Scripture Treasures

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests ~ Luke 2:14 The angels all join in one glorious chorus, singing out the praises of God as the shepherds below fall down in fear and amazement! The night sky, once as black as it could be was now ablaze with light from the heavens! What was hidden was now visible! What had been in the waiting room of the world was now plain to see in the birth of a child in a tiny cave. The angels proclaimed the glory of God on a hillside, away from the pomp and prestige of the king, the priests, the city of Jerusalem, and shared the greatest story and the greatest praise with lowly shepherds. How great a love is that of our God that he should send his Son into the world to live and feel what we feel, to know our struggles, our pains and hurts, our temptations, and our fears. It is the greatest of wonders that God should consider us so that he should leave heaven for us. Great praise is due him! We do not see ange...

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh ~ Matthew 2:10-11 Imagine this scene before you: a huge entourage of high priestly men, camels, servants, and guards all arrive at your poor neighbour’s house. It would cause quite a commotion in the area. Everyone around would stop what they were doing to witness this unusual event! Whispering would begin, some would be bold enough to come close and ask questions of these strangers, only to receive the answer they were looking for the king. King! What king? There is only a poor family there with a little toddler running around, barely making ends meet with the carpentry and stonework the father is able to do. This is not what the strangers see though, for they see one who is more royal than they, more high-priestly than they could ever dream of...

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel ~ Isaiah 7:14 This is a beautiful verse conveying the faithful love of God to mankind - He is God with us, always! In Isaiah’s time God was found only in the tabernacle, but with the birth of Christ a new thing happened. God came down to live among us and be one with us in body and in spirit. We will all go through times when we feel God is far away. Some call it the “desert” of our spirit, and we struggle to feel the closeness of God. We may read the Word of God and it feels as though we are reading a block of wood. Our prayers seem to bounce back and we feel they are not heard. We long for God, but God is not found. It is in those difficult days that we must remember God’s promises are true and faithful, and many times in the Scriptures God reminds his people that he is with them, that he will never leave them, that he will be in our heart. He promises to go...

  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins ~ Matthew 1:21 It would have taken great faith for Joseph to believe Mary’s story of her conception, for she had been away for several months and now returns very pregnant. I wonder how many of us would have had his faith. There is not much in the Bible mentioned about Joseph. When the Wise Men come to the child, only Mary is mentioned. When Jesus grows into a man and begins his preaching, it is only his mother and brothers who come calling him to come home. When Jesus dies on the cross, there is no father there but his heavenly Father. Yet Joseph believed and had faith and taught his son the skills of a carpenter. God knew this would be a difficult path for him to raise the Son of God and that encouragement and a promise would be necessary for Joseph to raise this child as his own. “Give him the name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” That ind...

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea ~ Habakkuk 2:14 There is a theoretical knowledge of the glory of the Lord in our day and in our world. Bibles are now translated in 700 languages and the New Testament in over 1,500 languages. At least one part of the Bible has been translated into 3,312 languages of the 7,097 in the world. This was as of 2018. ( https://www.christianlingua.com/into-how-many-languages-has-the-bible-been-translated/ ) . What this says to us is that almost half of the world has the Bible in their native tongue to read, to hear, to believe. What is missing in our world, especially the Western world, is the experiential knowledge – the knowledge that says I have experienced the Lord’s glory in my life. There will one day come a day when the Lord’s glory will be known intimately throughout the whole world, but for some it may be too late. Jesus Christ is set to return one day, and when that day co...

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ~ Philippians 4:4 Rejoice – to feel or show great joy or delight. It is a cause to joy to. We are not to be discouraged by this world which has little to find joy in. We may be surrounded by the world, but we must remember we are not of the world. Our joy is not found in the material, or the superficial things of this world. Too often people think that if they have enough money, or enough of the best clothing, or a fancy home their whole life will be happy and “joyful.” We are filled with a joy which is much deeper than those “things” of life, for they will not last, they will not take us into heaven to be with our Father, they will not help us be more like Christ and to live a good and holy life! Rather, they have the tendency to draw us away from our loving heavenly Father. What gives us the joy deep down in our heart which cannot be taken away is the joy that Jesus gave to us through his sacrifice on the cross to save our s...

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict ~ Hebrews 11:22, 23 It’s easier to just wait until you see exactly what is ahead of you before you move. For instance, when I am driving I want to see clearly before I move out into the oncoming lane to pass a driver in front of me. That is wise to do. I want to slow down at the end of an aisle in a grocery store, so I don’t smash my cart into someone, or they into me. I want to be cautious in many instances for safety’s sake. But when we live by faith, we don’t see exactly what is ahead, nor can we always be cautious. In fact, most of the time when we step out in faith we are taking a leap off a cliff into the unknown. The unknown by us, that is. Our unknown is known by God, and...

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life ~ John 8:12 The older I get it seems the more trouble I have in making decisions…or rather, the older I get the wiser I am in making decisions. I used to make quick decisions and then sometimes found that I regretted them. As I mature more and more I am slower to decide on important matters, but that is because I am waiting on the Lord to show me what decision to make. He is the wisdom I need in life. He knows my path and he knows my future, especially when I turn it over to him. As one walks along a dark pathway, holding a lantern, the path is gradually made clear. Stones and rocks are avoided to not cause harm. A cliff or an overhang do not cause my feet to misstep or my head to hit something. The light brings with it knowledge of the road ahead. So, when we trust in Jesus he gradually sheds his light on the subject ahead of us...

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 In all circumstances we are to give thanks to the God who created us and has a plan for us. It sounds wild to the world which is accustomed to following their emotions. Life has not treated me right, so I am angry. I have undergone things that I should not have, so I am discouraged and feel rejected and so I will act out in accordance with what I feel. This is the way the world without Christ lives and reacts. As Christians we will still have feelings, for we are human. As Christians out hope does not lie in the world or in the situations of this world. We are from another world – the Kingdom of God! I may one day be thrown into prison for my relationship with Christ. I would not be the first, the author of this Scripture was himself put into a house prison. I may be persecuted because of my faith in Christ, that day may be coming upon us all. B...

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven ~ Matthew 5:16 A light brightens the space in which it is placed, casting the shadows of darkness away from it. I love the light! I love big windows that let in light and the brightness of the sun which brings with it its warmth. When I lived in one part of Nova Scotia I virtually lived in the fog as I was near the Atlantic. I know it affected some people there, and I know it affected me. All I had to do was drive a mere fifteen minutes inland and the cloud that surrounded me lifted and the bright sunlight that could not be seen was plainly visible. It was as though a wall of fog surrounded that area. It was dull, and depressing, and dark. Jesus told us not to hide our light, the light we have received from him. We are to let it shine and brighten the lives of others. It does not mean we put on a false front, for we can all have a down day here and there, and some ...

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us ~ Romans 5:3-5 What is the best way to build our expertise? Usually, through trial and error. I love watercolour painting and am basically a self-taught painter. It has been through my mistakes that I have learned many basic aspects of watercolour paint such as how it flows on the paper, what paper to use, how much water on the paper and my brush. It has taken perseverance to learn the craft which has allowed me to become at least moderately good. When covid began, I began to watch some artists who now do tutorials online, and now I have the hope of improving more and more. It is much the same with the suffering we undergo as a Christ follower. We suffer sometimes due to our own errors or sin,...

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land ~ 2 Chronicles 7:14 Heal our land…oh, don’t we pray for that! We often will lift prayers before our God for those who are sick that we love, and that is so good, for God answers those prayers many times in ways that are wonderful. How often do we pray for our land to be healed through the forgiveness of our sins? It is a prayer we need to uphold before our Lord every day! Forgive me! Forgive my country! Bring healing not only to me, but to the land in which I live! Bless me, bless us, we pray! Our world is a hurting world, a lost and lonely place, a distrustful existence for most people. We build big fences, we lock our doors at night and in the day hours, we do not trust our government, or sometimes even our neighbour. Our land is sick, our world is sick! God, however, is good! H...

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” ~ John 7:38 Before we come to Jesus and accept him as our Lord and Saviour, we are dry and crusty inside. I would have never outrightly admitted to being that way before Jesus came into my heart, but I know in retrospect that I surely was. I thought life was all right, but I also had a yearning that there was something more to life than what I was living. I just could not put a name to it. That is, until the day that I gave my heart to Jesus. Then he came into my life, into my heart, and my soul just rose up! He filled me with his Holy Spirit and the newness and freshness of life entered me. Jesus is the source of that living water and when we accept him, he flows out of us into the world around us. When our spirit is transformed by his Spirit, the freshness of life washes through us and then out of us. People see the difference in us when Jesus’ Spirit of Living Water enters us. When we...