Good morning. For indeed
we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they
heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who
heard. Just hearing the good news is not enough. People hear the good news
every Sunday; but there is no change in their heart or in their life. It does
not profit them. It's like the seed sown on rocky soil. The devil snatches it
away. The word has to be united by faith. The word translated united is an
interesting one. It means to be blended together to form a compound. It is like
taking carbon and iron and blending them together under heat and pressure
forming steel. You cannot tell where one leaves off and the other begins. It
does not form a new element, but the characteristics of the finished product
are different from the two separately. So it is with the word and faith. They
are blended together to form something much stronger than each by itself. Each
one by itself is not enough to save you. The Israelites heard the word of God –
that they were to enter the Promised Land; but it was not united with faith.
They did not believe, and so they disobeyed – and they did not enter the Promised
Land. The same thing could happen to us today. We hear the word preached, but
do not unite it with faith – and so do not enter into the Promised Land. We who
have believed enter that rest. Father thank You that the reader has heard the
word and united it with faith, and so has entered into Your rest.
Merry Christmas!
Good morning, and Merry Christmas! We are going to digress and look at the first Christmas. This was something that had been foretold centuries before; and yet people still did not understand what was going to happen. They were thinking that the Messiah was going to come as an adult and was going to re-establish the nation of Israel above all other nations. They were not expecting Him to come as a baby, supposedly born to a carpenter and placed in a manger. Many things had to happen at precisely the right time. You had to have the right person to be His mother and the right person to be His supposed father. You had to have a reason for them to be in Bethlehem on the night He was born – the census. It had to be when shepherds would be in the field near Bethlehem watching their flocks. And just at the right time – an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them...
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