As we begin a New Year, let us make this text our annual motto.

Thoughts on the annual motto:

The text of the annual motto is related to the word “I am the bread of life” that Jesus addressed His disciples, and further ”he that commeth to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.  But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believed not.”

Jesus gives His disciples perspective, at the same time our Lord is well aware that sometimes it is not that far with faith. That was the case with His disciples at the time; it is no different with us today. But then as now, the promise of our annual motto applies!

No one is turned away by Jesus.

What a contrast to developments in the present, where people are turned away, where doors are closed, borders are closed, where you isolate yourself. Quite different with our Lord, who welcomes everyone and is there for everyone. What a comforting perspective for the coming calendar year.

But wait … it’s who comes to me! Coming (believing) means activity. We have to move, we may not be able to stay where we are. We have to go to Jesus to say it with the verse John 6:35, We have to “believe” that the Lord is the bread of life.

Luther wrote of Faith.  Movement in faith can be learned, “trained”, can be practiced in just a few steps.   Raise recognition, we are godless. God looks further than we can imagine. What God creates is there long before we will see it.

We, as disciples of Jesus today must look at the past, present and future. The inadequacy of God’s people in fulfilling their mission in the past can thus be compared with our situation today. In all cases, Jesus is the key who unlocks the door and clears the way to the goal. Without Him we cannot do anything – with Him nothing is impossible.

In terms of content, the mandate of proclaiming God’s righteousness certainly has many themes and characteristics. A summarizing focus could, however, be the focus <<called to freedom>> being. Here many people either do not recognize their lack of freedom or they think they have liberated themselves, Lothar Zenetti wrote a beautiful parable about this:

THE FREEDOM

“They said: We are not subject to anyone …” (John 8.33) We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free.

They were tired of being dependent on those in the ships, for example on the wind that blows where it wants.  So they hauled in the sails, cut the masts, tore the cloths. They wanted to be free. They also threw the oars overboard, the helmsman with his advice, the compass and all the equipment they had to operate. They wanted to be free. Subject to no one, no course, no compassionate direction, no country belonging, no port as a destination. Free.  They also threw memories and beliefs overboard. Now they were finally floating there, independent, and disoriented. But she still carried the water. That they didn’t consider that!? (Lothar Zenetti)

A far better plan is contained in our annual motto “And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”.

When Paul was in Athens, he found himself in the midst of a non-Christian and superstitious populace. He therefore decided to turn their superstitions to his own advantage making use of this characteristic as a means for giving testimony. “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” Acts 17:23. In this case the Apostle Paul turned the superstitions of these people to a good purpose. You see, dear brethren, it is all a matter of faith. The Athenians believed in many Gods, but being superstitious they believed in many, many silly things. Happily, this led then to fear they might have missed some God out, so they even put up an altar to the Unknown God, just to make sure they got all the Gods in. Of course, this is ridiculous for we know there is only one God.

During my childhood I was brought up in London and I remember how superstitious the Cockneys were. If salt was spilt, some had to be thrown over the shoulder to avoid bad luck. Walking under a ladder, brought bad luck. If a black cat crossed your path – bad luck. Looking at the moon through glass was unlucky. Spiders were lucky. Treading accidently in dog droppings was very lucky etc. etc. I never believed it all, even as a child, but many people did and of course, they always found reasons to prove that this or that portent bad indeed brought them good or bad luck.

How often did Jesus say to the people after a miracle, “Thy faith hath healed thee.” Having faith in the words of Jesus is wonderful, it made it possible for Him to work miracles. When Jesus visited Nazareth, He was not able to work many miracles because people only remembered Him as Joseph the carpenter’s son. There was not much faith there. Indeed, they became very angry with Him and wanted to throw Him out. Luke 4:16-29. How did the sorcerers work their black magic? Because people believed them. How do witch-doctors work? They can only work if people believe them. It is very, very, important what we believe and in whom we believe. It can make or break us.

Do not believe in rubbish, my beloved! Superstition has no part in the doctrine of the United Apostolic Church. 1 Timothy 4:7 “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.” If we believe in those superstitions, we place ourselves under the power of such misguided beliefs.

Our faith is in the Son of God, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit and none other. Cast away superstitions! They are unwanted and dangerous junk in our lives and have no place nor part in the faithful child of God.

In the above-mentioned text the Apostle Paul warns the children of God that they should not themselves take revenge in all kinds of ways but should leave this to God. The “mills” of God may grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small! Vengeance is a characteristic that marks both the spirit of God and also the spirit of man; but in the way this vengeance is wrought we find a vast difference. When a man plans vengeance, in order to “pay back”, so to speak, a wrong he has suffered, he usually does it in a way that is even worse than the behaviour of the man on whom he wants to be avenged for this, that, and the other. Instead of having the matter settled and the differences balanced, the result is that the evil is rendered even worse. God, on the other hand, will settle the affair perfectly, and He says: “Vengeance is mine!” In other words, when men take revenge, the chaos is inevitably rendered greater. The Apostle Paul’s advice is addressed primarily to the children of God, to the “loved ones” of the Lord; for the worldly man, who tends to hate not only his neighbour but also God, is not capable of following the wise, divine counsel. But we, too, still find ourselves in this world full of hatred, revenge, and manslaughter, and we therefore run the risk of imitating the “world” and growing to resemble it.

Throughout all the centuries there have always been upright Christians and men who have trusted in God, who have suffered all the injuries inflicted on them and the wrongs done them, without planning revenge in the manner of man. Even Jesus had to suffer disappointments within the circle of His disciples. Peter, who was very near and dear to Him, denied Jesus and said: “I do not know the man!” In spite of this, Jesus never ceased to pray for him! He could have said. “That’s the end of our friendship; you deserted me in the most difficult moments; now I don’t want to know you anymore,”

When brethren and sisters whom we have loved deceive us, do us injury, or speak ill of us and disappoint us, then let us not scold, let us not repay in the same coin, and let us not be angry with them, but let us pray for them, that their eyes may be opened, that they may see that they have acted wrongly. It is not difficult to scold and be angry; but to be able to forgive and forget – that requires strength of mind. The enemies of Jesus had to recognize, in spite of everything, that in all His subjugation and seeming weakness, Jesus was in every way the strongest, and this aroused their utmost hatred and rage.

The Apostle James wrote to the twelve tribes living in dispersion: “For the wrath of man, worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save -your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves”. (James 1:20-22) The Word is the “Word of the Cross”: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” This word is engrafted or planted in us; and this word shall become flesh in us, i.e., it must take shape, must be transformed into deeds. The practical Christianity that the Apostle James had in mind is not only concerned with what we must do to others, but specially with what we must do TO OURSELVES.

When the love of Christ, His grace, His mercy, His truth, become “flesh” in us, in other words, when Christ takes on a form within us, then we shall no longer be overcome by evil, but we shall overcame evil with good.

The year draws to an end. Again, we are celebrating the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Many people yearned to experience this year, of which they had specific expectations. Will this Christmas-fest be really different than all the others before?

Alone the heading can give us courage and hope: Everything Granted – nothing will be amiss – the Joy will be complete! This would be a wonderful celebration; no-one would come short! There, I am reminded;

This can only happen, if I invite also Jesus to this festival! Of course, not the Christ child, the “poor Baby”, that lays in the manger, no, but the grown-up Jesus, who leads His people for 2000 years and wants to be at home with His own, and this the whole year through, not only on the evening of Christmas!

I would like to feel the joy within me, like Solomon at that time in Psalm 72, when he announced the Prince of Peace for the world. God had acknowledged this prayer, when He let His Son appear on this earth: “Give the king thy judgements, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and the poor with judgement …. They shall fear thee as long as the sun and the moon endure, throughout all generations …. Yea, all the kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.

He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy… prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised. His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen and Amen.”

Have we now realised that everything has been granted us?

Now if Jesus was our guest on the holy Christmas eve. Could we imagine, that He might put some questions to us? What are you celebrating? Who do you celebrate and How do you do it? What are we celebrating, O Lord?

We are celebrating the BIRTH of the FIRST NEW man since the fall of man, the Incarnation of God! And we celebrate the heavenly GIFTS, which YOU, with your birth brought to mankind. The most precious of them are: The Assurance, that we through you are saved for evermore: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life”. (John 3:36)

The Lust, the Hunger for God’s Word, the bread from Heaven, which You have brought to Bethlehem – the house of bread. How many of your words have become FOOD for the lost humanity: “I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine: (John 10:14) and “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28) The Love of the Father and the Son, which has been revealed to the repenting sinner: “And He said unto her: Thy sins are forgiven.” (Luke 7:48)

Who do we celebrate?

We celebrate YOU. OUR SAVIOUR! Through you are we reconciled with God; we may come close to Him, after we were so far away from Him. Because of our sin. We celebrate YOU, the PRESENT REDEEMER, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD, through whom we will become joint heirs in Your Kingdom!

How will we celebrate?

We celebrate with true and willing hearts, to serve You, our Lord, like the first disciples did (John 1:35-51) and that with Humble Hearts: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts” (Peter 3:15) In the Love for the brothers and sisters and in striving after joint brotherly and sisterly communion, we celebrate our LORD.

There is a danger in our time that we could grow tired or fall asleep while waiting for the Lord Jesus to return. The story of the ten virgins demonstrates this. The wait for the bridegroom was too long and they all fell asleep.

How do people act who have grown tired and eventually have fallen asleep? They no longer speak and barely stir. Spiritually it is similar, when God’s children have grown tired. Their conversations concerning our faith and the goal of our faith more or less cease. They no longer invite others, nor help God’s children who have stayed away to find the way back into God’s house. Their interest in assimilating God’s word has waned, they seldom pray or only pray in a superficial manner themselves, they find it very difficult to forgive and reconcile. It is not easy for them to sacrifice and offer because they do not see the sense in doing so.

In Revelation God’s Son also alludes to spiritual tiredness in His congregation. Jesus deplores that the congregations at Laodicea is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. He observes the Laodiceans indecisiveness of faith, faults their indifference, and warns them of self-deception (Rev. 3:15-17).

What must we do to overcome tiredness or rather to be protected from it? We must sing a song of praise! This may be taken both literally and as intended in Psalm 103:1-5. Take seriously the Spirit’s call that the bridegroom is coming and be zealous and repent (Rev. 3:19). This means that we consciously incorporate Jesus. “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Ephesians 4:23-24. Even in the cycles of nature there is regular renewal. There are thousands of wonders in and on our physical body. We know old cells die and are replaced by new ones. Our inner being the life of our soul and spirit must also be continually renewed. Here we think of Jesus words which point to the future “Behold I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5).

How does spiritual renewal occur? Through the effect of God’s word conveyed through the Holy Spirit which always produces faith and the wonderful grace born out of Jesus’ sacrifice.

What is the best way to renew our conviction? By savouring Holy Communion. This embodies the strength, nature and life of Jesus Christ. The worthy partaking of Jesus’ body and blood establishes the closest fellowship of life with our Saviour and Redeemer. It should be possible to say of us, “We have the mind of Christ”.

(1 Corinthians 2:16).  We want to be aware that the regular renewal of our inner being is our life’s work to become righteous and ultimately the fruit of our spiritual life. Only in this manner will the new creation in Christ mature (2 Cor. 5:17) and will Jesus be able to identify us, transform us, and catch us up as His own on the day of His coming. Do we also let our light shine (Matthew 5:16) and are we still able to show many seeking souls the way?

Life As A Lighthouse Keeper
If you are sick, you stay home from school. If there is a big snowstorm or hurricane, you usually get the
day off, too. But if you had a job as a lighthouse keeper, there were no days off. You had to work all the
time. In bad weather, you usually had to work even harder! Most of the time though, your work could be
boring. There were no days off for a lighthouse keeper. Read on to learn more about life as a lighthouse
keeper.
Lighthouses help ships stay away from dangerous shorelines or rocky cliffs. This means that lighthouse
keepers often lived in the most dangerous spots in a body of water. When storms blew in, high winds,
pounding waves and driving rain brought danger. Of course, ships leave waters when storms are coming.
Lighthouse keepers had to stay and be sure the lights were kept burning. Because the lights were at the top
of the lighthouse, winding stairs had to be climbed in terrible weather so the lights would continue to warn
anyone still out in the storm. In very early days of lighthouses, some of them did not even have a roof. It
must have been very difficult to do your job during a storm in those days! Often, the lighthouse keeper’s
family and animals lived with him. Famous stories tell how keepers and their families had to save
themselves and pets during fierce storms.
While storms brought danger and maybe even excitement to a lighthouse keeper, daily life could be
boring. Lighthouse keepers kept logbooks. These journals are full of “tales” of dusting the lighthouse,
cleaning the lens, and filling the oil lamps. These kinds of boring jobs had to be done every day. Some
tasks brought danger. Painting the lighthouse tower was a difficult task. Keepers had to climb high with
brushes and paint buckets to keep the lighthouse sparkling. Often lighthouse keepers had a sad morning
chore. They had to sweep dead birds from the deck. The birds were attracted to the light and crashed into
the lighthouse.
The lighthouses were often placed in the water or along a rocky shore so getting to them was not easy.
This meant that lighthouse keepers had a lonely life. Sometimes family members could take a trip to a
store for supplies. Sometimes a boat would arrive with food or mail. When a family or keeper could talk
with other people, this was exciting! It helped break up the lonely days and nights.
You may wonder why anyone would want to be a lighthouse keeper. Many people love the water. They
say that being a part of life on the sea is exciting. Some liked being away from other people. They enjoyed
the loneliness. Being a lighthouse keeper meant you had a place to live and you were paid for staying at
your house.
Today, electricity means that most lighthouses do not need keepers. Lights are run automatically. Workers
check the lights every so often but they are not required to be at the lighthouse twenty-four hours a day.
Improved navigation instruments on ships means fewer lighthouses are needed. But some people still long
for the days of lighthouse keepers. If you are one of those people, you can take a vacation at a lighthouse!
You can polish lamps, dust 40 the lens, or even paint stairs. And … YOU have to pay for the privilege of
doing this!
God called us to be like a lighthouse keeper. He wants us to keep the light burning with the use of oil
(Holy Spirit) so that people who live in darkness can see the light of the LORD.

When I look at myself in the mirror, I often see an enemy!

A “Prima Donna” at the opera-ballet in Paris, expressed herself in a Radio interview. She spoke of the continuous exertions and practices, which are demanded from her body every day, to be able to maintain the top position as the “Prima Ballerina” at the opera. Her body has to undergo every day anew this hard training, so to fulfill these expected performances. Very often she sees therefore an enemy in the mirror who has to be overcome, because most of the time she unwillingly endures the sacrifices and abstinences, which are demanded.

Especially during the Lenten time, quite a few of us have come to notice our mirror image and have not liked what we saw and therefore have declared “war” to our bodies. We all know about the courage, the patience and perseverance that are necessary to better our picture in the mirror. Quite often it is the same with us as the Apostle James described. We love best to forget our mirror image, that is the figure which the mirror shows us as fast as possible. Sometimes other people “mirror” our appearance, because their presence may just disturbingly remind us of our own picture.

But today it goes about something much more important, then the outer appearance. Because Apostle James warned us before such inconsequent behaviour, when God holds the “mirror” of His Word before our eyes. We recognize, while hearing the sermon at God’s service or reading in the bible and our scripts, that the Word depicts a spiritual mind or soul-condition, which is resembling ours. Most of the time we don’t like to admit it. Our conceptions with the Truth of the gospel to compare with Jesus Christ, observes the risk, that we want to quickly forget the outcome, because mostly it does not correspond. But we cannot keep on like this, because there are many dangers involved with it. The inner, new man, who Jesus wants to create in us, “will win no worldly beauty contest.” We are reminded of another word by the Apostle James. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)

These warnings surely point also to those “good sides” of life or the world, which we still only like too much still and whose “friendships” seem all too important to us. Today we want to also accept, that some of these “friends” are God’s enemies – and I am deeply convinced that no child of God wants to belong to those.

God grant us strength and courage, to “declare war” to this sometime ugly picture of ourself, and overcome this enemy with the help of our constant and true Friend, Jesus Christ, by the Spirit He has sealed within us.

We read our Lord sent His Apostles on a mission in a boat. We today are on a journey, the Church is on the journey and we have to traverse troubled waters, but at the time when they thought all had ended for them, our Lord came unto them walking on the sea and they perceived Him to be a spirit, which was showing clearly unto the Church that the Spirit of God would be sent into the world so that at all times we can be taught of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We do not see this Spirit but it gives us the teachings of our Lord. So in Spirit form we see Him before us and as the Apostle Peter said unto Him, if it be thou, call me unto thee. Come our Lord said. One simple word, the Spirit of God is telling us today, come also to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And Peter was able to walk on the sea, for he believed in his faith that our Lord would not leave him comfortless, that He would protect him and He would help him to come to where He is. Our Lord has promised us that as He is in His Father’s throne, we too, shall be drawn unto His throne. A great promise for sinful men. We see that when the storm looked boisterous, Peter’s faith faded and he began to sink. We also many times our faith fails and we think that we are sinking and there is no way out for us. Peter through the power of the Holy Spirit, said those wonderful words that are still being preached unto us today, Lord save me. If we are prepared to acknowledge that we can do nothing on our own, but our souls can be saved in this troubled world by simply saying those words, we will find that our faith will be strengthened, for our Lord put forth His hand and held Peter up from sinking. The Holy Spirit will also place us in the hands of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and we will not sink but we will be able to once again take our place on this journey where a peace came over the sea at that time and we will witness that peace as we journey along the same as the men in those lands knew they needed help, those with infirmities were brought before the Lord, simply to touch the hem of His garment and through that they were healed. We too have our infirmities of sin and our desire should be to simply place our hands and trust and touch the hem of Christ’s garment, which is the power of the Holy Spirit, and through that spirit we too can have our infirmities made whole.
That is the faith that the Word of God gives us, it is not just a story in a small village overseas, it is a testimony of what was to come. All of us have to face tests and trials in our lives, especially more and more in these troubled times. As we observe the happenings in the world, we should look behind them and see what great tests of faith are being imposed and put ourselves in their shoes to test our self to see how we would fare. When we do this in genuine concern, we are helping those people, as Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 6:2 “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” From this will come sincere prayers for those tested and God will answer prayer.