Posted in advent, theology

Advent – Thirty Days of Jesus: Day 6- The Glory of Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

We’re in the section of the 30-day Advent flow of the prophecies of Jesus’ coming, his arrival, and his early life. Yesterday’s scripture picture was “The Babe has arrived” and the scripture was from Luke 2.

How can we go any further without pondering that He, the King of Glory, the Infinite, left glory in heaven to be wrapped in human flesh and dwell among sinners? To seek and save the lost, humbling himself not only as a God-Man, but departing His heavenly home of glory where He constantly received His due worship… To be rejected, despised among men, and killed. All for us, rotten sinners.

Our God is truly AMAZING!

thirty days of jesus verse 6

To Know the Love of Christ, by Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)
“Consider Jehovah’s condescending to take upon Him a nature that was inferior to the angelic, so that when the Word became flesh His divine glory was almost completely eclipsed. Contemplate the unspeakable humiliation into which the Son of God descended, a humiliation which can only be gauged as we measure the distance between the throne of heaven and the manger of Bethlehem.” 

Further information

God’s Glory: Ligonier Devotional
“We turn today to the first verse of the second chapter of James, wherein the apostle refers to Jesus as “the Lord of glory.” Even though this is an acceptable translation of the original Greek text, it is not necessarily the most accurate way to render the verse in English. As the note in the Reformation Study Bible indicates, it is also possible to translate “the Lord of glory” as simply “the glory.” In reality, it does not really matter which one we choose because the two translations are synonymous. However, to say Jesus is “the glory” is a good way to encapsulate a portion of the New Testament’s description of the majesty of Christ.”

Thinking about Jesus: Owen on meditating on Christ’s glory
In his devotional work, The Glory of Christ, John Owen provided five useful helps to meditate on Christ as a divine/human Person. I pass these meditations along to you, hoping that they will increase your devotion to Christ (you can read the full section in Owen’s Works, 1:312-322).

 John Owen’s quotes on Jesus’ glory (Goodreads)
“No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter who does not in some measure behold it here by faith.”

Posted in theology

Santa pause?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I work in an elementary school. I work mainly in kindergarten, first, second, and third grades. The age range is about 5 to 9. These are prime years for kids to be old enough to have built a mini-history of family traditions around this holiday, to know about Christmas as the gift giving day (Presents! Stuff!) and about who it is that brings them, (Santa!).

I was on lunch duty this week and a first grade boy (age 7) raised his hand to flag me over and when I bent down to ask what he needed help with (opening milk carton? a juice spill?) he gestured to the boy next to him and said, “He says Santa isn’t real? Is he real or not?”

Gulp.

Just then the School Counselor walked by. Saved! I referred the child’s question to her. Her reply, “Ask your parents.”

Phew. Dodged a bullet there.

This is the time of year that whether your child is secular schooled, privately schooled, or homeschooled, they at some point kids who do or don’t believe in Santa no doubt will rub elbows with another child who does or doesn’t believe that Santa is a jolly old man who had a magic sleigh led by flying reindeer and clambers down chimneys of all the children in the world in one night bring them their desired gift items.

When you put it like that, it does sound fanciful. How can a child even believe this?

Oh, but they do. Christian parents may (or may not) have a dilemma on whether to tell their kids about Santa. Justin Peters has thoroughly examined the question of Santa and has a 45 minute video exploring the issues around this ‘jolly old elf’. He also wrote a book about it which you can purchase at Amazon. It’s called Santa Pause: A Biblical Perspective of Santa Claus.

His video is called Santa Pause. Peters goes over the above topics listed in the screen shot; History of Santa, Characteristics and attributes of Santa, and drawing some biblical conclusions.

Santa Pause video by Justin Peters

Ligonier: essay on the origins of Santa (Saint Nicholas)

Posted in advent, theology

Advent: Thirty Days of Jesus; Day 5- The Babe has arrived!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

thirty days of jesus verse 5

Answers in Genesis: Separating myth from biblical fact, No Room For an Inn
You probably recognize this scene:

Bethlehem (around 2,000 years ago): Joseph and Mary arrive at the sleepy town in the middle of the night. Mary, already in labor, remains on the donkey while Joseph frantically searches for a room at the local inns. Desperate, he begs one reluctant innkeeper for any place at all to have this baby. The innkeeper finally relents and makes room for them in a tumbledown stable with the cows. There’s just one problem. This isn’t what the Bible teaches.

Read more from Answers in Genesis at the link above.

GotQuestions: What does it mean that baby Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloths?
Swaddling clothes are cloths and bands used in the practice of swaddling, or essentially “wrapping” an infant tightly in cloth. The idea behind swaddling is that it helps the baby transition from the womb (a very snug place) to the outside world. Swaddling clothes are still used today, but with some modifications…


Posted in theology, thirty Days of Jesus

Advent: Thirty Days of Jesus, Day 4; Angelic Comfort

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Advent series in scripture photos. We are in the section of my Advent thirty day flow where we examine PROPHECY, ARRIVAL, and EARLY LIFE of Jesus.

‘He will save from sin…’ Do we even know of our sin? Matthew Henry says of the parallel Luke 1:35 verse:

JESUS! the name that refreshes the fainting spirits of humbled sinners; sweet to speak and sweet to hear, Jesus, a Saviour! We know not his riches and our own poverty, therefore we run not to him; we perceive not that we are lost and perishing, therefore a Saviour is a word of little relish. Were we convinced of the huge mass of guilt that lies upon us, and the wrath that hangs over us for it, ready to fall upon us, it would be our continual thought, Is the Saviour mine? And that we might find him so, we should trample on all that hinders our way to him. ~Matthew Henry Concise Commentary

thirty days of jesus day 4

What is sin?
“Sin is a riddle, a mystery, a reality that eludes definition and comprehension. Perhaps we most often think of sin as wrongdoing or transgression of God’s law. Sin includes a failure to do what is right. But sin also offends people; it is violence and lovelessness toward other people, and ultimately, rebellion against God. Further, the Bible teaches that sin involves a condition in which the heart is corrupted and inclined toward evil”. 

What is the definition of sin? – Got Questions
“Sin is described in the Bible as transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) and rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18). Sin had its beginning with Lucifer, probably the most beautiful and powerful of the angels. Not content with his position, he desired to be higher than God, and that was his downfall, the beginning of sin (Isaiah 14:12-15). Renamed Satan, he brought sin to the human race in the Garden of Eden, where he tempted Adam and Eve with the same enticement, “you shall be like God.”

Matthew Henry on Matthew 1:18-25
That she had conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost; not by the power of nature. The Holy Spirit, who produced the world, now produced the Saviour of the world, and prepared him a body, as was promised him, when he said, Lo, I come, Heb. 10:5. Hence he is said to be made of a woman (Gal. 4:4), and yet to be that second Adam that is the Lord from heaven, 1 Co. 15:47. He is the Son of God, and yet so far partakes of the substance of his mother as to be called the fruit of her womb, Lu. 1:42. It was requisite that his conception should be otherwise than by ordinary generation, that so, so though he partook of the human nature, yet he might escape the corruption and pollution of it, and not be conceived and shapen in iniquity.

Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 1613). Hendrickson.


Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Advent: Thirty Days of Jesus, Day 3- ‘Perfect Timing’

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

We are in the section of my Advent thirty day flow where we examine PROPHECY, ARRIVAL, and EARLY LIFE of Jesus.

In this section I chose verses that reflect the prophecies that predict His coming. Prophecy warns of coming judgment but it also comforts in that it foretells the holy and wonderful resolution of all things for the believer. This resolution didn’t begin with Jesus’ incarnation as a babe in the manger, it began before the foundation of the world when the God-head held an intra-council discussion and Jesus voluntarily chose to become the sacrificial Lamb.

thirty days of jesus verse 3

Challies: Five verses on adoption

Ligonier: Adoption into God’s Family by Iain Campbell

Answers In Genesis: Adopted into God’s Family

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Advent: Thirty Days of Jesus, Day 2; He will come!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Thirty days of exalting Jesus through selected verses with pictures representing the prophecy, life, death, resurrection, and Second Coming of our Savior.

We are in the flow of verses that prophesied his coming.

More information and background on this series, here

thirty days of jesus verse 2

Day 1: The Virgin Shall Conceive

Ligonier: A Shoot from Jesse’s Stump: Devotional explains-

History tells us this is exactly what happened, with David’s royal dynasty all but dying out as a result of God’s judgment of His people through Assyria and Babylon. Nevertheless, Isaiah also saw that while the Davidic line would seem to be dead, life would remain within the stump. A shoot—life barely detectable at first—would emerge. But once this shoot went forth, it would become a mighty tree.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Isaiah 11:1 says-

 He comes forth out of the stem, or stump, of Jesse. When the royal family, that had been as a cedar, was cut down, and only the stump of it left, almost levelled with the ground and lost in the grass of the field (Dan. 4:15), yet it shall sprout again (Job 14:7); nay, it shall grow out of his roots, which are quite buried in the earth, and, like the roots of flowers in the winter, have no stem appearing above ground. The house of David was reduced and brought very low at the time of Christ’s birth, witness the obscurity and poverty of Joseph and Mary. The Messiah was thus to begin his estate of humiliation.

All the Named Men of the Bible: Jesse says,

Jesse [Jĕs’se]—jehovah exists or firm. The son of Obed and father of David, and grandson of Boaz and Ruth, and an ancestor of Christ (Ruth 4:17, 22). Jesse had eight sons and two daughters by different wives (1 Sam. 17:12-14, 25). Isaiah speaks of “the stock of Jesse,” a phrase indicating that it was from Jesse the Messiah would come. The humble descent of the Messiah is contrasted with the glorious kingdom He is to have (Isa 11:1).

Posted in theology

Advent: Thirty Days of Jesus; Day 1

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Thirty days of exalting Jesus through selected verses with pictures representing the prophecy, life, death, resurrection, and Second Coming of our Savior.

More information and background on this series, here

Charles Spurgeon on the prophecy of the virgin birth: “And, first, we see here, in speaking of this birth of Christ, a miraculous conception. The text says expressly, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son.” This expression is unparalleled even in Sacred Writ! Of no other woman could it be said beside the Virgin Mary, and of no other man could it be written that his mother was a virgin.“

“There is the finite and the Infinite, there is the mortal and the Immortal, corruption and Incorruption, the manhood and the Godhead, time married to eternity! There is God linked with a creature, the Infinity of the august Maker come to tabernacle on this speck of earth—the vast unbounded One whom earth could not hold and the heavens cannot contain—lying in His mother’s arms! He who fastened the pillars of the universe and riveted the nails of creation, hanging on a mortal breast, depending on a creature for nourishment! Oh, marvelous birth! Oh, miraculous conception! We stand and gaze and admire. Verily, angels may wish to look into a subject too dark for us to speak of! There we leave it, a virgin has conceived and borne a Son“. A sermon, The Birth of Christ

Charles Spurgeon on Christmas: “Though creation may be a majestic organ of praise, it cannot reach the compass of the golden canticle—Incarnation! There is more in that than in creation, more melody in Jesus in the manger, than there is in worlds on worlds rolling their grandeur round the throne of the Most High.” Sermon “The First Christmas Carol“, A sermon by Charles Spurgeon, Dec 20, 1857

Further Resources

Ligonier Devotional by Derek Thomas: Christmas: Prophecy and Fulfillment

GotQuestions: How many prophecies did Jesus fulfill?

Posted in theology

Advent: Thirty Days of Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Christmas is coming. It’s a blessed time of year.

We should think of the Savior, all the year, every day. (Philippians 4:8). But the Christmas season is a special time when we think more pointedly about His incarnation, life, death, burial, ascension, and return. Who is this Jesus? He was born, lived, died, rose again, and promised to return, to bring eternal life to those who believe and eternal death to those who reject. He tore the veil of human history, and changed everything.

I use my photographs of God’s beautiful creation and overlay a verse on them to publish every day. For Advent, the theme is Thirty Days of Jesus. Thirty verses, thirty photos of God’s creation that reflect His life and ministry.

Of course, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written one after the other, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written,” says John 21:25. So I broke the series up into mini-themes, in order to present highlights.

I chose three mini-themes for this month’s scripture Advent photos that I believe will create a satisfactory narrative of Jesus’ life.

PROPHECY, ARRIVAL, and EARLY LIFE, 15 verses.

In this section I chose verses that reflect the prophecies that predict His coming the first time.

Then the beautiful verses that announce His arrival on the blessed morn.

Then a section are verses that mention Jesus as a child and boy, before He began His ministry.

PREEMINENCE OF THE SON, HIS WORKS & MINISTRY, 15 verses

The Son 5 verses over 5 days

Beginning with verses that declare the Son, are verses that focus Him as the Second Person of the Trinity. His sonship is integral to His earthly ministry as the subordinate Person to God the Father. These verses reflect that reality.

Works & Ministry, 10 verses

This section, published over ten days, will present verses that detail His attributes while He was on earth; Jesus as servant, teacher, shepherd, healer, and so on. Of course, not completely. He has so many attributes. He has ALL the attributes, but in total holiness!

RESURRECTION, ASCENSION, & RETURN

This last section Christ is unique in that He is the firstfruit of resurrection. He is unique in that He descended from heaven and ascended to heaven. Of the John 3:13 verse, says that only He is qualified to speak of heaven, being the only One who has been intimately involved with all its doings, and only he has seen the Father and come down from there and returned.

Jesus was raised to life and brought back to heaven, and several verses in this section will illustrate what He is doing while we wait the long centuries for the fulfillment of the end of all things, His glorious final return. The last verses will present Jesus in His glory, as He is in heaven now.

The flow mirrors the Revelation 1:8 verse, where it is declared,

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Let’s enjoy the season. I pray that it does not become a hectic, shopping slog, frantic with focus on gifts and cleaning houses and to-do lists, though given family obligations and work colleague expectations, some of that is always inevitable. But don’t let it encroach more than it has to. Jesus is the reason for this season. If you’re a believer, this season is a gateway to a new year filled with many reasons each day to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. (Psalm 86:9)

Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. (Isaiah 60:21).

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)

or you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:20).

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:11).

He WILL come again!

Posted in theology

Advent is here! Some misc housekeeping

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

If you do not know about the marvelous ministry of Mt. Zion Bible Church, you’re in for a treat. If you do know, then you know how wonderful it is.

Chapel Library is a ministry of Mount Zion Bible Church, a Christ-centered church in Pensacola, Florida. You can read their history here. Volunteers from the church handle global requests for hard copy printed matter to be mailed, audio tapes and MP3’s, manage a correspondence school, send free material to train chaplains in prison ministries, are entrusted with SpurgeonGems.org, a complete collection of Charles Spurgeon’s (1834-1892) sermons and other resources, and more.

Their material is from ‘the old, dead guys’, (my term) such as John Bunyan, John Owen, Lloyd-Jones, etc, and a few solid theologians still alive (Beeke, MacArthur, Voddie). The material available in their library can be sent to you via USPS for free, downloaded digitally, or read online.

They also print and distribute a periodical booklet called Free Grace Broadcaster. This month’s edition- Winter 2024 - is titled The Wonderful Love of Jesus. Inside are essays and excerpts of essays from these theologians of the past on the topic. I was deeply moved by the essays in this edition, so much so, it got me ready for Advent in a powerful way. Your mileage may vary, but these essays surely spoke to my heart and mind.

The 2 particular essays that got me right in the heart were Christ’s Love as Mediator by John Owen (1616-1683); and To Know the Love of Christ by Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952).

Owen muses on the hypostatic union in Christ- the dual natures. Jesus was divine and also human. Here, Owen discusses Jesus’ human love:

But He was to have another nature in which He was to undergo the difficulties of this work of salvation. He was required to pity us until He had none to pity Him when He most needed it. He was to tread the way of salvation until His soul was heavy and sorrowful unto death. He was to save us from the wrath and justice of a righteous God by suffering that wrath and justice Himself. But far from deterring Him, these proposals only heightened His love for us and increased His delight in the work of our salvation. Indeed, His love, like a mighty river, swept over those ominous proposals, for He says, “Lo, I come…to do thy will, O God” (Heb 10:5-7; see also Isa 50:5-7).

So, driven by His eternal love to undertake the office of mediator and the work of our redemption, a body was prepared for Him. In this body or human nature, which He made His own, He was to accomplish our salvation. His human nature was filled with immeasurable grace and fervent love to mankind. And by this His human nature was made fit to work out the purpose of eternal love.

From this, it is clear that Christ’s glorious love was not only divine but also human. The love of the Father, revealed in His eternal purpose to communicate grace and glory to all the elect, was a divine love only. But Christ’s love was also human. And in none of those eternal acts of love could the human nature of Christ have any claim or concern. Yet it is the love of the man Christ Jesus that Scripture celebrates. … It was because of that inexpressible love that the Son of God assumed our nature (Heb 2:14-17).

Wow. Did you ever ponder the love of Jesus outflowing from His human nature? When I think of how frail and sinful my love is and how pure His was as a human, it boggles my mind.

AW Pink’s essay was so good, too.

Consider Jehovah’s condescending to take upon Him a nature that was inferior to the angelic, so that when the Word became flesh His divine glory was almost completely eclipsed. Contemplate the unspeakable humiliation into which the Son of God descended, a humiliation which can only be gauged as we measure the distance between the throne of heaven and the manger of Bethlehem. 

Yes…that immeasurable distance between the throne of heaven and the lowly manger in the straw. I highly recommend the material at Chapel Library. Their earnest desire to exalt Jesus and connect Christians with material that elevates our sight of Jesus to glorious heights. Browse and see what you can find. This edition of the Free Grace Broadcaster is here.

Now, to housekeeping. Tomorrow, December 1, I begin my annual “Thirty Days of Jesus” advent series. I created this a few years ago to help me gain an appreciation for all the aspects of His coming. It’s a visual series, with a photo representing an aspect of the flow of His coming- from prophecies announcing its future occurrence, to the nativity, growth as a boy, adult ministry through healing, teaching, etc, His death, ascendance, and future return. I match the photo or illustration with verses I’ve chosen that in my view represent that aspect of Jesus’ Advent, life, death, and resurrection, and ascension.

Since it is mainly a visual series I won’t be podcasting it. But I will take the time to record other essays I published during the pause in the podcast I took since last May.

It’s the end of the year already? The months and years fly by. I can’t believe I’ll be saying ‘happy 2025’ soon. The mania around the 1999 change of century seems like yesterday. But we are already into a quarter of this new century!

Merry Christmas, friends, and enjoy your advent season.

Posted in theology

Decorating for Christmas? Or not?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Do you decorate your home for Christmas? If you have children, it’s one of the best memory-makers. My mother was a master decorator. She had an eye. She could go into the backyard (or more likely, send us teenagers out there) to pick some twigs, branches, leaves, anything, and she’d fashion it into something gorgeous.

We enjoyed seeing the same Christmas tree decorations year after year, and talk about events related to them.

In my thirties, my husband and I traveled to warmer climates for the winter, usually bugging out by December 1, so it didn’t make sense to decorate.

By then we had a cat, and she was a psycho cat to boot, so it provided another reason not to decorate. After that when I lived on my own, I still had a cat or two, so decorating was out of the question. One year, I tried putting up one of those block cubes with lights in them wrapped in a ribbon with a pinecone and some ornaments on top. My cat ate the pinecone and the ornaments. After that he didn’t seem too interested in the ribbon and avoided the glass so I kept using that for my decoration. Notice, the singular aspect of that word.

Then I moved to this place where I’ve been for a couple of years. No cats. New place and it was larger than my old place. I had fun scouring vintage stores for decorations. Hunting for them was fun. Like this one which is one of absolute favorites. It’s a 1950s-style elongated ornament. It’s heavy ceramic, and hand painted. Each of the 9 I got has a bird on it, and one has a birdhouse. I have never been able to find the origin, I believe they are vintage but I haven’t found the artist or anything similar to this piece.

This is how I displayed them, on a wrought iron thingie.

But there comes a time when perhaps the drive to decorate for Christmas wanes. There could be a lot of reasons. Maybe you travel. Maybe you’re living in a smaller space, or a space that doesn’t allow a lot of decorations. Maybe you live alone and just don’t want to. Or don’t have the energy or strength to drag the bins and boxes down from the closet or up from the basement. Maybe you’re grieving. Or a spouse is in the hospital and you’re spending all your time there. Could be a lot of reasons you don’t decorate for Christmas.

AND THAT IS OK.

I eventually decided this year not to go the full monty like I have the last 2 years. I put out a nativity and a white twig wreath outside on the stoop. Inside, I pulled out my other nativity sets and some candles. That’s it.

I love my nativity sets.

The glass figure nativity, I just put out the three main people- Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. The wooden one in the middle is made with popsicle sticks! Its simplicity and roughness appealed to me. The lit one is a favorite I got last year. The crystals are Swarovski and the lighting is just perfect. The alabaster white one I put outside because it’s hardy and can withstand wind and rain. The three wise men ornament swings to become three-dimensional.

I know the Wise Men didn’t arrive on the blessed day of Jesus’ birth, but I like that scene depicting them far away and arriving later. But they were still an important part of the early years of Jesus because of their monumental effort to look for Him, travel a great distance to Him, and to worship Him abundantly.

I kept out my battery operated candlesticks and I’ll put those in the window. So some nativities and a few candles will do it for me this year. The kids at school begged for some decorations so I’ll bring a small tree and some twinkle lights I got for cheap.

How is your decorating going this year?

Below are pics of last year’s Christmas decorating: