Don’t lose Jesus while celebrating Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2014 by | Comments Off on Don’t lose Jesus while celebrating Christmas

cross-shadow-on-manger-743969Tonight is Christmas Eve – the night before the second most holy day of the Christian year.  All across the world, families and friends gather to celebrate and share in various Christmas traditions. It can be easy with all the great food, family visiting, and the games and pageantry to forget the real reason we gather together at this time of the year. The traditional Christmas movies, music, the tree and all its decorations and lights, and the great meal many of us will be enjoying over the next couple of days can easily distract us that we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Without Him, there would be no Christmas celebration, no Christmas day dinner, and no Christmas music. Without Christ, there would be no redeemer to bridge the ever-widening gap between God and man.

At the church that I attend, last night our pastor read the story of the Lord Jesus’ birth out of the gospels of Luke and Matthew. As he shared those scriptures that I’ve read many times, I cannot help but to marvel at the way that He first appeared to man as the hope of our eternal redemption. He chose to be born in the way we all are born. He chose to live among us and to experience all that we experience. He chose to enter life as a child so that He would understand the prayers of every child who has ever uttered the prayer, “Lord, my parents just do not understand me…” He chose to live through the teenage years, so He would understand the prayers of the teenager who cries “Lord, I don’t fit in, where do I belong…” and “my parents are being unreasonable…” He chose to live life as an adult and face all the problems faced by us so that He would understand our prayers of “Lord, I don’t know how I am going to pay for this…”, “I feel alone, Lord,” and “I just don’t understand why…” This is one of the reasons there had to be that very first Christmas.

You see, He came to live among us and fashioned like us so that we can take all our cares and worries to Him. I believe that this is the very reason why the apostle Peter wrote, Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you (1 Peter 5:7). No doubt that Peter had experienced what we all do – we share our pain or fears with a family member or a friend and they laugh or make light of what we tell them. Peter understood that Jesus would understand all our fears and concerns; He would not be dismissive of even the smallest of our worries. We have the ability to approach our Lord and Savior with anything without fear of Him not understanding because He has literally “been there too.” When I think of the other religions that mankind places their faith in, there is no other where God has come down to dwell among men. 

What_Child_Is_This_402A while back ago, I  was flipping through a hymnal at a used bookstore in Evansville. As I came to the Christmas hymn section of the book, I was interested in the songs selected to see if any of the older, more traditional hymns had been replaced with more modern songs. I was excited to see that my favorite Christmas hymn, What Child is This? had been included in that particular hymnal. As I read over the lyrics, I became horrified as I noticed that the second and third verses did not have their original and respective choruses, but that the song had been “arranged” by one of the editors of the hymnal. Particularly disturbing is that without the second chorus, the entire meaning of the song was changed – “nails, spear, shall pierce him through, the cross he bore for me, for you. Hail, hail, the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary.” The song, as sung since the eleventh century, not only celebrates the birth of Jesus, but reminds all who sing and hear it that He came to bear our sins on the cross. Without the cross, there would be no reason for the birth of Jesus.

As you celebrate this Christmas with your family and loved ones, don’t forget the real reason we celebrate this season. From my family and me to yours, Merry Christmas.

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God has a plan for your life

Posted on December 22, 2014 by | Comments Off on God has a plan for your life

bible_and_candle_krx5God has a plan for your life. No one has ever been born by accident or without any sort of desire by the Lord. Before any of us were even born, the Bible teaches Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself (Isaiah 44:24). Within the teachings of the Old Testament there are a handful of verses that also adds to our understanding – as Christians – of how God has a plan for each of us even before we are born! Even before the birth of Jeremiah, the prophet, God already had a plan for his life: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). Although God did have a plan for Jeremiah, it is important to understand that Jeremiah had to be surrendered to the Lord’s will before he could understand what God had planned for him.

God has a plan for all Christians

Just as God has a plan for every person ever conceived, God has a plan for every Christian who will completely surrender to His will. When I was a young-in-the-faith Christian, there was so much about my new-found faith that I simply didn’t understand. As I have shared many times, I was regularly attending a church that did have sound Bible preaching, but there was no discipleship for those, like me, who didn’t come from a Christian family. As the pastor would teach about great men of the faith such as Moses, Abraham, Billy Sunday, and even Billy Graham, I had no idea where I fit into God’s plan. All I knew was that I wanted to be used by God but I wasn’t sure if God even had a plan or purpose for my life. What I didn’t know was a simple lesson taught by Jesus himself during His earthly ministry: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey (Matthew 25:14-15). What I didn’t understand was that I had not demonstrated to the Lord that I could be trusted with even two talents. I didn’t realize that I had not been faithful in doing the things that God had already called me to do.

God has a plan for all Christians that begins with us demonstrating we can be faithful in four simple things that all Christians are called to do. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a Christian for two weeks or two decades, there’s no spiritual growth or other things that God will place in front of you to do if you’re not being faithful in these four basic areas of Christian service. These four areas have always been a part of His plan have been the same for those who lived in the days of the Old Testament and for everyone that has lived since the times of the New Testament. This shouldn’t surprise us because the scriptures teach us, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever (Hebrews 13:8) and He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting (Habakkuk 3:6). God’s plan has never changed and never will.

The four basics we all must do

After 2006, when I became serious about my relationship with the Lord, I began to pray daily and read my Bible with a new intensity that I had never had before. Not sure where to start in my Bible reading, I began in Proverbs, reading a chapter each morning before I began my daily routine. What I began to learn from my Bible study, the sermons of the pastor where I attended, and from the leading of the Holy Spirit is that praying and studying the Bible were two of the four things that God wants those who love Him to do. Over time, I learned that the other two things, bearing witness to others of Christ’s love and the willingness to worship God alone, when done with a servant’s heart, is where true obedience and spiritual growth begins in the life of a believer. We cannot expect the Lord to use us in any ministry or lay on our hearts a specific calling if we are not faithfully doing the very basic things of our faith. Do you want to be more than a pew-sitter within your church? Then you must be faithful in the things that God has already called you to do.

We are to be willing to read and study the Bible

David, the psalmist, wrote Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psalms 119:11) and the apostle Paul left the instructions to Timothy, Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Both men understood a simple truth that Paul understood well: For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). It is through our personal reading of the Bible that we truly begin to learn of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His will for our life. Regular Bible reading bears fruit and is never a waste of our time and effort. As inspired by the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul wrote, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). When we truly study the Bible on a daily basis we are opening the door for the Lord, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, to truly make and mold us into the Christian that God has called us to be.

We are to be willing to have an active prayer life

When I first became a Christian, the extent of my prayer life was in giving thanks for the meals I ate each day. After the decision was made to become more serious in my walk with the Lord, my prayer life had to change as well. I asked the pastor of the church I was attending in Carbondale the best way to do this and he offered me perhaps the best advice I ever received on the topic of prayer: Don’t worry about them – just talk to the Lord as if He is in the room with you and don’t be afraid to pour out your heart and soul to Him. This is similar advice to what the apostle Paul wrote, And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear (1 Peter 1:17). God doesn’t compare the prayers of Christians to one another but he judges our prayers according to the contents of our heart. As I have studied the psalms there’s a consistency to David’s writings. He is completely open with the Lord in all of his psalms. He tells God how he is feeling, the fears he has, the sorrows and pain, and even the joys he has. I believe that too many of us treat the Lord as if he doesn’t already know the content of our heart and we pray what we think He wants to hear from us.

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Powerless churches and weak Christians

Posted on December 17, 2014 by | Comments Off on Powerless churches and weak Christians

6182411664_f6311e9c14_zPowerless churches are everywhere in our nation. Within Henderson, Kentucky, the town where I live, there are over fifty churches within the county according to the Internet and phone book, yet there are still scores of people hurting, people longing for something more in life, and people dying and beginning an eternity in Hell. Within these churches, many of the congregations often have less than a hundred members in attendance on Sunday morning.  The church of the twenty-first century is a far cry from the churches that dominated the communities of our nation in the previous four centuries.

From the early colonial days of America until the 1870s, the members of the local church oversaw questions dealing with morality and public behavior in the town. Members of local congregations were often called by the town to serve on the school board, to serve as justices of the peace, and were even elected to public office. It was the local church that served to meet the needs  of the poor, the homeless, orphan, and widow. Two “Great Awakenings” happened in our nation’s history that started when preachers stood up and taught the belief that the time of Christ’s return was near. Since the mid-Twentieth century, there has been a decline in the importance of the church in our communities. What has happened to change the church from a place of God’s authority, compassion, and mercy in the community to a place of inconsequential importance?

It is easy to blame the lost world for the diminished role of the church in modern times. I have even heard pastors, missionaries, and regular church goers comment that it is because the temptations of the world have grown greater than what once existed. While this argument may satisfy some, it is a rather weak and pathetic defense of the church. Yes, the world has progressed in technology and the means to sin, but temptation, wickedness, and sin have always existed. To find out why the church has grown weak and ineffective over the last hundred years, I believe it is imperative we take a look at the local church. The first thing that is easy to notice is many Christians and local churches have forgotten the simple truth that Jesus is coming again.

How powerless churches begin

The return of Jesus Christ is a real, foretold event. Early Christians, and those disciples that made up the first church, truly believed in a literal second coming of our Lord. The disciples believed it to be true because they had heard from Jesus’ own mouth a promise that would burn in their very hearts:  In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:2-3). They believed this to the extent that it gave them a great strength and boldness to preach the gospel, to bring the lost to Him, and to do so even in the face of persecution and death. 

I often think of the parable that Jesus used to illustrate this very concept of His return and what he expects of His followers until He does: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey (Matthew 24:14-15). Jesus himself is the “man traveling into a far country” each born – again believer is His servant, and we each have been given some job, some task, some calling to do while we await his return. The most common application of this parable is that Jesus expects us to do something with the gifts and talents that he gives us; however, the teaching is there – He is coming back. He is going to return. Two of the servants realized this and did what they knew must be done while the third, unsure of when the Master would return, didn’t put what was left for him to do as being that important. This is where powerless churches begin.

When Christians do not believe the Lord could come back at any moment, it becomes easy to for the church to lose its importance within the community. The sole mission of the church is to spread the gospel with its secondary purpose being for the edification, the worship of the Lord, and the teaching of His people. When Christians do not take the return of the Lord as being a real event that could happen at any moment; this is what allows for complacency to happen. Unbelief in the return of Christ allows the need to spread the gospel seem less urgent. It makes separating ourselves from temptations to sin less important, and it makes the need for immediate and sincere compassion on those around us a little less important. When we live as if we do not believe His return is imminent, then we become comfortable in our sins, we become lazy in our Christian service and the result is powerless churches and weak Christians.

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