Rev B R HICKS And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they pre- sented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:11). Secondly, the wise men offered frankincense, which represents faith. It is not enough to say the- oretically that you believe that the LORD Jesus Christ is the Head over all things. Along with the gold of Wisdom, you have got to offer the frankincense of faith in His Headship. If you do not have that living faith, then the Truth that He is the Head over all things is just a dead letter to you. It is inoperative and inactive in your life. So then if faith is not in operation, if the frankincense is not ac- tivated, if it is not a living faith, then again you will experience misery and woe and so on. After all the tin and tinsel is gone, you will say, “Is this what Christmas is all about?” And you will feel a let- down and a disappointment. You know how that goes. The people in the stores will tell you that they do big business after Christmas, exchanging merchandise because nobody liked what they got for Christmas. But if we have faith in Christ’s Holy Headship, then take what somebody has given you. If their gift is something that you cannot use in the natural realm, then do not be tacky. Do not be ungrate- ful. Find somebody to whom it would be a treasure, somebody who would need that gift, somebody that you can share that gift with. Sometimes God gives you things not for you to keep, but for you to give away and to share. I experience that all the days of my life. I am always so grateful when God gives me something. I put it on the shelf, and I wonder, “LORD, who did You give this to me for?” So I wait. Then I find just the person who needs exactly that thing. Then I bring it out from under the bed or off the shelf, wherever I have hidden it. And there it is, just ready to be put to proper use in God’s Kingdom. This principle also applies in the spiritual realm. There is something for us to learn in every situation, even those situations that we do not want or think we need. There is some- thing that Jesus wants us to learn so that, later, we will have empirical Wisdom and Understanding and Knowledge to share with others. So let us give our living faith to Jesus Christ. Let us offer that to Him, not just a dead doctrine. The Bible says: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for re- proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (II Timothy 3:16,17). Therefore, this verse eleven in chapter two of Matthew is very important to us to give us a spiritual picture of how to behave and what to give to Jesus. The world is so caught up in what they are going to give to somebody else and what somebody else is going to give to them. Who cares? And you do not care if this spiritual principle is in opera- tion in your life. If you could just go somewhere on a lonely island and spend Christmastime just with Jesus, that would be the best Christmas present you could have. But I realize that we are joined to people and involved with families, so we cannot always do what our heart would desire to do. David desired to build a Temple, but he never got to do it. But God looked upon him as though he had done it because the desire was in his heart to do it. Then after giving the gold of His Headship, after recognizing the Truth that now is, then offer Him a living faith that is pictured by the frankincense. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hear- ing by the word of God” (Romans10:17). How are we going to have living faith? How are we, as a wise person, going to have a new present to give Him at this Christmas if we have not prayed, and if we have not studied, and if we have not been alone with Him to where He can speak to us and gen- erate a new realm of faith in us? We cannot live off yesterday’s faith. Yesterday is gone, and tomor- row may never be mine, as the song says. So let us offer our faith one day at a time. Thank you, Rev Fowler
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 13:05:43 +0000
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