

When the day comes closer people send each other best wishes and call for peace on earth. But at the same time certain Christians keep calling on to the freedom of being able to buy guns and to use them as much as they like them.They want to learn their children how to defend themselves and think a gun or stronger fire arm is the best way to do that.
They do not seem to learn from all the drama's that occurred by people using such weapons to bring a lot of agony, killing many innocent people.

Everywhere in the world they keep fighting and arguing about silly things, and at the same time they proclaim to be lovers of God.

They perhaps better review their looks on God and check if they really appreciate the most precious gift the world received.

Jesus, or the Jew Jeshua, son of Mary/Miriam/Maria and Joseph/Jozef/Josef from the tribe of King David, born on the 17th of October -4 CE, is the person many say they are celebrating his birthday. Here-for they use the 25th of December, the birthday and celebration day of the goddess of light.
Within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance.

It was not God himself or a godly being that became incarnated onto the world. In the Garden of Eden God promised already a solution for the sin of the first man. It took a long time before God found the time right and before there was a man who could totally keep to Gods commandments.

In Jesus we can find a human being who managed, though being tempted more than once (while God can not be tempted), to stay clean and without any sin (god can not sin but Jesus could if he wanted). Jesus loved His Father and knew that what He wanted more than anything else was for us, God His creation, to be reconciled to the Most High of all, the Only One God of gods.
Jesus also was prepared to give his body in the hands of his Father, trusting Him totally. Jesus died really (God is eternal, had no beginning and cannot die) and was taken out of death by his Father (not by himself) as an example to what can happen to all those who are willing to follow Jesus, the son of God, the promised Messiah.
Jesus is the best present of God the world can get.

In the West we do have the darkest days of the season, tomorrow being the shortest day of the year. Dark and cold, it is an ideal time to gather and to sit close to a source of warmth. Perhaps you put some extra lights on to have a nicer feeling. Bringing more time in the warm house it is also very nice to have some good warm meal to strengthen us to come through Winter.

So it is perhaps not a bad time to come together with the family and spend some time together, sharing all sorts of news and wishes for a better future. But do remember that whatever you do it should be in line with what you are believing and where you can stand for.
Question yourself if you can be connected to a heathen celebration or that you keep far away from heathen stories, symbols and activities.

Take time to look at the greatest gift the world received and try to offer that gift also to others.

“9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that ye might walk worthy of the Lord, in all pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12  giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:9-14 KJ21)



Please do read:

1. Jesus begotten Son of God #1 Christmas and Christians
2. Jesus begotten Son of God #2 Christmas and pagan rites
3. Jesus begotten Son of God #3 Messiah or Anointed one
4. Jesus begotten Son of God #14 Beloved Preminent Son and Mediator originating in Mary
5. Religious Practices around the world
6. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ

In Dutch:

1. Een Groots Geschenk om te herinneren
2. Wat betreft Kerstfeest
3. Achtergrond Christelijk Kerstfeest

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• Do Muslims Wish Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas?
• The Baby Jesus Loses the War on Christmas. A Good Thing
• 12 Christmas Traditions Even a Black-hearted Grinch of an Atheist Can Celebrate
• A Special Christmas Gift
• The Ten Commandments Of Christmas

Old age

“Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. For my enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for [there is] none to deliver [him].” (Ps 71:9-11 Webster)

Every stage of life has its own problems, and old age is no exception. Many a person, becoming aware of the passing years, finds physical and emotional stresses creeping into his life that were never there before. Old age is not a time for despair or self pity, and God in His Word has given us much counsel on how to make our sunset years rewarding and enriching. Did you know that David devoted one whole psalm to those who are “old and grey headed”? Read Psalm 71, and locked up within it you will discover the Christian philosophy that makes for a meaningful old age.

  This psalm was written by David very late in his life. Apparently it was a time of persecution for him, for we read: “Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength fails. For my enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, saying ‘God has forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.’” Psalm 71:9-11.

  This suggests the incident recorded in 1 Kings where David experienced the very thing he wrote about. We 

read: “Now King David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat.” “Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king; and he prepared chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him.” 1 Kings 1:1, 5.

  It was a time that caused David much concern, and many doubts and fears rose up over him threatening to destroy him. When adverse circumstances in our lives, caused, perhaps, through ill-health or lack of finance or loneliness, threaten to crush us, we should follow the example of David in his extremity. These are his words: “In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.” Psalm 71:1.

  What does it mean to put our trust in God? It means to place our whole-hearted confidence in Him no matter how black the situation may seem. It means to depend wholly and solely upon Him.

  Two men were in separate adjoining rooms at a large hospital. They were both about sixty-five to seventy years of age, and both of them were dying of cancer. One man cursed bitterly every time someone entered his room, but the other, a godly man, always greeted people with a smile. The one placed his wholehearted trust in God to care for the future. Anyone who talked to him was inspired to a deeper faith in God. It is a terrible thing to be shrunken in body as those men were, but how much worse to be shrunken in soul.

  In 1 Sam. 30 we read of an Egyptian servant who had been found dying in the desert, by David and his armies. His Amalekite master had left him there to perish when he had fallen ill. God is not like that Amalekite master. He will not desert us when we become sick and feeble. He is one we can trust. David uses a very striking illustration in this psalm of what it means to trust in God. “Lord be my strong habitation, to where I may continually resort: You have given commandment to save me; for You are my rock and my fortress.” Psalm 71:3.

  In the days of ancient Israel, the Israelites would choose the sites for their cities in places that could be well fortified. Usually this was amidst rocky outcrops atop hilly places. They surrounded their cities with thick protective walls, and to these cities the people would flee in event of war. Similarly, David says, when the enemies of life surround us, when worry, sin, pain and despair threaten to destroy us, we are to flee to God and hide ourselves in Him. That is what it means to trust in God. We are to cast ourselves into His protecting care completely.

  The next thing David encourages us to do in old age is to look back over our lives and remind ourselves of the times that God has watched over us, has protected us and has delivered us. We might call it “counting our blessings,” but it is a practice that David urges us to establish in our lives. He says: “For You are my hope, O Lord God: You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been helped from the womb: You are He that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually to You” Psa. 71:5, 6.

  There are many, like David, who have served God from their youth up. How rich their lives usually are. Yet those of us who have become aware of God’s love for us only at a later period in our lives need not despair. Christ’s parable in Matt. 20:1-16 of the labourers in the vineyard reassures us that God will accept our repentance and cries for forgiveness at any stage of life. Even those who have wrought but one hour “are made equal unto those who have borne the burden and heat of the day.” Even the thief on the cross was assured of life eternal when in the closing hours of his earthly life he cast himself upon Jesus.

  The next thing in this psalm to give us confidence is that David’s life was not perfect. He had committed dreadful sins; sins of adultery, false witness and murder; sins of which very few of us have been guilty. And yet, deeply repentant as he was, David did not carry the burden of guilt on his shoulders for the rest of his life. He discovered the secret of sins forgiven, and this secret is expressed in the words, “Deliver me in THY righteousness.” Psa. 71:2.

  There are many who are burdened with a sense of guilt, and this carried into old age cripples and embitters the life. We must learn that at any age we need to drop our burden at the foot of the cross. Jesus has assumed our guilt and paid the penalty of it in his death. Therefore we do not have to bear it. David learnt this lesson, and following in the wake of assurance of forgiveness by God came two things: peace of heart, and a desire to praise God. These two things do more to make an aged person’s life attractive than anything else - a knowledge that he is right with God and a disposition to be happy in praising God. Yet another gem of counsel to the aged is found in David’s words, “But I will hope continually.” Psa. 71:14.

  Hope is likened to a star in the darkest night; and hope in the promises of God, in the soon coming of Jesus, in the restitution of all things, in the ultimate banishment of death, is the thing that dispels despair. One favourite text with many people is that which says, “Neither shall there be any more pain.” Rev. 21:4. This text gives hope and hope means that we can never turn inwards on ourselves. Nor has the Christian old person any cause to lose himself in self-pity. Becoming self-centred and having self-pity do more to cripple the aged than anything else. We should continually keep active as long as possible and always have some out-going interest.

  And finally, we might notice David’s parting plea to God: “Now also when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have showed Your strength unto this generation, and Your power to everyone that is to come.” Psa. 71:18.

 The aged have a responsibility to this modern generation, and that is to show them their strength. It is certainly  not physical strength spoken of here, for the aged have little of that. It is a spiritual strength, a strong faith that is needed in this modern world. Faith is a thing which is developed and deepened only with personal experiences with God, and most youth today are totally unaware of what such faith implies.

  Old age is not to be an era of barren bitterness. Sanctified by the grace of God, these years can be amongst the most profitable and rewarding years of all.

  - John Aldersley

King Solomon's mines

Digs may help decide if 'King Solomon's mines' was a misnomer

A University of California archeologist has found evidence that sheds new light on the venerable question of whether King David and his son King Solomon controlled the copper industry in the Kingdom of Edom, which is present-day southern Jordan.
The term "King Solomon's Mines" was made famous by a 19th century novel of the same name - although, until now, no such mines have been proven to exist during the time period mentioned in the Bible. continue reading > article in Jewish World Jerusalem Post

For decades, scholars have argued over whether the Edomites were sufficiently organized by the 10th to 9th centuries BCE to seriously threaten the neighboring Israelite Kingdom.
..."We can't believe everything ancient writings tell us," Levy says. "But this research represents a confluence between the archeological and scientific data and the Bible.