–Matthew 5:6 (Amplified)
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     This will be the last “Echo” of 2024.  Another year has gone by and as you look back was it a year of milestones, of reaching onward and upward, or one filled with regrets?  A year presents all types of problems and scenarios, and how we react to them often determines how they affect us in the future.  Grasp on to the nuggets that were found in 2024, let go of the woes, especially if they do not contain a lesson.
     How much of the year do you actually remember?  Was it all routine?  I dare say that to most of us, the daily events are like the wisp-o’-smoke that rises from the campfire.  It may come in your direction, burn your eyes and even cause you to cough, but that is soon over as it dissipates and floats away.  Much of life is that way; we don’t really take time to inventory what happens, to draw upon the day and reflect on the blessings of the Lord.
     Most likely this little note will be like that wisp-o’-smoke, a vapor that floats away.  Even as James writes that our life is like a wisp-o’-smoke (mist) “that appears for a little while and then vanishes,” (4:14, NIV) we should strive to make it meaningful.  As the smoke rises and is soon gone; we are to make sure our life is not just a puff of smoke, but a flame–a campfire–that warms the hearts of others, that shines and brings light in the darkness, that will echo throughout the year and years to come.
     As the year draws to an end stir up the coals, throw another log on the fire, rekindle the gifts and fruit of the Spirit, and continue to grow in grace.  Seek to know your Redeemer; that is a choice.  “Those who apply Jesus’ words to their lives are given more spiritual truth, making their lives richer.  Those who do nothing with His words, lose what little spiritual understanding they already possess.” (David Jeremiah)
     Regrets in 2024?  I’m sure there are some.  If so, learn from them, then press forward.  From my notes I took last January 1, are the words of Ray Stedman, “If you are content with what you are today, then you will never be any better than you are now; you may become worse.”  And from that same day I wrote, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12, NASB).  We have 365 days, the Lord willing, and we should be using them for His glory and for the Kingdom of God.
     So as we close 2024, let us seek to draw closer to the Lord, to know Him better, and to obey His Word.  Be ready–here comes 2025!

                    –Romans 6:23  (NKJV)
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               “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  –2 Corinthians 9:15 (NKJV)

How often do we put into words the gift of God of His Son, Jesus?  At Christmas we have a wonderful opportunity to begin to express our thanksgiving.  We can’t fully describe His Gift, and the ESV translates it, “inexpressible”.  It is too marvelous for our comprehension; it is too magnificent for our soul to express our feelings.  We can quote the verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16, NKJV).  Look closely and ponder.  Let your heart’s-mind dwell on the giving of the Father; a heavenly Father who did not spare His only Son for the redemption of mankind.
     We give gifts.  We like to give and we like to get, don’t get too pious.  However, most of the gifts we give are material, and really there’s nothing wrong with that as long and it is not manipulative and the motive is right.  The gifts we give tarnish, or tear apart, or break, and even traditions fade away, but the Gift of the Father is eternal.  God, in His goodness and mercy, reached down to give mankind an eternal, personal gift.  A special gift for everyone who has ever taken a breath on this earth.  It is not a gift that can be purchased; it is not a gift that can be won as a door prize.  It is priceless and eternal and it has purchased your eternal soul if you but reach out and take it.
     Look at the last two words:  “indescribable gift.”  How can the birth of Jesus be described?  Put all the prophecies together, then add the situation and circumstances of the time of His birth and describe how it could happen.  It cannot!  Indescribable means that it cannot be fully expounded upon; that is cannot be compared to anything; that it cannot be completely explained, and there is no ending to this Gift. (Whitmire)

               “The half cannot be fancied, this side the golden shore;
               O there He’ll be still sweeter than He ever was before.”
                         –W.C. Martin

We cannot begin to even know even the half of this Gift; we cannot come to know even half of the Father’s love that He has for us.  We accept His grace by faith.
     You want to have a wonderful Christmas?  Then receive the wonderful Gift of the heavenly Father.  If you already have then begin to praise Him for that Gift.  When you receive Jesus, this Gift, you are actually praising God by receiving.  It is not until we receive that we can begin, and I say only begin to understand God’s Gift.  We must love Christ before we can begin to enjoy Christ.  “Christ gives us the right perspective, the right estimate, the right measure of a human being.” (George W. Truett)
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(Note:  I have been blessed with a wonderful Sunday School teacher–Troy Whitmire.  I want to give him credit for stirring the thinking pot of my mind.  Several ideas came from his lesson last Sunday.)

                    –Luke 21:26-27 (NKJV)
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This is a very solemn set of scriptures.  Every person, in their heart of hearts, knows there is a God.  Atheists, ha–fools!  These verses indicate that to some extent God gives people what they want.  They can choose to ignore and reject Him and the result is disaster.  Matthew Henry calls it, “the doom of those that continue obstinate against all these means and methods of grace.”  

       1.24 — Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,
       1.25 — Because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke,
       1.26 — I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes,
       1.27 — When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
       1.28 — Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
       1.29 — Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
       1.30 — They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke.
       1.31 — Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.  (NKJV)

     There is the promise of life.  God has offered His Son as a gift to mankind to redeem them, but…  Oh, that men would not reject this Gift.  Man should never find himself in the position where he rejects God.  Paul writes, “Do not be haughty, but fear.” (Romans 11:20, NKJV)  The KJV version puts it this way, “be not high-minded.”  Do not think of yourself above God.  In other words, do not reject His offer.  “Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became fools…” (Romans 1:21-22, NKJV)  Matthew Henry states, “Those who do not choose the fear of the Lord, show that they have no knowledge.”
     Imagine God laughing at someone’s folly.  “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31, NKJV).  Oh reader, do not invoke the laughter of God.  For “if God laugh, thou hast good cause to cry” (John Trapp).  Choose the right way, walk with God while there is time.  Those who walk the path that Satan and the world offer are stepping on precarious ground and are deprived of the security of the promises of God (Charles Bridges).  Time is short, today is the day of salvation.
     Remember the parable of the wedding feast told by Jesus.  The dinner was ready, but…”They made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business…  The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.”  (Matthew 22:5,8, NKJV)   God is stretching out His hand, who will accept His invitation?  Luke tells us that when the guests are told that things are ready, they all began to make excuses.  The Master after giving instructions declares, “For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste of my supper.” (Luke 14:24, NKJV)   Andrew Fausset writes, “Men are free in choosing destruction, so the blame rests wholly on themselves.”  “Their miserable end is the fruit–not of God’s way, but of their own.  His plan, His device for them, was a plan of salvation.” (Ralph Wardlaw)
     The time is at hand for the return of the Lord for those who look for Him.  The trumpet will soon sound, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is on the distant horizon.  Those who are ready are looking up.  Others say they are too busy, others may say there is no God and scoffs.  However, as Warren Wiersbe says, “Wisdom sees a storm of judgment coming that will bring distress and anguish to all who reject God’s invitation.”  
     “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!” (Isaiah 1:2, NKJV)  Do not cause the Lord to laugh, to mock you when you are left behind.  “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” (Isaiah 55:6, NKJV)  “Men’s own desires fulfilled are made their sorest plagues” (Fausset).