The story is told of Shah Abbis, a Persian Monarch who loved his people very much.  To know and understand them better, he would mingle with his subjects in various disguises. 

One day he went as a poor man to the public baths and in a tiny cellar sat beside the fireman who tended the furnace.  When it was mealtime the monarch shared his coarse food and talked to his lonely subject as a friend.  Again and again he visited and the man grew to love him. 

One day the Shah told him that he was the monarch, expecting the man to ask some gift from him.  But the fireman sat gazing at his ruler with love and wonder and at last spoke,  "You left your palace and your glory to sit with me in this dark place, to eat of my coarse food, to care whether my heart is glad or sorry.  On others you may bestow rich presents, but to me you have given yourself, and it only remains for me to pray that you never withdraw the gift of your friendship."

This beautiful story reminds us that Christ left the glories of heaven in order to share himself with us. That gift of his love and friendship will never be withdrawn from us.  He chose to be your friend and mine forever.

My Point:  What have you been doing to keep your friendship with God warm and alive?  Perhaps you have stood at a distance and watched His relationship with others.  You can talk to me, or another Christian, about a true relationship with God.

In North America, Christians tend to be more interested in keeping the traditions alive but are too busy to keep a relationship with the Christ-child real and alive. Be careful that you do not fall into the trap of James 4:4James 4:4
English: World English Bible - WEB
4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

WP-Bible plugin. (read it and weep)

What’s your plan to change that this year?

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Psalm 98

Some of you may know the name of Isaac Watts.  To give you a clue, every one of us have sung his songs.

Isaac was a literary genius.  At age 5 he learned Latin.  Having a firm grasp on Latin he began studying Greek at age 9. At age 11 he mastered French and then at age 13 he became well acquainted with Hebrew.  In his early life he became an accomplished student of Theology & Philosophy. 

One accomplishment of Watts’ was to write a hymn for each of the 150 Psalms. Well, except 12 of them.

As a teen he was very dissatisfied with the deplorable hymn singing that was characteristic of his time. Imagine singing this hymn:

(You can almost visualize a choir of pirates grunting out the rhythm)

Ye monsters of the bubbling deep
Your Master’s praises spout;
Up from the sands ye docclings peep,
And wag your tails about.

(more…)

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