To the IRM family and friends,I greet you today with the traditional greeting that sustain its magic throughout the years: “Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.”
These days we reminisce the announcement of the angel, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord,” – and the serenade of the host of angels, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom is favor rest.” (Luke 2:11-14)
In the Philippines, we have trouble in Mindanao between the government forces and the so-called MILF rebels; and in various nations of the world, war is raging – will the Prince of Peace, our Lord Jesus, who was once born in a manger finally come and take to Himself the governance of our troubled world? Then, our prayer should be “Come, Lord Jesus.”
As the Lord tarries in his visible coming on the clouds of heaven, the proclamation of the choir of heaven “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men” ought to be sufficient for us to calm our nerves from anxieties of the coming year.
Yes, there is global recession happening, thousands are losing their stable jobs, many OFW’s are being sent home, the cost of living escalates, calamities strike at will and dreaded diseases are in a comeback in our morally declining societies.
But our Sovereign God, the incarnate Son strongly counseled us, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). – That is a welcome invitation, “In me you may have peace.” And remembering again the song of the choir of heaven that reverberates throughout centuries, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men whom his favor rests.”
Thus we understand:
- that our all powerful God made a promise.
- that He is capable to fulfill His promise
- that He promised us “peace”
But in the heavenly announcement there is a role for us to do, for the promised peace is qualified by “..to men on whom his favor rests.” And to obtain His favor, we must personally accept Him as Savior and Lord of our whole being in the real sense of the word, and henceforth continually seek His will and do things that please Him.
As a result, amidst these outward turmoil, economic and otherwise, we can be at peace for we are being cradled in the arms of the Prince of Peace, the Lord Almighty who was born in a manger two thousand years ago. Shalom!
Yours in behalf of millions of crying Filipinos,
BISHOP REYNALDO DOMINGO
Chairman, IEMELIF Reform Movement
(20 December 2008, Singapore)
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