Friends in Christ Message for December 24, 2005

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Friends in Christ Weekly Message
December 24, 2005

How delightful it is to see coming over the mountains the feet of a messenger who announces peace, a messenger who brings good news, who announces deliverance, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Isaiah 52:7 (NET Bible®*)

Peace. Good news. Deliverance (salvation). These are things Jesus Christ is about. Christ has brought them, but we have to take what he brings into our hearts for them to become manifest in our individual and corporate lives. God will reign in our lives, with all that Christ promises, if we will open our hearts.

If we do open our hearts and receive the peace, good news and deliverance that Christ brings, this should flow out of our hearts and transform our lives. Then we become messengers who can be a delight to the poor, the oppressed and those weighed down with the burdens of life. If enough of us open our hearts fully and allow ourselves to be completely transformed, the whole world can be changed.

Much in my heart and mind this season are four Christian peacemakers - Tom Fox, Norman Kember, James Loney and Harmeet Sooden - who have been held hostage in Iraq since November 26. These men sought to allow Christ to transform them into messengers of peace, good news and deliverance in the midst of areas of conflict. Let us all pray that the light of Christ will so shine in them that their captors are changed, and that they will be released unharmed.

During this time of remembering Christ's birth into humanity as a little baby, may we allow Christ to transform our lives so we may be messengers of peace, good news and deliverance, not just at this time of year but always.

Bill Samuel