The Contemporary Christ

The Contemporary Christ

"Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age"  Matthew 28:20

A Salvation Army officer on one occasion asked a cultured, native Christian of the Orient, “What, in a word, is the real difference between Buddhism and Christianity?” His answer in effect was, “Christianity has light and power --- for at its center is a living Christ.” Christianity is the only religion that can boast a founder who is contemporary with His followers. If you journey to the grave of the founder of Buddhism and cry aloud,”Buddha!” the answer returns, “here.” And if you journey to the tomb of Confucius and cry aloud his name, the answer returns “here.” And if you should continue westward to the crypt of Mohammed and call forth unto him the answer would be the same. Then if you continue your journey to the garden of Joseph of Arimathea and cry aloud, your words would echo and re-echo in the empty. In a while a heavenly visitor would answer, “He is not here, He is risen.” If your amazement and perplexity should linger in the garden the Master Himself would appear and say, “Fear not, I am He that liveth, and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore … Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Christians worship not at the tomb of a dead prophet but bow in humble reverence and obedience at the feet of a living Savior. Our Christ is with us Today.

Vital as it is to our religion that we believe in the Christ of Prophecy” and in the “Jesus of history,” it is much more important that we place a trust in the “Jesus Christ of Today.” Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd,” “I am the water,” “I am the living bread,” “I am the resurrection and the life,” “Go ye, into all the world … for Lo, I am with you.” Jesus Christ is not so much the Christ of yesterday or the Christ of tomorrow as He is the Christ of Today.

And yet it is amazing how much of our religion is a delving into the musty records of the past. On the twenty-fifth of December we commemorate His coming. Leaving our packages at home tied with red ribbons, we make our way to the Church and with a certain wistfulness listen to the song that fell across the Bethlehem hills. And then we go out into the Christmas season with a memory! It isn’t long until Easter comes, with its flowers and brilliant anthems. We Sing “Christ the Lord is risen today,” and yet all the time we think of an historical event which happened nineteen hundred years ago. We celebrate the anniversaries of His birth and Resurrection and fail to learn that the Christ of Christmas would be born today in our hearts, and that the Christ of Easter would walk with us today on the highway to Emmaus.

Too much of our religious experience is spoken in the past tense. We remember with reverence the picture of a sainted mother and grandmother seated before an open fire, with an open Bible upon her lap and a look of peace, joy and serenity upon her countenance. We wish that we could have such an experience. We recall the day we gave ourselves to Christ, here and there perhaps some shinning hour when with bated breath we stood in the very presence of God. We long to recover such an experience because the Christ of yesterday who made such an experience possible is the Christ of Today.

The Christ of today, the living Christ is with you, always. A young Scottish minister visited an old parishioner who knew her Bible well. As he left he thought it his duty to leave a text of comfort with her, so he said, “What a lovely promise that is, “Lo, I am with you always” She replied, “”Hoot mon, it’s not a promise, it’s just a fact.” Sitting beside you is the living Christ. As you walk homeward, as you journey the highway of life, He goes with you:

You and Christ together

Down the long, long trail.

Make no difference whether

Road be hill or dale.

Fair or cloudy weather,

He will never fail.

You and Christ together

Down the long, long trail.

As you sit behind the desk at the office, as you labor in the home, as you stand by the grave of a loved one, as you study in the class room, as you gain relaxation, Jesus is with you.

A minister of the gospel was visiting among the poor one winter’s day in a large city in Scotland. He climbed up into a garret at the top of a very high house. He had been told there was a poor old lady there that nobody seemed to know about. He went on climbing until he found his way into the garret room. As he entered the room he looked around; there was the bed, and a chair, and a table with a dimly burning candle on it, a little fire on the hearth and an old woman sitting by it with a large Testament on her lap. The minister asked, “Don’t you fell lonely here?” “No, no,” was the reply. “What do you do here long winter nights?” “Oh,” she said, “I just sit here with my light and with my New Testament on my knee, talking with Jesus.” This lady had found life’s dearest treasure – the living presence of the living Christ. So you walk with Him and talk with Him? Are you aware that always He is nearer to you than the air that you breath and closer than hands or feet?

There was once a band of Christian Jews living in a large city of the Roman Empire. There condition was desperate; they were hounded by Jew and Gentile alike. It would have taken very little more persecution to cause them to renounce their new found faith and fall back into the ancient ruts of Judaism. It is hard for us to understand the difficulty of their position. They had broken with a thousand dear traditions, and it made them aliens, among an alien people in a foreign land. They had given up the Jewish Sabbath, the Feast of Passover and Tabernacles, the Day of Atonement; they no longer went to the Temple and the synagogue. They were living and worshipping in caves, in the depths of the forest, out on the open hillside or wherever they could escape their persecutors: and all for the sake of a crucified Galilean. Then one night as they gathered for their meeting a letter from the Lord’s Apostle was opened and read: “God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers hath in these last days spoken unto His own Son ….” Up and down fell the pleading of that Epistle to the Hebrews with its oft repeated phrase – “The living God.” As those persecuted Christian Jews left the meeting place, they went with new assurance, they went forth with a knowledge that changed their life, and they went forth knowing that with them went the living God in the person of His living Son.

A knowledge that Jesus walks with you will change your life. The disciples on the road to Emmaus would not have been sorrowful and downhearted if they had been aware that the One who walked and talked with them was the Living Christ. When you are conscious that Christ is ever with you, you will not go where sin’s allurement is; you will not speak those things you would not have the Christ to hear; you will not refuse to do those things that you know that He would have you do. The Church needs many who will practice the presence of Christ in their lives.

If your faith is in a living, ever present Christ then your faith will be living, growing, developing. Christianity is not static, it is dynamic. It never stands still, it moves on to new heights. It is life; it is growth; it is development. Yet many Christians are at the exact same place in their Christian experience as they were years ago. A group of ministers in a conference together determined to have a testimony meeting. One minister after another arose and told what Christ had done for him years ago. Finally one brother could stand it no longer and leaping to his feet said, “Men and brethren, isn’t Christ doing anything for you today?” If this be true of the clergy it is equally true for the laity. Too many of us are boasting in what Christ has done rather than in what He is doing today. If he is walking with you now, and He is, then He is doing something for you now. Become aware of it; be quick to see His hand in your life that your faith might grow thereby. Live in the here and now with a living Christ.

The Christ walks with you today as your constant companion is the same Christ who overcame the gloom of the cross and the defeat of Calvary. He lives with you to dispel the gloom, darkness and despair of your daily crosses. He walks with you that He might impart unto you the victory that characterized His entire life. The disciples went out from the Upper Room to turn a world upside down because they knew that the Jesus who was with them in the days of His flesh was with them now. You, too, can have power to overcome if you will walk in life’s’ pathway conscious that Jesus is with you.

But there are many sincere Christians who fail to get the comfort and strength from their Christian experience that we believe God means for us to have. They have never been able to secure an abiding consciousness that their Lord is walking with them in all of the paths of life and that His hand is constantly guiding and upholding them. Is not this because they are too concerned with their own plans? Jesus said unto His disciples, “Go ye into all the world, make disciples of all men, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you and Lo, I am with you always.” Go ye do my will and lo I am with you. If you would truly know that Christ lives and walks with you, then live for Him.

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

Saint Albans Presbyterian Church April 22, 1945

Our Divine Companion

Our Divine Companion

Some time ago there appeared in a magazine an account of a tour which the King and Queen of England made of London. Without even a body guard he and the queen went out among their people, examining buildings, commanding workers, cheering the distressed and talking pleasantry with all. The king loves his people and they love and honor him. As he was out examining the damage done to one of the bombed buildings a woman who was scrubbing the littered floor up and saw him standing there and exclaimed, “Well, if it’s not the king himself and me so untidy.” At one point in the tour when the air raid siren sounded the king and queen went into the shelter with the rest of the people. At first the king was unrecognized, and then they leaped to their feet and cheered lustily as they recognized their king and queen. He stayed and talked with them and drank tea with them, even after the all clear signal had sounded. No wonder the English love their king, not only for his majesty but also for his gentle consideration of them and interest in them.

We Christians have a King, Jesus Christ Our Savior and Lord. So great is His majesty that it is beyond our human comprehension. So wonderful is His love for us and interest in us that He laid aside His heavenly glory and came from His heavenly place to walk as a man upon the earth and many beheld His glory “as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.” Christ, our King, still walks upon the earth among His people talking with them, praising them for their goodness, comforting them in their hour of sadness, commending them for their loyalty.

The scriptures contain many precious promises, some are made to the King’s disciples, and others are made to those who are not followers of the King. To my mind one of the most precious that the King has made to His disciples is this, “Lo, I am with you always.” These words do not tell us that He will be with us on the future, nor do they promise us that He has been with us in the past, but they assure us that He is with us now. He is with us no matter what the complexion of the day, whether it be summer or winter, whether it be a day of gladness or sadness, sunshine or storm, failure or prosperity, He is with us in all of them. Jesus is our Divine Companion not only on Sundays but also throughout the entire week.

Jesus is with us when storm clouds gather. One night the disciples went out in a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee while Jesus went up into a mountain top to pray. As so often happens on that inland sea, a sudden and terrific storm came up. The disciple’s rowed with all their might, but even after nine hours of toil, they had not reached the other shore. At length as the dawn was approaching, they beheld one moving majestically toward them, “walking on the sea.” They, with the superstition of the times strong within their hearts thought it was a ghost. These one’s failed to recognize the One who had been their constant companion for so long. But immediately the mysterious One who up until this moment seemed as if He was going to pass them by, and who was indeed the Lord himself, spoke to them and said, “Be of good cheer it is I.” All the time they were on the sea Jesus had been with them, for Mark tells us that “He was on the mountain top praying,” and from that we infer from this vantage point He had been watching His disciples.

As we sail the sea of life, the sea which has been made turbulent by the winds of adversity, Jesus our King is with us. Jesus didn’t revel himself to the disciples as soon and the storm broke. The storm has a purpose in the life of the Lord’s followers; it’s the storms that cause the trees to put out roots to brace it. It is the storms that test the strength of the building. It is the storm that clears the atmosphere. In this particular case it was the storm that took the disciples away from the land of temptation. Storms have a place in the life of the Christian and the comforting thought is that throughout the entire storm Jesus is with you. When that storm has accomplished the divine purpose then our Divine Companion will reveal himself and say, “Be of good cheer, it is I. I have come to bring you deliverance.” When He comes do not fail to recognize Him. Be ready to recognize the hand of the Master in the stilling of the storm.

Jesus is not only with us on the tempest tossed sea, but also He is with us when we are on the mountain top. To my mind the mountain top experience and His disciples are symbolical of those times when we come into closest fellowship with Jesus, “Jesus went up into a mountain and when He was set His disciples came unto Him, and He opened His mouth and taught them saying.” When you sit on the mountain top with God’s Holy Word open before you, you are conscious that Jesus is speaking to you from the pages of the Book Divine, revealing unto you the will of the Father, comforting you with words of love, inspiring you to higher heights in our Christian living. As you climb the mountain top and enter the house of worship are you conscious that in a very peculiar way Jesus your Savior and Master it present? “Where two or three are gathered in my name there will I be in the midst of them.” Do you hear Jesus speaking to you through the words of the hymns, the prayers, the scriptures and the sermon? You who would experience the preciousness of the promise, “Lo, I am with you always,” sit often on the mountain top and allow Jesus to “open His mouth and teach you saying.”

So often we read in God’s Word that Jesus drew aside into the mountain to pray. When Jesus prayed He was definitely conscious of the closeness of His Father in heaven. As you pray are you conscious of the nearness of Jesus? Our prayers are not offered to the mountains, to the winds, not to the four corners of the earth. Our prayers are spoken to a Living Person who is nearer to us than the very air we breathe. At anytime we can ascend the mountain top of prayer. I learned this lesson as a lad in my early teens. I used to caddy at the local golf course. At the time I didn’t wear glasses and my eyesight was not the best. Thus I found it difficult to watch that white speck of a ball as it winged its way through the air. Because of this I found little joy in being a caddy. One Saturday afternoon I was caddying for a particularly gruff individual and I was terror stricken for fear I would lose a ball. So before beginning the round I spoke to Jesus and asked Him to help me. To my great surprise that prayer was answered, and that afternoon I found it completely easy to follow the ball as it winged in flight through the air. That afternoon I learned a lesson that I have never forgotten, I didn’t have to retrieve to the quite of my room to speak to Jesus. I learned that He is ever near to hear and answer prayer. As you are busy about your household duties, as you are walking behind the plow, as you are busy in the office, or in the classroom, you can climb the mountain of prayer and experience the nearness and closeness of Jesus.

On the mountain top the disciples had there most enjoyable times in the presence of Christ. Jesus is with us in the hour of joy as well as in the hour of sadness. He is with us on the mountain top of peace as well as on the sea of tempest. In the hour of gladness we can reach out and place our hand in the hand of the Savior. We so often think that the Savior is with us only in the hour of grief, He is also near in the hour of joy. Let us remember that He is with us at the baseball game, on the gold course, in the parlor as we enjoy the visit of our neighbor.

Jesus is with us, likewise, as we walk life’s dusty highway. It was the evening of the resurrection day; two disciples were going from the city of Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus. Perhaps they have walked this road many times before. This time they walked along and a stranger drew along side of them and walked with them. He sympathetically listened as they open their hearts to Him, and told all that perplexed them, how they had thought that it was “Jesus who should redeem Israel.” Then this Stranger broke to them the bread of life, and shows them how it was necessary for Jesus to suffer as He if he would go further but they invited him to come in and spend the night. As they sat about the supper table the Stranger broke bread and they recognized that it was Jesus. Beloved, as we walk the hot, dusty, monotonous road of daily living, a Stranger walks by our side. He is One unto whom we can open our hearts and rid them of doubts, fears and perplexities. As you go about your daily task, have you ever talked with Jesus? I mean actually talk to Him, as you talk to another friend. Have you ever told Him your doubts and fears, your hope and ambitions, your needs and desires? If you haven’t, you haven’t experienced the blessing of the promise, “Lo, I am with you always.” Try it sometime, you will find Him a very sympathetic listener, and you will hear Him speaking to you in accents clear and low, answering your doubts, calming your fears, encouraging you in your ambitions, and supplying your needs. In such a way the dusty, hard, monotonous road of daily living will become the road of joy, peace, and happiness.

Is Jesus a living reality to you? Are you conscious of His nearness to you when the storms clouds gather, in the hour of joy and peace, in the toil of daily living? Is Christ real to you or just a shadow out of the past? Is the Savior you profess to know and love a theory or a fact? It is one thing to know all there is to know about Christ but it is a far better thing to know Him. Can you sing with conviction?

I come to the garden alone,

While to due is still on the roses;

And the voice I hear falling on my ear;

The Son of God discloses,

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own.

And the joys we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

Notice that the promise, “Lo, I am with you always,” comes after the command to go, to teach, and to baptize. The blessing and power of this promise is contingent upon obedience to the command. If you wish to keep Christ near you, and to feel Him with you, the way to do it is no mere cultivation of religious emotion, or saturating your mind with religious books and thoughts, though these have there place; but on the dusty road of life to do His will and keep His commandments. “If a man loves me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

John's Vision of Christ

John's Vision of Christ

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lamp stands; and in the middle of the lamp stands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.  Revelation 1:12-18

Thomas Carlyle once wrote to Holman Hunt the artist, “I am only a poor man, but I can say in all serious truth that I would give one-third of what I possess for a contemporaneous representation of Jesus Christ. Has the carvers of marble chiseled a faith stature of the Son of Man, as He called Himself, and shown us what manner of man He was like, what His height, what His build, and what the features of His sorrow marked face were, and what His dress, I for one, would have thanked the sculptor, with all the gratitude of my heart, for that portrait as the most precious heirloom of the ages.” I imagine that all of us have felt like this at sometime or other. We would like to have an authentic picture of Christ. The great artists of the ages have placed upon the canvas their conception of the Man of Galilee, but somehow or the other they seem inadequate. One will make Him too sorrowful and another too joyful, one a weakling and another too much of a man of the world. And so it runs, none of the pictures of the Master measures up to our mind’s eye picture of Christ. Yet we are fortunate that no artist friend of Jesus placed his true likeness upon canvas, or cut it out of marble. If this had been done, many today would be worshipping the image of Christ rather than the living Christ.

Yet, like the Greeks of old we cry aloud, “Sirs, we would see Jesus.” To satisfy our longing for our Lord we come to His house of worship, we seek Him in the everyday experience of life, we search for His likeness on the pages of the Book Divine. We want to behold the Master. This desire can be fulfilled. In the worship service we look up and see no man save Jesus only. In the experience of life we are conscious of His presence by our side. As we turn and read the pages of the Holy Scriptures His radiant personality, the loveliness of His character, the graciousness of His work does meet us face to face. The longing of our soul is satisfied for we carry the picture of the Master with us in our heart.

There is in the scriptures one place where we have a somewhat detailed description of the person of Christ. On the Isle of Patmos, John the beloved disciple heard behind him a great voice as of a trumpet, and turning to see the voice that spoke with him, he saw, “seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand, seven stars; and out of His mouth went a sharp two edged sword; and His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength.” Here we have John’s vision of our Savior. It was not a picture of the crucified Christ but of the glorified Christ. It is not the Christ who trod the sorrowful way of earth but of Christ who treads the glorious paths of Heaven. John pictures for us the Christ who someday we shall see face to face. In the time slotted to us we can not study this picture in detail but we can gain a comprehensive view of our coming King, who in the Son of Man.

Notice where Christ is standing, He is in the midst of the seven candlesticks. In the twentieth verse of this chapter we read that the seven candlesticks are the seven churches. That Jesus is standing in the midst of His Church. He is not only in the center; He is also in the midst. He holds the central position, yes, but also, He, Himself dominates the whole. All is influenced by Him and is dependant upon Him. He is equally near unto each member of the Church. It makes a difference whether or not He is given His rightful place in the midst. Whether it is in the Church or the home, in the nation or the individual, the only rightful place for Jesus is in the midst. When He is given that place He will fill and illuminate all.

The One who stands in the midst is clothed with a garment down to the foot with a girdle of gold around His breast. The garment tells us that the man in glory is our High Priest; the Son of Man has presented Himself to God as the Lamb without spot or blemish, as the atonement for our sin. Not only did the Priest present the sacrifice, He also presented the people before God. So we read concerning our High Priest, “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.”

He was “girt about the breast with a golden girdle.” Throughout scripture gold speaks of deity, and the golden girdle tells that the One who wears it is not only our sacrifice and our priest, but also our God. He is the One whom we worship and adore and pay homage to. The girdle is the symbol of service. You will recall that during our Lord’s earthly life, He arose from the dinner table, took a towel and girded Himself and then preformed the menial service of washing the disciple’s feet. When He came to earth, He girded Himself with humility that He might be our sin bearer. In Heaven He is still girded for service for our behalf. Beloved, all that Jesus did for stricken humanity throughout His life upon earth; He will do today in Heaven. He who is exalted and “given a name which is above every name” does not allow the fact of His high position to hinder Him from serving the least of mankind. What a savior is Jesus, my Jesus!

“His head and His hairs were white as wool, as white as snow.” White is the symbol of age and maturity. We live in a day when elderly people are shoved aside. When a man becomes forty-vice or fifty he is placed upon the shelf. It is felt that an old person is worth very little. I am in disagreement with such a philosophy. Like the people of the Orient, I would venerate old people, not because of the work that they can or cannot do, but because of the wisdom they possess. I praise God that my Christ is crowned with white hair, that He is a Christ of great wisdom. He knows how to deal with my problems, to answer my questions, and to care for me to my greatest advantage.

In the scripture white is the symbol of purity, of sinlessness. We meet these words, wool and snow, grouped together in another verse of scripture. “Come now let us reason together saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they show be white as snow; though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.” My Christ is a sinless Christ. He is the only man who dared to say, “Which on of you convicteth me of sin?” When He was dragged before the judge, the judge declared, “I find no fault in the man.” The Captain of the soldiers who put Him to death said He was a righteous man. The criminal who died with Him said, “This man has done nothing amiss.” Jesus is the sinless One and thus is worthy and able to help sinners, by becoming their sin bearer.

“And His eyes were as a flame of fire.” Fire is that which illuminates and enables one to see, and fire is also that which pierces to the heart of things. Jesus is the one who is able to see, yea, is the one who is able to pierce to the depths of a man’s heart and read the intents and purposes written there. It is comforting to know that even as His eye is on the sparrow so He is watching those who trust Him. The knowledge that He sees and is aware of what befalls us should make us trust Him more. The fact that He is able to read our hearts should make us mindful of what we think about, it should enable us to keep our thoughts pure. We can deny the Christ not only by word of mouth but also by the thoughts of our mind.

“And His feet like unto fine brass.” We are glad that the robe could not cover the feet. The feet are to be seen and they are revealed for a purpose. Brass is one of the strongest and enduring of metals. Thus the feet of brass speak to us of the strength and the endurance of the Master. Christ has the strength to proceed upon the path planned. As a lad of twelve He said, “I must be about my Father’s business.” He had completed the Father’s will, the salvation of man and He returned home. There in the Heavenly dwelling His feet are still shod with brass, He is still the strong Christ. He is possessed with the strength to go again and again into the highways and the byways, into the hill and the dale to bring to the Father’s home, the sheep that was lost. He will not be satisfied until the last is gathered in. The Christ that we serve will work and work and work until He has carried out His plan of completely subduing all things unto Himself. He has the strength to win the victory for Himself and for His own.

“And His voice as the sound of many waters.” “Is there anything that has so many voices as water? There is the merry music of the falling rain; the rage of the rushing river that sweeps everything before it; the thunderous tones of the Niagara; the gay trickle of the brook as it winds its way among the rocks; the booming bass of the waves as they break upon the shore; and a hundred other tones as it voices its satisfaction and joy.”

“So says the Apostle, the voice of Christ is as the sound of many waters. Sometimes there is the bursting boom of anger. There is the gentle roll of love and comfort. Again there is the constant beat of rebuke. He speaks in diver’s manners to men.”

To Peter He said, “Get thee behind me Satan.” To the woman taken in adultery, “Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.” To the Pharisees He pronounced great and terrible woes, to the disciples He said, “Peace be unto you, it is I be of good cheer.” Christ speaks to us in the words and the manner that we need to hear.

“And He had in His hand seven stars.” In the twentieth verse of this chapter we read, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven Churches.” Angels are messengers and thus Christ is holding His messengers in His hand. Beloved, in the hollow of His hand He is holding us who are telling by word of mouth and deed of action the old, old story of Christ who came to seek and to save the lost. Oh, ye, of little faith, why do you worry, you are held in the hollow of His hand. In these days of such dire tragedy, meditate upon this thought, “Held in the hollow of His hand.” Nothing can break the grasp with which the Master holds His own.

“And out of His mouth went a sharp two edged sword.” We are told in the scripture that the sword is the Word of God. This is the only weapon needed by the Christ, the Word of the living God. The Word of God is the sword which conquers. The sword of God is sharp and powerful cutting the heat and consciences of the hearts of men. What was it that conquered you for Christ? It was the Word that pierced your heart, broke down all defenses, overcame all stubbornness, defeated Satan and captured you for Christ. Christ’s weapon is a mighty weapon and it is the one that will conquer.

This sword is a two edged sword, it is the sword that conquers and also controls the one who has been conquered. In God’s Word we read not only our title clear, but also in His Word we read His will. It is the sword of the Lord that reveals our duty to our God and our fellow men. When we obey the gentle word of that sword we will not feel its cutting edge. Only when we disobey it is necessary that He rebuke and chasten those whom He loves. Even in such times we will find the sword a blessed instrument.

“And His countenance was as the sun.” The sun is glorious and full of majesty. The Son of God is full and full of majesty. He is so glorious and shining that mortals cannot gaze upon Him. It is the future purpose of God that we who are redeemed by His blood, “Shall see His face.” What a blessed hope! But let us not postpone all that glory to the future. There are glimpses that we get of Him now and these visions will help us to hold steady in the fearful storms of life.

Once the father of Robert Lewis Stephenson was aboard a vessel in a terrible and fearful storm. Somehow or another he managed to get up upon the deck and crawl toward the pilot house. There was the pilot standing steady at his post, doing his best to steer the ship away from the rocky coast. As the pilot looked into the face of Mr. Stephenson, he smiled. Not a word was spoken, but Stephenson went back to the passengers and said, “It is going to be alright, I have seen the pilot’s face, and he smiled.”

“We should see Jesus, our pilot, especially in these days. If we will look we can see him. The Psalmist said, “Thy face Lord, will I seek.” Let us make to see Him and each day will radiate with the light of His countenance.

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

Accomack Presbyterian Church, September 6, 1042

Not Ashamed of the Gospel

Not Ashamed of the Gospel

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  Romans 1:16

Paul was deeply interested in the Christian Church at Rome. He longed to visit the Christians there in order that he might impart unto them some “spiritual gift to the end that there faith might be morally firmly established” and also that he might be comforted by their Christian fellowship. But God in His wise providence had not seen fit for Paul to visit the capital city, Rome. Paul was afraid that the Christians in Rome might have thought that he did not want to visit them, so in beginning his letter to them he commences by allaying there fears. He tells them he had purposed to come but was led hitherto. The source of his desire to come to Rome is found in his love for the gospel and in his confidence of its saving power.

Rome was a pagan city; the evil forces of the world had their citadel there. Because of this the Christians in Rome may have thought that Paul’s delay in coming to Rome was due to timidity and fear, least the gospel might prove to be impotent and ineffectual in the midst of the vice and sin centered in Rome. But whatever the cause of Paul’s delay in coming to the city of Rome it was not due to any fear on his part for he says unto them, in the words of our text, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

“I am not ashamed of the gospel” probably means that he is proud of the gospel. Oftentimes a negative assertion bears more weight and authority than a positive statement. When Jesus said, “This man is not far from the kingdom” He meant that the man was very near to the kingdom. In speaking of a large city we often say, “It is no mean city,” and thereby, we mean that it is a large and prominent one. Thus by these words Paul no doubt means that he glories and rejoices in the gospel. The world may have held the gospel in contempt but Paul honored and revered it. In these words we see Paul’s feeling towards the gospel.

There were many reasons why Paul might have been ashamed of the gospel. He might have been ashamed of it because of its message. The author of this gospel was the member of a despised and indestructible race. He had been born in a stable, He had been baptized with sinners, He had been crucified between thieves, He had lived the life of an obscure carpenter in Nazareth, and He had no great military victories to His credit but had lived a life of peace and love. His only claim to recognition was death upon a cross. And now His disciples claimed that through that death on the cross salvation was offered to all. There was an offence to the gospel message but Paul was not ashamed of it.

Paul might have been ashamed of the gospel because the majority of its followers were illiterate men and women. “Even the Christian teachers were wool workers, cobblers and fullers --- the most illiterate and vulgar of mankind.” Paul, himself, was well educated. He had sat at the feet of Gamaliel a great Jewish Rabbi. But the great bulk of the Christians were ignorant and unlearned men and women. Thus the intelligentsias of the day despise Christianity, the Jewish rabbis and Greek philosophers, held in contempt the gospel because it called for simple belief and not argument. The gospel was foolishness to the wise but Paul was unashamed of it.

Very few of the followers of Christ possessed earthly wealth. In those days men despised poverty and snubbed the poor. The founder of the Christianity was a poor carpenter, its first advocates were poor fishermen, it followers were made up of the lower classes of society --- poor mechanics, slaves, beggars and peasants. The rich disdained the gospel because it was free and their great riches we of no avail. Even through the gospel attracted the poor Paul was unashamed of it because he knew that in Christ they were the possessors of untold riches.

Christ had foretold that His followers would be persecuted and reviled. And this prophesy was fulfilled. There were many religions and sects in the Roman Empire but none save Christianity was persecuted. Many times Paul had been persecuted. Concerning his sufferings for the sake of the gospel he says, “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods and once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a day and a night have I been in the deep.” In Paul’s day men paid with their life because they were willing to take up their cross and follow in the footsteps of the Master. The world despised this persecuted religion, but Paul was not ashamed of it. He cried, “Woe is me, if I preach not the gospel.”

A despised message, association with the ignorant and the poor, and persecution, all this did not cause the great apostle to be ashamed of the message he proclaimed and the Christ he served. On the other hand Paul was proud of his message and glorified in the Christ of the cross: “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” was the theme song of his life.

Paul was not ashamed of the gospel because it was power that could do something. The farmer is not ashamed of the little seed, shriveled, dried and ugly though it be, that he places it in the ground. He knows that God has endowed it with hidden virtues that have been denied to even the diamond and the ruby. He knows that there is life and power resident in that seed, one day it will take root, grow and bring forth abundant fruit. Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, for the gospel seed planted in a receptive heart would bring forth abundant fruit.

The time in which Paul was living was the time of Nero, the city to which he was writing was the city of Rome, in which, as in a sort of moral sewer all the detestable wickedness of the world festered. Paul was aware of the obstacles that would confront him in the proclamation of the gospel in this wicked city, he was not reluctant to go, he yearned to go and release in Rome the atomic power of the gospel. It was this power and this power alone that could blast open the sewers of sin and let in the healing sunshine of God’s love.

The Jews said that the gospel was of Beelzebub, the pagan maintained that is was the power of fanaticism, but Paul proclaimed it to be the power of Almighty God. As the power of God it can do anything. It can overcome deep seated prejudices. Paul knew this from experience, he was prejudiced against Christianity to the extent that he punished Christians often “in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them he persecuted them even unto strange cities.” It is only the power of God that can blast and level the walls of class and race prejudice in our country that can place in the heart of the Russian a love for America, and in the heart of the American a love of the Japanese.

The gospel is the power of God that can blast pagan cults, religions and sects. Paul witnessed Diana of the Ephesians lose many, many of her worshipers when the gospel was proclaimed. In the short space of three hundred years the gospel displaced the pagan cults of the Roman Empire. It is the power alone that can blast sin and overthrow the false gods that we have here in America.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It was given to man for a specific purpose and to reveal a definite aspect of God’s character. Nature reveals God’s power to create. The gospel reveals God’s power to re-create. It is the power to make a Peter out of a Simon, a proclaimer of the gospel out of one who persecuted Christians. It is the power that will take a life battered and torn by the ravages and make it a thing of beauty, a vessel fit for the Master’s use, a channel of blessing unto all mankind.

The gospel of salvation is the only power that can save us today. General MacArthur said, “Military alliances, balances of power, League of Nations, all in turn failed … we have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence … it must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.” In the New York Times, Dave Boone said, “It looks as though man had better start harnessing the forces of the Spirit, the power of the Holy Writ, and the elections of the Golden Rule … the only atomic bombs that will save mankind from now on are to be found there.”

We are not ashamed of atomic power, although we may be ashamed of the use to which we put it. As Christians we are not ashamed of the gospel which is the power (that can do something) of God (which can do anything) unto salvation (which can re-create human lives). The question is are we ashamed of this power over which you and I have control. Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, better still; the gospel was not ashamed of Paul. Paul believed in the gospel and he did his dead level best to communicate its power unto others.

So often Christians say,” I wish that there was something I could do to further the cause of peace.” There are two things that each of us can do, things which are most important and most necessary: we can live according to the power of the gospel, and we can do our best to communicate its power by deed of life and word of mouth to others.

Are you ashamed of the gospel? Is the Christ of the gospel ashamed of you?

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

Presbyterian Church Saint Albans, W Va. September 22, 1946

In Anticipation of Christmas

In Anticipation of Christmas

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  (Luke 2:8-11)

First I would like to wish each and every one of you a Christ Filled Christmas. As our Lord and Savior is the reason for this day of celebration, this moment in the year that we remember the greatest gift given unto man, this day that is representative of the day that the Israel Nation long awaited for sense Genesis 3:15 thousands of years prior, and the day that forever changed the history of mankind.

Many times in God’s Word we have been told to remember. In the King James Bible we are told 148 times by God to remember. The present is moving through history and even the moment when you starting listening to this devotion is now in the past. What we believe, what we have become, and what we will be, is governed by the history of the past and by the history of our life. History is important then; history is the foundation by which we grow from into the future. History is sacred, as if one who would want to influence the future he must change the past. This very act is happening in our country today, it is happening throughout the world, history is being re-written to satisfy the self-serving desires of the contemporary world. This is why God in His infinite wisdom told His people to remember so that His truth could be passed on to the future generations. To change the truth of the past is to perpetuate the worlds lie into the future. This is why the scriptures were written under the influence of the Holy Spirit so that today we may know the truth. Isaiah the prophet wrote this passage that we may remember the truth of God. "Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;”  (Isaiah 46:9)

For thousands of years the Israel nation had been faithful in waiting with great anticipation for the coming of their Messiah. They knew the scriptures and they believed the promises of the Lord, as He had proven Himself many times in their history. The Israel nation passed the truth down from generation to generation and they never grew tired of their anticipation for the coming of their Messiah. They knew the promise of the Lord spoken to then through the prophet Isaiah, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”  (Isaiah 9:6-7) This is the Messiah they were waiting for, this is the Messiah they desired, as they were living under the oppression of the Roman government, and they needed deliverance.

Israel was looking for the conquering Messiah that would free them for their oppressors and drive away their enemies, establish the everlasting Kingdom, establish an everlasting peace, and uphold them as the chosen nation of God. They were looking for a Messiah that would come with the Heavenly Host and would destroy all those who opposed them and not though of a Messiah that would be armed with the supreme weapon of Love. I have learned in my days that bullets and bombs do not change the hearts of men, but love will and can change the hardest of hearts and that love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:8) I am amazed that the Israelites who were so well versed in the scriptures missed their Messiah when He came on that long ago Holy Night. Did they just not want to see the price of their salvation? Were their eyes so fixed on this world that could not see the world to come? Was the self-righteousness, self-pride, lust of the flesh, and lust of the eye, (1 John 2:16) more to them than humble worship of the Creator? Maybe, I don’t know, but they paid no mind to the rest of Isaiah’s prophecy, “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.”  (Isaiah 53:2-12)

On that Holy Night in Palestine the lowly shepherds were willing to believe. I find it interesting that the angels would come to the lowly shepherds to announce the arrival of the Savior and not to the Kings and heads of state. Is that not just like a loving Father to come to those who realize their need and not to those who are so filled with themselves. Who would not be afraid with angelic beings shouting from above and light filling the area with truth, who would not be humbled, and would the kings with mighty armies like the Pharaoh of the days of old be afraid of an Almighty God? I find this thought rolling around my mind that we, like the Good Shepherd, are shepherds as well watching the flock. We, the followers of Christ, are called to tend the flock of this world leading them to the light of His truth by our testimony of word and deed. Is this not so, are we not His shepherds? Are we not that ambassadors of His Kingdom here in the far country, traveling through the wilderness, representing the King of kings and Lord of lords, serving Him by serving our neighbor, and planting the seed of His love and truth into their heart? (2 Corinthians 5:20)

I say yes! We are called to serve the Lord, we are called to serve our brothers and sisters is Christ, (Hebrews 10:25) we are called to serve out neighbors, (Matthew 19:19) and we are called to preach the gospel. (Matthew 28:19) This is the day, Christmas, that the Lord came down from His throne and was given unto man that through Him we can have salvation, that the self-inflicted curse that came from our fall in the garden can be erased, and that once perfect relationship we had with our Creator can be restored. That the Lord has made and let us rejoice and be glad within it, let us praise His holy name, and let us remember what He has done for you and me.

I find it interesting that He came down from His throne, heralded by His Heavenly Host, to be born in a stable, and paced in a feeding troth clothed in swaddling cloth. The King of kings and Lord of lords who once was clothed in robes of majestic purple with a train that filled His Temple. (Isaiah 6:1) The King that once smelled the blossoms from the Tree of Life now breathing the odor of animal dung. The King who once held the royal scepter now twisting the straw of a manger. The King who once listened to the praises of the Heavenly Choir of angels now listening to the lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep. He the Lord of all, who could be anywhere He desired, chose this setting, and I find it a fitting place for the most majestic One to be. For He created all and all the immeasurable universe is beneath Him and all that there is worships Him in obedience to His will with the exception of the crown of His creation man. Why not them be born amongst the obedient and call the obedient to come and worship His arrival. How fitting then that His shepherds would come to adore Him for His is the manna from Heaven. (John 6:58)

“So this is Christmas, and look what we have done. Another year older and a new one just begun.” (John Lennon) What have we done and what are we going to do? Is our life as it should be? I know mine is not. We all have this moment, it is the only one we have, and let’s use it to make a change. Let us remember this Christmas, that day that our Savior came to save that which is lost, let us remember that we have been saved because there is something better that we can be, we can be as a child of God, abiding in Him, and He in us. (1John 3:24)

As our brothers in the faith of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob continue to wait upon the Lord, continue to wait for their Messiah to come, the Messiah of Isaiah 9:6-7, let us also realize that another Christmas is coming. We must till that moment be about His Kingdom business. We pray for His Kingdom to come, we are praying that His Kingdom come into us. We pray for His will to be done, we pray that we are in His will. Let us then be about His Kingdom business. Let us not be as the foolish virgins but watch and pray that when He comes we will be ready. (Mark 14:38) We know that not even the angels know when but at the time they will herald His coming. It is a mystery to us all, to all His creation and only the Father knows when. It will be as it was for the shepherds of the night in Palestine a surprise. (1 Thessalonians 5:2) As our brothers in the faith are patiently waiting for their Messiah so too should we, praying, trusting, obeying, and working for His Kingdom to come. Because all of God’s promises have been and shall come to truth. “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-54)

Lastly I would like to wish each and every one of you a Christ Filled Christmas. As our Lord and Savior is the reason for this day of celebration, this moment in the year that we remember the greatest gift given unto man, this day that is representative of the day that the Israel Nation long awaited for sense Genesis 3:15 thousands of years prior, and the day that forever changed the history of mankind. Let us also be in the same anticipation for the moment when our Savior shall come again, that day when He not only rules from the throne of our hearts but also shall sit on the throne of David and establish His government to which there will be no end. “And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.”  (Isiah 2:4)

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

No Room in the Inn

No Room in the Inn

The sun is setting over the Bethlehem hills. On the valley road leading to the city can be seen a staggering precession of travelers. Amongst them is a young woman riding on a donkey which is being lead by her husband. This band of travelers has come from the city of Nazareth in the region of Galilee, “For there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem: (because he was of the house and lineage of David) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.”

They draw near to Bethlehem through a land alive with historic memories. In the pastures beside them Ruth long ago gleaned in the fields of Boaz. In that hollow to the right outside the gates, brave men had died in bringing to David a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem. But Joseph and his wife are not thinking of these things. Their thoughts are preoccupied with what are about to come to pass. Mary is thinking of the visitor she had from heaven some months before who had said to her,” Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. Fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.” And Joseph is remembering the words of his heavenly visitor, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name, Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”

The time for the fulfillment of these prophecies is at hand and Joseph is hastening to the city of Bethlehem so that he might find a place of rest for his wife. The last miles have been very trying for Mary and as night settles upon the city the weary travelers enter the city gates. Ordinarily there would be no trouble in securing lodging for Mary, for in the friendly East hospitality is sacred duty. But now the city is overcrowded for many have come to be enrolled. Joseph went from house to house seeking lodging only to be met with the reply, “There is no room.” Finally Joseph came to the hotel, surely there will be room here, but again he hears the same reply, “There is no room.” By this time Mary is too weary to go further and thus the couple go to the back of the hotel and enter the stable wherein were kept the animals and there Mary laid down to rest on a bed of straw, “while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her first born son, and she wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in the manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn.”

No room in the inn. This is a common place phrase. Every one who has ever traveled has met it as they have sought hospitality in some wayside inn or tourist home. With a sigh of relief they have dropped their baggage, have flexed their cramped muscles and have prepared to sign the register, only halted with the words: “No room.”

It is, I repeat, a common place phrase, a common experience, save that this phrase have been inserted two words that lift it out of the realm of the commonplace and render ti profoundly significant, “There was no room for them in the inn.” These words have been said of many other persons and they would have remained trite and commonplace but when said of them it becomes a phrase to be repeated with solemn and awed wonderment.

These words are strangely prophetic of the entire ministry of Jesus. They re-echo fro us the words of His herald, “He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” They tell us of the words that Jesus uttered, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” Through out the entire two thousand years since the coming of the Babe of Bethlehem the same phase has been echoed, “No room, no room in my heart for thee.” Even now as in the days of His earthy ministry there seems to be no room for the Babe save on the cross of Calvary. To my mind these are the sadist words in the whole Scripture, “There is no room for them in the inn.” Yet these words reveal a wonderful humility which should fill us with joy and peace.

Them refers to three, a man, his espoused wife and an unborn babe. The man was a Prince. He was descended from the great King David, though Solomon. The royal blood of Israel’s kings flowed through His veins, but He was a little late in arriving so was refused admittance to the hotel and was forced to seek shelter in a stable. The woman was a princess, she, too, was descended from the great King, belonging to the line of his younger son Nathan. She has been highly favored by God; the Holy Spirit has visited her in away in which the other children of men have been since the day of creation. But because she was late in arriving she must also make her bed in a stable. It was wonderfully humble for this Prince and Princess to reside with the animals. But we see a greater act of humility on the part of the Babe.

Mary and Joseph could not avoid being shut out of the inn and being forced to sleep in a stable. They were in the grip of the circumstances which they could not control. The crown had been taken away from Israel. Another nation was ruling Palestine. This Prince and Princess had come to Bethlehem not to receive homage but to pay homage to an oppressor nation. Thus it is not to be wondered at that they would humbly make the best of conditions which they were powerless to change.

But the Babe, He was not helpless, He was not held in the grip of circumstances. Mary and Joseph were in the stable because they had to be there, but the Babe because He chose to be. He was there because He, “being in the form of God though it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”

That head, which was once crowned with the diadem of Heaven’s King, is now cradled in a manger. Those eyes, which once beheld the glories and beauties of Heaven, look now upon the rude interior of a stable. Those ears which were accustomed to the music of the heavenly choirs are now saluted by the lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep. Those hands which once formed the world now twist the straw of His humble bed. That Person who once wore the purple robes of royalty in the places of the Lord of lords and King of kings, is now draped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

What wonderful humility that He whose “name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,” should be born in a manger? What wonderful humility that He who created the beast would be bore amongst then in a manger? Such wonderful humility should melt all our pride and bring us this morning in worshipful adoration to the manger in Bethlehem.

Notice the awful blindness of the people of His day. For countless years the Israelites had been looking for the birth of this Babe. Their prophets had foretold that He would be born in Bethlehem. They were all aware that the time of His birth was drawing nigh. The Son of Righteousness is born and men do not perceive His nearness until angels announce His presence. Of Him it is said, “There shall come a star out of Jacob,” but men do not behold Him until another star guides them to His bed. The people of Jesus’ day were blind.

Physical blindness is a terrible tragedy, and those who dwell in a world of darkness deserve our greatest sympathy. We pity the man for who the sunset holds no glories, for whom a lily is just a shape with an odor, for whom the snowflake is but a ghostly kiss.

Physical blindness is a terrible tragedy but a far greater one is spiritual blindness. How terrible the blindness which beholds the sunset but fails to see that hand of God. How awful the blindness which behold the lily of the field but fails to see the God who clothes it. How awful the blindness which sees the geometric shape of the snowflake but fails to see the God who designed it. Such are a far more terrible state than the physically blind, because seeing they see not. How awful the blindness of the man who comes to the manger on Christmas morning and fails to behold, “Jesus the Savior from sin.” As you come to the manger this Christmas tide do not allow the glittering tinsel, the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparation, the worldly interpretation of Christmas to blind you to the wonderfulness of the Babe sleeping there.

The inn was very busy, the crowd was great, and thus the quest who came bringing the gift of God must pass it by, “because there was no room for them in the inn.” Well might that little inn have bid all their other guests depart, if that be in order to make room for Him. The little inn was too busy, it was too crowded and thus a glorious opportunity was missed. God was crowed out. “There was no room for them in the inn.”

Beloved is your life to full of other things that you have no room for Him? Are you so busy earning a living that you have no room for Him who is the Life? Are you so busy seeking knowledge that you have no room for Him who is the Truth? Are you so busy preparing to celebrate His birthday that you have no room for Him? Are you busy thinking of gifts for others that you have forgotten to receive God’s gift for you?

As you plan to celebrate the day of His birth, has He been uppermost in your thoughts? Many plan to celebrate the birthday of Jesus without once thinking of Him. The world has taken Christ out of Christmas. May that not be true of us.

The innkeeper was so busy that he had no time for Jesus. Thus the Son of God was crowed out into a little outbuilding. Perhaps your heart is filled with good things, every room seems occupied with things of the Church, with charities, with the love for family and friends, until the Savior can find within your heart no smallest chamber in which to dwell. Beware lest the good may crowd out God! As you celebrate the day of the Savior’s birth, won’t you take time to draw aside and say, “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for Thee.”

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

First Presbyterian Church Saint Albans, W Va. December 22, 1945