House of Hope Online

December 29, 2024

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I hope all of you had a joyous Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus!  While we may not celebrate on the exact calendar day of His birth, we know that He was born at the perfect time.  Here is how the Apostle Paul described it for the Galatians:

Galatians 4:

 4 But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

 5 in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

In the original Greek, the expression “fulness of time” in verse 4 means a space of time which designates a fixed or special occasion.  Jesus was born at the perfect time, a time fixed by God as a special occasion.  It was the perfect time for the Savior to come to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters.  Adoption gives us legal rights in the Kingdom of God, just as adoption in the natural realm gives a child a legal right as a son or daughter.  We are no longer under the Law for the attainment of salvation.  Once the perfect, fulness of time came, we became eligible to be adopted, or grafted into, the family of God.

Let us read about the benefits of our adoption.

Galatians 4:

 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

 8 ¶ However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.

 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?

Verse 9 raises a question for us as we enter the New Year 2025.  Now that we are adopted, and are known by God, why is it that we turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which we were enslaved all over again?  That is a great question! Why do we allow ourselves to be enslaved to the worthless, elemental things of this world?

Anxious for Nothing

As we enter 2025, let us also resolve to follow the word of God from Philippians 4.

Philippians 4:

 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

“Sleep in heavenly peace” are the words sung to the Holy Infant in the worship song, “Silent Night.”  For those of us who accept Jesus in our heart, there is a heavenly peace that we all can sleep in.  The peace of God surpasses all comprehension and guards our hearts and minds so we can sleep in heavenly peace. 

Receive heavenly peace in 2025.  Resolve not to be enslaved again to the elemental things of this world.

Jesus Is Doing a New Thing

There is a newness to our lives that results from the fulness of time having come.  Jesus did not come so we can walk in the same old things we used to walk in.  We should no longer be enslaved to the same things we were enslaved to before we accepted Jesus.  In Isaiah 43, the Lord tells us to look forward to the newness of our future.

Isaiah 43:

 18 “Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past.

 19 “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.

Receive this word into your spirit.  Do not call to mind the past.  The Lord is doing a new thing, which will spring forth now.  Do not miss it. 

Do you realize if your focus is on the past, you could miss what God is doing now.  If your focus is on your imperfections, your past failures, or even your past victories, then you may not be spiritually sober for what God has for you in 2025 and beyond.  Verse 19 asks us: “Will you not be aware of it?”

Verse 19 also makes an awesome promise.  God is saying He will make a roadway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  Get that – a wilderness has no pathway, and a desert has no water.  Yet The Lord is promising to make a roadway for us in any areas of our lives that previously had no way.  And He is going to water the previously dry and desert areas of our lives.  A desert does not support life, but water does.

I encourage you to take inventory of the things you have turned away from because they seem impossible, or they just seem like they are not working for you.  Behold, Jesus will do something new!  Now it will spring forth.  Do not miss it!  Seek the Holy Spirit for more on this word.

Write His Word on Your Doorpost

I believe the word of God will play an even greater role in our lives in 2025.  In Deuteronomy 6, God spoke this to the people through His servant Moses:

Deuteronomy 6:

 6 “And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart;

 7 and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

 8 “And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

 9 “And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

This passage of scripture comes immediately after the ten commandments were spoken through Moses in Deuteronomy 5.  It is clear in verse 6 that God wants His commandments on our hearts.  We should teach them to our children, and verse 7 requires us to discuss the word of God when we are lounging in our homes, when we walk outside the home, when we lie down and when we arise.  In other words, the commandments of the Lord should dominate our thoughts, and be a strong influence in our lives.

And I love verse 9.  We should write His commandments on the doorposts of our house and on our gates.  In other words, our faith in God’s word should be reflected to others and should be obvious to others.

This year, Nancy talked me into another Christmas decoration – a simple, lighted, outdoor nativity scene featuring Joseph, Mary, and the infant King Jesus!  I was reluctant but agreed because we had been talking about it for a few years but never did it.  A few days after we put it up in our front yard, we got a nice note on our front door from one of our neighbors.  The note said they liked our nativity set and thanked us for celebrating the real meaning of Christmas.  As I sought the Lord for today’s word, the Lord told me that is one way to write His word on our doorposts.

As we enter 2025, let us pray for the Holy Spirit to quicken us to keep His word on our hearts and to share it on the doorposts of our lives.  Pray He will show you ways to encourage faith in others, and ways to witness to unbelievers in 2025.

The Ten Commandments

Let us review the Ten Commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:

 6 ¶ ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

 7 ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.

 8 ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, [or] any likeness [of] what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

 9 ‘You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth [generations] of those who hate Me,

 10 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

 11 ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

 12 ‘Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.

 13 ‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; [in it] you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

 15 ‘And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

 16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you.

 17 ‘You shall not murder.

 18 ‘You shall not commit adultery.

 19 ‘You shall not steal.

 20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

 21 ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

Allow the Lord to convict you of any violations of His commandments going forward.  Be sober in spirit because you may not realize that you are not keeping a commandment.  For example, you may think you have no idols, but anything in your life that becomes too important is an idol.  If your job or your desire to make or have money robs you of joy, then it has become an idol.

And covetousness is any excessive desire in your heart.  If you covet, you have an idol.  All excess is sin, or at a minimum, leads to sin.

An Enlarged Heart

And finally, there is a great benefit to honoring the commandments of God.  Psalms 119 promises that the Lord will enlarge our heart if we run toward His commandments.

Psalms 119:

 32 I shall run the way of Thy commandments, For Thou wilt enlarge my heart.

 33 ¶ Teach me, O LORD, the way of Thy statutes, And I shall observe it to the end.

 34 Give me understanding, that I may observe Thy law, And keep it with all [my] heart.

 35 ¶ Make me walk in the path of Thy commandments, For I delight in it.

 36 Incline my heart to Thy testimonies, And not to [dishonest] gain.

As part of my open-heart surgery, the surgeon enlarged the aortic area of my heart, where the valve resides, before inserting the new valve.  I am praying that the Lord will likewise enlarge my heart both spiritually and emotionally in 2025. 

I am claiming the promise in verse 32, that as we make His commandments more of a focal point of our lives, as we write them on the doorposts of our houses and on our gates, that He will enlarge our hearts and give us the capacity to love others as we never have before.   

Let us pray.

Father God, thank You for the fulness of time when you brought Jesus forth as an infant for our adoption as children of God.  Thank You for the Spirit of Jesus in our hearts.  Help us not to turn back to the weak, worthless elemental things to which we were formerly enslaved.  Keep us from anxiety in 2025 and help us to sleep in heavenly peace.  Quicken us to sense the new things You are doing, roadways in our wilderness, and streams of water in our desert areas.  Lord, write Your word on our hearts that we might write it on our doorposts.  As we run to You, enlarge our hearts to love others.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.