As a youngster I had a lot of faith in luck and destiny. Palm reading, Ouija boards, tea leaf reading, horoscopes and the like kept my mind occupied and sometimes optimistic. I would save my money, buy issues of Fate magazine and faithfully read it for what I felt was insight and encouragement.

Things like fortune telling and divination go back millenia of course and were certainly around when the Christ was born. That is partly why Israel was in the condition it was when Christ was born. The nation was subservient to a foreign power because it had forsaken the written Word and followed after false prophets and sorceries.

Yet for much of the time there was a remnant in Israel that were totally dedicated to God. No doubt, Joseph and Mary met one of those people when they brought the Christ Child to the Temple to present Him before the Lord. There, a man named Simeon, took the Child in his arms, blessed God and said (Luke 2:29-32), "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel."

He then said to Mary (Luke 2:34-35), "Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

And, indeed, when Christ began His public ministry, those who trusted in themselves and their own ways were confronted with the Living Word Who readily exposed their frailties and warned them of judgment, while those humble in heart and receptive to the Truth were brought into the Kingdom of God and learned to live above the world. Later in His public ministry we see that His destiny of affecting the rise and fall of those in Israel extended to all peoples, as it does this day.

As those people in the past had the choice to either commit to Christ or reject Him, each of us today has that same decision to make. We can choose to fall into condemnation, or to rise with Him into heavenly realms.

I trust you will choose, and continue to hold to, the latter, and be blessed like Simeon to depart from this world in peace.