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Marjorie Tallcott was married and had one child during the Great Depression. The family managed to scrape their way through, but as Christmas approached one year Marjorie and her husband were disappointed that they would not be able to buy any presents. A week before Christmas they explained to their six year old son, Pete, that there would be no store-bought presents this Christmas. “But I’ll tell you what we can do” said Pete’s father, “we can make pictures of the presents we’d like to give to each other.” That was a busy week. Marjorie and her husband set to work. Christmas Day arrived and the family rose to find their skimpy little tree made magnificent by the picture presents they had adorned it with. There was luxury beyond imagination in those pictures- a black limousine and red speedboat for Dad, a diamond bracelet and fur coat for mum, a camping tent and a swimming pool for Pete. Then Pete pulled out his present, a crayon drawing of a man, a woman and a child with their arms around each other laughing. Under the picture was just one word: “US”. Years later Marjorie writes that it was the richest, most satisfying Christmas they ever had. It took a present-less Christmas to remind Marjorie and her family that the greatest gift we can ever offer is ourselves, our presence. This too is the great gift that Christ offers us, not only at Christmas but throughout the year – himself. If he was to draw a gift perhaps it would be just like Pete’s: three people with their arms around each other laughing – human community with Christ at the centre. Source: Reported in Illustrations Unlimited In order to prepare us for a good study on Jesus' teaching on discipleship, I am posting a good illustration by Bible teacher John MacArthur on having a true hunger for righteousness (I have added bold to various parts of his message): Think about the prodigal son. The prodigal son, Luke 15, he had a lot of passions. In that little story you see them repeatedly. First of all, he had a consuming desire for money, for earthly treasure. He had a consuming desire for what it could buy by way of possessions and pleasure. He had a passion for iniquity and because of his drive for sin and his drive for pleasure, and his drive for possessions and his drive for material things, he went to his father and basically demanded his inheritance. And then he took his inheritance, you remember the story in Luke 15, and he went out and he just wasted it on all those things which he passionately desired. And he wound up satisfied...is that right? No. He wound up empty. When he had managed to catch everything he was chasing, when he had managed to achieve all of his goals, when he had managed to experience all of those ambitions, he was empty. And he thought to himself, "How many hired servants, slaves in my father's house have bread enough and to spare. He had absolutely nothing. He wound up working for some Gentiles, no doubt, on a pig farm, slopping pigs and eating pig slop, when he decided it would be better to go home to his father. And at that point the parable is saying his hunger changed. First he was hungry for money and earthly treasure that he might fulfill his lusts. Then he was hungry just to be satisfied with pig slop. And finally he was hungry enough to go back to all the bounty that his father had. That's the picture of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. When you've had everything you thought would satisfy and it's just pig slop. Our homes should not settle for anything but the best - which only God the Father can supply. On Sunday we will study more about this. - Dr. Zockoll "They (Christians) are always content, always pleased with what they have: it pleases them, because it pleases God: so that while their heart, their desire, their joy is in heaven, they may truly be said to 'inherit the earth.'” - C.H. Spurgeon "The meek already inherit the earth in this life, in this way. A man who is truly meek is a man who is always satisfied (cf meaning of makarios, blessed, as fully satisfied independent of one's circumstances), he is a man who is already content." - D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
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January 2018
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