OzThoughts Monday 30th November 2009.

OzThoughts Monday 30th November 2009.

I noticed in an email message from a Christian Bookshop that if we do not tell the Christmas message during Advent then a lot of folk will not hear the story of the birth of our Saviour. The writer, a Christian author was no doubt reflecting the discussion in his denomination that Christmas carols belong to the Church Season of Christmas not the Season of Advent. He was putting the view that church people disappear after Christmas Day, so the Christmas story would be told faithfully but to empty pews.

Now, most of my readers would have guessed that this author was not a Salvationist, as the first Sunday of Advent drops the starting flag on the busy season of caroling, collecting, standing kettles, bell ringing or what ever we call it. It’s a busy season of giving out and appeals to replenish the storehouse.

As I was playing carols on Saturday morning, (I think this is already the fourth involvement of our bandsmen in Christmas this year), I thought of the Bible reading from our Bible study a few weeks ago. It was the familiar passage from 1 Corinthians 13 which says:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13: 1 NKJV).

As I thought about our caroling and the whole “Christmas effort” I thought we could be so much “sounding brass or clanging bells”. My mind went to the song where Commissioner Arch Wiggins took the thoughts of this passage and gave us words which remind us all who are involved in ministry during the Advent and Christmas period, the basis of it all.

[Listen: Songsters: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2255.mp3
or
Band: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_1684.mp3 ]

Though in declaring Christ to the sinner,
I may all men surpass,
If love impassioned seal not the message,
I am naught but sounding brass.

Chorus
Love suffereth patiently;
Love worketh silently;
Love seeketh not her own.
Love never faileth;
Love still prevaileth;
Lord, in me thy love enthrone!

2.
Though I have wisdom lighting all mysteries;
Though I may all things know;
Though great my faith be, removing mountains,
Without love 'tis empty show.

3.
Though I distribute all my possessions;
Though as a martyr die;
My sacrifices profit me nothing.
Unless love doth sanctify.
Author: Arch R. Wiggins (1893-1976)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 530

PRAYER:

Father, I pray that I might know and show your love during this season of preparation, proclamation and praise for your coming. Help me to find your love within my heart to encourage others at this time. Amen.


1 Corinthians 13 (The Message)

1If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.
3If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

4Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
5Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
6Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
7Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

8Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit.
9We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. 10But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

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