PREPARE THE WAY

“A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’”  (Isaiah 40:3-5 NRSV)

As you begin this journey through Advent, how do you prepare to welcome God? You prepare your welcome of God when you exercise welcome toward others. You prepare your welcome of God when you empty your life of the sin that crowds out all that is good and gracious. You prepare your welcome of God when you comfort the afflicted with compassion.  

-- John Indermark in “Setting the Christmas Stage”

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THE NEW RELATIONSHIP

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”  (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)

During this Advent season as we celebrate the new relationship between God and His people, may that be mirrored in our renewed relationships with spouses, children, family and those near and dear to us. May we speak tenderly to each other amidst all the rush of the season and transform the shopping days till Christmas into the true Advent of Christ. 

-- Casely Essamuah

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ADVENT WAITING

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:12 NIV)

Sometimes it seems as though we spend our lives waiting. Daydreaming about an upcoming vacation, worrying over a medical test, preparing for the birth of a child or grandchild -- our days are filled with anticipation and anxiety over what the future holds. As Christians, we, too, spend our lives waiting. But we are waiting for something much bigger than a trip, bigger even than retirement or a wedding: We are waiting for the return of Jesus in glory. Advent heightens this sense of waiting, because it marks not only our remembrance of Jesus’ arrival into our world more than 2,000 years ago – the Word made flesh -- but also our anticipation of His final coming. 

-- Author Unknown

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PRAISING THE CREATOR

“For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17 ESV)

When you sit down to eat, pray. When you eat bread, do so thanking Him for being so generous to you... When you dress, thank Him for His kindness in providing you with clothes. When you look at the sky and the beauty of the stars, throw yourself at God’s feet and adore Him who in His wisdom has arranged things in this way. Similarly, when the sun goes down and when it rises, when you are asleep or awake, give thanks to God, who created and arranged all things for your benefit, to have you know, love and praise their Creator. 

-- St. Basil the Great

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THE SOURCE OF LIFE’S BLESSINGS

“Lord, I will thank You with all my heart; I will sing to You.” (Psalm 138:1)

The grateful heart sees beneath the surface to the source of life's blessings.  Richard Cabot used to say to his students at Harvard: "When you say to me, 'thank you', remember I couldn't have done for you what I did, had not hundreds of others done for me.  They could not have done for me what they did, had not thousands done for them.  So the thing goes on in infinite space and time.  Therefore, when you say thank you to anyone, you are really saying, 'Thank You, God'.” 

-- Dr. Harold Beaty in a sermon titled "Life's Greatest Virtue" 

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THANKSGIVING AND GRATITUDE

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.”  (Psalm 100:4-5)

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. 

-- Melody Beattie

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KEEPING OUR EYES ON JESUS

“Let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”  (Hebrews 12:1,2)

The problem with most of us is that we want to overcomplicate this process. We assume that something as valuable as a faith refill ought to cost us something, so we try to acquire it through physical effort. We squeeze even more religious activities into our already overcrowded schedules. We restart our daily devotional (for the ten thousandth time). We run out and buy the latest Christian best seller and start highlighting it with a yellow marker… And, of course, we recommit (again, for the ten thousandth time) to taming that nasty little habit we’ve managed to keep a secret for years.

But it never works. It NEVER works.

Because frenzied activity, even if well-intentioned, saps our strength and dulls our senses. It fills our lives, not with faith but with noise that drowns out His still, small voice. Worst of all, it makes us numb to His often feather-like touch. 

-- Mark Atteberry in “Free Refill: Coming Back for More of Jesus”

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DISCIPLINE IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE - Part 2

"Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”  (1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NIV)

[Disciplines] are the “means” -- the positive set of directions for the Christian life, often called the “means of grace.”… These means of grace are not a method of deserving God’s grace, but a pattern by which we enable ourselves to be receptive to grace and remove the barriers that God permits us to erect as the price of freedom. These tools, or aids, are ways by which we open ourselves to God’s free grace. In using them, we shape our lives in order to become open to God’s presence. They give our Christian pilgrimage a definite shape, in an age in which there is a general sense of loss of direction and confusion about right and wrong, along with an accompanying sense of God’s absence. 

-- Howard L. Rice in “Reformed Spiritualty”

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DISCIPLINE IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE - Part 1

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”  (1 Corinthians 9:24-25 NIV)

Discipline in the Christian life is not a luxury. Without it we become confused, lose our way, compromise our principles, and discover that we are not the people we had intended to be. No one is so sturdy in the faith that the temptation to surrender bit by bit does not erode conviction. Days go by and we discover that, instead of growing in grace in these days, we have wasted them. 

-- Howard L. Rice in “Reformed Spiritualty”

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DISCIPLINES FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  (Acts 2:42 ESV)

The persons and ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus Himself, both rich in the practice of activities designed to strengthen the Spirit, were held constantly before [early Christians]. So, wherever early Christians looked they saw examples of the practice of solitude, fasting, prayer, private study, communal study, worship, and sacrificial service and giving -- to mention only some of the more obvious disciplines for spiritual life.

These early Christians really did arrange their lives very differently from their non-Christian neighbors, as well as from the vast majority of those of us called Christians today. We are speaking of their overall style of life, not just what they did under pressure, which frequently was also astonishingly different. 

-- Dallas Willard in “The Spirit of the Disciplines”

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PEOPLE OF PRAYER

"Be persistent in prayer, and keep alert as you pray, giving thanks to God.”  (Colossians 4:2 GNT)

What the Church needs today is not more technology or better, not new organizational models or more novel methods, but people whom the Holy Spirit can use -- people of prayer, people mighty in prayer.

-- E. M. Bounds, adapted

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UNDYING GRATITUDE

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13 NRSV)

Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices. 

-- U.S. President Harry S. Truman 

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THE GOSPEL IN COMMUNITY

In the wake of Paul’s travels throughout the Mediterranean, Christian communities sprang up, consolidated and began to multiply. This was the outcome of a deliberate policy on his part. He not only proclaimed the message of Christ and brought people into an intimate relationship with God, but drew the consequences of that message for the life of his converts and led them into a personal relationship with one another… For Paul the gospel bound men and women to one another as well as to God.

Acceptance by Christ necessitated acceptance of those who He had already welcomed (Romans 15:7); reconciliation with God entailed reconciliation with others that exhibited the character of the gospel preaching (Philippians 4:2-3); union in the Spirit involved union with one another, for the Spirit was primarily a shared, not individual experience (2 Corinthians 13:14; Philippians 2:1; Ephesians 4:3). The gospel is not a purely personal matter. It has a social dimension. It is a communal affair. 

-- Robert Banks in “Paul’s Idea of Community: Early House Churches in their Historical Settings”

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USING OUR GIFTS

In His final words to His disciples, Jesus gives them their Great Commission. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

God expects each of us to use our gifts to make disciples: to share the Good News and the Word, to help lives be changed by the Gospel. God desires for the world to believe in Jesus Christ, to call Him Lord, and to follow Him. As a result, God expects His gifts to you to be used to help make that Kingdom mission happen… Your faithfulness in using your gifts will result in changed lives, saved souls, new lives, and transformed relationships. 

-- Allen R. Hunt in “Nine Words: A Bible Study to Help You Become the Best-Version-of-Yourself”

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THE SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST

As Paul sums it up, God's power "raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else… God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church" (Ephesians 1:20-22).

Celebrating and proclaiming the ascension is therefore crucial if we are to fully exalt Christ. Jesus is not only risen but reigning, not only alive but sovereign, not only central but supreme. Moreover, as theologian Douglas Farrow demonstrates, whenever we fail to proclaim Christ as ascended, enthroned, and exalted, something else -- our personal agendas, the world's agendas, the church's agendas -- moves in to fill the vacuum. Mark it down, when we fail to exalt and enthrone Jesus, something or someone else inevitably assumes the throne. 

-- Stephen Seamands in an article entitled "He Ascended into Heaven" in Good News Magazine, May/June 2011

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IS THE TRUTH OUT THERE?

“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’”  (John 8:31-32 NRSV)

All this talk of truth and falsehood, right and wrong, seems medieval to many people today.  A philosophical position called deconstructionism says that all claims about truth are really masks for those who just want power.  Deconstructionism has a point: Many claims about truth are motivated by power.  In fact, people have been known to twist the words of the Bible in order to justify their cruelty toward other people.  For instance, the Bible has been used to justify white supremacy.

However, taken as an absolute about all truth claims, deconstructionism goes to far.  If there is a God who created the universe, then that God's perspective on life is the true one.  That God's claims about truth are motivated not by power but simply by truth.  Extreme deconstructionism says there is no Creator God.  There are only interest groups competing for the power to say what goes.

The sister of deconstructionism is relativism.  Relativism says there are no absolute truths. "Truth" is only what works in a given context.  Truth depends completely on your point of view, and there is no God's-eye-view that is the standard by which all other perspectives are measured.

Deconstructionism and relativism treat reality like the laws of a democratic society.  It would be as if the law of gravity were not written into the fabric of the universe.  As if gravity were law only until an interest group could garner enough power to tip the balance on the Supreme Court or in Congress.  As if gravity were law only as long as it made society run smoothly -- but as soon as it seemed essential for humans to be weightless, citizens could vote and repeal gravity.  Almost nobody actually believes such things about gravity, but many people believe them about ethical questions, the nature of God, and what happens when you die.  These issues are supposedly decided by lobbying, voting, and personal preference. 

-- Karen Lee-Thorp in “A Compact Guide to the Bible”

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A LIGHT TO OUR PATH

God’s Word provides all the light we will ever need on our journey through this life. It’s “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (Psalm 119:105). It brings light to our darkened minds. It helps us think theologically. Strange and mysterious though God’s leading may seem, when we derive our understanding from serious investigation of the written Word of God, we will not be led astray. And we will continue to stand on the solid rock of God’s Word of Truth. All other ground is sinking sand. 

-- Charles R. Swindoll in “The Mystery of God’s Will: What Does He Want for Me?”

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THE OBJECT OF OUR TRUST

"It is better to trust the LORD than to put confidence in people.  It is better to trust the LORD than to put confidence in princes." (Psalm 118:8-9)

Pilots put confidence in their planes.  Commuters place confidence in trains, cars, or buses.  Each day we must put our confidence in something or someone.  If you are willing to trust a plane or car to get you to your destination, are you willing to trust God to guide you here on earth and to your eternal destination?  Do you trust Him more than any other human being?  How futile it is to trust anything or anyone more than God.

-- From the “Life Application Bible” 

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OVERFLOWING HOPE

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13 NIV)

When you meet a person who is really excited about something it shows. Their zeal is obvious to all and they are a chatterbox talking about "their thing." Every aspect of life has some connection with this item of excitement. In short, they are overflowing with the goodness of this thing in their life. It may be a new job, car, relationship or other happening in their life. But, regardless of what it is, they "work it in" to every conversation. They simply cannot contain their new happiness and it overflows to all aspects of their life.

What about your friend Jesus? Have you gotten excited about our Lord?… Does it show? Does your zeal overflow? Do those around you see Christ at work in your heart?… We can feel the joy of the Lord and stand and shout for joy and let the world see the Spirit overflowing into all areas of our life. Practice joyfully and thankfully seizing the day and recognizing that God has given us another gift of "today." And that kind of attitude is catching!…

Do you "overflow" with the good things of God? Does your attitude of loving the Lord bubble to the top for all to see? 

-- Pastor Gary Stone 

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THE GIFT OF LOVE

“We love because He first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from Him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”  (1 John 4:19 NRSV)

Love is the most important gift we'll give during our lifetime. More than a one-time extravagance, it's a genuine, ongoing assurance we express through our words and actions. There are many priceless gifts that find their roots in love. Forgiveness. Trust. Friendship. Kindness. Sacrifice. Each one is a vital piece of a beautiful whole.

We love others because God loves us so graciously. Merit isn't an issue with God, nor should it be with us. We should give love so generously that it becomes a part of who we are and a reflection of Who we serve.   

-- Source Unknown

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