Below are 5 short but well written and pointed articles to contemplate and mediate deeply upon. It is my hope and prayer you read them all and mediate on each one, and that you will be moved to let someone you know and care about know about these matters:

Bethlehem’s Babe Exalted

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

The Bible accounts of the birth of Christ are touching indeed. The angelic announcements, the virgin with child, deeply embarrassed, yet highly honored; the holy Babe in a stable because there was no room in the inn, wrapped in swaddling bands and laid in a manger; the night suddenly turned to day, the multitude of the heavenly host praising God!

Surely it is fitting that we remember all this and celebrate  it, especially since our Lord thus humbled Himself that He  might die for our sins. Yet here we must be careful not to  be led astray, lest we know Him only as a sweet babe in a  manger rather than as the mighty Savior that He is. As  Americans we celebrate the birthdays of great men, but we do  not emphasize their babyhood! We rather honor them for what  they have accomplished, rejoicing that such men were born  into the world.

Our Lord is no longer a babe and He does not wish to be thought of as a babe, but rather as the One who, having died for our sins at Calvary, now lives to dispense to a world of lost sinners the riches of His grace.

Mary worship: Mary does not save nor intercede – only through Jesus Christ the RISEN man and Lord who conquered death can salvation be attained.

Some truth for all to search, digest, and know.

It was from His glory in heaven that He revealed Himself to St. Paul and instructed him to write: “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him [so] no more” (II Cor. 5:16).

And again in Hebrews 2:8,9, the Apostle declares: “Now we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus…. crowned with glory and honor” as the One who “tasted death for every man.”

It is wonderful to remember our Lord as the Babe born at Bethlehem, but still more wonderful to know Him now as the One who is “able to save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make inter- cession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

Worship, honor, serve, and obey the Risen Lord, the Risen man who was God on earth made a Sacrificial Lamb for our sins, who reigns at the right hand of the throne of God until He returns.

How Small We Are!

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Partial view of a galaxy photographed by the Hubble telescope. Sun in center surrounded by hundreds of planets.

Just behind me, in the supermarket check-out line, were two little boys. I noticed that the older one kept looking up at me and then down at his brother again several times in succession. Finally, nudging his little brother and pointing up at me, he said: “Hey, Joey, look how little you are!”

Those who have seen me in the flesh know that I am not exactly small, physically, and I can easily imagine that, standing next to these little fellows, I made them look small indeed!

But all this pertained only to the physical, and as I left that supermarket, I began asking myself: “How big are you, actually, in the sight of God?” I thought of Psalm 8:3,4, where David mused over the same question:

“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man that Thou art mindful of Him…?”

Yet we are so important to the heart of God that He entered the stream of humanity, as it were, and became one of us in Christ, Son of God and Son of Man. Why? Hebrews 2:14,15 gives us one important reason:

“…that through death [His death for our sins] He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Moreover, insignificant as we are in ourselves, He would use us mightily to His glory for, according to I Cor. 1:27,28, He has “chosen” the “foolish,” the “weak,” the “base,” the “despised,” and those who “are not” to accomplish His purposes and to bring to naught the plans of the world’s great ones.

This is such a large expanse in space it would take light years to travel from the left hand side of the image to the right hand side of the image.

Is It Important Who You Spend Time With?

by Pastor John Fredericksen

Whether we realize it or not, we are all affected by the people with whom we spend time. Their attitudes, philosophies, language, and spirituality (good or bad) have a tendency to rub off on us, even if we don’t realize it. The Lord warns us about this in I Corinthians 15:33: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” This isn’t true only for young people. It is true for believers of all ages. We might not want to think this could happen to us, but the Lord encourages us not to be deceived about this important principle.

David realized how important it was to surround himself with the right kind of spiritually minded people. His testimony was, “I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts” (Psa. 119:63). He intentionally chose to minimize the time he spent around the ungodly, or only somewhat spiritually minded, and to maximize his time around truly dedicated believers. Doing so gave him continual encouragement to walk after the Lord with a pure heart and not after the ways of the world.

The Apostle Paul must have embraced this principle for living too. As we look through his letters, it is easy to see the close relationship he maintained with many saints who were truly living for the Lord. Luke, Aquilla and Priscilla, Philemon, Titus, and Timothy are only a few he mentions with whom he had consistent fellowship. In contrast, neither Paul nor David spent a great deal of time with the lost, or ungodly, unless it was with ministry in mind.

We are not suggesting that believers cut themselves off from the unsaved or become hermits. We have instruction and examples to the contrary. We learn from II Corinthians 5:20 that “we are ambassadors for Christ” with the ministry of reconciliation or, in other words, the mission of sharing a clear gospel of grace with all that we can. Similarly, Ephesians 3:9 tells us Paul’s mission was also to “make (or help) all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery.” We too should share this goal of seeking to share with everyone the gospel of grace and the joyous news of God’s secret program of grace that is distinct from Israel and the Mosaic Law. So, we should have a ministry-minded outreach to others.

The proper balance to find should be in still maintaining an outward ministry, yet limiting our time with the lost, unspiritually minded, or even marginally spiritually minded. It is important for us to “be not deceived” about how others influence us and therefore to choose, like David and Paul before us, to make friends and companions of those who are so spiritually minded that we will be continually encouraged in the Lord. Is it important who we spend time with and how much time we spend with them? It certainly is! May God help each of us to cultivate the best kind of friendships: those with dedicated, spiritually minded believers of like precious faith.

More time spent like this…

And reading and meditating upon this…

Will serve each of us so much better than any number of these we may count as friends while here on this temporal plain…

Let It Get You Down

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3: 14).

When adversity strikes, the world keeps telling us: “Don’t let it get you down,” but believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have learned that it is good to let troubles and difficulties get them down — down on their knees.

A native evangelist in Africa sat outside his hut discouraged and unhappy. Trouble and disappointment had brought “great coldness” into his heart and he seemed ready to give up. The Lord, he felt, had utterly forsaken him. As he sat there, though, his little girl kept nudging him and saying: “Daddy, go inside and pray .” Finally it worked! The evangelist went inside, poured his heart out to God and arose feeling sure that the Lord would see him through.

It is good for us to get down on our knees before God. There is no attitude more appropriate to the redeemed sinner. And as we pray, often falteringly….

“The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

“And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:26-28).

“Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6,7).

Faith Versus Presumption

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

The Word of God declares in Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is  impossible to please Him”.

There is nothing that will haunt a man like the fear that God may be  displeased with him, nor any joy comparable to the assurance that He  is pleased. It is foolish, however, to suppose that we can please God  with the things we think He desires. We must give Him what He says He  desires. Thank God, it is not difficult to determine this, for He  tells us again and again in His Word that it is faith He desires most  of all. He wants us to trust Him, to take Him at His Word.

The Bible tells us at length how God loved us in spite of our sin and  gave His blessed Son to die on Calvary’s tree to clear our title to  heaven, but alas, instead of taking Him at His Word, thousands turn  away from His gracious offer, “going about to establish their own  righteousness” (Rom.10:3).

They do “good works” and make great sacrifices, thinking that a God of  love will surely accept their efforts and overlook their sins. But  this is presumption, not faith. How can a just God overlook sin? We  should thank Him that in His matchless love He himself paid for our  sins so that we might be free, and that salvation is “the gift of  God”, obtained by faith alone.

Cain presumed that God would accept his attractive sacrifice instead  of the prescribed one, but God refused both him and his offering.  Pharaoh presumed that he could take his armies through the Red Sea as  Moses had done, but he perished in the sea for presuming on God.  Naaman, the leper, refused God’s way of cleansing, saying, “I  thought…”, but the great general remained a leper until he took God at  His Word. Will you take God at His Word and trust Christ as your  Saviour?