Just got back from teaching at the Bible College in Jerusalem. This is a great group with a great future in Christ!

We’re headed out to Sunday services having just returned from the NorCal High School camp. It was phenomenal! Benjamin Courson is one of the best BIble teachers and communicators I’ve ever heard. I’m so excited about what the Lord is doing in his life, and will continue to do in and thru His life! And of course, Pete Denham.. ah, he’s my “Benjamin”- who I love with everything and am so incredibly proud of (as I am all our children as they are all serving the Lord:))! Pete is leading worship and preaching the Gospel in this generation and I can’t wait till he gives his first sermon at Calvary Auburn after Passover in a few months!

There is a story recorded in the Bible in Mark chapter seven, where Jesus put His fingers into a deaf and mute man’s ears, then spit into His own hands and touched the man’s tongue as He looked up to heaven and sighed. After this, He pronounced the man had been healed. This passage, very unique in it’s details, is one of the most misinterpreted passages in the Bible. It is mostly interpreted to mean that, “God works in mysterious ways”, or even that Jesus is demonstrating an unorthodox “methodology” for healing that should be emulated. I don’t think it is really that complex.

I believe that what Jesus was doing, was simply communicating with this man at his level. The man could not hear or speak. This story shows us that Jesus was willing to do what was necessary to be understood by this man — to be creative in order to effectively communicate with him. He accomplished this by separating the man from the crowd and communicating through a type of sign language that involved the ears and the tongue, that He was going to heal him. There would be no room for doubt that Jesus did what He “signed”, because the man was healed by Jesus!

Effective communication can be a challenge. Think about it, to effectively communicate requires that both the sender and the receiver understand and perceive information in the same way. When you add the dynamics of age, experience, culture, and education, one has to work hard at being understood.

For example, I remember many years ago when our son Greg (who at the time was about 7), was with my mother on the back porch. They were keeping their eyes out for someone who was “on the run” from the police (who had been actively circling above our neighborhood in a helicopter). From a description the police made known, we knew that they were looking for an “un-armed man, wearing a white shirt and blue jeans.” After a while, we realized that grandmother and grandson were looking for two different things – Greg was actually looking for a man with no arms, because of the “un-armed man” description. Communicating effectively takes work!

As Christians, we must understand that the most effective form of communication is love. Love will help us make the needed adjustments in our life in order to effectively communicate like Jesus did with this man. Each person and circumstance is different. When we love, we learn to change and grow in godly character. The Bible says that love suffers long and is kind. This means that love will cause us to retreat and be patient when there is conflict or suffering, and then love will help us advance in kindness. It is between the retreat and the advance that we learn about each other, about ourselves, and about the Lord. We learn how to effectively communicate and relate to others for God’s glory.

Today the Lord has someone for you to love and communicate effectively with. Be ready to adjust and be flexible in order effectively communicate God’s love and the Gospel with others, and in so doing, you will become more like Jesus.

At this time of year my thoughts go back to Jerusalem, not so much Bethlehem. When December rolls around I find myself particularly thinking about John 10:22. It says it was winter and Jesus was in Jerusalem atop the Temple Mt. commemorating the “Feast of Dedication” (Hanukkah) and He is there because He is “the Light of the world”.

Feast of Dedication? Hanukkah? Festival of Lights?

I’ll explain.

It was the year 175 B.C. and the defilement continued for ten years. A Syrian leader named “Antiochus Ephines” conquered Jerusalem murdering hundreds of thousand of Jews. Antiochus was a man shoulder to shoulder with the “Hitler’s” of history. Yet Antiochus was particularly delusionary — for he made himself to be God, calling himself “Theos-Ephiphenes!” In this way he is a type of “Anti-Christ” who is on the horizon. 2 Thess. chapter two indentifies this man who will stand in the Temple in Jerusalem and claim to be God. Antiochus not only defiled the Temple by claiming to be God but he butchered a pig and smeared its blood all around the altar and temple, even forcing the high priests to drink the blood. Meanwhile, a Jewish family by the name of Macabee’s spearheaded a revolt against Antiochus. One of Macabee’s son named Judas, played a particular role in the other-throw.

Once Antiochus was removed, the focus became the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem!

It was 164 B.C. the 25 of Kislev(some believe Dec. 25) but there was not enough oil to burn the seven branched Menorah in the Temple for an entire rededication week but to everyone’s surprise, the oil lasted eight days!

In type the miracle speaks of the new creation that is brought into existence by the Light of the World, the Messiah Jesus.

In addition, in the Jewish observance of this festival there is a ninth candle that rests in an exalted place above the other eight candles. This candle is used to ignite each of the eight other candles that produce enough light to cover all eight days. The exalted candle is called the “Shamash” candle. Shamash means “Servant”.

Jesus is THE SERVANT! Isaiah 49:6 speaks to this …

“Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant. To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation(the word in the Hebrew is Jeshua or Jesus) to the ends of the earth.’” Isaiah 49:6

Jesus is the one who ignites the world with divine life by His saving grace! Jesus came to make all things new.

In a time when life feels so crammed with obligation and the stress that more often accompanies this season with its emphasis upon materialism, I like to ask myself, “Is the SERVANT(Jeshua/ Jesus ) in the exalted place in my life?”

May it be so. And may it be so in your life as well. May your life be lit up with glory of God in Christ. He is more than enough!

GRIEVING THE SPIRIT (Ephesians 4:25-32)

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:3)

Grieving the Spirit, is grieving THE Holy Spirit, which means that a Christian is stepping out of harmony with the One who is perfect love, who has your highest good in mind, and is your protection.

The Holy Spirit works to protect you from the morphing destructive realities of sin by exalting the person and work of Christ in your life!

Grieving the Holy Spirit is the sin of COMMISSION! It is an UNGODLY ACT!

While quenching the Holy Spirit is the sin of OMISSION.  It is knowing what is right but NOT DOING IT!

Ephesians 5:18

There is a clear contrast between being intoxicated and being Spirit filled.

While being intoxicated by alcohol is often accompanied with feelings of comfort, joy and courage, it is because inhibitions are removed and a person becomes blinded from the consequences of their actions. The fact is that intoxication, “numbs, dumbs and desensitizes” a person from reality.

On the other hand to be “filled with the Spirit”, is to experience true comfort, joy and courage – not because one has been numbed to reality – but because the Spirit reveals the greatest realities in life, in Christ.

The Spirit shines the truth of Christ into the human heart on a daily basis.  When a person is Spirit filled, there can be genuine comfort, joy and courage, and the heart then rises up in worship, song, thankfulness, contentment and in love towards others.

Cast not away your confidence, for it hath great recompense of reward.

Even if the enemy’s foot be on your neck, expect to rise and overthrow him.

Cast the burden of the present, along with the sin of the past and the fear of the future, upon the Lord, who forsaketh not his saints.

Live by the day — ay, by the hour.

Put no trust in frames and feelings.

Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.

Trust in God alone, and lean not on the reeds of human help.

Be not surprised when friends fail you: it is a failing world.

Never count upon immutability in man: inconstancy you may reckon upon without fear of disappointment.

The disciples of Jesus forsook him; be not amazed if your adherents wander away to other teachers: as they were not your all when with you, all is not gone from you with their departure.

Serve God with all your might while the candle is burning, and then when it goes out for a season, you will have the less to regret.

Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are.

When your own emptiness is painfully forced upon your consciousness, chide yourself that you ever dreamed of being full, except in the Lord.

Set small store by present rewards; be grateful for earnests by the way, but look for the recompensing joy hereafter.

Continue, with double earnestness to serve your Lord when no visible result is before you.

Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith’s rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in that of her Great Guide.

Between this and heaven there may be rougher weather yet, but it is all provided for by our covenant Head.

In nothing let us be turned aside from the path which the divine call has urged us to pursue.

(And to pastors …) Come fair or come foul, the pulpit is our watch-tower, and the ministry our warfare; be it ours, when we cannot see the face of our God, to trust UNDER THE SHADOW OF HIS WINGS.

(Charles Spurgeon – “Lectures To My Students”)

Michael Brown is one of our most important voices of today! I highly recommend that you follow his writings at www.askdrbrown.org It was a huge honor to be with him today!