Heartland News & Prayer

Merry Christmas Greetings!

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.’” Luke 2:13-14

Gary and I went out Christmas carolling this past Friday evening with some of our neighbours to new neighbours that have moved in this past year and shut-in seniors throughout our village of Churchville. I presume there are not too many places left in Canada that have carried on that tradition. We were very well received by the listeners – a lady with a European accent shed tears of joy as she thought it was so beautiful. One carol we sang was Hark the Herald Angels Sing and we were wondering if our friends were really giving much thought to the words they were singing. We can’t get peace until we do give glory to God as individuals.

Please remember to pray for William’s ministry in Yangon and for Richard’s ministry about 400 miles further north in Myanmar. Bricks are in the process of being made. Please pray that they will be able to find a buyer for them all. This is a huge learning curve in setting up this business and being guided by a budget rather than just begging which has been their usual pattern.

Home Group happens this Thursday at the Burtons’ house at 7:00 p.m. when we will be reviewing the videos on Islam we have been watching for the past several months.

We are planning a New Year’s Eve party at the Burtons’ house. Bring your friends and your table games along.

My Christmas cactus is getting ready to fully bloom for next Sunday. How will you celebrate Jesus’ birth that day? Our Sunday service will take place at 9:00 as always.

Wendy
wendy.carter@kainos.org
This blog is a summary of our 9:00 Sunday morning services held at 7777 Churchville Rd., Brampton, ON L6Y 0H3, 905-230-8116. It can always be found at www.blog.heartlandfellowship.ca.

What Were You Thinking? by Gary Carter: Here is a quote from Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic priest (1225-1274), “Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.” Our sensory perception comes through seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. We also have a reticular activating system or secretary of the brain that causes us to pay attention or not to the millions of stimuli constantly flying at us. Young married couples often have difficulty in their first year as a man has tunnel vision and has not learned to expand his horizon. He doesn’t often see what his wife sees should be done. The almond-shaped amydala in our brain is the centre for our emotions and is well-formed by the teenage years teenagers; whereas the prefontal cerbral cortex, our thought system stemming from our life experiences and influences, isn’t fully developed even up to age 30. The prefrontal cortex keeps our amygdala in check Teenagers like to have fun but their parents should still take the responsibility to structure their lives as they often can’t see the consequences of their actions. If parents have not developed in this area themselves all they do is jump in and start yelling which becomes counterproductive.

An event occurs which is followed by one’s reaction (for example, boredom, elation or anger) to it and this helps create an eventual outcome. If someone spends too much money on a shiny new object obessively and thus avoiding responsibility then that person will have to live with the consequences or implications. We must train our children to predict the outcome of an event and thus react properly in the first place. We all know about teens drinking and driving causing death. Gmail has an “unsend” function which allows the sender five seconds to reconsider after submitting his email message. 2 Corinthians 10:5 is a very good verse to memorize, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” This summarizes the Christian response to managing the inner workings of the brain.

Revelation (Pt #10 – 6:1-8) by Steve Macdonald: In this passage the Lamb or Jesus opens four seals on a scroll. So who or what are the four horses that appear? Is the white horse and rider the Holy Spirit, spiritual warfare, Jesus or the Antichrist? Is the red horse and rider sin or war? Is the black horse famine or pestilence? Is the pale horse and rider death or devastation? Is John explaining the entire Bible in a different manner? Is the white rider God’s goodness and then sin came into the world followed by war, pestilence and then death? That could work except John is being shown the things that are to come; the history lesson was over in chapter 3.

White is the the symbol of purity and peace. Is this rider coming in with the message of
peace? That could be the Holy Spirit. It could be Jesus. It further reads, “…as a conqueror bent on conquest.” Picturing Jesus riding out after being crowned to conquer the world doesn’t fit. He has already defeated sin, death, Satan. If we look ahead to Revelation 19:11-16, we see Jesus riding a white horse, but described very differently. Jesus is wearing “many crowns”, not just a single crown as worn by the first horseman. And instead of having a bow, Jesus has a sword with which He strikes the nations. Another problem I have with this being Jesus is the creature calls to the rider “Come” and the rider does. Maybe this is when the rider gets the crown. But we recently saw that the elders and creatures all fell down and worshipped the Lamb (Rev. 5 :8). Would the creature go from ardent worship to commanding the Lamb to “Come”? I am thinking telling the boss’ son what to do is a career limiting move. Is the rider Jesus? I don’t think so.

If we take Jesus off the rider’s list, I am comfortable also taking off the Holy Spirit from the list. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit are one and inseparable. What about spiritual warfare? Is God planning to send His Spirit out into the world? Genesis 1:2 tells us His Spirit was hovering over the waters. His Spirit is already in the world, so there is no need to send it out now. We have all been filled with His Spirit to wage the spiritual battle every day. So we can strike this one from the rider’s list as well. By process of elimination, it has come to the point that the rider is the Antichrist. Can this be backed up? Check out Matthew 24:4-8. If we look at Matthew 24 and what Jesus is telling us, the Antichrist will come claiming to be Jesus. To do this, he will need to somehow appear as Jesus - dressed in white with the victor’s crown. The crown is a symbol of military conquest. The Greek word used is stephanos, which was the victor’s wreath, not the diadema which meant a royal crown. So if we understand what Jesus is telling us in Matthew, we get a series of cause and effects - if the Antichrist comes then wars and rumours of wars will follow; if wars then famine and pestilence will follow; if famine and disease, death and hell will follow, if you follow the Antichrist who is in the world to conquer and deceive.

So who or what are the riders and what do they represent? Once again, you can spend an awful lot of time trying to figure out the hidden meanings, focusing on what could be or may be a logical explanation to the symbolism to make it all crystal clear. Or you could focus on Jesus and not worry about the who or what - is it a royal crown or a victor’s crown? When you focus on Jesus, you know you are following the only One who is worthy. When you focus on Jesus, you know you are focusing on the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Petra by Chris Burton: In the early 1970s, songwriter and guitarist Bob Hartman met bassist John DeGroff and formed the band Dove. DeGroff left to attend a Bible school in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Hartman soon followed. In 1972 he and DeGroff joined two classmates, guitarist Greg Hough and drummer Bill Glover to form Petra. The band played small midwest venues such as churches, coffeehouses and parks to share the message of Christianity with concert goers. This mix of evangelism with rock placed Petra among the early pioneers of Jesus Music, part of the larger counterculture Jesus Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Church authorities struggled with and frequently opposed the use of churches for rock concerts. Few Christian radio stations, with the exception of some college-based signals, would play the band’s songs.
For the second record, a number of guest vocalists were brought in. Among them was Greg X. Volz. In 1977 with Greg X. Volz as a guest vocalist Petra covered the song, “God Gave Rock and Roll to You.” It was extremely controversial at the time as conservative Christian churches were speaking out against rock music. In 1979 Greg X. Volz was brought in as the full-time lead singer and the “Classic Petra” line up was formed. Their first album together as the new line up was Washes Whiter Than. The album produced their first radio hit “Why Should the Father Bother?” Joining the MTV world, Petra also recorded its first music video for Beat the System’s title track, then went on tour again, playing what was considered “the biggest Christian rock tour of its time.” Petra ultimately played to more than 500,000 people in the year-long world tour which ranked second in all of Christian music only to Amy Grant’s. The “Beat the System” tour would be the last for Greg X. Volz. As constant touring took its toll on the band, Hartman and Volz began to disagree about Petra’s future, both on stage and off. The tour, while it drew more fans than ever, was expensive, and it left Petra hurting financially. Increased competition from other Christian rock bands, for whom Petra had paved the way, led to lower-than-expected showings as the tour went on. Their accomplishments, however, resulted in 20 studio albums, 13 Grammy awards and 10 Dove awards. They were the first Christian band whose memorabilia was included in the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chain and they were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Their Christmas song, Mary’s Song, has very interesting words.
1. Hold that blanket closer Mary dear
All the world waits with you for your day
But for now the wind is cold and it’s drear
And Bethlehem’s still so far away
Do you remember the way you felt back then?
Joy and wonder filled your soul and when
The angel slipped away
You knew your life would never be the same
Chorus: And now you’re travelling, travelling on a road to Bethlehem
Wandering thoughts fly away
If you knew the road that lay ahead of Him
Would you break down and cry?
Your child is born to die.
2. Feel that hand of strength upon your own
A husband’s love that guides along the way
And as his understanding has grown,
His hopes too are centered on that day
For do you remember the way he looked back then,
Pain and sorrow filled his eyes until when
The angel came to say
The Savior’s birth was meant to be this way.
3. Think back on that promise you received
For Him in whom the prophets long believed
Now belongs to you, you’ve been chosen too
But He’s the One Who’s gonna shine
We call His name Jesus, Immanuel
He’ll save His people from sin and hell
And of His kingdom there will be no end.

Merry Christmas by Gary Carter: The next letters in our “Ichthus” study is “thu” which means Son of God. It occurs 38 times in the New Testament. Being a son of someone used to mean something regarding one’s family heritage as in “chip off the old block.” The Son of God is the image of the invisible God, and thus God the Son.
There are 12 New Testament passages which call Jesus the Son of God in a Derision (e.g. Matthew 4:3 - “The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’”). In five passages there is Devotion towards Jesus (e.g. Matthew 14:33 - Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”) Six passages record a Declaration of Him as the Son of God (e.g. Acts 9:20 - “At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.”). Nine passages portray a Doctrine (e.g. Romans 1:4 - “… and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”). Six passages focus on the thought that an individual Decision has to be made regarding the Son of God (e.g. John 20:31 - “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”). The message of Christmas is that you can make it through this world (I John 5:5) if you believe in the Son of God (I John 5:10). Whoever has the Son has life (I John 5:12).

Communion: The observance of this command by Jesus reminds us once again that He predicted He would be betrayed and His body broken for us. John was the only disciple who stayed at the foot of the cross to see Him on the cross as He suffered with the horrific loss of His blood as he carried the sin of humanity in his broken body.

Questions for the Noel it All by Steve Macdonald:

What do elves learn in school? The elf-abet!
Why did Santa spell Christmas N-O-E? Because the angel had said, “No L!“
Did you hear that one of Santa’s reindeers now works for Proctor and Gamble? Its true - Comet cleans sinks!
Why did the elf push his bed into the fireplace? He wanted to sleep like a log.
What do you get if you deep fry Santa Claus? Crisp Cringle.
Why was Santa’s little helper depressed? Because he had low elf esteem
Why does Santa Claus go down the chimney on Christmas Eve? Because it “soots” him!

This entry was posted on December 18, 2011 at 8:32 pm and is filed under Weekly News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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