Dec 23, 2005
The REAL "Christmas" Tree
The Pryor
Family trusts that you are having a blessed time this season remembering our
Savior's birth.
Yet, Jesus did so much more than simply be born in a manger over 2,000 years ago:
He came to die for sinners,
To take away our sin;
That we may know salvation,
And be complete in Him.
(From the hymn, "Go Tell It On The Mountain")
Jesus came to do for us what we could never do ourselves…pay our sin debt. He took the punishment we so justly deserve and died in our place on the cross in order that we might have forgiveness and eternal life through Him. Praise the Lord for His great love toward us!
Sadly, for many people, this time of year only represents presents, parties, & pretty decorations. But this holiday of Christmas should mean much more to us than a decorated evergreen tree in our living room.
Instead, it should point us beyond the stable where our Savior was born to the real tree of "Christmas" . . . the CROSS!
That is THE tree we need to focus on at this time of year; for it is there that our sin was taken away and paid for. Yes, Jesus had to be born to carry out the Father's plan of redemption. But without His death, burial & resurrection, that plan would not be complete. But praise be to God that "it is finished" & Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father!
May each of us take the opportunity presented by the holiday of Christmas to proclaim the complete story of Christ. Innumerable material gifts will be given in the name of Christmas this year. But for those of us who have been redeemed, let us give to those around us this holiday season the most important gift of all time: the Good News of Jesus Christ, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;" (Eph. 1:7).
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Apr 05, 2005
How Shall They Hear?
As you slow to a stop inches
behind the car in front of you, you squint your eyes and peer through your
car’s windshield. You strain to catch a glimpse of the cause for the backed up
traffic ahead. But there are just too many cars on the freeway to see the
reason for the delay.
“Fine time for a traffic jam.
Now I’m really going to be late!” You mutter out loud to yourself.
As you move forward a few
feet, stop, move forward a few feet more and stop again, you try to control
your frustration.
Your thoughts run back over
the last few hours. The reports you had to finish at the office caused you to
leave later than you intended. Why did your department head decide he wanted
them today? It was already going to be a close call getting to your daughter’s
piano recital on time. Now with this delay you are going to be late for sure.
“Come on, come on!” you
mumble through clenched teeth as you hit your palm against the steering wheel.
You begin trying to think of
an alternative route you might take if you can just make it to the next exit.
But there is no better way to go.
You let out a long sigh and
remember as a Christian you should not get so uptight at unavoidable problems.
You pause and pray silently asking for the Lord’s help in getting to the piano
recital.
With that done, you try to
think about something else. A thought in the back of you mind leaps forward. It
is a memory of the missionary that spoke at your church last month. He only had
fifteen minutes in the Sunday morning service, but he shared about his work
with unreached tribal people in Papua New Guinea with an urgent fervor.
There was something in the
verses that missionary shared about going into ALL the world that touched your
heart like never before. Could it be that the Lord was calling you to be a
missionary in a foreign land? No, that could not be! Could it?
The blaring of car horns
snapped you back into reality. You blinked a few times and realized that the
cars ahead of you were moving. The drivers behind you were rather upset that
you were still just inching along. So you stomped the gas pedal and got going.
As you accelerate and match
the pace of the cars ahead, you think to yourself, “I am so busy here with work
& the School Board. What I do is so important and needed. How could I give
up our house and my career and go to some backward country? Surely somebody
else is in a better position to go!”
Quickly your mind returns to
the cares of the moment and how you might still get to your daughter’s recital
on time.
You put any thoughts about
being called as a missionary out of your mind…even further out than before.
Thousands of miles away, the
missionary that you recalled is arriving back in Papua New Guinea. As he and
his family wait in line to clear Immigration, he reflects back on their just
completed furlough.
He thinks about how he poured
out his heart concerning the need for more people to be willing to carry the
Gospel to those places in the world where the Truth still has not been heard.
Most people were cordial; some even showed concern about their personal
responsibility to obey the Great Commission.
But overall, it seemed that
the busyness of their lives and the cares of this world had changed the
Christians in his homeland. Most were not willing to give up what they had in
order to go and serve their Lord in His harvest fields, wherever that might be.
Suddenly the missionary’s
vision blurred. Tears welled up in his eyes and tears began rolling down his
checks. His wife noticed and knowingly put her arm on his trying to comfort
him. He bowed his head and prayed, once again, that the Lord of the Harvest
would send laborers into the fields.
“How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And
how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of
good things!” – Romans
10:14-15
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Feb 01, 2005
Every Christian is a Missionary
Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." - John 4:35c
Every Christian is a Missionary - This is a statement of fact, not a question nor an exhortation.
Some, however, may doubt the validity of such a statement. So, let us consider the word Christian for a moment.
The word Christian only appears three times in the Bible. Its first appearance is in Acts 11:26c, "And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch."
The title Christian was not originally used to describe the believers in Jerusalem. Instead, it was applied first to the believers who had begun to obey Christ’s command to "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15b, KJV) and be witnesses for Him "both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8b, KJV)
Of course, these disciples fled to Antioch because of persecution, but the Lord was with them and many people in that city believed and turned to the Lord (Acts 11:21). Eventually, the first "missionaries" sent out of a local church (Paul and Barnabas) would come from this same assembly of believers.
Considering the setting in which believers were first called Christians, we can develop an accurate definition for the title Christian. A Christian is both a "follower of Christ," and "one sent by Christ."
This brings us to the title Missionary. This word never appears in the Bible. However, the dictionary defines it as "one sent on a mission." The root of the word, mission, means "to send." We may therefore justifiably define the title Missionary as "one sent on a mission by Christ."
What then is the mission of every Christian? To obey our Lord’s command and preach (proclaim) the gospel, as did the believers first called Christians at Antioch. However, fulfilling our mission does not always mean going off to some far away place.
Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:18 concerning His disciples saying, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Jesus left us in the world after our salvation so that we might serve and proclaim Him right where we are.
Speaking to His disciples, Jesus said, "Ye are the salt of the earth…Ye are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:13-16) Notice that He said "you," not "they." He was speaking to all His disciples, not just those called to some special service somewhere. What Jesus explained to His disciples in that passage applies to us today. It reveals God’s will for your daily life and mine.
Salt and light are used as illustrations of how our lives should have an effect on the world around us. We do not have to strive to become these two things that are found in any home anywhere in the world. Jesus said that as believers in Him, we already are salt and light.
What attributes do these two substances have that should also be found in our lives? Salt is a preservative and prevents decay. On the other hand, if salt loses its savor, it is good for nothing. Light has nothing in common with darkness. In fact, its very presence dispels darkness. Our lives likewise should display these attributes of preservation and illumination.
Does our presence stop certain kinds of conversation? Does our life affect the conduct of friends and acquaintances? Do people know that we are a Christian by both our words and deeds? Do we make a stand against sin and evil in the world?
It has been said that the best witness is not to try to convince others that our way is the right one. Instead, the best witness is living in such a way that our lives make no sense apart from our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today.
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Nov 24, 2004
The Real Meaning Of Thanksgiving
By Joseph Farah
There are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the people responsible for the American Thanksgiving tradition. Contrary to popular opinion, the Pilgrims didn't wear buckles on their shoes or hats. They weren't teetotalers, either. They smoked tobacco and drank beer. And, most importantly, their first harvest festival and subsequent "thanksgivings" weren't held to thank the local natives for saving their lives.
Do you know there are public schools in America today actually teaching that? Some textbooks, in their discomfort with open discussions of Christianity, say as much. I dare suggest most parents today know little more about this history than their children.
Yet, there is no way to divorce the spiritual from the celebration of Thanksgiving – at least not the way the Pilgrims envisioned it, a tradition dating back to the ancient Hebrews and their feasts of Succoth and Passover.
The Pilgrims came to America for one reason – to form a separate community in which they could worship God as they saw fit. They had fled England because King James I was persecuting those who did not recognize the Church of England's absolute civil and spiritual authority.
On the two-month journey of 1620, William Bradford and the other elders wrote an extraordinary charter – the Mayflower Compact. Why was it extraordinary? Because it established just and equal laws for all members of their new community – believers and non-believers alike. Where did they get such revolutionary ideas? From the Bible, of course.
When the Pilgrims landed in the New World, they found a cold, rocky, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, Bradford wrote. No houses to shelter them. No inns where they could refresh themselves. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims died of sickness or exposure – including Bradford's wife. Though life improved for the Pilgrims when spring came, they did not really prosper. Why? Once again, the textbooks don't tell the story, but Bradford's own journal does. The reason they didn't succeed initially is because they were practicing an early form of socialism.
The original contract the Pilgrims had with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store. Each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community. Bradford, as governor, recognized the inherent problem with this collectivist system.
"The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years ... that by taking away property, and bringing community into common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God," Bradford wrote. "For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense ... that was thought injustice."
What a surprise! Even back then people did not want to work without incentive. Bradford decided to assign a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of free enterprise. What was the result?
"This had very good success," wrote Bradford, "for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been."
As a result, the Pilgrims soon found they had more food than they could eat themselves. They set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London much faster than expected. The success of the Plymouth colony thus attracted more Europeans and set off what we call the "Great Puritan Migration."
But it wasn't just an economic system that allowed the Pilgrims to prosper. It was their devotion to God and His laws. And that's what Thanksgiving is really all about. The Pilgrims recognized that everything we have is a gift from God – even our sorrows. Their Thanksgiving tradition was established to honor God and thank Him for His blessings and His grace.
Today we continue that tradition in my home – and I hope in yours. God bless you, God bless America, and Happy Thanksgiving.
[Source: © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com Joseph Farah is editor and chief executive officer of WorldNetDaily.com and writes a daily column.]
[Editor's Note: WorldNetDaily is a great CONSERVATIVE news site...we encourage you to check it out.]
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today.
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Oct 18, 2004
Some Thoughts on Psalm 23
The Lord is my Shepherd
That's Relationship!
I shall not want
That's Supply!
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
That's Rest!
He leadeth me beside the still waters
That's Refreshment!
He restoreth my soul
That' s Healing!
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
That's Guidance!
For His name sake
That's Purpose!
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
That's Testing!
I will fear no evil
That' s Protection!
For Thou art with me
That's Faithfulness!
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me
That's Discipline!
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies
That's Hope!
Thou annointest my head with oil
That's Consecration!
My cup runneth over
That's Abundance!
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
That's Blessing!
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
That's Security!
Forever
That's Eternity!
- Author Unknown
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today.
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