A great prayer of St. Augustine's to end one year or start another year with; in fact, a great prayer for any time of any year.

'My God, let me know and love you, so that I may find my happiness in you. Since I cannot fully achieve this on earth, help me to improve daily until I may do so to the full. Enable me to know you ever more on earth, so that I may know you perfectly in heaven. Enable me to love you ever more on earth, so that I may love you perfectly in heaven. In that way my joy may be great on earth, and perfect with you in heaven. O God of truth, grant me the happiness of heaven so that my joy may be full in accord with your promise. In the meantime let my mind dwell on that happiness, my tongue speak of it, my heart pine for it, my mouth pronounce it, my soul hunger for it, my flesh thirst for it, and my entire being desire it until I enter through death in the joy of my Lord forever. Amen.'

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I believe that it is highly appropriate for we humans to remember, on the day that we celebrate Christ's coming, why He came at all. Many in this world would simply thank Christ - if they think about Him at all today - for another reason for a holiday break in their lives. The Apostle Paul says this

'Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.' Eph. 1:3-10 NIV

About 1900 years later another of God's ministers, Oswald Chambers, shared the same truths of Christ this way

'Our Lord's cross is the gateway into His life: His resurrection means that He has power now to convey His life to me. When I am born again from above, I receive from the risen Lord His very life. Our Lord's resurrection destiny is to bring "many sons unto glory" (Heb. 2:10KJV) The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We are never in the relationship to God that the Son of God is in; but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life, to a life He did not live before He was incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before; and His resurrection means for us that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we shall have a body like unto His glorious body, but we can know NOW!!! the efficacy of His resurrection and walk in newness of life'

On this Christmas day, are you 'in Christ'? Christmas is about nothing else but.

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Ralph Erskine shares

'Look to Christ, not only to give you all, but to be your all; for he is not only the way to life, but the life itself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "As I desire," says one, "never to be happy, if Christ be not able to bring me to happiness, so I desire no greater, no better happiness, than what Christ is, and can be to me." O sirs, he is all, and there is all in him; all to justify, all to sanctify, all to glorify, all to fill and satisfy, all to delight and solace the largest faculties of the immortal soul; "in his presence there is fullness of joy." The highest happiness here is, "Christ in us the hope of glory" and the highest happiness hereafter is Christ, even to be for ever with the Lord. The thief on the cross had this preached to him, "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." To be in Paradise is not happiness; to be with angels there is not happiness; but to be with Christ there, this is heaven and happiness.'

We do not serve Christ to get more and more of His blessings; we serve Christ to get closer and closer to Him - He is our peace. With Christ, Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, God will then give us everything else that we need in this life. Rom. 8:32

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'The power of the indwelling Christ is what keeps dynamic Christians alive and excited about life . . . As we walk in the power of the indwelling Christ, eternity's values become more important to us. Lost people become our obsession because lost people are God's obsession. Although we still hold jobs, earn a living, and pay bills, these things no longer are the focus of our lives. Although we work to keep ourselves attractive, we are not engrossed in clothes, hairstyles, or shoes. our primary purpose and source of excitement is to reach out to the lost . . . When the life of Jesus is at work in us, enabling us to communicate the Gospel naturally as we go through life, we will be renewed day by day.' Luis Palau

Now, lets be perfectly honest, to often we are not obsessed with winning the lost - very interested, but not obsessed. To often jobs and earning a living and paying bills and yes, even, clothes and hairstyles and shoes and cars and sports and food and a thousand other 'things of this world' have far to great a share of our attention. But this is how it works: In my growing process, when God the Holy Spirit points out inconsistencies and weaknesses and failures in my life and my walk with Him - issues that I am totally helpless to address and solve in my own strength - in my own strength I am always going to like and choose "ME" over anything and everything else, God included - I can and must honestly and openly turn to Him and say: 'I can't change me, but You can. Here I am: I give You permission. Make me what I am not.' And, you know what, He will. For the power of the indwelling Christ is what our lives as believers is all about.

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Commenting on Ephesians 2:5-6,

'Even when we were dead in sins, God hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.'

Hannah Whithall Smith writes:

'This is (the Christian's) rightful place, to he seated 'in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,' and to 'sit still' there. But how few there are who make it their actual experience! How few indeed think even that it is possible for them to 'sit still' in these 'heavenly places' in the everyday life of a world so full of turmoil as this . . . A quiet spirit is of inestimable value in carrying on outward activities; and nothing so hinders the working of the hidden spiritual forces, upon which, after all, our success in everything really depends, as a spirit of unrest and anxiety. There is immense power in stillness . . . A knowledge of this fact would immensely change our ways of working. Instead of restless struggles, we would 'sit down' inwardly before the Lord, and would let the Divine forces of His Spirit work out in silence the ends to which we aspire. You may not see or feel the operations of this silent force, but be assured it is always working mightily, and will work for you, if you only get your spirit still enough to be carried along by the currents of its power.'

The gracious good news in all of this is that, when we try to 'sit still' in Jesus and allow Him to have His way with us - and find that we can't, which we inevitably will - when we admit this inability to God, He will supply the ability; He will supply the stillness; He will supply the need! Grace always starts out by pointing out to us what we must do or be to please God and then ends up by supplying the 'do and be' in our lives so that, as truly new creatures in Christ, through the power of God's Holy Spirit, we are changed.

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'If you want to be of use to God, get rightly related to Jesus Christ and He will make you of use unconsciously every minute you live.' Oswald Chambers

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