THE BLOG
Topic
- Anxiety 2
- Beauty 1
- Bible 7
- Blessings 1
- Body of Christ 1
- Burden 1
- CEO 1
- Christian Living 189
- Christlikeness 6
- Christmas 13
- Commandments 1
- Community 1
- Conflict 1
- Cults 1
- Culture 1
- DDM 1
- Death 2
- Discipleship 5
- Emotions 6
- Eternity 2
- Evangelism 7
- Faith 2
- Forgive 4
- Freedom 1
- Fusion 1
- Gather 1
- God 2
- Gospel 3
- Gratitude 2
- Hebrews 11 1
- Holiness 1
- Holy Spirit 1
- Homosexuality 1
- Humility 1
- Israel 2
- Jesus 9
- Joy 2
- King of Glory 1
- Lying 1
- Missions 3
- Outreach 1
- Pastor Jeff 1
- Perspective 2
- Prayer 8
- Psalm 119 3
- Reading 1
- Salvation 13
- Sanctification 1
- Satan 1
- Scripture 3
The Schooling of Sickness
Well it finally happened. The COVID bug caught up with me. It wasn’t fun…it assaulted my respiratory system, gave me some chills (called night sweats), and diminished my energy levels. God was gracious and I am well on my way back to normal. Thanks for your prayers.My sickness brought to mind a few scriptural considerations:
Hope Now
“Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19) because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a "wish" (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” -RC Sproul
This Disciple Development Month (DDM), we are focusing on how we can have “Hope Now.” Life is hard, and it is easy to become discouraged at points along the road, but God gives us hope for today. This hope is based upon what Christ has done, what the Holy Spirit is doing, and what the Father is bringing in the future. It is a hope taught to us in Scripture but needs to be realized in community.
Ask the Ten
Donald S. Whitney, professor of Biblical Spirituality and Associate Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, posed 10 great questions we can ask ourselves as we prepare to exit one year and walk into another.
I suggest you answer the following questions and share your responses with your spouse or family or a good friend or someone in your small group or Bible study. Then ask them to pray for the implementation of your responses in a way that honors the Lord and blesses others around you.
Giving God our Best
Pastor Chuck Swindoll made the following observation about our culture: “Mediocrity is fast becoming the by-word of our times. Every imaginable excuse is now used to make it acceptable, hopefully preferred.” Those words were penned in 1987 and are as relevant today as they have ever been.
What has happened to our commitment to excellence? Is the status quo now the new acceptable standard? Is the small stuff nothing really to sweat about? Are we now willing to swim with the current and float downstream? Is it okay to just get by with a half-hearted commitment?
Christmas Messaging
According to a legend, Satan and his demons were having a Christmas party. As the demonic guests were departing, one grinned and said to Satan, “Merry Christmas, your majesty.” At that, Satan replied with a growl, “Yes, keep it merry. If they ever get serious about it, we’ll all be in trouble.”
The word “merry” is not necessarily antithetical to being serious about the real message of Christmas.
Transcendent Joy
I read an article this week by Pastor Al Gooderham in Doncaster, England. In it he said “Every Christmas party, every overindulgence, every gift, every exorbitant preparation is a sign of a desperate search for joy. It is a sign of longing for significance and a desire to bring joy to others or to find joy for themselves where they can because life is in short supply of it.”
Christmas has always been a season of joy whether it’s captured in the lights, decorations, gatherings, gifts, food, drinks, parties, or songs. We often hear the words, “Merry Christmas,” or “Happy Holidays,” along with all the songs “'tis the season to be jolly,” “have yourself a merry little Christmas,” or “joy to the world,” among many others.
Christmas Perspective Matters
How many times have you heard someone say, “You can’t see the forest for the trees”?
It’s an oft-quoted saying intended to persuade someone to not let a situation grip them or blind them or captivate them (as an individual tree of life) in such a way that the bigger picture or better perspective is totally missed (the forest of life).
We all find ourselves missing the forest sometimes and losing our perspective on what matters, what’s best, and what’s ultimate. This can happen at Christmas.
Here are a few examples:
Vertical Thanksgiving
I remember reading a story about Charles Hadden Spurgeon who recounts visiting a widow who had virtually nothing but bread and water for her meal. She lifted her hands to heaven in praise and proclaimed, “What? All of this and Jesus too!”
What an overwhelming sense of gratitude to God this widow displayed, and it makes my grumbling about gas prices sound absolutely petty and embarrassing.
Former pastor A.W. Tozer famously said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” So true. So our gratitude toward God rises or falls based upon the rightness or wrongness of our view and heart toward Him.
