Joy To The World

JOY TO THE WORLD! We bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people... The best news is irrelevant if you are excluded. Who cares if the Red Sox beat the Blue Sox in baseball if you are not in on the deal! Jesus must be the most celebrated individual on planet earth. When they cash up their tills at the end of the season, even the Jews would sing, “What a friend we have in Jesus!” So what is so fascinating about Jesus and Christmas, what made the Christmas event so significant that it splits human history into a before and after? Why should we start counting our calendar then? As much as the soccer world is counting down the days and holding their breath for the next World Cup, even twenty ten will soon be forgotten! I was in Argentina in 1978 when they beat Holland in extra time to win the Mundial. Nothing could thrill the Argentines more; for a brief moment they could forget the agony of their disastrous economy. For days on end celebration noise erupted continuously and spontaneously. This was their dream turned tangible! But moments and memories fade... When the Creator of the universe visited our planet, He came camouflaged in frail form, no red carpet reception, no drum roll, not even a room in the hotel, no news coverage. Except of course, for the angels announcing their news of great joy to the shepherds who braved the night to protect their flock from the wolves and thieves. Mary did not have the luxury of choice, a home birth or hospital; no, a smelly stable had to suffice. From the start He associated Himself with the outcast, mankind in their lowest and loneliest state, to taste their humiliation, scorn and ultimately their death. None of the local authorities or religious leaders knew, only a few foreigners from the East who pursued and embraced wisdom came bringing their gifts. Why did He come? Certainly not to form a new political party, or introduce a new philosophy or set of rules; He did not come to establish the Christian religion, nor to form a new social club called the ‘church’.

He came to reveal and redeem the blueprint image and likeness of God in human form. Genesis 1:26,27. God’s plan has always been to reveal His image and likeness in tangible human life. His birth, His life, His death and His resurrection is God’s voice, God’s language addressing the whole world as His audience.

Every prophetic thought that God spoke in ancient times culminates in Him. Christ mirror’s your life and reveals the integrity of your original design, not as an example for you, but of you. He calls God his Father and is not ashamed to call us His brethren – we come from the same source! We originate in the same thought. In Acts 17 Paul addresses the Greek philosophers and says that “the Creator is not far from each one of us, in Him we live and move and have our being, we are indeed His offspring.” Jesus clearly stated that the lost coin did not lose its original value or inscription. “Bring me a coin, whose image and inscription does it bear? Return to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell in it.’ Psalm 24:1. Mankind is both the invention and property of God. He did not arrive at the wrong planet, He came to His own. He came to cancel distance, every possible definition of it. “Every high place was made level, every valley was filled up, every crooked place was made straight, even the rough places were made smooth.” Every excuse we could ever have to feel distanced, neglected or separated from God, He deleted. Luke 3:5. Also every wall of hostility between us, whether it is cultural, ethnic or historical, He broke down. His gift to the world came wrapped in human form, the Word that was before time was, became flesh, so that we may now behold Him as in a mirror and be transformed into His likeness. John 1:1,14, 2 Corinthians 3:18. He did not come to introduce a new compromised set of rules, instead He mirror reveals our original identity. When we know and even worship Christ from a mere historic point of view we miss the point; we might even feel very emotional and sentimental about Christmas and Easter and shed a few sincere tears, but we will never know His life transforming power there! The miracle of heart transformation only takes place in the mirror, nothing changes when we’re in window-shopping-mode! 2 Cor.3:18. ‘In Your presence (Hebrew: face to face with You) is fullness of joy’ Psalm 16:11. Fullness of joy is to see the Father’s face mirrored in the reflection of your own eyes. This was the moment when, in the movie, ‘the Lion King’ the cub discovered his true identity. The law of association is the essence of faith. “Surely He has borne our sorrows, and carried our pains, the chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him and by His stripes we were healed.” Isaiah 53:4,5. In 1995 the drop goal of Joel Stransky sealed the Rugby World Cup for South Africa. Every South African was represented, whether they saw the match or not; not to believe the result does not make the victory invalid.

While religion keeps man entertained and enslaved to various rules and regulations to seek to improve conduct through the disciplines of willpower, faith introduces the initiative of God to reconcile Himself with man. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” In the 1890’s, Marie Curie discovered Radium with an instrument that her husband, Professor Pierre Curie designed. Without this instrument it was impossible to detect its presence. Radium spontaneously and continuously transmits radioactive energy. This valuable and rare element is a mere one millionth of a percent present in the ore that carries it. Yet the ore takes its value from the treasure it holds. This is exactly true about human life. Even in the most corrupt and evil life, we must believe that the value of the human spirit remains intact in its full potential. It is impossible to measure temperature with a ruler. Christ is the only true measure of our lives. The gift of Christ gives dimension to grace and defines our individual value. “Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Eph.4:7. In South Africa we often allow ourselves through ignorance to continue to feel disadvantaged and defeated. The economy is not the measure of your life, your history or political situation does not qualify to measure you... Christ is the only accurate measure of our lives; He is the exact exhibit and blueprint of our design, the image and likeness of God in human form! The cross = our sins; the resurrection = our innocence. Rom.4:25. We are dealing with an already saved, delivered, healed and innocent world! Our reference is Christ; therefore we herald good news of great joy which is relevant to the entire world! What an insult to the cross, and accusation to our silence, if all we see is how sinful and wicked this world is; while something happened to mankind in Christ that is out of all proportion to Adam’s transgression. Let us lift up our eyes and see and proclaim the success of the cross, how ripe the harvest of His labour already is. It happened in those three awesome days, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up!” John 2:19, Hosea 6:2. He did! “Know ye not that your body is His temple!” He does not live in buildings or institutions made by man.

The strategy of God to touch and change the world is for His ekklesia-church (His image and likeness in human form) to awaken to their true identity and innocence in Christ. God has greatly benefitted humanity in the gift of Christ. Christ is gift wrapped in you!

Francois has written several books in both English and Afrikaans, and is also doing paraphrase translations of key books of the Bible from the original Greek text. His material is available for free downloads on www.mirrorreflection.net