Joy to the World! Amen!
This Holy Season may we be manifestly filled with the blessed assurance of eternal salvation. May we be clothed also in joy unspeakable in great anticipation of Christ's return.
We know not when He will come the second time.
But, we do know He will.
And, when He does return and the dust clears,
the final outcome will be Grand!
In fact, the composer who wrote our traditional Christmas carol, "Joy to the World," did not do so to commemorate the first coming of Christ as a Child. Rather, the hymn writer composed that lyrical work in celebratory anticipation of the second coming of Christ as King of kings! Like Handel's Messiah, the message is the same, that of the reign of Christ Jesus, the KING!
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love. ---Isaac Watts, Written in 1719
[Source: http://www.the-synergy.com/lyrics/joywrld.html]
So, Beloved of the Lord, as we ready ourselves for Christ's return, let us take time to contemplate what great a cost was paid to give us the gift of eternal life. Then, let us give thanks in word and deed. Let us each Do Love, Love is a Verb!
May He to Whom we shall all give account find all of us working on the tasks God has assigned us for 2009.
May we each be filled with mustard seed faith, so empowered by the Holy Spirit that we effectively serve as "real" change agents, removing mountains of ambivalence, complacency, and neglect. And let us examine ourselves, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us removing those parasitic symptoms of falleness and replacing those life draining deficiences with the divinely resilient attributes of Jesus, that of loving concern, the kind of faith that works, and the selflessness that Jesus, Himself, can use for healing the broken who live within our spheres of influence.
Then, in unison may each of us sing Hallelujah! with every kindred and tongue that calls on the name Christ Jesus, the only One who takes away the sin of the World.
Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord this Season and throughout the coming year!
Thank you for your faithfulness to the KING!
Have a Joyous Christmas! From Your Sister in Christ,
---Olivia M. McDonald
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