Category: christmas

Posted in christmas, Piano Guys

Piano Guys: Angels We Have Heard on High

Posted on by elizabethprata

So, soo pretty….

The Shepherds and the Angels
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Luke 2:8-14

Posted in christmas, grace, Immanuel

On the joy of discovering I am a wretch

Posted on by elizabethprata

I used to enjoy visiting cathedrals, basilicas, abbeys, cloisters … anything that was old and resembled something artistic and architectural.

Milan, Italy. Duomo

I enjoyed the peace inside, the stillness and coolness. I liked to look at the art and the statues. Visiting a church as a tourist is different than belonging to one as a Christian. I was blind, I did not see.

Paris, Notre Dame

In Pisa, I enjoyed the acoustic perfection of the Baptistry. Really. It is acoustically perfect. And who doesn’t love the story of the Leaning Tower? I heard the sound of a tenor voice sweetly rumbling among the rafters in the Baptistry. I could hear the notes, but I was blind. I did not see.

Enjoying a church as an architectural wonder is great, but it got me no closer to Jesus.

Quito, Bell Tower

These churches are mausoleums to emptiness, odes to nothingness. And far be it for me to visit a working, bible believing church. Too new. Too uninteresting. It had nothing for me. Sigh… I was so blind. Far better to stick with large, tourist oriented churches. Safer that way.  I heard the bells and listened to the choirs and studied the history, but I was blind…

St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

Even in a simple clapboard church, if I happened to visit for a service, and if they happened to play the wonderful hymn, Amazing Grace, I’d sing, all right. But when it came to the part about ‘saved a wretch like me’, I clamped my mouth shut. I was not a wretch, I was not, I was not! That lyric was stupid, I thought. But I was blind. How could I see the most important thing?

Labrador

I sang of grace, but I didn’t know what grace was. (Unmerited favor from God). How could I possibly know how amazing it is? I didn’t. I sang pretty words that had no meaning for me. “I once was lost but now I’m found” is a comforting lyric. I could safely relate to that. Who doesn’t find comforting the notion of being lost but found and enveloped in arms of love? Yet I was blind, and did not know I was lost and I did not know love. I didn’t know the height from which the arms came down to envelop me nor the depths of sin in which I was living. (1 John 5:17)

Then I was saved. (Grace!) I came to know Jesus (Amazing!) But the most important thing of all is learning that He is not in a cathedral or abbey or cloister or basilica. He is now in my heart and He is now with me wherever I go. I had been looking for Him the whole time, but I was missing Him by a mile.

I praise God that He came down to us as a babe. Grace came down to live with us (Immanuel; Matthew 1:22-23). He lived a perfect life so that He would qualify as the Lamb of God to be slain as the sacrifice for sin. He sent me a spirit of repentance and of faith so that I could know Him and be reconciled to Him with no wrath between us. (Romans 8:7).

Now I have the best Christmas gift of all: I know I am a wretch! I sing that lyric with gusto. I know Jesus loves us and He came to put away sin. I know that in my wretchedness He came to save me. I once was lost but now I’m found. Christmas, (and Easter), made it all possible. Thank you Jesus. Happy Birthday!

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

The best photo of all —

Posted in christmas, messiah

Rejoice, Messiah has come!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Andrew and Simon Peter followed John the Baptist and when John pointed to Jesus and said to Andrew, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Andrew followed Jesus and brought his brother with him, saying–

“He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).”

In order to find something, you have to be looking for it. These two disciples were looking. They knew the Messiah was prophesied to come and they were waiting, praying, sacrificing, and hoping. They looked and they found. Seek and ye shall find … (Luke 11:9a).

The Greek word for ‘found’ as it’s used in John’s verse means, “I find, learn, discover, especially after searching.”

I pray you are searching for Messiah, too. Here are some of the precious names He is called in the bible:

King — “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psalm 2:6)

God with us — “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Son of Man — “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.” (Daniel 7:13-14). He is referred to by His own lips as that title about 80 times in the New Testament.

Star — “I see Him but not now, I behold Him but not near. A star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel.” (Numbers 24:17)

Good Shepherd — “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ” (John 10:11)

Redeemer — “‘A Redeemer will come to Zion. And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,’ declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 59:20)

Any study of Jesus, even if it’s simply a list, would be comprehensive and overwhelming. He is so great, we can study about Him forever. And glory to God in the Highest, we who have repented and are counted as justified and sanctified, CAN and WILL study Him forever–

“Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” (Psalm 119:89)

Merry Christmas!

(adapted from John MacArthur’s sermon “The Perfect Mediator“)

Posted in christmas, judgment, wrath

Merry Christmas, God’s wrath is coming

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Christmas season is one where we call for peace on earth and goodwill to men. It is the season of love and joy and harmony. We pray and hope that we display the best qualities of these things to one and all.

Do we realize just what a radical love Jesus has called us to?

We think of the sweet babe in swaddling clothes, the still night broken by heavenly glory lighting the fields, angel choruses, and the grace of God. And it is, but these thoughts and visions in our mind are or should be counterbalanced by the reason for them: His wrath.

The reason He sent Jesus is to rescue us…from His wrath.

I’d like to contrast Godly love with Godly wrath in the lives of two bible people: Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was taken as a captive away from his homeland as a youth or early teenager. He was trained and put to work in Nebuchadnezzar’s court. He was threatened with death, his three closest friends were thrown into a fiery furnace, and he had to serve a pagan king with all its godless disgusting practices around him every minute. Yet, Daniel was compassionate and he loved Nebuchadnezzar as God would want us to love our enemies.

Nebuchadnezzar

When it came time for Daniel to reveal the interpretation of a particularly fearsome dream to the king, Daniel hesitated. Here is the scene:

“Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, “Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.” Belteshazzar answered and said, “My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies!” (Daniel 4:19).

Daniel knew that the dream meant God was going to cut Nebuchadnezzar down like a tree and make him go insane for seven years. The king was going to be crawling around on all fours eating grass like an animal. Daniel’s level of compassion was such that not one ounce of chortling, glee, or gloating came over him. He was troubled, dismayed, and didn’t even want to tell the king because he did not want the king to be troubled himself.

How many times do we get a bit of news where someone else was going to be cut down to size, and we cannot wait to share it? If it is an enemy all the better. Yet Daniel was compassionate toward the king, who was holding him captive and at any time could take his life for any reason or for no reason. THAT is Godly love.

Now the wrath. Why did God cut Nebuchadnezzar down and make him go insane for seven years? At the end of the interpretation, Daniel said to the king, “O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed,”

William Blake’s Nebuchadnezzar, Wikipedia commons

God’s wrath always comes because of unrepentant sin. Romans 1:18 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

When we enter the Christmas season, remember peace on earth but remember wrath, too. Too harsh, you say? No.

“This is how Paul begins the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness,” as John MacArthur said. (source)

The good news begins with wrath. It ends with love.

MacArthur again, “Our Lord had more to say about judgment, more to say about destruction, more to say about damnation, and more to say about hell than anybody else recorded in Scripture. And if you think it unusual that this great epistle on the doctrine of salvation opens with this statement about judgment it’s because you really haven’t thought very long about how the whole New Testament opens.”

source

Daniel’s radical love of Nebuchadnezzar was Godly because God loves the sinner. His grace saves the repentant sinner and when we convert, we remember His love and the fact that there but for the grace of God go I. So Daniel loved even his enemy, and wanted the best for him. And what a glorious thing that was, because in each chapter Nebuchadnezzar the king gets closer to the dramatic moment when finally, finally, he converts.

Note that when Daniel shared the news about God Daniel did not say, “God loves you and has a great plan for your life.” He urged the king to stop sinning. Eventually Nebuchadnezzar did:

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” (Daniel 4:37).

And the second part of Daniel’s message was the multiplying part- stop sinning and show mercy to those who are.

Wow. That is what Godly love does. It multiplies, and we continue in that love because we remember His wrath. We love because He first loved us, (1 John 4:19), but we remember that sin brings wrath. The whole story must include those two bookends- wrath and love.

“Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.” (Deuteronomy 32:35).

The Lord will punish the sins of His people in due time. His wrath will be unleashed but He sent Jesus as the love offering and rescue from that wrath. How can any part of the Good News omit that? Even at Christmastime? It cannot.

To sum up, I am not saying that for the Christmas season we go around saying, “Merry Christmas, God’s wrath is coming!” LOL. But it is part of the story.

source

Instead, envision the scene in Luke 2:8-20 where the shepherds are guarding their flocks by night, and the angels appear with a message. Particularly envision verse 11, (For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord), and know that this is the moment of rescue from wrath. The word savior in Greek used here means–

“properly, the Savior, Jesus Christ who saves believers from their sins and delivers them into His safety.” (Strong’s 4990), Safety from what? Wrath. Delivers them from what? Wrath. The Christmas message is one of loving rescue from wrath, and no witnessing of the Good News nor proclamations about it are complete unless both sides of the story are told.

Here is one last anecdote from modern day culture about the love and wrath bookends. I watched a video of Phil Robertson of Duck Commander and Duck Dynasty television fame preach. In that segment Phil said that he was on the phone at Duck Commander headquarters taking an order for a duck call from a guy in Alabama. Phil said that the man was using God’s name in vain, that every other word out of the guy’s mouth was “G-d this and G-d that.” Finally after about the fifth time, Phil couldn’t take it any more and he asked the guy, “Why are you cursing the only One that can rescue you from death?”

To make a long story short, Phil invited the guy to his house, about a ten hour drive from where the guy was calling from, and praise the Lord, the guy showed up the next week. Phil preached sin, death, and wrath, and the guy and his buddy both cried like babies on his living room floor. Before sunup, they were baptized.

Phil said he never saw the guy again – until 17 years later, when Phil was preaching in Alabama. Phil was led to a room and the guy was there, he was now one of the leaders of the church. He went from unsaved, blaspheming godless man to a Godly leader shepherding others into Christ.

The effect of the entire Gospel story is one of multiplying miracles. Leave off the wrath and you only have a smarmy story of an invisible God who loves us for some reason. Don’t leave off the reason.

Merry Christmas.

Posted in christmas

Merry Christmas!

Posted on by elizabethprata
Comet Lovejoy seen from space: source

His creation is truly awe-inspiring, isn’t it? The angels, also called the stars, sang with joy at His birth. How bright that star must have been to lead the Wise men to the Christ-child. How bright that glory must have been to the shepherds keeping watch by night. His coming was heralded by signs in the stars and the brightest glory ever. His Second Coming will be the same.

His creation is His and we are His people. Each one of us believers is holy and sanctified. Love each other well and truly, giving thanks for each one. Even Paul who was so vexed by the Corinthians, gave thanks for each of them, “I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:4.) We give thanks for each other and love one another because He first loved us. How can we do less for each other? He came to bring us peace with Him, reconciled. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14). First that peace comes between a man and God, and then we display that peace toward each other, in love that Christ gives us.

Merry Christmas one and all. I hope your holiday is blessed with love and peace, most importantly, peace with Jesus through repentance and salvation, and then peace in knowing your eternal salvation is secure. What a present Jesus is to all of humanity, and what graceful present He gives each person who partakes of His mercy: the right to be called sons of God and brothers of Jesus. (Hebrews 2:10-11)

Love, Elizabeth Prata
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Posted in bible, christmas, repent

About blogging…

Posted on by elizabethprata

In January of 2009 I started this blog. It wasn’t my first blog. In August 2006 I started The Quiet Life, a more personal blog and one which I still keep up to this day. I picked up on blogging only a bit late, 2004 was proclaimed the Year of the Blog. Before that I’d been writing for newspapers and before that I’d been writing academic papers for Universities as a graduate student. 2004 was the year that the medium burst onto the scene and journalism has never been the same. Neither have activism, diaries, relationships, or book publishing. Even some churches have their own anonymous blogger watchdogs.

So in 2009 I received a conviction that my lifetime of writing would and could be put to good use for Jesus. World Wide Web outreach was possible through this medium. However, I was daunted in January of 2009 by the sheer number of blogs out there. Blogs covered every topic and every corner of the internet. “[T]he current estimates say there are about 450 million “active” English language blogs right now, but that number varies according to the source. Technorati estimated over 200 million blogs at the start of 2009, with exponential growth since then.” (source)

200 million blogs? Plus one more? Was anyone even going to notice my blog? My paltry words floating out on the ethersphere? But I leaped in, confident that the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing and that even if only one person ever read this blog that it would be the right person at the right time. So on January 6, 2012 it  will be the three-year anniversary of this blog. I’ve blogged on this blog 1411 times, an average of 470 essays per year. More than one a day, every day, for three years. The Holy Spirit is endlessly creative.

I thought that the economic crash of October 2008 was a huge end time sign and was pleased to be used of the Lord for His name by writing. I love writing and I love the Lord so it is literally a match made in heaven. Through prayer and bible study the Spirit makes me aware of the deeper things of the Word and then I can turn around and write on topics I feel led by the Spirit to write about. If what I write is of the Spirit, He will pierce the heart of the person and they will be convicted, or encouraged. I’m humbled by this process, and often am reduced to tears of thanks when someone writes that they were moved by something on the blog. When that happens it is a visible manifestation to me of the Spirit’s working in the world.

But not so many visitors came in 2009 even after the crash. People still thought what was happening in the world was kind of normal. I didn’t think so but I knew the nature of birth pangs would be such that eventually they’d become noticeable to a wider swathe of the population, and then they would come running for answers. Hopefully they would accept Jesus as that answer.

For all of 2010 there were still millions of blogs being opened each day. I blogged on. Sometimes I’d get discouraged that the people would not respond as well to the theological posts as they would the weird posts. Essays about UFOs or sinkholes or weird noises or vampires always got lots of hits and the ones about Jesus being God … didn’t. But in the end I was grateful that someone felt compelled to read what is here because that meant they were searching for a Divine reason for the weird things happening rather than a secular one.

In January 2011 the page views went from the steady hundreds per day as they had been for two years, to a steady thousands per day. If you remember January 2011 opened with Aflockalypse. That was the world-wide event where thousands of birds at various locations simply dropped dead to the ground. Then it started happening with fish and then other wildlife such as starfish or penguins or seals. THAT seemed to get people’s attention in a way that even the economic crash of 2008 hadn’t. In March 2011 was the all-time high for page views and you’ll remember that was when the Japan earthquake and tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster occurred. People were awake now.

Since Aflockalypse, the page views have only been upward.  Last night I passed 1 million views.

Though the numbers are humbling to me, they aren’t really so great in the blogosphere. Many, many other blogs get a million views per day, not a million views in three years. But I wanted to take a moment to thank the Holy Spirit for this ministry, because each and every one of those views is a blessing. Someone, somewhere, looked at a page here and in so doing learned a little bit about Jesus. Each time I write I aim to exalt Him, and to promote that He has a plan for each of us and that it is available to each of us if we will just repent of our sins.

I boast of Him, and the opportunities and ministries He gives us for His name. Delivering information about Jesus, connecting people with Jesus, alerting people about Jesus’ soon arrival, urging people to repent before it is too late, are blessings for me to perform in His name. Seeing the interest in prophecy go up as the page views rise (not just my blog but many others) means that people are becoming alerted to the times. They are waking up. And it is a blessing because He gave us a more sure word, prophecy, and it is coming to pass just as He said. (2 Peter 1:12-21).

THIS is the reason for this blog: (Philippians 2:6-11):

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

I want this blog to be as this verse, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Thank you all for your visits and your encouragement. I will keep blogging until the day I die or the rapture, whichever comes first. I will keep proclaiming the Goodness of Jesus until the end of time and then for all eternity. I hope that for your Christmas present you fall out of love with your sin and in love with the Savior from your sins.

As we read in the above sermon, “Romans 10:9-10, ‘If you confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you’ll be saved.’ Saved from hell, from sin, from judgment. Better to confess it now and go on confessing it forever in heaven than to go on confessing it in bitterness and remorse forever in hell. Every tongue will confess it.” (source). Will you confess today? It would be the best Christmas present ever.

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Posted in christmas, end time, entertain angels unaware, prophecy

Angels we have heard on high

Posted on by elizabethprata

You know this Christmas hymn, I’m sure:

“Angels we have heard on high”
Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

Now the bible isn’t saturated with information about angels but there is a good bit of information about them. They are created beings whose created purpose was to minister to humans. (Hebrews 1:14). When they were created, we do not know. They also serve the Lord at His throne, so they could have been created billions of years ago as we count our time, or they could have been created just before He made humans. We do know that at the three critical junctures of God’s revealed plan for the world, they burst into song, proclamation, and exhortation, in jubilation of the work that God is doing. They burst through the veil between earth and highest heaven, to make His work known.

They sang as God laid the foundation of the world, referred to here as they often were, as the “sons of God”:

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7)

They proclaimed when Jesus was born: 

“In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,  “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:8-14)

And finally, angels will exhort during the Tribulation. Three of them will fly around the earth  preaching and exhorting and warning:

“Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth–to every nation, tribe, language and people. A second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. ” (Revelation 14:6-10a)

Three times they burst in, at the beginning, the middle and the end of this age. God cares for us SO much, He created angels to minister to us before He even made us, or the world. He cares for us so much that He sent His son to satisfy the sin debt and make a way for us to be with Him. He cares for us so much He sends angels to warn and proclaim the gospel to every creature on earth. He is a mighty God and a Loving God.

I hope that your eternal destination to be with Him is secure. I hope that you have recognized His holiness and our sinfulness, and asked Him forgiveness for your sins. Otherwise, the default destination for you is to receive your wish: permanent separation from him in hell. Hell was originally designed for Lucifer and the fallen angels, (Mt 25:41) but he widened its mouth to receive those humans who would also rebel against Him in refusing the remedy of Jesus’ forgiveness. (Is 5:14). Instead, because of Jesus’ birth as a babe, His sinless life on earth, His obedient death, and miraculous resurrection- we can sing in exultation that we are saved! We are His!

Gloria in Excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the highest!

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