UNWRAPPING THE GIFT

In spite of the many benefits God has blessed us with, how many times do we complain about little difficulties and trials? We lose sight of the big picture and fail to appreciate the really important things. Just as we cannot benefit from a wrapped gift under a Christmas tree until we open it, so gratitude can be seen as our way of opening the gift of God's love intended by all the small and big positive events of our lives. 

-- Ronda De Sola Chervin


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ENCOUNTERING JESUS

To encounter Jesus is to take on the name of Christ. During a sermon preached at our congregation, Dr. William B. McClain, Professor of Preaching and Worship at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., told the story of meeting a South Korean tailor in Itwaewon, Seoul, named Smitty Lee. Dr. McClain asked whether the name "Smitty" was Korean, and the tailor told the story of his life being saved during the Korean War by an American soldier from Virginia who was called Smitty Ransom. The tailor further explained a rather familiar custom in that Asian culture, and summed it up in two simple sentences: "He saved my life. I took his name." That is indeed what happens when we encounter Jesus; He save our lives, and we take His name.

-- Zan W. Holmes, Jr. in Encountering Jesus


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LIGHT AND HOPE

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" (John 8:12 NIV)

A candle gives light only by consuming itself. In this way, it becomes a vivid symbol of the sacrificial love of Christ. By giving of Himself and His own substance, Christ brought light and hope into this world.

-- Katrine Stewart


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GOD WITH US

"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel" (which means 'God with us')."  (Matthew 1:23 NIV)

If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: "God with us." We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than a baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth!

-- John F. MacArthur, Jr.


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CATHEDRAL FATIGUE

Ministry involves a lot of building -- building  a community of faith, building programs to serve people, and even building  and maintaining physical buildings. We typically plunge ahead into that work, doing everything that seems good because we are ostensibly doing it for God. We think that a high level of activity and productivity is what God expects from us, so we work harder and go faster from Sunday to Sunday, program to program, and mission to mission. The result is often a deep and pervasive sense of cathedral fatigue. We want to do a lot of things for God, but here is the question: Have we bothered to ask God what God wants us to do?...

Someone once said that if you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans. God must get a kick out of all the grandiose plans we make for our lives and for our churches. We are so busy making plans for God that we often fail to listen for the plans that God is making for us. In many ways, prayer is more important than productivity.  That is the cure for cathedral fatigue.

-- Robert Kaylor in Come to the Manger


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