Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Timothy Keller (2016-10-25) from his book, Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ (p. 51). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Have you found that true? Tim says, “When you are happy and things are going well, you feel like part of the human race. But when something bad happens and real suffering comes to you, it feels so lonely. People around you may express sympathy, but it doesn’t help. Then you meet someone who has been through exactly the same thing. They know what it is like. You pour your heart out to them. You listen to them and their opinions because they have been through the same thing. When they comfort you, you are comforted.” Think of this.   Tim says, “The incarnation means that God suffered, and that Jesus triumphed through suffering. That means, as Hebrews 2: 17– 18 said, that Jesus now has an infinite power to comfort. Christmas shows you a God u...

A thought by Timothy Keller (2016-10-25) from his book, Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ (p. 35). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I know, I know.   But God must answer my prayer, fulfill my dream, take care of this situation, give me this job right now.   I’ve claimed it, I’ve been a good boy/girl.   It must happen right now.   He promised.   Tim says, “God may appear to be slow, but he never forgets his promises. He may seem to be working very slowly or even to be forgetting his promises, but when his promises come true (and they will come true), they always burst the banks of what you imagined.” Do you know that the coming of Jesus was promised way back in Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament?   Have you ever read the whole Old Testament?   A lot happened because Jesus came.   Read the first chapter in Matthew the first boo...

A thought by Timothy Keller (2016-10-25) from his book, Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ (p. 21). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I’m glad you stopped to catch a glimpse of what this thought really means. Tim says, “Advice is counsel about what you must do. News is a report about what has already been done. Advice urges you to make something happen. News urges you to recognize something that has already happened and to respond to it. Advice says it is all up to you to act. News says someone else has acted.” He then gives an illustration, “Let’s say there is an invading army coming toward a town. What that town needs is military advisers; it needs advice. Someone should explain that the earthworks and trenches should go over there, the marksmen go up there, and the tanks must go down there.”   That’s advice He goes on, “However, if a great king has intercepted and ...