During one of Africa’s military coups, part of the attacking force ran out of bullets. Then a lorry belonging to the defenders drove up and was captured – it contained a box of ammunition.

When we feel hopeless and defeated, God provides unexpected ammunition to help us continue to fight. He gave David five smooth stones. The Lord Jesus offered His disciples prayer and fasting. Apostle Paul recommends seven “weapons of righteousness” which we can request today, as men of God and as soldiers of Jesus Christ, where the Holy Spirit is in charge of the stores.

1. Purity – this is freedom from sin, our past sins have been forgiven. Today the Lord Jesus gives us power to keep away from them if we ask him for it.
2. Knowledge – He has given us His word, which we are responsible to study and know, so that we can show others the way to God.
3. Forbearance – We should have the quality of being patient with people, witnessing and soul winning, we know that God loves them and wants all people to come to Him. 1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”
4. Kindness – Kind deeds are great weapons of righteousness. When the unbeliever receives this quality from the Christian, he knows his Christianity is real. The hungry are fed, the sick are healed, and the oppressed are given justice. Mark 9:14-29.
5. Genuine Love – We must care about others whether they are our family, friends, or neighbours; or people of another tribe, race or nation; or even our enemies. This love should extend to them too. 2 Timothy 2:3 “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
6. Truthful Speech – We have the word of God, which is truthful for all persons. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life.” We are the light of this word, let your yes be yes and your no be no. People must be able to depend upon our word.
7. The Power of God – Apostle Paul did not credit himself with anything that had been accomplished. It was all done to the power of God working in his life. If we try to do the work of the kingdom of God in our own strength we fail, it must be God’s power working through us.

Ask ourselves if we are good soldiers of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 2:4 “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”

Let all of us be encouraged to pray for the weapons we need.

These words and instructions were given by Christ to John the Baptist when Christ came to John to be baptised. We read how John forbad him, saying, “I have need to be baptised of thee and comest thou to me?” The words of our text were the reply of Christ, and we also begin to wonder at this baptism. The baptism of Christ was unique, and the only one of its kind, but had a significance and purpose. Every other baptism is always linked with a repentance first, and then the baptism. That was the message of John – “Repent and be baptised”. That was the message of the first Apostles as stated by Peter in his first sermon on the day of Pentecost, where he spoke clearly what the Jews who had been circumcised to the father must do – “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost.”

Now Christ had nothing to repent for, so that message was not for him. His baptism was more a consecration, and that is why Christ said, “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Christ came to the earth to fulfil a threefold office on earth. These were: Prophet, Priest and King. Moses had, 1500 years before, foretold of the Prophet role when he declared, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me: unto him shall ye hearken.” At the time of His baptism Christ was now of the age of 30 years, when under the Jewish Law He was now to begin His role as Priest – the great High Priest – for redemption work. Under the Law of God, a Priest could not begin His labour until he had been washed and anointed. So, on that day John, who was of the linage of the High Priest office fulfilled the first part of the Law by baptising (or washing) with water, and God fulfilled the second part, the anointing, when the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit came upon Him like a dove. God then gave this office a blessing with the words from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Christ was now divinely appointed to be our High Priest forever, as declared in Hebrews 4:15, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

We see that which was fulfilled on that day was not for that time alone, but because of the obedience of John, so a High Priest was given to the world forever. Let us make use of this blessing to mankind always in our lives, and if we can have this Prophet and High Priest guide our lives, we are assured that we will also be witness to that third office He bears, that of King of Kings.

During a recent discussion with an Apostle in Germany he told of an event that happened at the time when the Berlin Wall was in place and feelings against those on each side had been stirred up, which certainly highlighted our text. If we think about this event, I am sure we can all relate it to events in our own lives.

Some zealous people from East Germany came through the gate in the wall in a dump truck and dumped a load of garbage on the west side of the wall. The people on that side became angry and gathered together to work out a way to return the favour. We can only imagine some of the suggestions put forward. Fortunately, a Priest who lived there came up with a better idea which was agreed upon. They filled a truck with canned goods, medicine, clothes and other non-perishable items and took it over to the East side and stacked it up neatly beside the wall. They then put a sign on it which read “Each gives what he has to give.”

We see they were saying if garbage is what you’ve got, garbage is what you will give, but if love is what you have, then love is what you will give. This act highlighted our text because as the people were reminded of Christs’ teaching as the true vine it became easy for them to see their obligation to bring forth fruit. God’s purpose for us is that our fruit should remain long after we are gone. We can see that this is the case in this event as so many years after the people still speak of it.

The Apostle Paul reminds us of this fruit in Galatians 5: 22 — 26 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”

These virtues must always come from God’s Spirit, they are not part of man’s nature that is why we must always as the text shows us, to ask for the guidance of this Spirit daily. “Ask of the Father in my name so that it can be given unto us.” Our Lord said this fruit has to be purged, that is to take away the human element to make it chosen of God.

The bible teaches us if we are to be fruitful then we should give the first part of our blessings back to God. The first part of the day we should give thanks for life; the first day of the week, should be full of thanks for the Grace freely given, the first portion of our blessings should be considered in our free will offerings, the first consideration in every decision we make, the first place in our lives. Matthew 6: 33 “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all things shall be added unto you.”

This teaching urges us to not fall into the trap of being envious of others, even in our conversations, because we will soon become discontented with the blessings that the Lord has given us. It is a breach of the 10^th Commandment God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai.  “Thou Shalt not covet thy neighbours house: thou shalt not covert thy neighbours wife, nor his man servant, nor his maidservant, not his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbours.”

A recently retired head of New Scotland yard observed that over the years, a major number of crimes committed stemmed from the breach of this commandment, and then led onto violent acts, theft, adultery, lies, murder etc. because of discontentment with their own blessings.

The Bible records that the whole generation of His people, the Jewish Nation, did not enter into the promised land because they were not contented with the many blessings God had given them. The safe passage, manna from heaven, water when it was needed, victory in battles, and so many blessings. Down through the ages we read of kingdoms destroyed because of the desire to take from their neighbours even though they were blessed in other ways.

Discontentment will always create a miserable attitude as we focus on what others have and forget what God has done for us. Comparing will always leave us feeling left out, rejected – short changed and negative, and even critical. When our thoughts are moved to covetousness, we should immediately be moved by the words in Timothy 6:6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 

On a lighter side of things, to support our text, I read of a tourist guide who reported on a trip in a third world country with a group to an area where hot and cold springs are found side by side. The local women boil their clothes in the hot springs, and then rinse them in the cold springs. A tourist commented that they should be happy that God has provided side by side blessings and all free of charge. One of the women replied, “Not really, because soap is not provided, and we have heard that in other parts of the world there are machines that do this work!”

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians about his own life lessons – Philippians 4:11 “Now that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatever state I am there-with to be content.”

We see good advice there on how we should walk through life. This advice was preached down through the ages. The English Apostles in their day found that people were also not walking circumspectly again, and they sent messages out to the churches.

They likened a walk through life is like taking a walk through the many tables that are set up in the markets where we go and buy things. These things are set there, and we walk through idly, and we see many thousands of things that when we look at them they really don’t have any value, but we look, and we pick them up and we put them down, and we walk on. Sometimes we buy them, and we take them home, and eventually they are thrown out. The market place is full of everything that takes the eye of mankind, and so it is with life. They said that for those, who walk circumspectly they see and can pick the most valuable things that are hidden in amongst all of those things. They see these and they then try to acquire them for they are everlasting.

Of course we are referring to the spiritual blessings that are available to each and every one of us within our lives. We have to seek them out and when we find them then all the other stuff that is in that market has no relevance to us. We can take them within our hearts and within our souls, and we can give thanks that we have received those blessings. The Apostle Paul also said that we should not join in with the world on many of the things that are happening. That is quite obvious, for we see the punishment and the distresses that come from that.

He gave advice there which might seem a little bit strange. Let us hear the words again that he said: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and Spiritual songs, singing and making Melody in your heart to the Lord.”

He tells us that as we go through life we should be singing and thinking of the Word of God within our hearts. Singing within ourselves so that it enters within our hearts. We may very well say to our self – What use it that? What use is that for ourselves? What use is that for those around us? If we travel the world in many countries we see how they use song to co-ordinate and work together. In India when we were there we saw there the women were irrigating these crops. Some of them were pulling the water out of the well and pouring it into a channel and lined up along the channel there would have been at least two hundred women all with a silver pot. Of course, the water has to slowly move down through the channel. The first woman began to sing and she took her pot and threw the water over the crop, the second then did the same, and the third, and they all continued singing as each one picked up the water. This singing was co-ordinating and making them think as one.

We begin to see that this singing can work, but that is audible singing. What about this singing in the heart? Reading a book recently on the prisoners of war who were put out on work duty, they too used to sing to co-ordinate themselves and keep their spirits up. Those supervising them forced them to stop because they did not understand what they were saying and they thought that they could be conniving a plan to escape, and the officers said to the men – Continue with that singing in your heart; and they did that.  All of those who were involved felt that through that spirit that was coming from there one to the other, they could still be co-ordinated and they could still feel this spirit moving amongst them.

That is why the Apostle Paul says that we should do that within our lives, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. As we sing these praises to God, when there is nothing else to be done, we cannot be distracted of course, that then will emanate, and the Spirit will take it to others, but the great blessing will be that we will be prepared to confront a problem. If suddenly there is a problem come within that workplace instead of biting back, criticising, causing trouble; out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak, and we will find we will be able to speak the love that is within us and not cause trouble. Let us always walk circumspectly and redeem the time that the Lord has given us.

We have all experienced the frustrations put upon us as we seek to achieve something
that involves permission. It is referred to as “Red Tape” and describes the often
annoying way that bureaucracy hinders things from getting done. It began in the early
1800’s, and originally referred to the common practice of binding official documents
with red ribbon. An outspoken Scottish historian, Thomas Carlyle, made a name for
himself by referring to ‘red tape’ each time the government delayed in fulfilling its
promises and frustrating all by the excuses and slow payments due to war veterans
who had returned from various fields of battle. He wrote that ‘red tape’ will become
legendary in the world as the public service expands. He noted in his observations
there appears that there will be only one place of authority that it will never take over
and that will be the Throne of God.
The Apostle Paul confirmed this in our text when he wrote of Jesus Christ, “by whom
also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” When our hearts are
broken or our lives are troubled, there is no red tape hindering our access to God
through Christ who has paved the way so we can have access at any time.
Hebrews 4: 15-16 “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities: but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and
find grace to help in time of need.”
There is no red tape to cut through to present our needs to God. Through Christ, we
have full and immediate access.

We see therein a prophecy on how God would come within the world, how His word would come. It would not be in the might of the elements, as many believed, but it would be in a quiet still voice. We can only imagine the picture in our minds of a manger, that a baby who for the first time uttered sound within this world, a quiet still cry into the world, crying for the world. He knew that He would have to overcome and conquer, and so the Word of God came into the world in that quiet still voice. We read the gospels and we see how our Lord used that quiet voice at all times to teach us the way of God, to teach us His promises, to teach us how we should live our life. We should be as Elijah, as we once again in our mind’s eye picture this quiet still voice. We should put the mantle around ourselves, meaning we should acknowledge that we can achieve nothing without that quiet still voice leading us within our lives. We have already heard how grace came and how righteousness came, and we have heard that when our Lord was born into the world He brought Grace for Grace. Grace for Grace – Let us contemplate on that. He brought this grace so that more grace could continue within the world. How do we go about achieving and playing our part in having this grace dispensed, for without this grace in the world, especially the troubled world we see today, none of us would stand a chance. This was explained to us by the Apostle Paul in his writing to the Corinthians, and we find written in II Corinthians Chapter 4 verse 15: For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. One simple line, but we see therein the mystery unfolded of Grace for Grace. It is through the thanksgiving of many that this grace can abound and be sent out into the world, not only to us, but to all who are struggling. Let us on this Christmas day be sure that our thanksgiving unto the Almighty God is pure and genuine, that it recognizes that man was once again restored to have the opportunity to be sons and daughters of God, that grace came into the world, that righteousness has been dispensed, and that a new way stands before all mankind who will believe in this and give thanksgiving for this.

Let us meditate on the role of the shepherds or the first ministry that witnessed the birth of Christ, and we find written in Luke Chapter 2 verse 15 on as follows: “And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary. and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen. As it was told unto them.” We hear there how at the first Christmas, at the birth of Christ, the shepherds were so moved that they spread the word abroad, that they told others of this wonderful event, and they returned and gave glory and praise unto God. We are in that same position; as disciples we can celebrate Christmas. We have witnessed again in our mind’s eye the birth of Christ. We can leave it at that. We can say – Yes we have witnessed that; but we should be moved to tell others, to spread this word abroad so that each and every one can feel this peace that came to earth on that day, and above all the shepherds returned to give honour and glory unto the Almighty God. A year stands before us. Let us be sure that we return many times unto the Lord to give praise, honour and glory, and thanksgiving for this wonderful blessing, so that grace for grace can continue to flow in the world.

Mankind has always bewailed death and stood weeping at the deathbed of their loved ones; or the news of death, especially when unexpected, causes deep shock and great suffering. Death is usually regarded as an enemy, even though for the aged and the terminally ill death is seen as a release. Suicides cannot come to terms with the problem of life and feel that death is the only solution.
Life and death are two sides of the same coin. Death is an integral part of the biological cycle in which all living things are involved. There is a constant process of growing and dying so that a natural balance is maintained. All those who grieve must reluctantly accept that “Death is an inviolable law of nature.”
We are comprised of body and soul, the mortal and immortal, furthermore we, as opposed to the rest of creation, are intelligent enough to think about death and involuntarily reject it as the enemy of life. We seek comfort when faced with death. The bitter tears of a mother over her dead child, the sobs of a wife over her husband killed in war, the heartfelt cries and sighs of people in similar situations, all this is an expression of innate longing for immortality.
In the Garden of Eden, death, and the sorrows it brings, did not exist. These came through sin and disobedience. (Genesis 3:19 & Romans 6:23). Subsequently sickness, death and sorrow became our lot. The enemy of our soul had led the first people astray and brought them great misery.
Have we been sentenced to death from which there is no repeal? Is death our end then? Is the cemetery our terminus? Will the power of death be triumphant always and eternally?
Thank God that the answer to this is a comforting “No”. God in His mercy and forgiving love has promised us through the Bible that death will have no hold on us and will have no power over our soul. The same was also testified in the Old Testament, when the Prophet Elijah revived the son of the widow Zarephath (1 Kings 17: 22), and through the vision of the Prophet Ezekiel who saw skeletons given a new life (Ezek. 37:10).
The final victory over death was on the cross at Golgotha. On Easter morning the sorrow of death was wiped away from the three grieving women at Jesus tomb, when two divine messengers consoled them “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” (Luke 24: 5-6). A Little while later they together all saw what was beyond human comprehension, their risen Lord in their midst.
The birth of Christ was the start of a new order. Jesus was the first witness to it and in it there will be no death with all its sorrows. This is why Christians who mourn should be comforted with the words “Death is swallowed up in victory!” (1 Cor. 15:54). God will wipe away all tears of mourning from your eyes and give you and your loved ones a completely new life with totally different standards in eternity. The eye has not seen nor the ear heard, nor can anyone, even in his wildest dreams, even imagine what God has prepared for those whom He loves (1 Cor. 2:9). We are subject to death till the Lord comes again. The resurrection of our Lord made death powerless, therefore a faithful Christian has no reason whatsoever to fear death. Through rebirth by water and the spirit and by constant prayer and attending Divine Services a new life with the Lord begins, developing the indestructible divine part of our being. Unwaveringly believe the good news which the Bible tells us: “0 death where is thy sting? 0 grave where is thy victory? (1 Cor. 15: 55).