A Tale of Horses
God continues to do all that is necessary to bring YOU into absolute surrender to his will. After all, haven’t you prayed in one way or another for his will to be done on earth—and in you—as it is in heaven—in the so-called Lord’s Prayer?
We live during an amazing era in which God is working in you (as part of the entire worldwide Church). You’re one of his children through which He is pouring out his Spirit to draw all humanity to Himself.
I define the Church as all people everywhere and everywhen in whom Jesus resides permanently in his “unbodied” form of the Holy Spirit. You are the Church.
The glorious Church “without spot or wrinkle” is being fashioned into the image of God in marvelous ways. God is commited to bringing the entire world—and everyone who has ever lived on it—into his coming Kingdom.
However, in order for God to fully commit this great and tremendous ministry into their hands, his children must first submit themselves to his discipline, letting him truly be Master of their entire lives.
Only those willing to be fully used by God are being dealt with in such a manner. Yes, there is a real work of God going on within those who are called to
Ashamed of What?
Long ago, a believer in Jesus named Paul wrote these words: “I’m not ashamed of the Good News of what God has done for everyone through Jesus. In fact, that Good News contains within itself actual power to save everyone who believes it.”
Paul also wrote: “If you honestly proclaim out loud to others that Jesus is your Master, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Okay what’s this “saved” and “salvation” stuff all about? Who needs saved? And from what? Saved from two things: Sin and Death. Anyone who is a sinner needs saved—needs salvation. Who is a sinner? We all are.
What is sin? It is choosing a lifestyle of living your life for your own self, being self-centered and self-absorbed, instead of being God-centered.
We’re all sinners. We’re all going to die. God—through Jesus—has provided salvation for each of us . . . if we’ll simply receive his salvation.
Salvation is a gift from God, but as with any gift, the gift is of no value unless we receive it and “open” it.
The Christmas Story
Note: I wrote this Christmas story a few years ago when friends asked me to sort of “update” it and make it more readable. I wrote it to be read serially a little at a time (perhaps a day at a time) for a few weeks leading up to Christmas.
Read it as a family, as a church group, as a Bible study group, by “children” of all ages, or in any number of settings. It’s designed to make the timeless Christmas story a bit more real to my readers.
I have deliberately taken liberties with punctuation, especially quotation marks.
This issue of The Traveler will be longer than usual in order to tell the entire Christmas story.