Message from Jim Koan, Superintendent

The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

God, in all His perfectness and power set aside His unbearable (to man) deity and visited this earth for 33 years. He started as the humble baby born in a manger but Bethlehem was not His final destination, and the shepherds not His only intended audience.

“Yeah, we know all that. Let me get back to work”

Not so fast; let’s not miss a very important message in this traditionally Christmas-season verse: the Son came…”full of grace and truth.” Somehow God co-mingled two seemingly polar opposite concepts: unchanging truth which shines an unblinking light on our fallen state and pierces to our very core…and grace that covers our sin…all of it.

See, He delivered to us that first Christmas exactly what we need: we needed truth which was not subject to man’s whim of fancy, and not determined by the one with the most might. We needed truth which cannot be refuted and is the same “yesterday, today and forever.”

But that same truth condemns us. God knew that; knew our feeble efforts of righteous living would get us no where close enough to perfection let alone salvation, because the truth was, and is, that we are born in sin and doomed from birth.

But that is why God wrapped in the package that was His Son both grace and truth. He delivered on both fronts all that we need for to have hope in this life and salvation in the next. He delivered (sing it with me) …

“Grace, grace, God’s grace.
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
Grace, grace, God’s grace;
Grace that is greater than all our sin.” (J.H. Johnston)

Each time we unwrap packages this season, let’s recall the awesome Gift delivered to us that first Christmas night, a gift which fit’s perfectly; and let’s be sure to thank the Heavenly Father, the Giver of all Good Gifts.