On the front page of The Northern Advocate Property Guide current to 28 November, 2012, you can see the picture of a most magnificent mansion.
Unfortunately I have never been able to buy any property advertised in any of the real estate guides.
Why?
I have never had enough money to buy my own home for my family.
But for almost 55 years I own the most magnificent property. I did not buy the mansion. The estate was given to me. The giver purchased it for me at a tremendeous sacrifice.
The SACRIFICE is a sacrifce of atonement. It is a sacrifice that turns away wrath and takes away sin. It is not only an atoning sacrifice for certain people, but it is an atoning sacrifice for the whole world.
The purchaser and giver who made the sacrifice is the Lord Jesus Christ.
My property guide is the Bible, and you find my property in the Bible.
The Northern Advocate Property Guide expires on 28 November, but the Bible, the word of the Living God, has no expiry date.
When I read in the book what pregnant women were told to do in the 16th century in England, I remembered what the message was for pregnant women in Thailand, while I worked there as a missionary from 1966 – 1979.
In England they were told to hear mass, in order to have a safe delivery. In Thailand they were told “to make merit”, to have an easy delivery.
“These stories are incredibly important for our children, and as they grow they’ll treasure those memories and share them with their own families.”
I am reading that in a Paper Plus catalogue called “Once upon a Christmas …” Paper Plus is a Book and Stationery store.
ONE MORE QUESTION FOR ME TO ANSWER!
You find my Christmas story in the Bible in the New Testament in the book called Luke. Please read the first part of chapter two. You find there the story about the Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the story about the Shepherds and the Angels.
Paul Gerhardt is a well known German hymn writer just as Martin Luther. He lived from 1607 to 1676. And this is what he says in one of the Christmas hymns he wrote in the first verse: I
AM STANDING AT YOUR MANGER, O LORD JESUS.
You are my life. I come and bring and give everything you have given me. Take my spirit, my mind, my heart, my soul and my courage, and may everything be pleasing to you.
Paul Gerhardt wrote that Christmas hymn in the year 1736, when he was 29 years of age.
WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: “What’s your Christmas story?”
Remember that the Christmas story of your family is incredibly important for your children. As they grow they will share the story one day with their childen!
“Discover our secret hiding place away from city life just a few minutes from the CBD and on the way to the airport.”
That says a Cornwall Park Restaurant (Cornwall Park. Greenlane. Auckland) advertisement at the bottom of the front page. (Tourist Times, Oct/Nov 2012)
Are you looking for a Hiding Place?
Listen to what David says about God in Psalm 32:7. He says three things. He does not only say that the Lord is his hiding place , but that the Lord protects him also from trouble and that he is surrounding him with songs of deliverance.
