Month: December 2024

You have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge and in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10

It’s that time of year again where we think about making our New Year’s resolutions! In many cases, we look back on past resolutions we’ve made and broken, and we think there’s no reason to try again. However, we need to realize that, in many cases, we have outgrown many of the resolutions we made in earlier years, and it’s time for us to pick up and move on. What’s new in this New Year?

If we are feeling like there is nothing new in life, and the same old, same old is the norm, then maybe it’s a great year to evaluate the things in our lives that need some attention. We need to consider three questions in this new year of “what’s new?” First, is it time for us to move on in this new year? Next, if we move on, where are we going? Finally, if we have a time to move on and a destination, what is our vision for our new year?

Is it time to move on this year? We can take a lesson from the hermit crab in making that decision. The hermit crab is constantly outgrowing his shell throughout his life. He looks for a shell that fits him, lives there until he outgrows it, and then he scurries along the ocean floor until he finds a new one that fits him better. He repeats this process throughout his entire life.

If we are clinging to things that no longer “fit us” just because they are comfortable and familiar, then the time has come to move out of our comfort zone and endure a little distress in order to grow. Patience and persistence are admirable qualities, but they don’t work in situations we’ve outgrown. We need to ask ourselves, “Is this good for me?” Ask God to let us know. When God says it’s time to move on, it’s because there’s another shell out there designed to fit us even better.

Once we move on, where are we going? One day Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes lost his train ticket. As he searched for it, obviously irritated, the conductor said, “It’s okay, Your Honor, just mail it in. We all know and trust you.” Holmes replied, “I’m not concerned about finding my ticket, I just want to know where I’m going!” Fifty per cent of people around us have no idea where they are going, forty percent will go in any direction they are led, and the remaining ten percent know where they’d like to go, but fewer than half of them are prepared to pay the price to get there.

We need to begin with a vision. If we set visions in this new year that are clear enough to write down, short enough to fit in a paragraph, strong enough to help us persevere, and valuable enough to make us pay the price to see them fulfilled then we know where we are going. Jesus endured the cross because of his vision of the resurrection and a church that would one day change the world.

Regardless of our age or gender, God has a vision for us to fulfill, and sometimes it won’t make sense because we don’t feel qualified. In the musical, Man of La Mancha, there is a scene where Don Quixote and his servant stand gazing at a dilapidated inn. When Quixote describes his vision of turrets and magnificent gates, his servant tries hard to see the same picture, but all he can see are ruins. When he attempts to describe them, Quixote says, “Stop! I will not allow your facts to interfere with my vision!”

The good news for this new year is that God will take care of us. Just like a good father taking care of a child he loves, God will watch over us from the beinning of the year until the very end. If we walk with God and honor Him in all we do, this year can be one of the most blessed years of our lives.

What’s new this year? We are moving on to new and better things. We know where we are going, and we have a vision to take us to our destination.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old has gone. The new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

Happy New Year!

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born! Luke 2:10-11

The story is told of a prince who went in search of a maid suitable enough to be his queen. One day as his carriage was passing through a poor section of town, his eyes fell upon a beautiful peasant maiden. In the days that followed, he often passed by the maiden, and he soon realized he was in love with her. However, the prince had a problem. How could he court her? He could order her to marry him, but then he would never know if she loved him or just felt coerced into marriage. He could put on his most splendid uniform and drive up to her home in his carriage drawn by six horses, but he would never know if she loved him or was just overwhelmed by the splendor.

The prince came up with another solution. He would give up his kingly robe, and move into the village, not with a crown, but in the garb of a peasant. So, he did. He lived among the people, shared their interest and concerns, and spoke their language. In time, the maiden grew to love him because of who he was and because he first loved her. Love came down.

The Love that came down at Christmas came much like the prince in the childlike story. God sent Jesus to be born, live, and die among us so that He could reveal Himself to us in an understandable way. Jesus became flesh just like you and me so that He could be understandable to us, and we would know of His amazing love for us.

God came down that Christmas, and He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and and laid in a stone feeding trough. He was welcomed and worshipped by two groups of people outside of his family – the Shepherds and the Wise Men. These two groups of people were poles apart socially, economically, ethically, and in every other way except spiritually. When the Shepherds and the Wise Men met at the feet of Jesus, they worshipped on common ground.

Just like the Shepherds and the Wise Men, we are all on common ground this Christmas as we come to worship and celebrate the birth of our Lord. The Bible doesn’t record any physical gifts brought by the shepherds, but they gave Him their devotion and worshipped Him. We all know the Wise Men brought gifts of gold, franckincense, and myrrh which were symbolic gifts of kingship, divinity, and a foreshadowing of things to come.

We all come to Him this Christmas with different gifts that we can offer to show our love. This Christmas, we can give him our time and let Him fill it. We can give Him our hands and let Him guide and use them. We can give Him our treasures and let Him store and invest them in safe places that bring everlasting rewards. We can give Him our future and let Him plan and direct our life. We can experience love coming down this Christmas.

There is a famous painting by the artist Holman Hunt showing how Jesus came into the world to die. In this painting called “Jesus at the door of the Carpenter’s Shop in Nazareth,” Jesus is depicted as a boy. He is coming out of his Dad’s shop. and he goes to the door to stretch because his limbs had grown cramped working over the carpenter’s bench. He stands there in the door with his arms outstretched, and behind him on the wall, the setting sun throws his shadow. The shadow is one of the cross. In the background stands Mary, and as she sees the shadow, there is the fear of the coming tragedy in her eyes.

Jesus came into the world to live for us, and in the end, to die for us. He came to give us His life and His death for us. Gold for a King, Frankincense for a priest, and Myrrh for the One who was to die – these were the gifts of the Wise Men. Even at the cradle of Christ, they foretold that He was to be the true King, the Perfect High priest, and in the end, the only Savior of mankind.

This is the Christmas message of Love coming down. The message of hope, the message of peace, of joy, but most importantly, the message of love.

Merry Christmas!

And the angel said unto them, “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news which will bring great joy to all people.” Luke 2:10

There are only eight days left before Christmas, and as we frantically rush around in an effort to buy the perfect gift, set the perfect table, or host the greatest party, my prayer is that we all take a little time to experience the joy of Christmas.

Joy is defined as a feeling of great pleasure and/or happiness, and it is a lasting emotion that comes from trusting God. Joy is found not in completing a project, but in actually doing it. It is the simplest form of gratitude. This year when I think of situations of joy, I have to go back to the end of September when Hurrican Herlene hit several states on the east coast. The storm actually devastated parts of Georgia and North Carolina. It doesn’t sound like a joyful sitution, but there was joy involved.

We have friends and relatives in both places who lost power, water, gas service, internet, phone, and there are some who have only recently gotten everything restored. The comforts of life were gone and in many cases, it took the joy out of everything for them. Our dear neighbors and friends have a daughter whose family was hit hard by the storm. She took a few days to come here, not so much for herself and her son, but to organize trucks to return to Asheville with food, clothing, water, and toys for those she knew while her husband stayed to help others. When I asked her how she was doing she said, “I was made for times like this. I get such joy out of organizing things and helping others.” That’s Christmas joy.

Things aren’t always easy in this life, but they weren’t easy for the Holy Family, the shepherds, or the wise men either. The Holy Family endured a dirty stable, swaddling clothes for the Christ child, and a feeding trough for His bed. The shepherds left their fields at night and followed a star. The Wise Men traveled hundreds of miles to worship the Christ child. I have to believe that the journey exhausted their joy, yet they came and worshipped Him. One would think that only the Kings, pious Priests, and high members of society would be invited to the birth of a King, but God chose the lowly to be part of the birth of His Son. What a joy to be there to worship the Christ child!

Life is full of difficulties over which we have no control, and we all face them in this life. We have stress, problems, disappointments, and sometimes things that happen can put us out of our comfort zone. If we aren’t careful, it’s easy to become negative, depressed, and dispiritied. In other words, we lose our joy.

We can’t control what happens on the outside, but we can control what happens on the inside. The joy that comes from Christ coming into this world doesn’t come and go from what happens around us. The joy comes from what is going on deep inside us.

In the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss, the small hearted Grinch tries to take the joy out of Whoville. He comes down the chimney and takes food and toys away from all the Who’s of Whosville in an effort to steal their Christmas joy. Yet on Christmas morning, the tall and the small sang without any presents at all. And the Grinch with his Grinch feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags. And he puzzled three hours until his puzzler was sore. Then he thought of something he hadn’t before. “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas.. perhaps.. means a little bit more.” And what happend then? Well, in Whoville they say, The Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day. He hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming. It came.

Christmas Day is a remembrance of a promise of joy to be fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah. There is joy in celebrating His birth, but that joy is made complete in celebrating His life, His death and His resurrection.

Jesus is our Christmas Joy.

In the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3

The time for our preparation for Christmas this year is shorter, and it has really had an impact on the usual routine for the way I like to prepare. Instead of being able to enjoy the process, it has become a bit of an obsession. The stress of preparation has taken away much of my peace, and to top it all off, some of my favorite pieces are either lost or misplaced. All I can think about is where did I put them? Are they lost forever?

It made me think of one of our favorite Christmas movies, A Christmas Story. In the movie, Ralphie is obsessed with getting a Red Ryder BB gun from Santa. His imagination takes him to all the ways he could use it, from shooting bad guys and rescuing his family to other heroic acts. His mother bursts his bubble when she says, “You’ll shoot your eye out!”, but the gun is all Ralphie can think about.

Preparation is all I’ve dwelled on lately, but I think God has taught me a valuable lesson. The other day as I stressed over decorating, I had hurriedly placed my nativity sets in different places, but one of them I just put down without any order thinking I would get to it. When I walked by it, the message was clear. Joseph had his back turned to Mary and Jesus, Baby Jesus was turned upside down, and Mary was on her knees looking away from everything! Even the angel looked preplexed! Preparation without peace was robbing me of the joy of the season. I’ve been thinking about the wrong things, and I’ve learned that it takes more than a tree and decorations to find the peace and joy of Christmas.

What should we think about when we think of Christmas? Of course we all think of Christmas trees and beautiful decorations and there’s nothing wrong with that. We think of what we can give our family and friends, and that’s good too. We even think of what we want for Christmas, but the problem comes when we dwell more on the materialistic things of Christmas rather than the Christ of Christmas.

The Christ of Christmas would have us tell others that the baby born in Bethlehem came to change our lives. He came to give us peace with God and peace with one another. He came to give us purpose in life and hope after death. Our job is to help others see past the materialistic world and lead them to the Light of the World. We have to show others the peace in preparation for his coming rather than the hustle and bustle of our busy lives.

The story is told of two ten year old girls who were walking in the snow one day discussing what each was getting for Christmas. They stopped to talk to an old man named Harry who was on his knees in the snow weeding around a large oak tree. Harry’s jacket was frayed and his fingers were blue from digging in the snow. He told the girls that his mother was all he had in this world, and because she loved the trees and her yard so much, he cleans the yard as his gift to her. The girls were so touched that they began to help Harry, and the three of them spent the rest of the day weeding. When they finished, Harry pressed a quarter into each of their hands with the words, “I wish I could pay you more, but this is all I have right now.”

The girls remembered that they had passed this house before. It was the shabby one with no wreath, no Christmas tree or other decorations just the figure of Harry sitting by the window. The next day, the girls talked and agreed to put their quarters into a jar marked “Harry’s Christmas Present.” They sought out odd jobs in the neighborhood, and every nickel, dime, and quarter went into that jar.

Two days before Christmas, the girls had enough to buy Harry a pair of gloves and a Christmas card. On Christmas Eve, the girls went to Harry’s door and began to sing Christmas carols. When he opened the door, they presented him with the gloves wrapped in pretty paper, the card, and a pumpkin pie straight from the oven. Harry tore open the gift, and to their astonishment, he held the gloves to his eyes as he cried.

This Christmas we can just survive the season, gripe and complain about the inconveniences of it, yawn when we hear the Christmas story, and be glad when it’s over, or we can prepare for Christmas just like these girls. Peace this Christmas comes not in the material things like the pieces which I found lost or misplaced and let that control my emotions, but rather by rediscovering the blessings of Christmas in those all around us.

My prayer is that we can all celebrate the peace that comes in the preparation for the birth of our Savior.

Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5

It is hard to believe it, but the family and friends have gathered, the Thanksgiving turkey and fixings have been consumned, the pumpkins are history, and it’s time to turn our attention to Christmas and the hope of the Advent season. Advent is defined as the arrival of a notable thing, event, or person. For Christians, we celebrate all three. The thing is the joyous adventure of this season. The event is Christmas Day and the birthday of Jesus. The person we celebrate is Jesus Christ.

Hopefully in this season our hearts will be a little lighter, and we will be just more joyous, but we have to guard against the hustle and bustle of the world’s race to find the perfect gift. If we step back and remember the reason for the season our hearts will be happier, we will smile more, and hopefully, we will get a little bit closer to those we love.

Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. It is both an emotion and a way of thinking, and it is crucial for us to possess in times of uncertainty or adversity. The world in which we live today and the world as it was when Jesus was born can best described n the words of Charles Dickins. In A Tale of Two Cities, he wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the season of Light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” There are many situations that we face each day that can cause us to lose hope.

God sent Jesus to be our Christmas Hope, but He didn’t have the luxury of sending his only Son to be born in a hospital, a palace, or somewhere an author might have placed the birth. The Hope of Christmas was born in a smelly, dirty stable where animals were witnesses to His birth. This mere fact should remind us all that there is no place too common for Jesus, and there is no circumstance beneath Him.

Our goal during this Advent season should be to keep hope alive. In order to make it easier to start each day with hope, try using each letter of hope as an acroymn.

“H” is for humbling yourself. We often lose hope because we put faith in ourselves rather than the Christmas Hope. Hope in Jesus always results in renewed faith.

“O” is for opening our hearts to the hope Jesus’ birth can bring. Jesus says he stands at the door and knocks, and He is waiting for us to open it to him.

“P” is for the purpose that directs each of our lives. Our purpose is to spread the news of the birth of Jesus so that others will learn of Him.

“E” is for embracing the future God has for us. Jesus came to give us life and give it more abundantly.

God sent Jesus in human form with no guarantee that others would put their hope in Him. Yet, He came and lived among us, He laughed, He cried, He lived in towns, He listened to stories, He ate with others, He got to know the people, He discovered their fear of death, He cried with others as they buried their loved ones, He felt pain, and He experienced suffering. In the end, people did put their hope in Him.

The kind of Christmas we need this year is one filled with hope. Into this world full of hopelessness and despair, God sent a baby. When God really wants to get a message through, a message that will penetrate the hopelessness and gloom of humanity, He wraps it up in a person. That person is Jesus, and he is our Christmas Hope.