joyancejames

Category: christmas

  • Hanukkah & Yeshua

    I feel compelled to write about Hanukkah, since in the light of recent events, this Jewish festival has become famous. Hanukkah is also referred to as the Feast of Dedication or Festival of Lights. Although this feast is not directly mentioned in the Old Testament (in Leviticus) where all the other feasts were described (apart from Purim, in Esther), Jesus observed this celebration, hence it is pertinent, as His followers, we understand its significance. 

    Hanukkah or Chanukah (חנוכה) are both accepted English spelling for the Hebrew word which means to dedicate or inaugurate. Feast of Dedication commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt. The events are mentioned in the apocryphal book of Maccabees, the feast was instituted B.C. 164 to commemorate the purging of the temple after its pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes (B.C. 167), and the rebuilding of the altar after the Syrian invaders had been driven out by Judas Maccabaeus. The Talmud (rabbinical writings) tell us that a 7 lamp Menorah was lit which burned miraculously for a week, hence the celebration lasts for 8 days.

    Festival of Lights & the Light of the World

    Many biblical historians place Jesus’ birth in September rather than December. Around the feast of tabernacles (Sukkot), when the people remember God’s dwelling and presence in the wilderness. In that case the “Light of the world”, Yeshua would have been conceived around the “Festival of lights” or Hanukkah. If you believe in December birth then the “Light of the world” was born during Hanukkah!  Either way, God is a God of details, but  since ‘When’ is not as important as ‘Who’, so we’ll defer the debate.

    John 10:22 NLT
    [22] It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication.
    https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.10.22.NLT
    Here we see Jesus observing the feast and in the temple grounds where He was cornered as asked point blank if He was the long-awaited Messiah. Expecting a quick fix to their nationalistic trials they missed His vision for the eternal fix. Their hunger for the Messiah led them to Him during the Hanukkah, but they didn’t recognise their Messiah. They missed out due to the mismatch between their expectations and God’s provision!

    So many times the answers we seek may not be the answers we get because our near-sightedness will never comprehend eternal significance. 

    Even as Jews celebrate the temple dedication and Christians celebrate the birth of Yeshua, let’s remember that we are the temples and His Holy Spirit resides in us.

    Happy Hanukkah!

    Happy Christmas! 

  • The promise of joy & peace

    The shepherds were minding their own business in the cool of the night when the angel announced to them, “don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.
    Luke 2:10 NLT
    The birth of the Messiah and the Savior will cause joy for all people.
    “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
    Luke 2:14 NLT

    The angels announced joy and peace to them and to us today.
    Joy that is not circumstantial because it’s source isn’t earthly, peace that is not dependent on external calmness or serenity rather it depends on the presence of Jesus.

    This Christmas season may we find our joy and peace as we put our faith in Jesus.
    Let me pray this verse over you,
    “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
    Romans 15:13 NLT

    https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.15.13.NLT

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmmANTxqKRQ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

    Wishing a blessed Christmas and a Happy New year 2023 Joy & Peace and Faith. Joyance, Shalom and Charis-Faith.

    Joy + Peace + Faith

  • He moved into our neighborhood!

    The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
    John 1:14 MSG

    The first Christmas God moved into our neighborhood and our world changed for the better. Since then He hasn’t left us alone.
    We look forward to a future when this will repeat and the world we see about us will be changed forever. John the apostle after seeing a vision about our final destination writes this in the last book of the Bible:-
    I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.”
    Revelation 21:3‭-‬5 MSG

    The first time He moved in like a helpless baby born in an obscure town of Bethlehem, but we look forward to a time when He moves in with all His glory and splendor in the New Jerusalem.
    The first Christmas was a reminder that God is with us, the promise of Immanuel. He promised and gave us the Holy spirit (John 14) which is a guarantee of the future to come.

    In this world we will have troubles, hearts will ache, bones will break, but because of Immanuel, we have a future when He’ll wipe every year and remove every pain and the glory of the Son will obscure the light of the sun.


    God bless and have a blessed Christmas! 

  • Inconvenience of a promise

    Bethlehem was the promised birth place of the Messiah (Micha 5:2), in order to fulfill that promise God moved Joseph and Mary, to take a journey from their hometown to Bethlehem. A journey in the late 3rd trimester of pregnancy, probably nearing the due date was not in the schedule for the new parents to be. A journey of approximately 90 miles was something they’d not envisioned to undertake in the days preceding the baby’s birth.
    Bethlehem was Joseph’s ancestral place, Boaz and Ruth lived there, it was the city of David and there after his lineage.

    Sometimes it does our soul good to visit the places (literally and figuratively) and testimonies of the lives of the people who passed on before us. Each generation not only carries forward the family name, but the collective experience of God’s goodness in each generation functions to fuel us and propel us forward. “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.”
    Psalm 145:4 ESV

    No doubt it caused them emotional and physical strain to leave their comfort zone and travel to their ancestral place in Bethlehem. Nevertheless they journeyed, eventually causing the Messiah’s birth to take place in a manger. Mary who’d carried the hope of the world in her womb had to go through a inconvenient place and time to fulfill God’s promise.
    Beyond the inconvenience of the promise were the angelic choir and the awestruck shepherds and the wisemen from East with their gifts.

    If you’re reading this, God has a promise for your life. It may need a change of place and perspective or you may have to go through an inconvenient journey in order to receive the promise, but what He says shall surely come to pass.
    “So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
    Isaiah 55:11 AMPC

  • Bethlehem’s loss

    The palace’s loss was the manger’s gain

    Herod’s loss was the wisemen’s gain

    Innkeeper’s loss was the shepherds’ gain

    Bethlehem’s loss was Nazareth’s gain

    Swaddling clothes gave way to the manger’s hay

    Dazzling regal lights lost to the Star which obeyed it’s Maker

    Wisemen sought Him then

    The wise seek Him still

    Are you counted among the wise?

    Most wish for love, joy and peace for Christmas. But Jesus is the only guarantee of love, joy and peace.

    Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things that ye pine after shall be added unto you.

    Jesus was sought and found by the wisemen and the shepherds and everyone in between, completing the spectrum of the hierarchy in the society.

    Our children don’t need more stories of fictional characters coming down the chimney with gifts, they need to be told about the greatest gift for mankind- Jesus.

    Christmas without Christ is not only a farce but also a tragedy.

    May you have a blessed Christmas.

  • Make room!

    Nazareth’s loss was Bethlehem’s gain, the palace’s loss was the manger’s gain, Herod’s loss was the shepherd’s gain, Mary’s first born, God’s only son, became human and made His home among us (John 1), He alone is the reason for this season. He came and lived and His own did not know Him. The sheep and the shepherds and the wise men from far celebrated His birth but the sleeping town of Bethlehem missed it!

    Reminds me of a song from the yesteryears,

    “Oh Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
    For God became a man
    And stepped into your world today
    Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history
    As a city with no room for its King”

    While you were sleeping – Casting Crowns

    We celebrate a “X-mas” without the Christ, what have we missed? Will we go down in history as a people with no room for our King? In the busyness of the celebration have we missed the Christ in the Christ-mas?

    “Is there room in your heart
    For God to write His story?
    You can come as you are
    But it may set you apart
    When you make room in your heart
    And trade your dreams for His glory”

    Make room – Mark Hall & Matt Maher 2017

    Let me include an open letter to Mr Santa Claus which I had written 3 years ago which I now want to restate.

    Dear Mr Santa Claus,

    The Christmas was never meant to be yours and you’ve enjoyed undeserved fame for too long. You are just a figment of a child’s imagination while Jesus traded the heavens for the place in our hearts, so please back off and let Jesus reign this day!

    Regards.

    Jesus’ birth, the first Christmas restored faith, brought hope in a hopeless and demonstrated an unconditional love to a people struggling for an identity under the Roman tyranny. Today as we celebrate His birth, He still promises to bring hope into our hopelessness and love into our love starved world; do we have room for Him?

    Behold, He stands at the door and knocks, is there room?

    Make room, have a blessed Christmas!

  • The first Christmas gift

    120613-video-christmas-presents-ribbons-bows-wrapped-gifts

    Somehow over the centuries (from the 1st century AD to our present day) Christmas got associated with gifts. But what is most often overlooked and forgotten is the gift on the first Christmas. Nah I’m not talking about the frankincense, gold and myrrh, these fade away into oblivion before the Father’s gift. Jesus- the Father’s gift to a ailing humanity, Jesus- the reason for the season.

    The gift which came not in glittering paper yet was encased in manger-hay when viewed by His first visitors. The gift which wasn’t delivered by a Santa but whose coming was announced by an angel and the arrival celebrated by a host of these angelic beings. It wasn’t under a tree decked with lights but under the vast expanse of the night sky illuminated by the stars. And in this collision of the Heaven’s Best with the poverty of our world, lies the invitation to every boy and girl, man and woman; irrespective of cast or creed or color, to partake of the gift. The gift came not with an expiry date but with a life time validity with the after effects reaching into eternity.

    The Father sent His best to draw to Him His estranged creation, only the best could satiate the pangs of the Father’s heart to be united with His alienated creation, if He didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? (Romans 8:32 Message).

    The Jews needed a Messiah and waited so long for His arrival, but finally couldn’t recognize Him when He came. Their myopic vision was fixed in the palace for a regal Messiah so they missed the servant King who came through the humble manger.Our world today, needs a Messiah too, hope we learn from the loss incurred by the Jews due to their inability to recognize Him. Father’s gift is still valid, “Behold, He stands at the door and knocks…”

    Have a blessed Christmas season.